I rescued a small cat off the streets of South L.A., (rough neighborhood), where my shop space is. I have been feeding her at the shop for a few months but she disappeared for a week or so and showed up with what looked like a broken leg a couple of nights ago, so I brought her home. She needs to come indoors.
After 6 hours sitting in the waiting room of an animal hospital ER yesterday, I found out that nothing is broken but she has a dislocated joint in her RH hind leg. They told me that it would require surgery and $6-8k estimate. Of course I don't have pet insurance on her, I just scraped her off the street.
Here's my question for the vets: Can't this just be carefully pulled back into correct position with the cat anesthetized? With humans, they do not usually cut you open for a dislocated joint, they just "pop" it back in. They basically refused to try this at the animal hospital even though they had her sedated already...I told them that I would do it but of course that didn't fly. It was the "boat payment" option or hit the bricks.
She is not in pain, just limping around. God only knows how she did this...must have gotten it caught in something and was hanging by her paw or something. Poor animal.
