We had Elgin's mum, Elvina and unfortunately did not get her spayed early enough and she had a few kittens - we opted to keep Elgin.
Elgin is about 4 yrs old and he is a bit of a terror!
When Elgin was about 18months old he came home with a limp, we thought he might have been bitten by another cat but could see no bite marks. A few days later he was still limping so we took him to the vet who also could not find anything wrong but decided to give him antibiotics anyway.
Later that week he was still limping so the vet decided he needed an x-ray and this showed that his hip joint had disintegrated - he had not been hit by a car but they thought he had Legg-Perthes.
Legg-Perthes is where the blood supply does not reach the hip joint and so the hip joint dies. Humans can also get this (I happen to know 2 people who are clients at work who have this).
We agreed that we would pay for an operation and he was booked in the next day at a sister surgery as the vets there were more qualified. During the operation they removed his hip joint and tidied up the area.
This operation confirmed he had Legg-Perthes and the vet (who was 60) said he had never seen a cat with this condition before but had seen it in small dogs so I guess we have a rare cat.
I was worried that he would not be able to get about but actually the leg muscle has taken the place of the hip joint and to look at you would not know he has lost a hip joint.
In the winter and when he has run about too much he often has a slight limp. He also cannot jump very high - as he is so young he loves to climb and often we hear him miaowing to get down from the shed roof.
This is him a few weeks ago when he got on to the utility room roof
We know that eventually his other hip joint will go the same way so we always watch him closely as he will need a further operation.
Even though he has cost us a lot of money we love him loads!!
He loves Daisy as well but she does not love him, he tries to steal her warm spot and often thinks she can play chase but of course she cannot as she is so old.
Ah ha! have now worked out that of course we know you. He looks a good big cat, do you worry about the road or do they stay away from it because it'd busy.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm - not sure how many people know I have a very rare cat so I guess we must have told you about it before!
DeleteI do worry about the road and of course over the years we have lost some cats but I would rather our cats had a good life with freedom and lived for a few years rather than spend 10 years locked in a cat run.
Our current cats are very good on the road, Elgin will go into the front garden but is absolutely petrified of the lorries and quickly miaows to come in. Daisy is so old she does nothing but sleep and Cat no.3 (coming tomorrow) has always stayed in the backgarden and sometimes ventures over the fence to the neighbours.
Keeping my fingers crossed that I have not tempted fate by posting this!!