A couple weeks ago, a woman called in
about a kitten that she either needed to get rid of or put to sleep.
He was born with deformed back legs, and the way he was walking was
making open sores on the walking surface. We discussed it for a while
among the staff, and decided to simply take the kitten, even if it
meant euthanizing him ourselves, just to make sure it got done.
So the kitten came in, and sure enough, his little hind feet were way off. The foot was actually twisted completely around so that the paw pads were facing up. And the hock was permanantly bent such that he was walking on the outside corner of the hock. This lady had been letting this kitten OUTSIDE, where he had to bounce down 4 wooden steps to get to the gravel, dirt, and what-have-you that typically makes up trailer park yards. He had open, infected wounds on both hocks.
Well, the playful little guy stole our hearts in about an hour, and we decided to try to save him. First thing was to get those open wounds healed up and get some radiographs to see what was going on in there to make plans for future surgery. To make a long story a little less long, he had his surgery today.
The tibia never grew. It was the size of a little leg bone in a newborn kitten. The fibula, which is the other bone in that part of the leg, grew normally. Since both ends of both bones are attached in the same joint, the only way the fibula could grow was in a circle. It also pushed the tarsal bones out kinda sideways, and dislocated the end of the tibia. So basically, what they did was amputate the foot at the end of the tibia, and cut the fibula off as close to the knee joint as possible. The purpose of leaving the long stumps being to retain the nice big callouses he had developed there for walking purposes. In addition, we are going to try to fashion an orthopedic shoe/bootie type device, if he'll keep them on.
The surgery itself went well, but they used more drugs to keep him down than they did on the Boston Terrier we took down yesterday for a dental! In addition, when he woke up, he threw a 4 hour tantrum, re-opening one of his incisions, and bleeding all over the damn place. They had to sedate him AGAIN to put in additional sutures. When he woke up from that, he resumed his tantrum, and finally one of the techs resorted to simply packing him around for the rest of the day, and keeping him mellowed out on opiates. They told us they wanted someone to take him home tonight and keep an eye on him, drugging him as neccessary, and I'm elected!
So the kitten came in, and sure enough, his little hind feet were way off. The foot was actually twisted completely around so that the paw pads were facing up. And the hock was permanantly bent such that he was walking on the outside corner of the hock. This lady had been letting this kitten OUTSIDE, where he had to bounce down 4 wooden steps to get to the gravel, dirt, and what-have-you that typically makes up trailer park yards. He had open, infected wounds on both hocks.
Well, the playful little guy stole our hearts in about an hour, and we decided to try to save him. First thing was to get those open wounds healed up and get some radiographs to see what was going on in there to make plans for future surgery. To make a long story a little less long, he had his surgery today.
The tibia never grew. It was the size of a little leg bone in a newborn kitten. The fibula, which is the other bone in that part of the leg, grew normally. Since both ends of both bones are attached in the same joint, the only way the fibula could grow was in a circle. It also pushed the tarsal bones out kinda sideways, and dislocated the end of the tibia. So basically, what they did was amputate the foot at the end of the tibia, and cut the fibula off as close to the knee joint as possible. The purpose of leaving the long stumps being to retain the nice big callouses he had developed there for walking purposes. In addition, we are going to try to fashion an orthopedic shoe/bootie type device, if he'll keep them on.
The surgery itself went well, but they used more drugs to keep him down than they did on the Boston Terrier we took down yesterday for a dental! In addition, when he woke up, he threw a 4 hour tantrum, re-opening one of his incisions, and bleeding all over the damn place. They had to sedate him AGAIN to put in additional sutures. When he woke up from that, he resumed his tantrum, and finally one of the techs resorted to simply packing him around for the rest of the day, and keeping him mellowed out on opiates. They told us they wanted someone to take him home tonight and keep an eye on him, drugging him as neccessary, and I'm elected!
So now he's here, and the drugs are
wearing off and I can't give him another dose until 10:00. He was
screaming bloody murder for a while, but finally seems to have
settled down again. I didn't really expect him to eat, but offered
him some canned food anyway, he ate it, and settled right in for a
nap. He's so darn cute. He sleeps propped up in a corner of the cage
on top of his stuffed animal, recliner style, with all four feet (or
what remain of them) pointed up. It's sad, I know he's only laying
that way because his little stumps hurt, but it's still cute.
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