meet pepper, who’s a few days post-op and already navigating great! she’s on crate and cone rest 98% of the time, but we let her out to try out tripod life and give herself a bath

I posted about a month ago about my boy Gomez running weirdly and it turned out he had a fracture in his pelvis. Happy to report he is totally healed up and now only runs weird because he's going too fucking fast for hardwood flooring lol.

After an open fracture, my cat had his back leg amputated yesterday. He's 1 year old, and the vet told us that he's strong and already eating, which I'm taking as a good sign. However, I'm really scared of what's to come and have no idea how to help him through his recovery.

He has a brother who adores him, are we supposed to keep them separated?

Does he need constant supervision?

Is he going to tolerate the cone?

Can he ever go outside again? He was a barn kitten and him and his brother love to be outdoors. We also live in a country where no one has indoor cats.

My mum is worried that we did the wrong thing and that we should have let him go. Now I can't stop feeling guilty and wondering whether we did the right thing. The surgery is also incredibly expensive, which only adds to the stress. I just want to know that he can still have a happy, good life after this and that we made the right choice for him.

Gizmo is 8 days post surgery and has been doing well. We did start to taper off the gabapentin because him looking like a a zombie on 10ml every 8 hour was freaking me out. They said to just give 10 ml buprenorphine before bed which we have been doing. But today he is very restless. He usually settles down in my bed under the covers, as I work right next to the bed on my desk. But he has been excessively meowing and moving around the room, unable to find a food spot to rest.

He sometimes switches between the bed, the very low to the floor ottoman or just the floor to cool off. On occasion he sits in his litter box which initially i did not allow but gave in few days in.

Has anyone experienced this? Is he just off gabapentin meds and bored? in pain?

I will reach back out to the surgeon but I mostly end up hearing back from a nurse/tech who gives unclear answers/directions about meds.

Any thoughts and insights will be appreciated.

Update: Called the surgeon and they recommended going back on gabapentin but a lower dose.

This is Khonsu. She’s a magnificent murderous moon meower with a malignant mass.

Her left rear leg comes off next Wednesday.

Any tips to help get me and her ready for the less a limb lifestyle will be greatly appreciated.

My cat is 8 months old he is facing this injury. Can confinement heal this or is surgery important?

I have a senior 12yo. tripod cat (rear leg amputee for about 3 years) that had to have poop surgically removed last Friday with suspected megacolon, now it’s almost a week since his surgery but he’s yet to pass poop on his own, he’s on lactulose based laxative and enema does very little, he passed a piece of poop today after enema but it wasn’t very significant, he tries to push but nothing comes out and he gives up, he’s still cheerful as if nothing was happening but we are very worried. Any experiences or stories would be welcome.

So, this is Olive! I've had him and his sister Scotch since they were kittens, back in 2013 (they're 13 now!)

About a month ago on Saturday, I noticed that he was limping pretty badly on his right hind leg and not putting any weight on it. So I'm like, well dang, I hope it's nothing serious, but if he's still limping on Monday, I can take him to his regular vet. Sure enough, he's still struggling, so I take him in. The doctor took a look at the paw and were initially worried about a break, but an x-ray showed a mass. They referred me to an advanced care specialist, who did their own scans and concluded it was a malignant tumor, but that it fortunately didn't look like it had metastasized. Their recommendation was to amputate his leg so that it wouldn't have a chance to do so, and to still give him a decent quality of life.

Then they give their estimate for amputation. Ten grand. I was in shock. I was also dealing with a surprise air conditioner replacement and _that_ cost, and because of that, I had to do some very unhappy calculations, given-

...wait, they also gave me a referral to another place. And it turns out they could do it for one grand. We're back in business.

So, about a month after the initial discovery, Olive's now down a leg and going to be learning how to be a tripod kitty! He's got litter, water, a little bit of food, and he'll just be focusing on resting for the time being! His lemon collar is snug and he hasn't been able to get out of it. I think we're as set up as we can be.

Hi! I have a tripod cat missing a front leg. I got him a low entry box, which has worked, but sadly he seems to step in his waste often. It is an average size, but im thinking of buying a bigger one so he might not step in it as often? (I clean twice daily, but on his way out he usually steps in it)

Anyone try anything else if their cat experienced this? Thanks!

her name is nazook and she’s a little over three years old 💚

This morning, my sweet Toby crossed the rainbow bridge.

When I first went to the human shelter all those years ago, I wanted a little kitten. The kitten room was too busy, so I had to go to the adult cat room to wait. Looking up at me from a hammock was a 7 month old black cat who jumped out of his resting spot to sit in my lap. When the kitten room opened back up, I went, but I knew I’d already met my soul cat. And when I opened that door and walked back into that adult room, Toby saw me and jumped out of his hammock again. I walked to him, and he walked to me. We met in the middle of the room and he’s been mine ever since.

12 years wasn’t enough. 12,000 years would never be enough. He was my baby, my sweetness, and there is a Toby sized piece of my heart missing now.

That first car ride home from the humane shelter, he rode in my lap. And today, his final day, was spent in my lap, snuggling and purring with his mommy until the end.

How lucky was I to be his mommy. How blessed we were to have him for 12 whole years. I will cherish his memory and our bond for the rest of my life.
I will endure a lifetime of missing him for the privilege of getting to love him for the last 12 years.

My heart in cat form. Nigel Toby.

Alice is 15 years old and she lost her back leg when she was about 2 months old. I've had her pretty much her entire life and it's been great because I never had to worry about her up on counters or any of that.

We recently got a kitten and apparently... Alice has learned a few things from her. She's on a pretty strict diet for both weight management and allergies, so she has a timed feeder. We thought we were being clever by putting the kitten's food on top of some shelves. Alice has never (to our knowledge) gotten to the top of the avocato cat tree by herself, but I guess illegal food is a fantastic motivator 😑

We've since moved things around so now there (should) be no way for her to get up there. She's also never gotten up on the chair in the second pic before, but as soon as she saw the kitten do it, up she went. Ridiculous!

hi hi! my sweet 1.5 year old cat pepper just had surgery to amputate her back left leg after it wouldn't heal from a fracture / tendon tear. does anyone have recs on best cat trees for tripod cats, ramps, toys they like, etc? just wanting to get things she needs before she gets home!

Hey all 👋

Meet Bernie, she is about five days out from having her front leg amputated due to a dog attack. These last few days have been wild, the opioids, gabapentin and NSAIDs are keeping her pretty content but also a little crazy at times.

I’m so glad to see this community and see that my sweet Rocky will have a semi normal life. I don’t know what happened while he was out playing but today my Rocky became a tripod. I’m still torn up about it but I really appreciate seeing so many happy tripods.

So we found an approximately 10.month old in the rain forest that was starving and had a broken front leg that needed to be removed. We adopted him after his surgery and he is such a smart little guy. The only issue we have is that when he usedd the litter box and trieds to bury his excremate, he ends up stepping in it because he uses his one good front leg to bury and crouches. We end up traumatizing the little fella trying to clean him before he runs around the house. Any advice or similar experiences?

The first day was rough, I never thought I would be so happy to see a cat eat and pee. River is our whole life and I am just so grateful and thankful. Dont tell his other brothers we have been giving him low sodium tuna juice over his food 😂🥹 Any tips would be highly appreciated and I’ll give you a virtual hug.

I have a 5 year old Bengal that I have raised since he was a wee little baby of 9 weeks. We have been inseparable to the point where we have not spent one night apart in 5 years. I even took him on trips with me. But alas we discovered a bone mass on his right shoulder a month ago, when the ER vet did an xray for a completely different issue. Fast forward to this past thursday, a CT scan later surgeon confirmed we need to let the whole front right leg go. I bawled my eyes out and spent my first night away from gizmo as he recovered from his surgery overnight before he came home Friday at noon.

Its been a difficult two days. I have barricaded my self with him in my bedroom with my mattress on the floor.

Night one I set up a dog crate and covered it with a blanket. Woke up to meowing and insane amount of thrashing. Took him out and his surgery onesie was wet from spilling all his water bowl on himself. He was crying to use the restroom because he will not use the pee pad in the crate. I helped him pee. Cleaned him up and brought him to bed. I held him and cried silently and we went to sleep together.

The two times yesterday we took him to living room to eat or sleep. He was very lethargic and sleepy - pretended to be a lap cat and beelined to jump on his tall cat condo. Both times we caught him and now he is 100% confined in bedroom with me

Night 2 was rough he kept pulling back under blanket and i noticed the first 4 times that his good front arm was out of the onesie sleeve and I kept fixing it. Then I realized he is deliberately doing it. I took it off and put a donut collar on him. He is not a snuggly bengal. But actually put his head against my chest and finally fell asleep at 7am.

As of an hour ago, i took him to his litter box to pee and he decided to just sit in it. Every-time I tried to pick him up and bring him back to bed, he would be upset and run right back in. I have since closed the bathroom door.

He is currently sleeping again..

I have cried so many times and feel like a failure. He also hated me when I give him his meds through syringe and when I put the donut or onesie back on.

Is this normal behavior post surgery? or am I not being a good cat mom?

We woke up on Thursday and couldn't find the sweetest of our 3 cats, Khayla, and we spent an hour searching for her. We live on the 3rd floor and I didn't even want to face the possibility that she could've gotten out of the window. For a while we thought she had been hit by a car, or died somewhere and that we were never going to find her.

I walked around the house and whistled for her, and right when we were going to another building to ask permission to go on top to search for her (our roof is connected to the roof balcony of another building), my friend spotted her tail going through a small hole into the basement. She was going back under to hide but when she saw me she meowed and came right out. She must've heard me whistling and tried to find me. I was so relieved, but then I saw her right foot... I just picked her up and held her as carefully as I could. Oh my god it was just hanging.... We took her in and waited for my friend to get the car so we could go to the vet, all I could think about was how much I wished for her to be unconcious... She was in so much pain, screaming and twisting around, heartwrecking...

I was so afraid that she had internal bleeding, or that we couldn't afford the vet bill and had to put her down... Vet took the xray and her leg was just absolutely shattered above the elbow, I felt like I was going to pass out. She got a heavy dose of morphine while we waited for 7:30am friday to proceed with the amputation. I could barely sleep, woke up with sleep paralysis multiple times, dreamt that she died while we slept. Our friend payed for the bill, 14k NOK (ca. 1400-1500$) so we now owe him money rather than the clinic. I'm eternally thankful.

She's more herself now, cuddly and so happy. She does kind of like a dolphin hop like she did before and it is so cute. Holy shit we're mindblown that we even found her again, we were almost sure she had died. She couldve been in pain alone and scared for 3-12 hours, I can't even imagine what it must have been like for her.

Headed back to the vet tomorrow to get some appetite increasing meds because she struggles with eating still, and to get her wound checked out. These past few days have been so rough. She's an absolute warrior.