June 27, 2018
My name is Amber and this is my future tripod kitty, Clyde. He was ran over accidentally and rushed to a veterinary clinic immediately.
I received him from a coworker who had rescued him from outside of our workplace. One work night in January, she went around asking everyone if they wanted a kitty, and I fell in love with him from the first picture.
When he was ran over, I was devastated and hysterical. I managed the 5 minute drive to the nearest clinic, uncontrollably sobbing even as I stepped through the veterinary hospital’s door.
He had never been to a vet before, and now he’s going to be one of their special tripod kitty clients!
Upon doing X-rays and examinations, they informed me that he definitely had a leg fracture, and once they took me back to look at the X-rays they said that he was going to have to have a leg amputated.
Being in a distraught and emotionally unstable state, I wasn’t sure how his lifestyle would be with only 3 legs, but he is so young and I planned on having him in my life for the next 20 years and I wasn’t going to end that plan today.
Euthanasia wasn’t even a thought in my mind, despite feeling that it may be an outcome. So given that I had an option to keep my baby Clyde with me, I took it, even if it meant taking one of his legs.
He had his surgery today, and the vet called me and told me that it went well, they got his leg off, and bandaged the others.
I can’t take him home until tomorrow, but I get to see him in a few hours. I know that recovery is going to be a process, but I am so happy that I still have him here with me and I can’t wait to go through this journey with him.
Hi Amber,
I’m so sorry that this traumatic event has happened, and I’m so thankful that Clyde has you by his side to help him. It’s definitely a hard thing to go through (I have resident tripods and I foster the amputee cats for a local shelter), but cats are remarkable in their ability to adapt and adjust. Usually by the time they’re ready to get their sutures out, it’s like they’ve always had three legs and they’re doing perfectly well!
You’re also in the perfect place to get help and support, I love the Tripawds community. There’s a three legged cats forum in case you have questions or need advice.
You’re also super welcome to email me too, and I’m happy to answer anything. 🙂
Tiffany, RR Jake, Tetrapod and the foster crew
Poor little guy!
Welcome to the best support community I have ever found. Every question you can think of, and even some you didn’t realize you have, can be answered here.
While this is horrifying for us human parents, your furbaby should bounce back strong and happy.
Head Scritches and sandpaper kisses,
Gina (Rusty’s mom)
also… here is the hotline/helpline information!
http://tripawds.org/helpline/
Omc Amber and Clyde, I am so very sorry that this has happened but I am glad you found us!! How old is he? You have had him since January?
I am glad he made it through his surgery ok, our kitty Huckleberry also became a tripawd due to traumatic injury. He is rocking his life now as an indoor kitty on three 🙂
How did your furbaby get hit? I know this must be devastating for you, but remember to breathe, ok? You have a fantastic group of people here that will help you as much as we can through the recovery process.
If you have not already, you probably want to get a secure quiet place for him. Do you have a spare room that you can use? If not, a very large dog crate will also work. You will need to get him a shorter than normal litter box at least to start with. If you can find a cardboard bottom like from a case of canned food, line it with plastic wrap, and pour the litter in that should work for now.
Please let us know how your visit went. You might want to go to the forums and start a thread there…. it will make it a lot easier for us to keep track of you and follow your progress. If you do not know how to do that let me know and I will be happy to help you with it.
Hang in there!
Jackie and Huckleberry
🐾💖🐾
I think he’s about a year, when he was given to me the lady who rescued him said he was probably born around October. I’ve had him since January, but my mom ended up being severely allergic so he stayed with my boyfriend while he was in his college town, and once he came back from college he gave Clyde back to me and he became a happy outdoor kitty!
I plan on keeping him inside a lot more often, and only outdoors when I can watch him. Initially, I thought that I ran him over while backing up my drive way – I was backing up, stopped in the middle of it and parked to reach for something on my floorboard and thats when I felt some movement under the front of my vehicle so I immediately figured it was an animal and drove up a little bit in case it was trapped and then parked my car and turned my engine off. As soon as I turned my engine off I saw my poor baby running out from under the car.
After showing my mom’s boyfriend the picture of him (the one I posted here) he said that I most likely didn’t run him over and that it’s more likely he crawled up under the hood of my car and got caught on the belt. It makes me feel better knowing I didn’t hit him, but it’s still heart breaking to see the damage that’s been done.
As of right now I think I’d like to keep him in my room, but he has a tendency to hide under my bed. We also have a room upstairs that just has a treadmill and old stuffed animals in it. I think the best thing I have for a short litter box is a to-go pizza box, do you think that would work well?
The visit went well! My little guy is so tough and I’m so proud of him, they have him heavily sedated. They had the surgery planned for tomorrow but they said they had to speed it up because he was actually trying to gnaw his leg off himself! They had to sedate him more because he kept taking the bandages off.
I actually have no idea how the forums work but I’d love to learn!
Thanks so much!!
Amb and Newly Tripaw’d Clyde
Okay, deep breaath!! Clyde is in good hands and feeling pretty good on some excellent pain meds! Of course, you don’t jave those good meds so you are worried out of your mind! We are all right here by your side, okay?
You’ve got the right attitude and you have done what needs to be done to give Clyde many more years of spoiling and loving with you!
Recovery is rough for a couple of weeks, so make sure you stay connected. We have some of THE best kitty members here who are sooooo knowledgeable on how to help you through any of the initial hurdles.
Make sure the Vet sends you home with at least a good fourteen days of pain meds….especially with the week end and holiday coming up.
Get some rest while Clyde is at the Bet. You may have a few sleepless nights coming up during recovery.
Others will chime in. As you will see, you are not alone!!
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In fact, pretty sure you are going to jear from Jackie,.,aka Huckleberry’s Mom very soon!😎
In the meantime, check out our Tri Kitty forum to get some great tips.
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
I can’t take him home until tomorrow but they let me see him after surgery and he was sooooo sedated. The vet did say they were going to give me syringes for his medication so now that he only has 3 legs it shouldn’t be as much of a struggle!!
Luckily I have Sunday’s and Monday’s off from work, and my mom has the next 2 upcoming weeks off so she’ll be able to help watch him when I’m not around.
I’m going to take your advice and get as much sleep as I can! Thank you!
while I hope the meds go smoothly, I want to share this. As with humans, each of our furbabies are slightly different when it comes to taking meds. My biggest struggle with Rusty was the meds.
I had to keep his cone on because he was going for his sutures. That meant I couldn’t get my hand in there to secure his head and he wound up wearing half the meds (antibiotics and pain meds). Of course I felt like a horrible kitty mommy and had my very patient vet on speed dial. I brought him in and they were able to give him a shot of antibiotics that was good for 2 weeks and another dose of the pain meds so I had a few days of relief from fighting him.
I just wanted to make sure that you knew there were other options if you needed them, like the antibiotic shot.
Gina
Thanks for letting me know I have other options! He is a stubborn lil boy, so I know that giving him his meds is not going to be easy. I got to visit with him today and they did already give him a 2 week antibiotic shot.
I also asked about the cone, because I know how stubborn he is, considering he was able to get one of his bandages off himself, and my vet said that he’s not really able to reach his wound and cats usually don’t have a tendency to lick their wounds like dogs do.
It hurts me so much to see the pain he’s going through, he’s on so many meds and it made me giggle every time he would raise his head up because he looks so loopy! Towards the end of my visit he start squirming around and meowing so I let them take him back and put him in the cage to rest.
Although having a leg amputated isn’t simple, I wish that’s all I had to worry about, but instead I’m concerned about the splint on one of his back legs and what they may have to do for his other.
My lil guy is very strong though, and I’m so proud of him – even if he’s mad at me for putting him through so much pain.
Amber
Good on you for adopting.
It is very scary to have to do this but your furbaby will adapt amazingly well.. In three weeks mine was RUNNUNG in the back yard.
The two weeks after surgery are no Picnic and be sure they get the pain meds on a regular basis
Wishing you a SPEEDY Recovery
Hi Amber and Clyde,
What a scary experience. Sally is so right, next week is not going to be the time to run out of meds so please ask them for a 2 week supply if they don’t already give that to you. They should send you home with buprenorphine and gabapentin, maybe an antibiotic also. Hopefully they will also give him an injection of pain meds and antibiotics also that will work over several days.
Don’t let having just three legs fool you, lol. They are a lot stronger and stronger willed than you realize. Huckleberry was feral, so I had to be very careful handling and medicating him.
If you keep him in your room, you can take the box spring and mattress off of the frame and set it on the floor. I tried to stuff blankets under my bed but that did not work. It will be a lot easier to take the bed off the frame now than it will be when he comes home. That way you will have him with you and can keep an eye out for him.
The pizza box will work fine for now. You can save it and reuse it by lining the bottom with plastic wrap so that you can just dump the litter in the trash and refill it. You can get more case bottoms from your local grocery store. If you ask the manager they should be happy to accommodate you.
Here is a link to the forum, I opened a thread for you:
http://tripawds.com/forums/3-legged-cats/amber-and-clyde/#p211285
I put a link for everybody back to here also so they can see your blog.
I will check up on you later, take care and good luck!
Jackie and Huckleberry
My poor guy is in such bad shape right now! He is spending another night at the vet so I went to see him when I was on my way home from work.
Since the belt really got him, his remaining front leg is all bandaged up and they put a splint on his back right. They are still concerned about his back left leg, and depending on how strong he is on his right one, they will either put a small splint or do some type of robo-implant, my vet showed me and it reminds me of the braces Forrest Gump had, lol. Maybe I’ll have to rename him Lt.Dan!
So right now, my biggest concern is how he’s going to get around while he still has bandages and splints so I may let the vet take care of him over the weekend. My vet did recommend getting him a medium-sized dog crate, which I think I’m going to do. My plan is to get a 36-in cage, and get a nice fuzzy bed thats rimmed so when he moves around he’ll just bump it on fluff rather than the cage. I’d like to get him a 22-in bed, so there’s room for a litter box in his cage and space for his food and water.
They did give him a 2-week antibiotic shot. I think I’m going to go to the grocery store and ask for boxes, or maybe just cut up the liter box we had for him from before.
Thank you for the advice! It’s much appreciated. I’m very new to this and I’ve never had to deal with seeing my baby in so much pain. It’s going to take adjusting for both of us. I’m trying to stay positive and know that it’ll pay off in the long run.
Oh Clyde your luck has definitely changed for the better! What a blessing to find Amber!
Sorry for the terrible accident but really glad to hear that Clyde is getting great care. Please let us know if you have any questions about life on three legs, we are here for you.
Keep us posted on his recovery.
The toughest thing for me now is coming home and wanting to go outside to call his name and have him running to me. It’s such a big adjustment, considering the night before his accident he was so lively and playful.
I do believe everything happens for a reason though, and I’m actually so grateful that the situation turned out the way it did – it could have been so much worse!
I’m not sure if you’ve seen any of my responses on other comments, but heres the story:
I was leaving for work yesterday morning, and as I was backing out of my driveway, I stopped and put it in park to grab something from my floorboard. As I did this, I felt this shaking movement under my car and of course went into panic mode thinking I hit something or ran one of my babies over (we have 3 feral cats, one is deaf, so I immediately assumed it was her) and I put my car in drive, in case they were caught under my tire, put it in park, and turned my car off. Once I did, my baby Clyde starting running out from under my car and that’s when I lost it.
After going through the day and sending my family and some friends pictures of his injury, my moms boyfriend said that it actually doesn’t look like I ran over him at all, and it’s more likely that the fan belt of my car got him because he was probably resting under the hood of my car. It’s so painful to think about, but if I wouldn’t have abruptly stopped and parked my car to reach for something, I probably wouldn’t even have him with me anymore.
I had also never taken him to the vet before! But there is an office 5 minutes away from my house and they have been so great about keeping me updated and giving him the best care.
I’m actually going to make another blog post in a little bit.
Thank you so much!
Hello and welcome to you and Clyde.
We are so sorry to read about the accident. I know how scary this. Cats adapt so well I believe you will be amazed after recovery.
Make sure they send you home with proper pain management not just three days worth. It will make all the difference for you both. Purrkins was on Buprenorphine for 12 days and 14 days of Gabapentin.
Our recovery instructions were to keep Purrkins in a recovery room and limited activity until his stitches were removed 14 days.
Have some yummy foods available canned food is best in recovery you don’t have to worry so much on the fluids. Pain meds can make them fussy on foods the smellier; the better worked for us.
We cut our litter box out to make easier access for Purrkins. A pizza box will work great!
Put the mattress on the floor that solves the under the bed issue. Get rid of any furniture Clyde may want to jump on as well. Provide a little area Clyde can recover in and hideout. Purrkins chose the closest to recover in. We used a baby onesie instead of a cone we got permission from our surgeon Purrkins didn’t mind it, and it worked great for us. Instructions for the onesie are here.
http://purrkins.tripawds.com/2017/06/18/diy-baby-onesiet-shirts-cone-of-shame-alternative/#more-1215.
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We wish you a smooth, uneventful recovery. We will watch for updates.
Heal well, Clyde!
Hugs,
Holly & Purrkins❤️
Hi and thank you!
I hate that I had to join this community under these circumstances, but it’s so nice to have so many people here to help Clyde and I. This is the first time Clyde had even had a vet visit, but they have made me feel incredibly comfortable and continue to give me updates on him.
I was hysterical for hours, and as soon as I stepped foot in the hospital every staff member could see how much I loved him because I was sobbing uncontrollably. I’m a very anxious and overprotective cat mom – and they could see that in me – so I don’t think they’ll have any issues with me asking for a 2 week supply of his meds.
I’m already prepared to spoil him with the best I can, I got him a fun new ball toy with a squeaky mouse in the center for when he’s ready to play again and I got him a nice fuzzy blanket nicer and bigger than any of the ones I have for myself! I plan on buying a medium sized (about 36-in) dog crate to keep as his recovery area, with a 22-in fleece bed that’s rimmed so when he moves around he’ll just bump around on cushion, and so he still has a nice sized bed with room left in the crate for his litter box and food and water nearby. I’m considering going to our local grocery store to ask for shallow boxes, or we may get crafty and cut his old litterbox ourselves!
In addition to his amputated front leg, he is all bandaged up on the other front leg, has a splint on his back right, and depending on his progress within the week, they may put a small splint on the other back leg or do some type of temporary robo-implant to help it heal.
My lil furbaby is in so much pain right now and it hurts me so much to see but, pain is temporary and I can’t wait to give him all the love in the world.
I appreciate you!
Amb & Clyde (Newly nicknamed Lt.Dan)