We're even getting the pets involved! Injury #3

The week before Christmas, we had our third and final (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!) injury. Paul and I had been at Heidi's house, and we'd left the girls there for a sleepover. We got home and when Paul hopped in bed and tried to scoot Arthur over with his feet, he let out a really loud meow. He hobbled off the bed really weird and when he landed on the ground he really waled. He wouldn't put ANY weight on his back foot at all, in fact he wouldn't even let the hair on his foot touch the ground. We looked at it, and it looked like the injured foot was a bit shorter than the good one, and it was swollen and very lumpy looking. I took him to the vet the next morning, and sure enough, after several x-ray attempts, with Arthur crying in the backroom :( the x-rays showed broken bones.


This is kind of a side picture of his foot. He's got 4 bones in his lower leg that go down to his paws, and this one was a very obvious bad fracture.


This is a picture after they tried to set it and put a splint on. This is when they realized it wasn't 3 broken bones, it was all 4. Poor kitty! It was a very traumatizing trip to the vet (for him and I both!). His first car ride in 4 years, and very overwhelming for him. As soon as we got to the vet he chilled out and made himself comfortable, and when he got his splint on, he was so doped up that every time he'd try to walk, he'd roll over onto his back and couldn't figure out how it'd happened. It was very sad. As soon as we got home though he somehow figured out how to plop himself up on the kitchen chair, one of his favorite spots.


2 Days later though, I went to give him his pain medicine, and noticed there was blood seeping out from the bottom of his splint. So, back to the Dr. again, they re-wrapped it, and it's been much better since then. We had to go again a few days later to make sure it was still doing well, and we now have to go again every 7-10 days to have the splint re-done. Fun fun fun! He's doing much better with his car rides now though. It's been a week (as of 12/28) and he's getting around on it pretty well. He still stays in our room most of the time, and Jasmine isn't sure what to do with her disabled brother. It'll be a while before they are both tearing down the hallway again.

Oh, and the first question that everyone asks, how did it happen? We have NO IDEA. We'd been gone all afternoon and that night was the first we'd noticed anything was wrong. He'd been fine earlier that day. It's a mystery!