Sadly, my inoffensive old cat was attacked by a mongrel dog roaming the neighbourhood this morning.
I chased the dog away but it had inflicted pretty severe damage. As a result, my cat will have to have it’s front leg amputated tomorrow.
He’s a pretty large cat and has always been quite active, insofar as moving from one part of the garden after a nap to another part for another nap.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could make life easier for him when he gets home?
Most cats adapt pretty well to the loss of a limb. He’ll have to heal up, of course, then spend a little time adjusting, but he should be able to get around just fine. He might have some problems jumping on/off things, but he should get back to doing normal cat things pretty quickly.
Sometimes, this seems more traumatic for the humans in the household than the for the affected animal.
Cats are pretty adaptable, and I suspect it won’t take him long to adjust to walking on three legs.
I had two three-legged cats, brother and sister, who were each missing part of a hind leg from birth. The first night we had them we carried them up the stair to the bedroom so they wouldn’t feel abandoned. The next day they started climbing the stairs themselves, which was funny to watch because the steps were nearly as big as they were, but not only did they do it, but they also figured out how to climb up onto the bed. They ran around the house just as well as our other cats, and the male used to jump three or four feet into the air trying to catch flies.
Thanks folks for the reassurance. He will get the best treatment but it just seems so unfair for him.
I am sure he will look really handsome with three legs and a squished in face.
Well, they are doing a lot with prostheses today.
But yeah, it really sucks for the cat, but they adapt much better than even humans. As my video link above shows.
Poor kitty!
(get him a 3 legged mouse? 
)
Tripod kitties do just fine. He’ll be tired and sore when he first comes home, and you’ll want to keep him pretty confined while the incision heals, usually about 2 weeks. That means indoors, in a small room like a bathroom or utility room when you’re not with him so he’s not jumping and climbing and doing things that will increase the odds of him falling and landing on his stitches. Typically, by the time the incision is healed they’ve got the balance thing all sorted out.
Hell, our younger cat had no use of his left front paw when we first got him, due to nerve damage from what looked like a fan belt incident. I mean no use; I had to make him a corrective boot to keep him from walking on his wrist because it just flopped under. He was only a month or so old, little enough to sit in your hand, and within 2 days he’d figured out how to get himself up on the couch unassisted. He’d climb up the arms just like going up a tree, and when he was above cushion height, he’d jump for it. I’m still not entirely sure how he managed to keep his balance when he’d let go with that front paw to move it, even after watching him do it several times.
So, he’s a Manx cat now?
Rename him Tripod and shoot the dog.
Poor kitty, we have a three legged dog that goes to the park by where I live and he hops around fine. He’s a bit slow, but he still can fetch the ball and sniff the other dogs.
As long as the cat has food, water and a place to sit and watch the world go by he’ll do just fine.
I adopted a cat years ago after I amputated his front leg. The front legs bear more weight than the hind legs, so your cat will be more susceptible to arthritis in his remaining shoulder and elbow. He will be about the same jumping up on things as before amputation, but going down stairs will be much harder and clumsier. I was lucky that my cat responded to a chewable glucosamine supplement that I tried after I’d had him for almost a year-- he became much more active. That only works for about 50% of arthritic cats, though. An injectable formulation that’s given every 2 to 4 weeks may also work.
You can stop trying to teach him how shake hands now. 
Thanks. We are on a level block with virtually no stairs so that won’t be a problem.
Gonzomax, that thought did cross my mind.
ROFL!!!
Two stories of cats that adapt to the loss of one leg:
One of our herd managed to snag a dewclaw somehow. The vet removed the claw, and gave her a big pink bandage on that front leg. For a week or two, she bounced around on 3 legs just fine. Somewhere I have a picture of her sitting by the fireplace right after she got the bandage, looking at me with the look that says “Why did you put this thing on me?”
The neighbors have a tomcat that roams the street at night. He developed cancer in one front leg, and the vet removed it. He adapted very well, and still roams through our yard. At times, he shows up on our back deck, and drives our herd nuts. It’s a real treat to wake up at 3 AM to a chorus of cats insulting each other through nothing more than a screen door. :mad:
If your cat is healthy otherwise, I would expect him to overcome this. If he’s fairly old, it might be time to restrict him to indoors only, but you’ll know better than us on that, I expect.
As I write this, my three-legged cat is yelling at me about something or other. I have no idea what. He’s kind of a pushy little bastard.
Mine was missing his front left leg from birth, so he didn’t have to adjust to anything. He’s 12 now and doing fine, though not as peppy as he used to be.
A couple of things:
UP = easy, DOWN = hard Your cat will probably not ever figure out that jumping onto high places is a bad idea because the descent will be difficult. I’m convinced they are just not capable of thinking that far ahead. Thus, if you have high places he likes to jump to, make sure he has a terraced descent path available. Otherwise he will jump straight down and hit his face on the floor. Hmm, wonder if this is why mine is so dumb
glucosamine/chondroitin supplements are a good idea if you can get him to take them. Mine gets some evry night in a spoonful of canned food. He does seem to be moving more easily since we started them a year ago. We worry about arthritis since he stands and walks so strangely
another example of UP = easy, DOWN = hard is that he goes upstairs very easily. downstairs is more like a controlled fall than walking down stairs. It sounds like he is falling down them.
Motorgirl’s post reminded me of a poster I saw at our vet’s office recently. Apparently, the lower jaw of a cat is actually 2 bones fused together at the point, and this joint is susceptible to fractures if they hit something hard. So her comment about a terraced descent path makes sense. It’s probably easier than covering the entire floor in pillows, too.
Folks, just an update. Poor Keyser has had some difficulties in that he had an elevated temperature and wasn’t eating.
The vet was worried that some of the puncture wounds to his chest area from the dogs teeth could have injected some germs and so they upped the antibiotics. He is heavily sedated and on a lot of painkillers.
Today he seems a bit brighter and we may be able to bring him home tomorrow.
On a note that surprised me, we also have an old Siamese cat. We thought they tolerated each other and plotted and nothing more. Since he has been at the vets, she has walked around in the middle of the night looking in each room and yowling. She sits when it gets dark and looks at the glass door where he normally would sit and wait to be let in.
The vet bill so far is about $3,000. Gosh, I wish it had never come to this. I was always prepared for him to be skittled by a car- never to be mauled by dogs.
Here’s wishing the best for your cat.
Others hit the main points but just for another word of encouragement, my first cat was an adopted stable cat after a horse stepped on his hind leg and took it off. That cat (we “named” ours Tripod as well although we only ever called him Kitty) lived to a ripe old age and was the best damn mouser I’ve ever had in a long line of felines. Rare was the morning my mother didn’t leave the house for work to find two or three dead mice lined up in front of her car and the cat awaiting praise.
We got our old pet home tonight. While it is heartbreaking to see him try and walk - not realising that he is missing a leg- the vet says he will adapt within a week. He is home and reasonably happy although the medications are making him sleep a lot.
Unfortunately, if you’re going to let a prey-sized critter run loose in an area where dogs are also running loose, mauling is always a possibility. Frankly speaking, as someone who’s seen a fair few mauled cats, you guys got off lucky if the leg was the worst of his injuries. It could have been way, way worse for both of you, and frequently is.
I’m glad your boy is home, and it sounds like he’s having a perfectly normal recovery. You’ll be amazed at how quickly he figures out the whole walking thing. And be prepared for him to sleep more than usual for a while even after the pain meds stop–healing takes up a lot more energy than we tend to realize.
