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Pet of the Year Finalist 2020: Lynx needsa pin placed to repair his fractured leg

When you have a young cat, your heart is often in your mouth as you witness what they get up to.  They are naturally inquisitive and so like to explore their surroundings as soon as they are allowed out. Sometimes, in doing this, they take the odd risk.

This was most likely the case for young Lynx.  At a little over a year old he was still full of adventure, so when his owners found him unable to walk and looking a bit of distressed one morning their first worry was that he had been playing in the road.  Their second concern was how quickly they could get him to the vets!

It wasn’t long before Lynx was with us and it was obvious that he had a very sore rear end.  He was unable and unwilling to walk and he appeared to have considerable pain in his right back leg.  He certainly didn’t want to be manipulated too much and was panting heavily and so the kindest thing to do immediately was to give him intravenous pain relief and fluids and monitor him closely.

Lynx appreciated the pain killers and within an hour he was looking much more relaxed and stable.  The next phase was to work out what exactly was causing his pain, and to do this Lynx received a sedation and X-rays were taken.  The results were clear –  Lynx had multiple injuries!

Lynx had not only suffered a fracture to his right shin bone but dislocated the joint between his pelvis and spine, with the whole pelvis shunted forwards. These were all painful injuries and there were some difficult decisions to make about his treatment – we needed to have a discussion with his worried owners.  

The separation of his pelvis was an injury for which surgical and non-surgical options (rest and pain relief) were available.  However, his fractured shin bone was definitely going to require surgery.  He showed no signs of nerve injury, which was a very positive sign, and so after careful consideration we felt the best option was to repair his fractured leg and then give him time to recuperate, during which time we felt his pelvis should heal by itself.

The next day Lynx found himself in theatre.  To repair his leg we implanted a pin down the centre of his shin bone and then used wire to compress the fractured section.  His leg was sutured and, once recovered, Lynx was allowed home to spend time in a comfy cage with plenty of pain relief. This enforced rest was something we’re not sure Lynx really wanted!

Lynx spent the next 6 weeks recovering.  Day by day he began to stand and then became more and more mobile until, at the end of his rest period, confining him became very tricky.  At that point he came back to see us.  He was looking great and moving well, and his follow-up X-rays confirmed that everything was healing nicely.

His owners had to try and explain to Lynx that he couldn’t do everything straight away and gradually, over the next few weeks, he was allowed to do more until he was back to full activity.  Naturally, everyone hopes that he does this with a bit more wisdom than before!