Teddy Update: Thankfully not needing surgery

Hello everyone

Thank you SOOO much for all the messages of encouragement and well wishes for Teddy and for us. We are all back home and he doesn't need surgery and Thankfully nothing is broken. If you would like to catch up please read this post from this morning Waiting at the Vet

What happened :
This morning when Teddy came to greet me he wasn't putting any weight on his right hind foot and I could see he was in pain. Teddy has a couple of pain tells:
His pupils dilate,
He goes all bristly,
The offending limb trembles
He doesn't want to move.
You can usually look out for fast breathing or intense purring while laying down in a ball.

Other signs are more subtle, like the scowl on his face and looking pale- his nose shouldn't be white.

That, and he tells me all about it. He was crying - not screaming or yeoling, just softly telling me something is wrong. Like a sick child would call for their mommy.

My pink fluffy gown is his favourite thing in the whole world and kind of his security blanket all in one. There was nothing I could do for him or give him to make him comfortable while we were getting to leave besides give him his fluffy nest. It kept him calm and comfortable.

He broke his leg 2 years ago and needed surgery to fix the break. He was in hospital for over 3 weeks to keep him still. We visited him every day. I'll do a more in depth post about that later. There's a lot of photos :)
So having learnt his behavior when he has a broken leg, this morning when he showed all the signs of being in pain and possibly having a break, we quickly got ready and took him to the vet. Now, his vet is about 30 minutes away when there's no traffic but being so early in the morning it took us an hour to get there.

I had called ahead so we didn't need to wait long to see the vet.

As I mentioned in my previous message the vet was doing x-rays to check if it was the pin in his leg that was causing the problem. If it was the pin then they would see about removing it which would mean another surgery and some time in hospital.

I'm happy to report that the X-rays show that the pin is fine and not causing problems.

The pain and swelling is from an infection in his foot where he bites himself when his back spasms.
Treatment is antibiotics and cortisone given by injection. He actually hissed at the vet this time. He was not happy and hid his face in my arm most of the time. Dr Clegg also shaved his foot over the area where the bite marks are so we could see what kind of damage he had done.

Going forward, next week we will start taking him for Acupuncture and Infrared treatment at a vet nearby to help loosten the spot where he has nerve damage from his spine injury. I had actually spoken to her yesterday to find out about what treatments she offers so it worked out well.
Teddy's vet approves of the treatment plan and is happy for the vet near us to take over his case. With the distance, Lynton's work hours and my not being able to drive at the moment getting to the usual vet before they close is very difficult. Hopefully if Lynton can get off work a half hour early we can take Teddy for treatment in the evenings.

He's had some food and water and just waiting for the sedative to wear off.

Thanks again for everyone who wished him well. He's probably the only South African cat who is powered by Steem :) I had just withdrawn some yesterday and was able to cover his vet bill.

Thanks so much to everyone who made it possible!