Limp

[rockitorknockit]

Hey, everyone. Some of you may recognize me from past posts. I am here, posting again, about my Oscar - a nearly 15 year old kitty who has several health issues. This time I am posting about a limp, wondering what y'all would do or recommend.

Oscar has been stable for a couple of months now. Tuesday morning (two days ago) my wife was holding him and loving on him in the morning. She set him down on the couch, but she must have accidentally gotten his leg twisted or something. He sort of melted into the couch rather than standing and did a little quack/yelp. He stood up immediately and did another little yelp when he took a step away from her. We were instantly concerned she'd hurt him. From there, he jumped down from the chair and started walking around at a normal pace, but I could after a few steps that he was limping a little, seemingly favoring his right back leg.

There has been no more yelps of pain, and the limp has not worsened. He is walking around still, and even stepping/jumping onto some things still, but it looks like it is a bit more a of struggle, he's taking careful steps, and, for the most part, the limp (in the same way as on day 1) is still present.

We've been trying to pick him up to prevent him from jumping, and I've made sure he has food and water close to his sleeping spots so he can walk less. I know older cats often have arthritis, and he can be wobbly sometimes anyway, but it definitely seems like he somehow injured that back leg.

I'm just wondering if I should be doing something more or if taking him to the vet is necessary. I have never had this experience before so I have no sense of a timeline on a healed limp. I would assume he twisted or sprained something, but obviously have no idea. He's not acting particularly different but he does seem a little uncomfortable. I have OCD and it often gets triggered pretty badly in relation to Oscar, so sometimes I can't tell if I am imagining or personalizing a symptom that doesn't exist. That being said, he is older and has other health things also going on, so who knows what is what. He's definitely still eating normally, and has not hidden at all.

My thought has been that I am typically alarmist, and a vet would just say, "Yeah, he probably hurt his leg. See if it gets better in a few more days." And I'll have stressed him out and wasted $100 for nothing.

Thoughts? Opinions? Advice? All welcome. Feeling pretty obsessively worried at the moment, you guys always help! Thanks!

 

[LTS3]

Try to take a video of the limp and send it to the vet for an assessment. A soft tissue injury will heal on its own and may not need pain meds or other vet treatment. One of my cats was limping not long ago. The vet saw the video and determined that it was a soft tissue injury and to just keep an eye on it. He said I could bring the cat in for an exam but he trusts my judgement. The limp went away a few weeks later.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi there! Didn't see your post until now. It is more than likely a combo of arthritis and some silly thing he did to aggravate his limb. Feeby (18+yo), also with several health issues, most definitely has arthritis, and has been on arthritic supplements for years now. However, she did something, and we don't know what, that caused a hyper-extended wrist (yes, front not back foot), but she has deterioration in her hind limbs as well. It ended up making her retreat to a specific room of the house - she was limiting her own activities, thankfully - not all cats do that.

At any rate, we have placed her on a routine dose of gabapentin to help with the wrist injury and to help with overall mobility issues. For her, 50mg twice a day seems appropriate, and it has helped quite a bit. Other doses can be administered and adjusted as needed.

Even before this, we set up interim steps to aide her in getting to higher up places that she used to 'tackle' with no problems. Small footstools to lead from the floor to couches and onto windows, small step boxes to help her navigate to other places. I use these kinds of 'steps' in lieu of standard cat steps because they are wider, and she can actually 'rest' if she needs to before taking on the next step.

I would set up similar steps for Oscar and see about giving him some pain meds in the interim. He is going to do what he wants to do, and those things likely cause some pain, so why not give him some relief from that at least?

 

[rockitorknockit]

Thanks for the replies. Nothing has changed since my last post. We've been continuing to just limit his need to jump and watch him. Our vet doesn't have a good system to send over a video of the limp but I might try and push for that anyway somehow...

Oscar has taken both bupe and gaba before, and he had very negative reactions to both. I'm not sure what other pain meds exist for cats? But we are weary of that.

 

[LTS3]

There's quite a few different types: Analgesic Pharmacology - Management and Nutrition - Merck Veterinary Manual Talk to the vet about pain medicine and what may work best for the cat.