Adventurous domestic cat broke all 4 metacarpal bones of forepaw

Broken metacarpal bones of the forepaw of a domestic cat due to unknown trauma. Photo: Twitter. @dropofscott.

This is an X-ray image that might interest some cat caretakers. It comes from a tweet. The owner says that his cat gets into mischief and he believes that he may have broken all four metacarpal bones of the forepaw when chasing a squirrel. He may have got his foot trapped and then pulled on it. He was curled up in the closet when he came home from work and limping.

“I found him that way after coming home from work curled up in the closet.”

He has rescued him from trees on two occasions. He is an adventurous cat and so prone to this sort of injury.

“He was limping so I’m guessing he got caught in something. He’s always getting into trouble. I’ve had to climb way up two trees to save him.”

I checked out what vets can do about it. It is not the end of the world but it’ll cost a pretty penny, I guess. It will require invasive surgery and they’ll probably use pins, plates and a splint to set the bones and request that he is kept as inactive as possible for a couple of months, as I big guess. They have a range of ways to set the bones. He’ll hate it. He’ll have to be a full-time indoor cat for a while. I should image that the injury will keep him quiet as it must be painful to walk on despite painkillers. Be careful when administering painkillers: only per the vet’s directions. He’ll need regular checks on the healing. It’ll be a tricky time for cat and owner.

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