So yesterday we came home from work and Gohan (7r old inside cat, neutered) was asleep in our bed. Not entirely normal spot for him, but he does it once in a while. He kept sleeping until about 11 pm - which is typically not normal, he's up and requesting pets loudly within an hour of us coming home. Once he was up, he came down the stairs meowing quite loudly. He's usually pretty vocal, but these were a little lower, moanier and louder than normal. When he walked, we notice he was heavily favoring his back legs (particularly his right leg) and almost walking with his butt in the hair facing down. He slunk around for a while, tail tucked between his legs (usually his tail is extremely expressive and straight up in the air). His haunches were also having muscle spasms and twitched a lot.
Well, we scooped him up and rushed to the emergency vet. They did a physical exam (his right leg did seem stiffer than the other), blood test (all clear), x-rays (nothing exceptional, although he did have a "bone bridge" on his spine which may indicate mild arthritis in that spot). The vet guessed that he probably fell or hurt himself in some way to cause soft tissue damage perhaps exasperating some existing arthritis. She sent us home with pain meds with the instruction to keep him quiet and resting while he recovers. We don't see the twitching anymore, and he is able to jump up and down off of things (although it does seem to cause discomfort)
Since he's been home, he hasn't hidden much in his super hidey spots (dresser, under the bed) but he has been removed in various semi-hidey holes like cat cubicles in the cat tree. He's also pooped outside of the litter box a few times including once in his cat cube where he was resting (poop looked nicely segmented and healthy).
Everything seems in line with the vet's diagnosis in my inexpert opinion, my question is does pooping in his sleeping place present a huge concern, or is it due to a possible leg injury he is having issues in the litter box and kind of goes where he can?
Superfluous kitty photos:
Well, we scooped him up and rushed to the emergency vet. They did a physical exam (his right leg did seem stiffer than the other), blood test (all clear), x-rays (nothing exceptional, although he did have a "bone bridge" on his spine which may indicate mild arthritis in that spot). The vet guessed that he probably fell or hurt himself in some way to cause soft tissue damage perhaps exasperating some existing arthritis. She sent us home with pain meds with the instruction to keep him quiet and resting while he recovers. We don't see the twitching anymore, and he is able to jump up and down off of things (although it does seem to cause discomfort)
Since he's been home, he hasn't hidden much in his super hidey spots (dresser, under the bed) but he has been removed in various semi-hidey holes like cat cubicles in the cat tree. He's also pooped outside of the litter box a few times including once in his cat cube where he was resting (poop looked nicely segmented and healthy).
Everything seems in line with the vet's diagnosis in my inexpert opinion, my question is does pooping in his sleeping place present a huge concern, or is it due to a possible leg injury he is having issues in the litter box and kind of goes where he can?
Superfluous kitty photos: