It was a dark chilly autumnal Sunday when Winston decided to go for a nice stroll. He is such a lovely cat, he is very laid-back boy, we are sure he is well known in his neighbourhood. However, it was very unusual for him not to come home during the evening, and it was then when the owner became increasingly concerned. She went outside to look for him and discovered Winston just sitting in the grass, he then wobbled into the house, and went straight to bed, and he wasn’t moving around at all. Something wasn’t right!
Winston was taken to the Emergency Out of Hours veterinary clinic, where our wonderful colleagues admitted him, and they performed some initial investigations, and stabilised him with pain relief. It seemed that Winston had suffered some sort of trauma to his back legs and chest, however the main concern was that he was not able to stand properly and was uncomfortable on his left hip.
The following Monday morning Winston was stable and fit to travel, so his owner kindly transferred him to us, his primary veterinary clinic.
Our team promptly admitted Winston and we started some further investigations that included X-rays of his chest, abdomen, hips, and back legs.
While we were pleased that there were no significant injuries to his chest and bladder, we were not impressed with what had happened to his pelvis!
Have a look for yourself! Can you see from this x-ray why we were so concerned?
So the left side of the pelvis had disconnected from the spine! In veterinary terms, this is diagnosed as Sacro-Iliac Luxation.
There were also less significant fractures of the pubis bone. This injury explains why Winston was unable to stand properly, as that area of the pelvis is an essential part of the “weight bearing axis”, the system through which a cats body weight is held and transferred onto the back legs when moving.
Winston needed surgery to get him back on his feet, quite literally!
Luckily, he didn’t have injuries affecting his nerves, which meant he was a good candidate for surgery, and thankfully, with our skilled team at the ready Winston could receive his operation immediately.
Look at the result on this X-ray taken after his corrective surgery was completed:
Something is obviously different in there now. A screw was placed to hold the pelvis onto the spine and restore the weight bearing axis. Simple as that, right? Not so much!
We had only 6 mm of space to put the screw in, the screw needed for Winston size was 2.7 mm, so that left us with just over 3 mm of space. Does that give you some perspective? Cool, there is one more thing. The screw can only be placed in a particular place, one or two mm above or below, and his spinal cord could have severe trauma, even causing paralysis!
Not so simple now! This was a tricky surgery to perform. However, we were satisfied with the operation, and so was Winston!
You can see him walking in this short video just 2 days after his ordeal.
We are pleased to say that Winston has made a full recovery, and he receives plenty of cuddles from us whenever he comes in, he has such as sweet face and is full of character too!
He is doing amazing thank you so much he is running and jumping every chance he gets!
