January Pet of the Month

Congratulations to Mable, our January Pet of the Month! Mable is a 1 year old

Mable
Mable
domestic short hair tabby cat. We first saw Mable on December 30th, 2014 when she came in because she was holding up her right rear leg and wasn’t putting any pressure on it. She had gotten out of the house on Christmas Eve, and when she returned that night she was limping and exhausted. She laid around for the next couple of days and wasn’t very interested in food or water. Her owner thought she may have just sprained something in her leg since she seemed to improve a few days after the incident and began eating and drinking again. After it had been several days and Mable still wasn’t using her leg, her owner decided that it was time to get her checked out.
 
X-Ray of the broken leg
X-Ray of the broken leg
A common thing we look for in cats that come in with limping after being outside is an abscess from a bite or cut. This makes their limb very painful and it will often be swollen and irritated. Mable did not have any of these symptoms which led us to believe that the more likely cause of Mable’s limping was a fracture. Upon palpation, Dr. Forbes determined that Mable’s leg was indeed broken with a femoral fracture that would require surgical correction. This type of surgery is typically complex as it requires the bones being realigned and stabilized with pins. We took x-rays from 2 different views to confirm Dr. Forbes’ findings and to get a closer look at the fracture. Mable’s owner decided that she wanted to get her fixed up as soon as possible and left Mable with us for the night to have surgery performed the next day by Dr. Forbes. We quickly got Mable on pain medications to keep her comfortable until the surgery.
 
The next morning Dr. Forbes performed Mable’s surgery. She passed a pin through the
X-ray after repair
X-ray after repair
bone in Mable’s femur to stabilize the fracture and ensured that it was it was stable when stressed in all directions. We then took radiographs to confirm that the alignment was correct. We gave Mable an antibiotic injection to protect her from any infection that may develop from the surgery and also kept her on pain medications. We kept Mable for two nights following her surgery to see that everything was going okay with her recovery.
 
Mable is doing well now!
Mable is doing well now!
Three weeks later Mable came in for her recheck examination and suture removal. The incision site had healed nicely and Mable was now able to walk on her newly repaired leg! We were very thankful that we were able to repair Mable’s leg and that she had a successful recovery!