# My Alina fractured her tibia



## calidreamer119 (May 12, 2011)

Well it's been a rough couple of days. Yesterday my barely 1 year old girly went outside. She likes to watch birds from the porch banister. She tends to jump to the ground from there sometimes too, and I think that's what happened yesterday except she got hurt this time. She came inside limping badly. No weight on her right side back leg. So I immediately called the vet after checking to see if anything was wedged/caught in her paw or whatnot. They took her in a couple hours later and while they said nothing was broken (and they'd give her a pain shot and send her on her way :!::? I asked to take x-rays to see what was going on. She screamed when you touched her upper leg, obviously there was an issue.

Anyways it turns out it was a Tibial Tuberosity Avulsion Fracture... in laymans terms a fracture at the top of the tibia where the knee attaches to it. Vet said this is a tricky fracture because the muscles/ligaments are pulling the bone apart :sad So she told me that they do surgery or splints. Then went on to say she's seen many surgeries have the same result as splints and not work etc. She said Lina will heal one way or another though so that's hopeful. 

Dr. didn't really ask me if I wanted the surgery which makes me think she may not perform that type of surgery? I don't know. From the x-ray the pulling apart didn't seem that bad (certainly not as bad as what I see online when I look at pictures of this happening) But the x-ray was also taken 3hrs after the accident. With decalification it'll get worse the Dr. says. So long story short she's in a splint now. I don't have a clue if this'll work and I'm worried it won't.

The splint and Alina do NOT get along. When we first brought her home she lay there sulking until the phone rang, and she became spooked and tried to move a bit. As soon as she did she attacked her leg like no other. This is coming from a very sweet, loving little girl. I take it she was thinking her leg cast was something that was trying to attack her or something. That's what she was acting like at least. She was very frightened. I tried to calm her but ended up with lots of bites and scratches. 

Vet gave me narcotics and a sedative. I was too afraid to give her the narcotics (they're in a needle form but I have to give it orally... why could it not have been in a squirt syringe or something. I was too scared to hurt her if she jerked suddenly with the needle in her mouth). 

We made it through the night and Alina is calming down some. Granted I only got 3 hours of sleep and spent the rest calming her and such. She's past the frightened stage but every-time she does move/get up she growls, hisses, kicks at and sometimes still biting at her leg. She's really not taking to it well. 

On top of it all her eating is scarce. I had to hand feed her some dried food last night. She wouldn't drink but eventually got her to drink when I mixed the dried food in the water. She did pee herself yesterday evening, but no other sign of potty usage. Not sure she can really get herself up and into the box anyways. I don't mind the messes though I would just like it if she were being healthy. It's worrying me. I got an eye dropper so if she seems dehydrated I'll be giving her more water that way whether she likes it or not. She's eaten some wet too which will help. 

I'm going in tomorrow AM for the Vet to redo the splint. The Vet is concerned that's she's not taking to it so she's going to try and redo it. We made a lot of progress today, granted it's still horrible, but I really don't want to lose all that because she get's upset about going through it all over again. *sigh* This is such a headache. And not that it's the greatest of concerns but I am a graduate student finances are tough I really don't want to have to pay for her to re-splint, and who knows after 3 weeks of all this drama I may need to go a surgery route it seems. My poor baby.

Does anyone have experience with this problem/fracture? Or does anyone know about it at all?

If anyone has any tips on helping her adjust or helping her walk on it or simply ANYTHING I would so so so so appreciate it. I'm really at a loss here. I'm doing well staying calm around her but I feel like an emotional wreck. It's tearing me apart seeing her like this. 



I'm sorry this is so long and rambling but I've been looking for others who may understand and possibly help me get Alina better. This is so hard on all of us-- my partner, Alina and I not to mention my other cat.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

(If it were me) I would switch vets. A vet that would have let you leave with a fractured knee and no xrays doesn't seem like much of a doctor to me...

Most animals don't enjoy casts and such, but that is easily remedied with a E-collar (or lampshade as they are sometimes called). That also should have been given to you/recommend by your vet..

I would definitely continue hand-feeding her; getting enough food is essential for her healing. If she continues to refuse food or water, you might want to have a feeding tube inserted next time you go into the vets office.

Hope Alina feels better!!


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

This is something I think Rachel (Rachandnito) could probably give you some advice on. She's dealt with this before and I imagine gone through the same issues and is very knowledgeable. 

I'm so sorry for your kitties pain.


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## calidreamer119 (May 12, 2011)

Well I think the vet was trying to give me options. The idea being maybe it was a sprain or something and so she'd treat the pain and go from there, or go the route and take x-rays to see the issue more. When Alina was freaking out and I called back they recommended the sedative and narcotics. I did ask about a cone and they said they do have them but at that point they didn't think it was necessary. 
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We got through the night decently enough. She was upset when I got home from work. My boyfriend and I were switching places, having him be with her most of the night. But Alina didn't want any of that and made her way to lay next to my bed and knead the box spring it most of the night. It was sweet, my baby wanted to be with her Mama. Of course that it another hard night of sleeping, but you do what you got to do!

Alina is STARTING to get the hang of it. It's still very hard for her to move. But I've seen her get up and hobble about 6 ft at a time before falling over now. She still get's frustrated when she has trouble with it and will have her, as I call them, freak outs: where she's yelling and maybe flailing a bit getting mad at it. These have shrunken now and I think maybe (hopefully) they'll fade more in a few days.

So I think I'm going to go with my gut and not take the girly in today. I think the traumatic experience of the vet would be bad for her. We have 7 more days until we have to go in to check and redo the splint anyways. I think she'll make it without having to re-splint today. Don't see how that could possibly help anyways. 

I'll keep everyone posted.

Oh when we woke up I did put the bowl of food in front of Lina and she ate a decent amount of dried food. So she's eating. Drinking is the hard one. I'll try the food water mix again a bit later and the eye dropper seems to work decently enough.

Thanks for the kind words


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## Jan Rebecca (Oct 14, 2010)

So sorry for your baby - hope she heals just fine.


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## madamefifi (Apr 30, 2011)

Hi, *Calidreamer*--I'm so sorry to hear you're going through all this, I know it's very traumatic for everyoen involved. The good news is that in my experience cats get used to things like splints, casts and e-collars pretty quickly. I had a cat back in college who got bumped by a car and though it was a million years ago I remember the vet showing me the x-ray and talking about surgery, and it was one of his back legs right at the area you described in your first post, so it may very well have been the same type of fracture. Naturally I couldn't even begin to afford surgery so the leg was splinted and they sent me home. The cat (Rusty) was not happy about the splint and in fact removed it himself a couple of times, but he adjusted very quickly as Alina seems to be doing and was back to his normal self in a few days, running around on 3 legs like a pro (not outdoors though!), using the litter box, eating and drinking, etc. When the splint was removed by the vet at the end of the healing period, he never had a problem with that leg afterwards.

I think your instinct is correct--as long as Alina is eating and trying to resume a normal life, you can wait to take her back to the vet as scheduled. Remember that cats have a low water drive; if you supplement her kibble with canned food, which has a high water content, and of course give her access to fresh water, she doesn't have to be actually drinking a whole lot to be adequately hydrated.

Good luck!


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## calidreamer119 (May 12, 2011)

Again thanks everyone

Alina is doing much better in the fact that she's not attacking her leg. She pretty much has resigned to it, and has stopped trying to fight it so much. I wouldn't say she's resuming a normal life though. Since yesterday she really hasn't moved much. The vet didn't mention that we needed her confined except for the first few hours when she was adjusting (more like first 2 days!). But I've read that cats in splints should try to be confined to an area. Anyways, I did try that but she was having none of it in the beginning. Now she's fine with being only in our bedroom. There's no way on earth she can jump so she's not getting up on the bed and that's about all she could do in here. She's just been laying down by the space heater and I have seen her twice hobble over to the food.

So yes her appetite is still there. I'm trying to give her as much wet food as she'll take. The low water drive is certainly there. My boyfriend has given her maybe a teaspoon a day of water with the dropper the pharmacy gave us. That's supplemented with the wet food I've given her, and as of yesterday I tried to see if she'd drink any milk. That was a hit, about 2 teaspoons yesterday and 1.5 today so far. 

Like I said she's very very inactive (which I think is probably good, right? It'll give her leg a better chance of healing). So though she's really not eating a lot of food, she is eating some, and some on her own too. So I'm not too concerned there. She's finally sleeping well. Before she was just laying there with her eyes open. She looked very depressed for a bit there. She's better now. She's also grooming herself so that's good too.

My problem/concern is that she's not going to the litter box, or even making messes. Sorry for this crude discussion but I'm very concerned. I know she can go to the box because she can get up to go the the food, and on... oh I think it was day 2 my boyfriend came home to her sitting in her normal litter box (which has a higher opening then the one I made for her), but she hadn't used it. So yeah, I'm concerned about her not going. That's got to be very unhealthy and I don't know how to help her there. Part of the reason I started to give her some milk is because I know it has somewhat of a natural laxative effect and I thought that might help. Since she seems to like her old box, and she has gotten into it herself (and out of it when I tried to put her in it... bad mistake she just got mad at me lol). I may just bring the big box in the bedroom so it's maybe more familiar. No clue if it'll help but I guess it can't hurt!

Could part of the reason she's not going be that she's so inactive and not eating/drinking much? This is day 4 now and so far we know no defecation, the first say she did pee herself, and day 2 I think she did while I was at work. My boyfriend said no, but he's not watching as vigilantly as I have been and when I came home her bottom was a bit wet. Since then there's been nothing and like I said since then she hasn't left this bedroom and there's been no accidents in here and the box is clean. So yeah... I'm just not sure what to do, how much I should be worrying about this, etc. Don't know if this is normal cat behavior while being injured or not. I really don't have much to any experience with injured cats.


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## RachandNito (Nov 21, 2008)

OK! Hello! I just got your message. Like I said, call me any time because I would love to help you. My foster cat, Winry, was abused by her owners. They broke her left femur above the knee, broke her right tibia just above the ankle and also dislocated her left hock "ankle" on that same leg. She had to have surgery on both legs, and I experienced everything you describe. From the cast attacking, having to sedate her, all the way to the poop/pee issues (or lack thereof!) 

Few words of advice!
1: That leg HURTS and yes, the cat will think the cast is to blame. An uninjured cat would hate having a cast on- it's new, restricting, scary... and on top of that it hurts. But with time and healing this behavior will subside
2: What narcotic is she on? These pain killers, especially opioids, cause constipation. When I first had Winry she peed once a day if I was lucky and didn't poop for 8 days straight!! The urination is the most important, as holding pee for too long can cause uremia- a toxic blood condition. So as long as she keeps peeing, at least once a day, that's good. Twice a day would be better.
3: She needs to eat as much as you can get her. A high quality protein would be best. She needs to put a lot into healing that bone now, and if you can get her to eat canned food it would be better- it would keep her hydrated better and make her pee more. I would check out some higher quality canned foods for her, at least for the time being.
4: Once the initial pain has subsided, which should be in about a week or two, you need to look into doing some PROM therapy (passive range of motion). Without usage, her muscles can atrophie more quickly than you might think, and preventing that from happening is much better than trying to rebuild muscles that have already atrophied. 
5: You mentioned they gave you oral painkillers with the needle still on? you should be able to pull the needle off and give them to her that way. Otherwise, you could ask for something that is subQ- gets injected right under the skin. I know it sounds scary to have to do, especially if you've never given an injection before. But honestly, it's not hard at all, and I am sure your vet would be happy to show you how. Most cats don't even feel the shot- their skin is so loose- and the injection works much more effectively at controlling pain than an oral medication does. I should also ask- what sort of sedatives/narcotics did the vet give you? I used injectable Dexmedetomidine as a sedative for when Winry became inconsolable, oral Buprenex as her maintenence painkiller (an opioid), and injectable Hydromorphine (synthetic morphine) for when the pain was at its worst (this you will never be able to have, since it's a class II controlled substance and I was only given because I work as a Vet Tech as the clinic where Winry got her surgery)

Best of luck, and like I said, call me any time if you need to!


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