Merry, the Christmas Kitten

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

For about 3-4 weeks now we have heard an occassional meow from under the house. I passed it off as being the big fat yellow cat that I have seen (only 2x) in the spring.

When I got home from work yesterday morning I was in the kitchen and heard the cry. I thought it was one of our two cats until I saw them hanging around the kitchen vent where the crying could be heard. Something told me to be more persistant in finding the culprit and luring it out although previous attempts were unsuccessful (granted, all I did was leave a bowl of cat food on the back porch).

I tried to get the cat to come around to the back of the house where some of the skirting is open - no luck. So I went around to the front where I could hear the poor thing. I gently popped a small opening and called for the cat, where it came willingly, allowing me to slide it through the small opening after making sure none of the dogs were around.

Into the house we went, me and this scrawny 6-8mo old beautiful gray/silver cat.
The wee thing purring the instant it came into my warm arms. Spartacus was calm and carefully approached the scared thing, while Kitty-Bella hissed and showed her disappointment. I was afraid the cats would get into a fight, but the wee one only growled back a couple of times, knowing it was safe in my arms (as long as it didnt claw me tryin to get away). It ate. Had a second helping (poor thing was so skinny!). uh-oh! I noticed it’s standing on 3 legs… not good.
I clean it up with cat wipes while it continues to purrrrrrrrrrrrr. I ask its name.

“Meeoooow”

Great, my feline vocabulary is limited and rusty. We continue to talk while it lays on my lap - only hissing when Kitty-Bella gets too close and growls at it.

I was going to wait to take the cat to the vet after I got off work this morning, but I called them yesterday and decided to take it in because of its hurt leg. I gave them the SO’s number to call with an estimate/diagnosis.

BTW, I temporarily named the cat Jack (I had him in a box and he kept poppin its head out while in the car, so Jack-in-the-box came to mind!).

How freakin much?!

Ok, fine. I understand it has a broken leg and I know it’s not cheap to repair something like that - especially when it involves surgery. I dont have the heart to take it to the pound and drop it off, risking the death sentence. I’d rather pay to have it fixed up and try to find a home for it.

Found out the cat is a female and “Jackie/Jaqueline/etc” doesnt seem to suit her.
So, for now, she is Merry (the xmas cat).

I’ll be callin the vet this morning to see what arrangements can be made. Cant really afford the $400 to fix her up atm and the vet wont accept a payment arrangement. SO says we cant keep her - we have the 2 indoor cats as is.
I cant bring myself to drop it off at the pound, and leaving it with a broken leg is just wrong. :frowning:

2

i’m hoping the vet will help you out.

merry is certainly in better shape today than yestaurday. nice and warm, clean water, good food, and loving hands. keep us posted on merry’s progress.

3

You can try to contact some rescues in your area. They may be able to help with the bills and find a foster home for her or if you can foster her yourself they may even be willing to foot the entire bill.

Keep in mind that they may require you to use their own vet services or a vet that works with the rescue.

4

Well done. If you can figure out how I can get you $25 anonymously (through the SDMB), I’ll contribute. Maybe others will, too. Maybe that will help with the SO. PLease send me a PM if you are able to figure this out. Thanks. And good luck.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

5

Given the way it came to you, surely it’s someone’s pet? You might ask the vet to check for a chip.

6

Being out in the country, I’ve seen a lot of dogs get dumped out here. I’m assuming that the reason I havent seen many cats is because the dogs chase them away - the family has a great dane (huge boy!) that does not like to be hissed or growled at and will attack any animal that does not know its place - including other dogs.

I have left a message with a couple of animal rescue organizations here in town and I am just waiting for a return call. I’m also waiting for the vet to call me back as well.

I’m disappointed that the vet’s office was so quick to indicate that they had never heard of anyone/place that could help. I understand that they are a business and noone wants to send away a potential client & income. But I was upfront with them and explained the situation, stressing that the cat would not be adopted by this household. Surely they would know of an animal rescue organizations in the area? I’m sure with that attitude the office wont miss the repeat business of our 2 current cats.

I’ll find a way to help Merry out… even if I have to send the SO to the corner to bring in some extra $$ :stuck_out_tongue:

7

That is very generous of you! Tell ya what, if I can get Merry to a rescue unit I’ll send you their info if you decide you would like to donate. I think (but please check w/them first) that if they are registered your donation may be tax deductable (?)

8

Does your vet accept the Care Credit card? It’s designed specifically for medical and veterinary care use, and any billing over $300 can be paid “same as cash” over 3 months (longer as the amount goes up). If your vet doesn’t accept it, use their site to search for other vets in the area who do, then take Merry there.

Thank you so much for taking her in and taking such good care of her. She sounds so lovely and sweet, I have a feeling your SO will cave, eventually. :slight_smile:

9

Are there other vets in your area? Start calling around and asking if they know of any no-kill rescues that might be able to help out.

10

Might one of your colleagues at work be interested?

11

TT the vet briefly about the fractured femur(?) on Merry and her options. He indicated that surgery is necessary, but not guaranteed to work. I reiterated that this is a stray and I will do what I can to help, but at this time $400 is not in my budget without a payment plan. I also indicated to the vet that I had left messages with 2 different rescue orgs for assistance.

First of all, (your employees) telling me that they never heard of an Animal Rescue org is unethical, imo -especially when I found 3 in the surrounding area on the internet (and possibly another 2 available)!

Also Am not impressed that the Vet tried to make me feel guilty by telling me that I would be taking that money away from other adoptable and healthy pets and how it can be stretched to save more of them instead of one (non-perfect) cat.
WTF? F-u! Dont lay this responibility on me while rubbing your hands together with dollar signs in your eyes - WHAT are YOU doing to help in this situation because I dont hear you offering to arrange payments (no they dont to care credit) or cut me a deal for cash! You’ve lost all my future business (jerk). :mad:

I’m still waiting to hear back from the animal rescue orgs & keeping fingers crossed that they contact me today. I will also contact another vet listed on the website of one of the orgs to see what they can do to help.

Already checked with co-worker and no luck there.

However, I am determined that this cat will have a chance at a full feline life with a good family!

12

Will the broken leg heal decently on its own?

13

Not sure, which is why I will be callin around to some other vets this morning. I need a good, down-home straight forward honest animal doc.

14

I got a kitteh with a broken leg once. Poor, poor baby, I had to comfort her all night until the vet’s opened. They said, all they could do was amputate it because it was broken so badly. But they did it for free.

After that, she was my 3-legged cat. Rita Grenouille.

Pixilated, you are good people. Bless your heart! And good luck.

P.S. Where are the PICTURES? We have a rule here…

15

There’s a saying in vet medicine. As long as the cat and its broken bone are in the same room together they should heal fine.

It really depends on where the fracture is and just how badly fractured it is. I have a cat that had been abandoned by the owners at our clinic with a fractured femur. When people abandon animals we have to hold them for about 10 days and send a certified letter saying that if they do not claim it the animal is ours on such and such a date. During that time we have to provide basic care but we do not do orthopedic surgery nor were we going to fioot the bill to send it elsewhere. The femur was fractured cleanly about mid-shaft. We tried splinting it but in this case the splint did not help stabilize it and made the cat more uncomfortable so we left it unsplinted. It was a cute kitten so of course we’d take it out and let it run around the lounge and play. The kitten ran on this leg. Once the 10 days was up I decided to keep the kitten but at that point there was no need to do anything because the cat didn’t even act like it had a broken leg. Now this was a small kitten, about 10 weeks old and growing fast, it didn’t weigh more than 2 pounds. Many years later I had to x-ray the cat for another reason and you could see her femurs and it was hard to pick out the leg that had been fractured, it had healed beautifully.

Now, this is not necessarily going to work in most cases and something should be done to help the cat. If it is a clean fracture (not comminuted, spiral or with some really sharp pieces) and it’s distal (closer to the knee than the hip) it might be possible to splint it for several weeks, with bandage changes and adjustments every two weeks. However if it is fractured closer to the hip it is too difficult to splint. If it is a femoral head fracture they do need surgery (FHO) to remove the fractured femoral head and smooth out the end of the femur. The cat will then form a false joint and be able to walk fine later, it’s actually a pretty common injury in cats and they do quite well. If it’s not done they may still form the false joint but they are more likely to be painful and arthritic. If it is badly fractured, comminuted (many small or sharp pieces) then the cat may do better with an amputation.

I don’t know what the $400 your vet quoted was for but if it is for orthopedic surgery that’s actually pretty cheap. It makes me think it may be for an FHO which is pretty easy and straightforward as opposed to pinning and wiring other types of fractures.

Unfortunately, the brutal reality is also true that sometimes people get very attached to the stray they found and want to do everything to save it while there are lots of healthy cats and kittens in need of care in shelters and adoption. Sometimes the problems are expensive and prognosis is poor and it really is not fair to those other cats, but this is a problem that is likely to be easy to fix (depending on the fracture) so if you are willing to make the commitment to help out or take up a collection and care for the kitten until you find a home for it then good on you for that but honestly don’t expect a vet to cut you a deal on it. Our clinic does lots of care of strays for a number of local shelters, often we fix the cat first and then find it a shelter, however we don’t cut the average guy on the street any deals for strays, most other clinics are the same way. We still have to pay our bills and already do more than our share for strays. We can’t be sure that the average person truly just found this animal or just wants us to give them a deal to fix their pet. So your best bet is going to be finding a no-kill shelter that works with a vet who cuts them a deal and let them have the kitten for its care and recovery but you help with the cost of treatment. A no-kill shelter will often be happy to help out in this situation when they know the cost of the animal’s care will be covered.

Good luck with the kitty.

16

I really do understand that vet’s need to pay their bills as well, and it isnt really the dollar amount that had upset me - it was the way the vet came across. Going from the high end to the drastic end was offputting - maybe too many years in sales and pitching options to others has given me the same expectations. i’m also used to dealing with “country vets” from back home who also use this same concept.

I spoke with another vet clinic and they gave me a LOT MORE options as far as who to contact for help whereas the other clinic offered zilch. nada. Hard to believe that an established vet is not aware of local rescue orgs and the such (matter of fact, the clerk at the other clinic indicated that as far as she knows, all clinics are given names and numbers of approved rescue orgs, and if not, they all know that the local animal shelter would also help).

I used to volunteer time, money, food, etc to local shelters quite often so please dont give me the song and dance of how vets do more than their fair share to help (I do not mean any offense to this statement and if you meant you directly, than I apologize for the misunderstanding). I admit that over the past year I have been lazy with my volunteer work, being new to the area and being somewhat financially stressed was a bit draining.

The good news is that most of these animal rescue orgs need foster homes so I may be able to tend to the cat til its adopted out!

Oh, and now that Merry doesnt appear to be as skinny and hunched into a ball, she looks a bit older than I assumed - maybe a year old? And it looks like the hip is out of place, so maybe the break is near the hip?

And finally - pics!
Merry:
<URL=“Photo Storage | Photobucket” target=“_blank”><img src="http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k117/irishdivil/Merry.jpg

KittyBella (the drama-doesnt-like-anyone-queen):
http://http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k117/irishdivil/KITTYbELLA.jpg

and the SO’s, Spartacus:
http://http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k117/irishdivil/SPARTI.jpg

2 of the 3 outdoor “adopted us” dogs, Coyote-Ugly & Shaq

17

Merry:
http://http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k117/irishdivil/Merry.jpg

18

Link doesn’t work.

Where are you located (what part of the country)?

19

Let me clean those links up for you darlin.

Merry

Bella

Spartacus

The dogs: Shaq, the great dane. And BUD (Butt Ugly Dog)

And about the break. When I talked to the vet, he indicated that the break was in the middle of the femur and that there were bone fragments around the break. So the possibility of it healing successfully on it’s own are prectically nil.

20

I can afford to send $25.

Is someone going to take up a collection?