Cat is limping: Cat suddenly limping back leg: what to do

cat is limping -What are the signs of a cat’s paw fracture? When to be alarmed and how to intervene without making the problem worse.

Does your cat limp? Sometimes this is not enough to diagnose a leg fracture. In fact, there are various signs to recognize in order to understand if a cat has a broken paw and above all do-it-yourself remedies must be avoided which, besides being useless, could even worsen the problem. If we are faced with an accident and we are almost certain that the cat has a fracture in the paw, the fundamental thing to do is not to touch it. Better get advice from the expert or contact the local veterinary assistance. Here are all the situations where one might occur fracture of the cat’s paw and how to take appropriate action.

Fracture of the cat’s paw: how it can happen

Although it is believed that cats are animals that cannot harm themselves, almost as if they were immortal, in reality it can happen that they fall victim to more or less serious accidents. Having a pet is equivalent to taking care of a child, therefore it involves great responsibilities: better think about it before adopting one and assessing how much care and time we can dedicate to them.

The cat has an inquiring nature: he loves to know, experiment and often overcome his own limits, or at least put them to the test: for this reason he sometimes finds himself in very dangerous situations, which put his life at risk. He loves heights and manages to fall on his feet, on all fours, even when it comes to a window or a very high shelf.

He likes to perform in his feline stunts and in the course of his exercises he could injure his leg. The male cat could injure himself in an attempt to defend his territory, perhaps giving rise to clashes and scuffles with his fellows. Certainly one of the positive sides of sterilizing the cat is also that of not having to run into problems of this kind. He could then have been hit by a car or fallen from a tree: in short, there are various and many ways in which he could get hurt!

How to recognize it: the alarming signs

As always, to diagnose a cat problem, it will be necessary to evaluate his overall health: if he cannot move well, if he remains completely still, if his leg hangs like a ‘dead weight’ then it is appropriate to think of a fracture. In some cases it may even be visible: maybe the bone may have broken out of the flesh and tearing it.

If the fracture is not clearly visible, we evaluate the movements of the feline as a whole: let’s see which part is moving with difficulty, so as to recognize the possible fractured area. The limp (Read here: The cat limps: why does it happen? Causes and remedies for this disorder) is certainly one of the main signs: if it limps visibly, we should take it immediately to the vet. If, on the other hand, he has injuries, he will have to deal with the blood leakage and then take it to a nearest veterinary emergency room. But let’s see closely what are the things to do to help a cat who has a leg fracture.

What to do if the cat has a broken paw

It will be necessary to intervene promptly and not to neglect the problem that could not only condemn it to immobility and a compromised walking for life, not to mention that in some cases, infections they can put his own life at risk. If we think the paw can be broken we avoid moving it or moving it too much: mine could feel an even stronger pain and react violently, perhaps with a good scratch. Furthermore, moving it could make the problem worse.

So in taking it to the vet it is good to immobilize the part; if instead the area is injured and there is blood leaking then we think about disinfecting it. After the cleaning operation, we apply a bandage to the part to prevent the cat from licking it and causing an infection. There are gods on the market spray patches easy to use and immediately effective: in this way it will be easier to create a protective layer around the wound.

Better avoid the use of splints but we abound with sterile gauze to make the bandage more stable. We also cover the gauze with a net, in order to make any attempt by the cat to free himself from the bandage vain. In the absence of a retina, which we should always include in our first aid kit for animals, a women’s sock is also fine, but neither too wide nor too tight.