We got damn lucky.
The break was his right arm, just above the wrist. Both the radius and the ulna were broken, but the breaks were clean and very even, so the vet sedated him, pulled the breaks outward, (mind you, I watched this as he did it using an xray to show him where to set the break, cool as fuck to watch, would have been cooler had it not been MY cat), and the breaks settled neatly into place. The vet then wrapped his whole arm, from toes to shoulder in something he called a Thomas splint, which is a piece of thick steel wire, shaped like a U. The two ends of the U are at the toe and the upper end is a protective curve over the shoulder to keep him from hurting himself with it. Cotton and tape were wrapped around it to pad it, and then tape and cotton padding were arranged over the whole arm to ensure he can't move the break and fuck it up again.
Total cost: $265
The vet told me that if surgery had been required, it would have been very expensive. Most people wouldn't front the cost of surgery, they usually just put the cat down.
Pete (my cat) will be drugged every 6 hours for pain for a week, then the splint will be checked and the arm xrayed in early April. The vet thinks it'll be mid April before the splint can come off.
Pete should be perfectly fine and back to his usual self by the end of April, fully healed and ready to go kick some ass. Landlord's cat better run like hell.
Thanks again to those who offered support and a kind word, it meant a great deal to me. He'll be fine, and I'm down a bottle of Captain.
The break was his right arm, just above the wrist. Both the radius and the ulna were broken, but the breaks were clean and very even, so the vet sedated him, pulled the breaks outward, (mind you, I watched this as he did it using an xray to show him where to set the break, cool as fuck to watch, would have been cooler had it not been MY cat), and the breaks settled neatly into place. The vet then wrapped his whole arm, from toes to shoulder in something he called a Thomas splint, which is a piece of thick steel wire, shaped like a U. The two ends of the U are at the toe and the upper end is a protective curve over the shoulder to keep him from hurting himself with it. Cotton and tape were wrapped around it to pad it, and then tape and cotton padding were arranged over the whole arm to ensure he can't move the break and fuck it up again.
Total cost: $265
The vet told me that if surgery had been required, it would have been very expensive. Most people wouldn't front the cost of surgery, they usually just put the cat down.
Pete (my cat) will be drugged every 6 hours for pain for a week, then the splint will be checked and the arm xrayed in early April. The vet thinks it'll be mid April before the splint can come off.
Pete should be perfectly fine and back to his usual self by the end of April, fully healed and ready to go kick some ass. Landlord's cat better run like hell.
Thanks again to those who offered support and a kind word, it meant a great deal to me. He'll be fine, and I'm down a bottle of Captain.
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