[SoxyMama]

Our very boisterous 2 y/o cat is undergoing surgery today. He is an extremely active cat. He has damaged his paw and had it glued and bandaged last week. However he managed to still take off his bucket around his neck (fabric), shred it to pieces (it is still in one piece, but shredded lots of bits of it), escape numerous times (usually when kids were going in and out of house), and climb upside down ALL the time at night when he was in his enclosure (it is not wire, but a plastic/mesh but he managed to climb in and around it trying to get out. He's in there for that reason, it is pretty much as large as a chicken pen but we have to keep in there at night (it is in the garage, lined with carpet, pillows, food, water, litter). But this surgery isn't cheap and he needs 10 days to recover. I'm thinking of putting him in the laundry at night instead, and putting him in our bedroom during the day as it is one place he likes to be.

I am really worried after he is finished this he'll still manage to either pull his stitches out, or just pull the stitches through his activity. How do I keep a boisterous cat from moving around too much? I don't want to have to have them amputate his leg! At the moment though when they took off the bandage you can still see inside his leg and all the skin around it has died, so they have to chop it all back and re-sew his paw together.

Poor kitty. But I'd love some helpful suggestions of how to settle him down over this time.

I should add, he is a very lovely cat- just a grey/white moggie but he's very affectionate and has a lovely personality. He is just very very active. Like a fidgety teen who can't sit still!

[YandiGirl]

One of may cats disclocated her hip and had to be isolated and still for two weeks. I kept her in a cat carrier most of the time, letting her out for food, toilet and cuddles a few times a day. It was tough, but worth it. She recovered well with no long term effects in spite of the vets saying she probably wouldn't.

Good luck to you both!

[epg]

Ask if he can board at the vets for at least a few days.
Otherwise keep him in the enclosure - he will hate it, you will feel like the worst person on earth and 10 days will feel like a year - but just remember 'this too will pass'!

Good luck.

[SoxyMama]

Ask if he can board at the vets for at least a few days.
Otherwise keep him in the enclosure - he will hate it, you will feel like the worst person on earth and 10 days will feel like a year - but just remember 'this too will pass'!

Good luck.

My worry about the enclosure is that he can climb inside it - and his sore paw doesn't seem to stop him as he spent the last week with it glued, and bandaged and managed to pull it apart (ie needing surgery today). It seems so cruel to keep him in a little cage :-( I thought about keeping him with them for a few days as they have a boarding kennel too - but I worried about him climbing their wire or whatever they use - this cat would climb it inside out looking for tiny little exit holes!! Maybe best in our bedroom, and then the laundry - at least the spaces are a little bigger. I feel so sorry for him having to be locked up in a smaller space, being so active.

[Satay chicken]

My cat fell off our three story high balcony a few years back and broke his left front leg - I have never gotten over it, but he's fine...

Anyway, we were told to keep him in an enclosure for two weeks, sure enough within an hour of getting him home he had torn his way out of the enclosure and was keen to for a play, definitely happy to be home. Anyway, there was not much we could really do so I just kept him as calm as possible for two weeks which was hard as he was only 12 months old - also, he slept a good 18 hours a day probably because of pain, that helped too. During the day I would lock him in our bedroom and put cushions all around the bed so he wouldn't cause any extra damage to the leg if he jumped off the bed. Really, we didn't do much to keep him isolated at the time.

Stitches could be a problem, is the paw bound?

Four years on, he's perfect, he has 8 screws and a plate still in his leg which we cannot notice, only when he sits can you see the leg has a slight bend. No pain, only a little in winter when the metal gets cold.

You will find they heal very quickly and will be back to their old self within 10 days - ours was...

[epg]

My worry about the enclosure is that he can climb inside it - and his sore paw doesn't seem to stop him as he spent the last week with it glued, and bandaged and managed to pull it apart (ie needing surgery today). It seems so cruel to keep him in a little cage :-( I thought about keeping him with them for a few days as they have a boarding kennel too - but I worried about him climbing their wire or whatever they use - this cat would climb it inside out looking for tiny little exit holes!! Maybe best in our bedroom, and then the laundry - at least the spaces are a little bigger. I feel so sorry for him having to be locked up in a smaller space, being so active.

Try him in the bedroom - but it will be a constant battle to make sure he doesn't escape.
Whatever you do he will hate it - BUT better to be awful to him and get it healed than to let him out and potentially need to start from the beginning again.
The best thing about having him at the vets is that he's out of you sight and you won't feel so bad!

[meggs1]

Board him at the vets, it's money well spent.

[Tamzin1984]

Sounds to me like you need to make the enclosure smaller. You say its the size of a chicken pen? I would suggest something more the size of a rabbit/guinea pig hutch would be more appropriate if the vet has said he must be confined.
I know that you feel bad, but it really is the best thing for them. Cats can heal amazingly well (especially bones) when they are confined to a small space.
I agree with Satay Chicken that the stitches are more likely to be an issue than the cat dealing with the confinement. I would make a concerted effort to keep the elizabethan collar in place. You can take it off and give him some periods of supervised collar free time to try and make him a little more tolerant of it. And make sure that the leg is well bandaged. If he starts to attack the bandage at all take him straight back to the vet to get it redone.

Hope everything goes well!

[YandiGirl]

Oh yes, when my three girls had their hysterectomies, they gave me bitter drops to put on their stitches to stop them pulling at them. Took a day or so of licking plus highly amusing (for me) face pulling, then they simply ignored the stiches.

[SoxyMama]

Thank you! He is home and made it well through surgery. He's a bit sooky tonight. I had to go out but came in and took his bucket thingy off his neck to give him some eating time. He doesn't like it, he's in the laundry tonight but there's plenty of blanket and pillow to lie on. He's not meowing so hopefully he's having a nap. Definitely not 'himself' though not the active cat he usually is, to be expected I guess. I'll put him in our bedroom upstairs during the day - mostly because it has a bathroom where I can put his litter, food and water as well; it is his favourite place to sleep anyway and it is out of the way of the kids who open and close doors constantly. I think he'll be okay- just will need more cuddles than usual and lots of attention. Poor kitty!