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Kitten With Swimmers Legs
Long story short, stray queen momma cat gave birth to four beautiful babies in my front yard.
One of them has Swimmers Syndrome. This basically means her back legs are splayed out instead of being under her, so she can't walk on them properly, and instead scoots around on with her front legs. Apparently it can be fix with a taping method and some physiotherapy. This happens because, due to being the largest kitten in a very small momma, she didn't have enough room to stretch her tendons, ligaments, and muscles, so they just never developed properly. Out of all four of them, she is the one we are keeping because she has the highest risk of being euthanized if brought to a rescue or a shelter, and honestly not many people are willing to put the time and effort into taking care of/rehabilitating a cat, with any condition. The other four are awesome, and I believe will have no problem finding forever homes (especially the orange male, since he is genetically bob-tailed just like our little girl with the wonky legs). We also have two other cats already, so adding on this other one is already a lot. I wish I could keep them all, I really do. This has to be the hardest part of this situation for me. We are moving away in two weeks, across the state, so the Tuesday before we move (which is a Friday) we are going to take the others to the rescue and hopefully they'll be able to adjust. It is a bit early to separate them from their mom (they will be around 6-7 weeks old at that point). If we don't, though, then no one will be able to take them and they will stay in our complex, wild, unfixed, and just making more babies and chaos. We've already quickened their weaning process by having them eat both dry food and wet food, and socializing them with us and our cats. I am just concerned that it might be risky starting Legs' physiotherapy and taping at 6-7 weeks. I saw a video of a cat that was a few months old getting taped, but yeah, I am hoping it isn't too late. I don't want to start now because the physiotherapy needs to happen every two hours, and the tape needs to stay on her for about a week, which will be hard to do if she is outside in the leaves and grass, especially when its been raining every day. I can't take her inside because she is definitely too young to be taken from her mom, and would lose a lot of cat socialization if I did. And I did take her to the vet. The vet was the one who diagnosed her, but literally only looking at her for 20 seconds. I knew what the condition was before, due to some googling, so I know it is what she has. The vet said there was nothing we could do but I disagree since I am finding a lot of stuff online about ways to help them and even fix their problem. BLAH. |
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Aww, poor kitty... hopefully it will all work out!
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That is a pretty serious case of Swimmers. I would really start as soon as possible and tape even if she manages to get it off. Med Tape has some degree of water resistance and is commonly used so while it will get dirty faster outside you will just do better to replace it more frequently. The sooner you start to faster the ligaments will align properly and the better off she will be.
I had similar issues on a smaller scale as a kid an started wearing booties at only three months old to twist my feet back to front position. I totally Vote for Iberia being her name (Iberian Lynx) |
Toho I am hoping so, too ;c
Tiva Thanks for the advice! We have them inside currently to try and trap the mom, since the babies keep sleeping in the trap. Starting tomorrow I am going to begin working on her legs. |
Not sure about swimmer's legs (though I had a similar issue to Tiva as a baby and had little boots as well). If you're uncertain about tape, you might try vet wrap. It's like a tensor bandage that sticks to itself. It's a few dollars a roll, I think. It's often used to wrap bandages but I saw it used in dog shows to make little cones around long haired dogs ears to protect the grooming job. Point is it doesn't stick so much to the fur and it's easy to secure.
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Quiet Thanks! We started her physiotherapy today, and found out that since her hind leg muscles are so weak we actually can't tape yet, and we will probably need to brace them once we make her legs stronger through physiotherapy. VetWrap was suggested as a brace! So I am thinking either that or finger splints, for humans. VetWrap might be better since it can fit any size cat and might last longer than a finger splint.
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Less chance of stabbing with the Vet Wrap Finger Splints and I have a history of stabbing and iritating skin.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eVXK81cRDkc
Maybe some sort of Lego wheelie cart may work |
Those aren't Legos, those are K'nex!
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Well I guess either could work they said Lego and I can't get the video to play lol so I guess they goofed the name
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Yeah, they did. It's not unusual; "Lego" has unfortunately become a generic term for plastic construction toys.
There would have been a point in history where that would have been called "Tinkertoys" (and still been wrong, but at least Tinkertoys are more closely related to K'nex). |
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