Kitten deformed hind legs - in NY shelter

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CarolC
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Saved! Re: Kitten deformed hind legs - in NY shelter

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critters
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Re: Kitten deformed hind legs - in NY shelter

Post by critters »

Wow, that baby is bent! Small bends, such as bowlegs, can straighten themselves as the baby grows, but I don't know about that. MANY vets will want to amputate bent limbs, and, yes, sometimes it can be necessary, but, personally, I wait on that and do it if necessary.
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critters
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Re: Kitten deformed hind legs - in NY shelter

Post by critters »

PS--Like my Lefty, for instance, who has a variety of "Lobster Claw Deformity," syndactyly, in his right arm. He walks on it a bit, and uses it to wash his face, but his favorite thing is to use it as a clobber club to whack sibs that annoy him. There was and is no reason in the world to amputate it, but sometimes skin breakdown or other medical reasons make it necessary.
Allenbellers12345
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Re: Kitten deformed hind legs - in NY shelter

Post by Allenbellers12345 »

I'm not wise in these things... if they did amputate how "normal of a life could he lead and also how would he get around, use a litter box etc... I intend to keep him regardless... I'm not a big cat person but this little guy stole my heart cause multiple people said to put him down at birth.
My girlfriends cat gave birth to him and his other three siblings (one passed at birth) on a wall under our bath tub. It took me about an hour to get them out and when I did they were tied together by after birth and their umbilical cords. Which I called a vet and was told to more or less cut it all away. As I worked I started to see Chance wasn't normal. Another sibling has an enlarged paw I guess would be called a club foot... I honestly don't know. I'd post his leg Sewell but my phone won't allow it.
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BendyMom
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Re: Kitten deformed hind legs - in NY shelter

Post by BendyMom »

he can have a fine life. My girl two bit had no back legs, well ok she had a little flipper she used to scratch an ear. She ran around looking something like a mutant shrimp, she climbed, she jumped, she was amazing.
My current two and a half legger, Shrimpie (he is buff colored and looks even more like a mutant shrimp) does the same thing. He had one partial hind leg that we amputated because it was causing chronic pain. it ended it a spike of bone with a thin layer of skin that he kept trying to stand on. the other hind leg actually has the first few foot bones and a little padding so it's like a pegleg almost, very shortened. Anyway, removing the painful leg significantly increased his quality of life. He hadn't been willing to run around before, it hurt, now he zooms all over and climbs. I'm betting your little guy will learn to walk on his front legs. Does he have any repsonse if you rub his toes? Just wondering.

The biggest "problem" my hind end mutant kitties have is that they cannot scratch their ears properly, so they are nearly obsessive about wanting their ears scratched. Butterbean loves to rub rub rub his head on things, Tommy just hollers and then if he sees a hand within read pushes his little head into your palm. Far as I can tell that's the only thing they notice bothering them.

Having two deformed kittens in one litter is a sign of something amiss, often, sometimes low level uterine infections can cause this. My crash course in tiny kitten intenstive care taught me a lot about such things, image 16 little mutant/sickly kittens on bottles. wow. Anyway. The other
possibility is something genetic causing limb malformations.

cleaning up a wiggly slimy pack of kittens is tough work, I did that once myself. congrats! I'm glad you want to keep him. he will surprise you :) I look at my funny gang and I see how they just keep going, they don't mind their deformities, they just do what they want to. Some of them seem to have more attitude than the normal cats. Black Cherry, who has very limited use of her hind legs and mostly they drag, is quite fiesty and will chase normal, much larger cats, growling all the way.

Critters I didn't realize you had a syndactyly baby, I have one too. She sits up on her hind legs a lot but climbs and runs well enough.
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critters
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Re: Kitten deformed hind legs - in NY shelter

Post by critters »

Yes, Lefty is rather a mutant syndactyly because half of one side of his "lobster claw" is missing. He's a double mutant, I guess! :mrgreen:

Some bipod cats (maybe even many of them) walk on their hands. If you look on the amputation board I've posted some Facebook videos of various configurations of bipods, including a boy missing both arm and leg from the same side doing all kinds of catly things outside and on his own 2 "feet." :lol:

Shrimpie is one of those cases where amputation was necessary. My little Ares, who's a functional tripod (he has his arm, but he can't walk on it) is another whom I didn't amputate. He uses the arm as a kickstand sometimes, and I was afraid amputation would disable him more, since he's also significantly brain damaged. No easy answers!!

I agree about ear scratching. For front tripods, face washing is usually a similar problem. Tripod used to use my thumb for that. :mrgreen:
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