limping cat

[blondegirly]

My cat bless him seems to have strained his back paw or somethign. he's limping along. he initially put no weight at all on it and fellover when he tried to brush up against my leg but now he is putting a bit of weight on it. I suspect it is a sprain as suggested by my in laws who are breeders but am paranoid in case I am failing to send him to the vet when he needs it. anyone experienced similar?

[annavc]

I came home from work one day to find my monster holding up his front paw and refusing to put any weight on it. I'd only had him about a week so I really panicked! He was great and let me feel it and it didn't feel broken but I dashed off to the vet with him anyway and they said he'd just sprained it and it should get better in a couple of days - they gave him an injection of anti-inflammatories and by the next morning he was walking on it again with only a slight limp which had gone completely by that evening.

Chances are yours has done the same, but if he'll let you feel his leg check to see if the bone feels ok and also his hip as its his back leg. Any doubts at all and personally I would take him to the vet. Perhaps wait till tommorrow and see if it seems any better and if not take him then.

[blondegirly]

it actually happened at the weekend and he didn't let us near him at first and just hissed at us and hid under the bed but my husband managed to have a feel and didn't notice anything.

[Noweia]

It could be a number of things! As you say, it might just be a simple strain, in which it will get better on its own.

Try and check his foot to see if he has a cut on one of his pads, or something stuck in one as this would make his foot sore and he'd be reluctant to take weight on it.

Another possibility is a bite wound abscess somewhere in the leg - if your cat is an outdoor cat the chances are he'll get into scrapes, even if neutered (although he's much less likely to do this if he *is* neutered) - but if you can't feel any lumps or hot, painful areas then the chances are it's not an abscess.

Worse case scenario, he's had a run in with a car - I've had cats brought in before because they were limping on a back leg, only to discover a pelvic or limb fracture.

If your cat doesn't get any better, seems to be taking a long time to get back to normal, or gets worse, I'd advocate taking him to the vet.