I’m just back from the vet with some bad news.
I noticed that Mocha was very quiet on Sunday and eh spent most of the day in the cat igloo which was a bit odd given the time of year. He hasn’t been using the igloo since late April when the temperature started rising. He did seem to be licking the inside of his right front leg more than normal but I didn’t think anything of it.
I put it down to some 24 hour thing that cats occasionally get. He was still eating his meals.
On Monday there was little change. He was still very quiet and wouldn’t come out to his cat bowl. However, when I did put the bowl in the igloo, he ate the full meal. That afternoon, he came and slept on the cushion beside my PC, so I figured he was on the road to recovery from whatever minor ailment had beset him.
Again, though, he was licking that leg quite a bit. I didn’t think anything of it as he was walking fine with no sign of a limp. I had to bring him his evening meal as he wouldn’t come out to the food bowl.
Later that night, he was licking his leg more and more. This time, I looked at where he was licking through a magnifying glass. It was the “thumb” some cats have on their front legs. Under magnification, I could see that the nail was missing and the pad looked shredded. There was no blood and there had been no signs of blood anywhere Mocha had been sleeping over the previous day or so.
Nevertheless, I thought it warranted investigation and first thing this morning, I made an appointment to see the vet. I was concerned that he may have developed an infection from the injury.
Naturally, Mocha wasn’t happy at the sight of the cat carrier and it was a bit of a struggle to get him into it. He made some weird yowls in the car on the way up.
When the vet examined him, he found that all of Mocha’s nails, front paws and back, were sheared off.
This was a classic sign that he’d been hit by a car.
While there was little external damage and no apparent broken bones, the real fear now was that there was some internal damage.
The vet couldn’t feel Mocha’s bladder and couldn’t say at that point if that was due to him having a ruptured bladder or having emptied it himself in the litter tray. Another possible, and common, injury in cats hit by cars is a herniated diaphragm.
There was also the possibility of other internal injuries. Mocha’s breathing was a bit wheezy and gurgely in the stethoscope though his temperature was normal.
Given that the cat had been out of sorts for 36-48 hours and hadn’t collapsed, that was a good sign. Nevertheless, the vet decided to take Mocha in, put him on a drip and painkillers and take some X-Rays to assess the damage caused by the impact.
So that’s where things stand. I’ll be getting a progress report later this evening.
Tagged with: cat bowl • cat hit by car • litter tray • Mocha • the cat • the vet
Filed under: Mocha's Diary
