October 2022 – Little Miss and her Three Legs

Day 4 – We’re Tired

Little Miss spent yesterday sleeping, but I wasn’t worried. Even before amputation she slept most of the day, and after such a big day the day before, her body just needed to rest.

Today after breakfast and meds, I brought her into our bedroom to lay in bed with me while I did a warm compress on the incision and watched football. I’ll be joining her in a nap very soon.

The other two cats are curious about what’s behind the closed doors. Because of the anesthesia though, they don’t recognize Little Miss right now so they just hiss. We’ll work on re-introductions later, but for now, our old lady is enjoying the peace and quiet.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Day 2 – She’s Home!

As the vet put it, LM is back to her “spicy” self so it was time to send her home!

LM is in our spare bedroom that we use for an office while she recovers and to keep her away from the other two cats. It’s a pretty small room, but there is a desk that we can’t move or stop her from jumping on, so we have a playpen to put her in during the night etc. The playpen is not popular.

I don’t know what I expected, but I am surprised at how well she’s hopping around on three legs. She’s fast too! She still falls on her face a lot, but I know that will get better. I put her in her playpen while I did some work at the nearby desk and she sat and yowled at me to let her out. When I didn’t let her out, she stood on both her back legs and used her remaining leg to try and paw at the top cover of the playpen! I’m not sure how this old lady has so much energy and strength after all of this.

She’s on both gabapentin and buprenorphine for pain and clavamox to prevent infection. The buprenorphine is put directly on the inside of her ear! LM knows what a syringe is and knows that whatever comes out of it usually tastes like crap, so the fewer syringes we have to use, the better.

The incision…wow. Everyone was right when they said that nothing prepares you for the sight of the incision. To protect it, we’re using the dreaded cone of shame. This is not working out well. We tried a soft cone, but it hits the top of the incision, so we’re using the plastic one that the vet sent home. For some reason, every time I put the plastic cone on, she decides to eat and check out her litter tray, but ends up falling face first into both with the cone and getting litter and food stuck to the edge. I think we need to try a recovery suit.

Here she is in all her scruffy, post-surgery glory:

Little Miss’s Road to Diagnosis and Amputation

Let’s just get this out of the way now – Little Miss is not her full name – it’s Little Miss B*tch. She earned that name because she is confident, and steadfast in her convictions. Now that she is elderly, we usually just call her Bubbie.

LM is a 15 year-old tuxedo that I adopted when she was a kitten from a local shelter. We have two other cats – Papaya, a 6 year-old dilute tortie, and Rocky, a 2 year-old giant, ginger wrecking ball of a cat. My husband and I don’t have kids, so these cats are spoiled.

The Beginning of our Amputation Journey:

Earlier this year, our vet noticed a lump on LM’s shoulder, but they didn’t seem too concerned about it and told us to just watch it. After a couple weeks, it went away so we just assumed it was a lipoma or something. Fast forward to July/August – the lump came back. Since it went away last time, we figured we’d just watch this one, but it didn’t go away, it got bigger. Cancer, likely lymphangiosarcoma.

Yesterday, LM had her front leg amputated. We were hopeful that she’d come home today, but her temperature is still a little low, so they want to keep her overnight for a second night. While we are thankful that our surgeon is taking such great care of her, we’re anxious to have her home. Fingers crossed that her temperature is back to normal tomorrow.

Little Miss