Kitten Very Poorly After Fall (help or advice needed)

[Nismo75]

ok, we have had our 10 week old kitten for 4 weeks now and she has always been very lively, jumping about everywhere. When we are out she is put in kitchen with the door closed. usually when we come back in she is straight out of her cat carrier to greet us, however when we came back in on Tuesday she stayed in her carrier. We gave her an hour and my wife brought her out she noticed she could not walk on her left back leg.

We had no idea how she hurt her leg, we took her to the vets on tuesday afternoon, and the vet thought she had broke a bone in her leg. He booked her in the next day for an xray. On tuesday night she was fine limping about and eating fine. We took her to the vets on wednesday and he knocked her out for her xray (she was in all day). The vet confirmed through an xray that she had broken a bone just above her paw. She was very sleepy when we collected her. She also had a massive bandage on her leg as well

Thursday comes and she is still very lethargic, she did not eat anything all day. Again on friday she is still very lethargic and not eating, we are getting quite concerned about her now. We took her back to vets and he gave us some of liquified food for her to try. She took around a teaspoon of food yesterday, however nowhere near enough to sustain her, we also had to spoon feed her. Again this morning she is not moving and extremely lethargic. The vets thought she may be down because of the bandage around her leg

We took her back to the vets as she was not interested in food or water. He examined her- temp and heartbeat are fine. He thinks she may now have an infection. Gave her injections of water and antibiotics. He also took her bandage off.

We are really concerned for her now as she is still extremely lethargic and not eating or drinking. As we do not know how she fell, one possibility we can think is that she climbed the kitchen drawers lost her grip and trapped her paw.

We just do not understand what has happened to her. Could the fall have been more serious than we first thought? If she did bruise her ribs, insides etc would this show up the day after a fall?

Or could the vet have done something?

Unfortunately she seems to be getting worse instead of better

Any help would be appreciated.

Sorry for long post.

Thank you

[DementisMulier]

oh dear! id see a different vet if i was you! i wouldnt have thought the vet would have let you take her home if she hadnt eaten or drank as she would be dehydrated and need a drip.

best wishes for little kitty! xx

[freekygeeky]

poor thing
i hope she gets better soon!
i really dont know what to suggest well done for continiously going to the vets though.
Ginger, when he has been to the vets for an opp... has sulked for days not tlking to anyoen not accepting strokes, not eating or drinking... hmm

i hope somone more experienced will comeon soon.

[catastrophyrat]

please get her to another vet asap -kitten could have internal injuries not picked up on the xray as it was herleg they looked at.

[Shell195]

Originally Posted by catastrophyrat

please get her to another vet asap -kitten could have internal injuries not picked up on the xray as it was herleg they looked at.

I agree with you tbh. Kittens usually bounce back from broken bones so this little one may have more wrong than at first suspected.
I would advise a second opinion asap as she is not taking enough fluid to sustain her

[9Red]

I would get your kitten to another vet as soon as you can - either tonight or first thing in the morning. It sounds like your vet has not taken the time to check for internal injuries, as an xray of the leg region would not show whether there is any bleeding or damage to the organs, plus she should absolutely not have been released to come home before taking food and water and behaving normally.

A kitten that is lethargic and refusing to eat or drink is almost certainly in a great deal of pain - and is likely to be in a near critical condition. I don't mean to scare you by saying this but the symptoms you have described are very worrying indeed. Cats are very good at hiding it when they are ill or in pain, so that fact that your kitten is expressing obvious signs that something is wrong suggests that something is very wrong.

Also, the fact that your (current) vet has decided to use antibiotics without doing a bloodtest to look an increased white blood cell count, and despite the kitten having a normal temperature, is an indication that they don't actually have a clear idea of what is wrong and are using the 'lets give it a shot of antibiotics and hope that sorts out whatever is the problem' get out clause, which is not only unprofessional and bad practice, but also adds to the problem of antibiotic resistance by simply dishing them out willy-nilly.

As I've said, find another vet, explain what has happened in as much detail as possible and ask for full diagnostics including bloodwork and xrays. In particular I would be looking for things like bruised kidneys, trauma to the bladder or bowels, compressed nerves, and anaemic shock from internal bleeding or bone marrow shutdown. At the very least your kitten is likely to need rehydration therapy and pain relief.

[feorag]

Have to agree with what has been said here - sadly not all vets are good!

Cats don't do well at all if they go long periods without food, they aren't like dogs which can starve for days and a small kitten will suffer serious problems if it goes long periods without food.

Definitely get her to another vet for a second opinion.

[Shell195]

Any news on the kitten??

[feorag]

Yes, I was just wondering that too!

[Xotics_Freak]

yeah me too

have been checking back to see if kitty is ok

I hope so