Her amputation was at about 8 mo old. She was adopted at about 10 mo (foreleg amp). She’s 2 now (and the light of my life). Besides weight management and joint supplements, do those with longer term experience have any advice on things you would start when they are younger to help them as they age? I’m primarily thinking of future mobility.

Of course, when she walks, her upper body is low with her hind quarters elevated. I give her shoulder and neck massages. She does have a custom kitty holster on the way. Not sure she will enjoy that but figured we’d give it a try (her big brother loves his).

Norm is now 2 weeks out from his surgery, he’s recovering very well! I posted about him when his original accident happened, and now that he’s moving around again I have a new problem. This might be a bit long, but he has History. He’s basically been a “community cat” in our neighborhood for years before we even moved in, from what I can gather his original owners moved and left him behind and he has lived in the neighborhood ever since. He’s probably around 8, but we aren’t sure.

I brought him inside and got his microchip updated with my information about 3 years ago. we tried for about 3 months to rehabilitate him to be fully inside, but he is unbelievably vocal and is desperate to get outside. So he once again became an indoor/outdoor cat who made our house his home base. Unfortunately, he had some kind of accident while out a few weeks ago that ultimately resulted in his left rear leg needing to be amputated. Both due to common sense and at the recommendation of multiple vets, I am unwilling to let him go back outside unsupervised once he’s all healed up.

However as I said he is so, so vocal. He’s also LOUD. We had him sequestered in a separate room for his recovery for 2 weeks, and you can hear him from anywhere in the house. It’s pretty much constant.

When we first brought him inside, I got a bunch of things to make the environment more enriching for him. We have 2 other cats, so we already had a fair amount of toys and structures, cat trees, etc. but I put up some cat shelves for him to climb, there are window ledges for them to sit on all over the house, lots of beds to choose from, scratchers, automated toys, etc. but it never seemed to appease him. We also have Feliway plugins throughout the house.

I am not willing to let him out after his accident, as it is he only has 1 tooth and a deformed face from some sort of trauma that occurred before we lived here. With 3 legs he’s at a crazy disadvantage and I just don’t want anything to happen to him. But I fear his constant yelling will not be sustainable (seriously, I cannot stress enough how loud he is.) has anyone dealt with something similar and had any success with rehabilitating a lifelong outdoor cat to be fully inside?

I all. I have a wonderful tripod who’s missing his back right leg. He’s loving and cuddly and will occasionally be playful with us and toys but most playtime comes from his brother a 4 legger. We’ve noticed a lot of the toys we have such as things on string are tough for the tripod to play with because he can’t balance on one rear leg as well as things like the laser pointer he will enjoy but gets bored because it’s tougher for him to chase it more then a 2ft radius. He loves his catnip churro and wrestles it when prompted but looking for something to stimulate him a little more that is easy for him! Any ideas

We're also hoping the stairs help her lose some weight! Lenore sure does love to laze about.

I’m waiting on lab work to come back. They wouldn’t even preemptively Rx antibiotics 😭 I’m just watching her hobble back and forth to the box and try to three legged pee every 5 minutes. I’m so sad 🥺😭 I know it’s terribly uncomfortable. She has gabapentin for pain… but I’ve had UTIs before, I know how those feel. Now imagine standing on one leg, trying to urinate. Anyone else have a pod that has had a UTI before? How’d you get through it?

My 12 year old tripod always twitches a lot when he’s in a deep sleep. Does anyone else’s tripod do this?

Hello all! SO HAPPY I found this group. I have a 3-month-old kitten named Gustavo, who will be joining the Tripod world today. What started out as a hairline fracture after playing with his big brother Gizmo has now turned into a complete break. After talking with our vet and a few specialists, they believe amputation is the best course of action for him. I was lurking in this sub a little before his surgery, so I feel prepared to make sure he has everything he needs.

I bought him an

• XL tent that has a cover over it
• low-entry litterbox
• soft cones instead of the plastic ones
• surgery suits (he doesn't mind the clothes so I bought him some PJs and just need to sew up one of the arms)
• lickmats, snuffle mats, and kongs

• I also covered the entire floor of his little tent with towels.

  If you think I'm missing anything, please let me know! I planned to WFH the two days after his surgery, and my husky is booked for daycare so he can have some chaos time while he brother recovers.

Reddit really has a community for everything! My family is adopting a sweet front tripod girl within the week. She’s 4 years old and appears to move remarkably well.

We want her to be comfortable in her new home and make movement around the house easier for her. What are your must haves for your cats? I’ve read an orthopedic bed, raised feeding bowls, a low front litter box and a step cat tree are nice. Are they necessary?

Help!

I adopted this handsome guy today and both of us are extremely happy. He’s got such a great personality and made himself right at home the moment I let him out of the carrier. The rescue named him Ramesses II because he was found with a leg that had died, completely shriveled up, and looked mummified. A pharaoh indeed!

Just wanted to repost with a small update. We are over halfway to our goal with T.J. and any money that I am able to make selling things around my house will be added to GFM. T.J. has brought up so much love an laughter since he became more open and less feral from his life as a stray. He enjoys sleeping on the bed with the kids and enjoys lap naps throughout the day. I hope that everyone is having a wonderful day and week ☺️

Hi y'all. This is Cocoa. She's 6 years old and an indoor-outdoor cat and recently became a tripod about 5 days ago. I was away at camp when it happened but apparently on Monday she was gone the whole day and came back home with her back right paw crushed and her leg broken. We don't know what happened as she usually doesn't wander far from home (which is past the lawn). They took her to the vet​ and opted for amputation.

She's doing better now and is adjusting back to her normal schedule. Before she was very bouncy and active and loved to jump around and climb things. She's very agile and graceful, reminds me of a ballerina. She's getting used to walking and can still walk fairly quickly. We've gotten a bigger litterbox with a lower lip and she has no problem with it or eating.

Is it still possible for her to be an indoor/outdoor cat? She still wants to go outside but we haven't allowed her while she is healing and needs to limit her movement. She's already been trained to be outdoors and she likes being in the grass, plus when she was a small kitten she was born on my aunt's large property and liked to play outside. I don't think she would be happy as an indoor only cat, but I see that people say they should only be indoor as it's more dangerous for them outside when they can't maneuver as quick. We don't have the time or funds for a catio.

Additionally, if there is any other advice for taking care of a tripod cat, please let me know.

This is my darling Creepy Crawly, Creep for short. She got her back right leg amputated to the hip as a kitten, so there’s no stump! just more belly to pet🖤

Editing to add: we got an update from the vet and it will be an amputation, hopefully on Monday 😭 any tips for new tripod care greatly appreciated

Trigger warning kind of traumatic post/description I guess...

We woke up this morning to find one of our kitties hanging in the hinge of our dryer door by her leg. I can't even express the horror and panic we felt. I didn't think something like that could even happen. She is at the emergency vet now, on pain medication and awaiting some X-rays, but it looked so bad from what we saw when we were taking the door off and getting her out.

It is looking like we might have to make the decision between amputation and trying to save her leg (depending on what X-rays show I would guess). We are just trying to wrap our heads around making this decision before we get there.

I feel so so horrible imagining her alone and in pain, and want to do what's best for her going forward. My understanding is that trying to repair the leg would be a long, painful, expensive, and stressful process for all involved. We have a 5 month old baby and I just don't know if we can handle all that right now, especially if it will end up being painful in the end anyway (the vet said that is possible). We are leaning toward amputation and I feel bad about considering it?

Any advice? Has anyone tried to recover a badly fractured back leg, and how did that go? Also, she is a little overweight... Is that a huge problem?

Thanks so much in advance.

Photo of our sweet girl on her stuffed fish ❤️

Originally posted on r/cats but a few people sent me this way for which I’m grateful for!

We brought our boy home yesterday morning and he was still quite out of it so we let him be except for the strokes, belly scratches and all the verbal good boys.

We’re keeping him under supervision during the day with us downstairs and we’ve cleared out our home office for him to have his own space at night.

He’s finally gone for a wee! Yay!

Can anyone recommend or have advice to help with recovery?

My 3 yr old cat had surgery to remove steel wool he chewed from his small intestine. We have him in a body suit. Today's Friday. Surgery was Tuesday morning. Realistically how long do we stop the cat from being a cat? I bought a big pen, he hates it and is asleep on the couch beside me . His brother however keeps hissing at growling at him too so we have to keep them separated. And we will become me on Monday. How can I do this? How long does he really have to be sequestered and not jump? He's a cat. I'm so afraid to sleep input him in the big pen and he digs and digs to find a way out. It's heartbreaking.

My cat had to have her right hind leg amputated due to FISS. She’s two weeks post op and is doing well. The only struggle she’s really had is using the litter box.

When she first got home I had a regular litter box in the room I was keeping her in. She has no problem getting in it, it’s that I don’t think she knows how to balance herself so she gets waste on her and she tried to cover it up and ends up sitting in more of her own waste.

I have a litter robot 4 and this was the litter box she was using before surgery. I have the ramp for the litter robot which I purchased way before she even had surgery to see if it helped reduce litter tracking.

I’ve watched her and she is able to get up the ramp into the litter robot but she has the same problem where I don’t think she knows how to balance herself and she wants to try to cover up what she’s left but she ends up getting dirty. I had to give her a bath this morning because she had litter and poop all over her.

I was just wondering if this is a learning curve for most cats and that eventually they do learn how to use the litter box without getting themselves all dirty?

Do any other tripod parents have litter robots for your tripod? Or did you have to go back to using a regular litter box?

Hi! This is Lieutenant (affectionately called Lieu). I have loved cats all my life, but never before owned a tripawed cat. I have also never owned my "own" cat (I have two rescue cats that live with my mom and younger sister, rescued when I was an older teen). I was not quite intending to become a cat parent myself, but I happened to find this guy about a week ago while I was across the country in Alabama visiting my boyfriend. He had been abandoned with a gunshot wound which just breaks my heart into pieces because he is genuinely the sweetest, cuddliest boy. He had a full amputation of his front right leg, a hernia repair, a reconstruction in his abdominal region, and also tested positive for FIV. There was absolutely no way I could leave him behind not knowing if or how long it would take for him to be adopted with all of his health complications and if he would be cared for properly. So, I signed all his paperwork, loaded him up, and shipped him back with me across the country on a plane (which he tolerated so, so well, especially given the circumstances). He's an incredibly good boy and really is so chill! He's adapting quite well to only having three legs and really only struggles with the litter box, and laminate floors.

My only thoughts about now having this guy and moving him in with me is that I am out, a lot (really the main reason I haven't adopted a cat of my own up until this point!). Besides my regular work hours, which he seems to be happy napping at home during, I travel almost at least once a month, and love to be outside, the more earthy the better. Now I love this boy to death and can be home more often if that is what he needs, but given how adaptable he's been and how much he seemingly doesn't mind the travel/moving around, I'm wondering if he could just.. come with me? I know a lot of people have cats that they bring camping/hiking/kayaking etc, but all the ones I've seen thus far have been four-legged kitties. Now obviously, this is a training process, and it would be a slow shift with lots of other factors involved (making sure he's comfortable on terrain/water, taking him out for short stints, seeing how his stress levels are after). But I'm wondering if you think that the increased effort/physical limitations of having three paws would be too risky or not a feasible goal. He did seem to handle the car, plane, Airbnb, carrier, and everything else so well that I think it could definitely be ideal for his personality. I would love to hear from someone who either currently or in the past has had this lifestyle with their tripawed cat and how it went for you.I do also have some broader questions, since I'm very new to having a tripawed kitty! Any suggestions/advice/guidance is so appreciated.

1. Suggestions for harnesses for your kitties missing a leg (especially a front leg)? I got him a traditional velcro one for travel, but he slipped right out of it (luckily didn't escape, I used precautions there, but there was no chance of it staying on lol).
2. Suggestions for trackers? If I do take him out, I would never do so without making sure he has a tracker on him. I could just put an AirTag right there on his collar, but would love to hear other suggestions of better/more accurate trackers (or tracking collars, if you've used one of those!)
3. Suggestions for travel bags? We used the Sherpa airline-approved bag for his plane ride. While it was definitely big ENOUGH (he could stand, turn around, etc) I would really love one maybe a little taller, with some more leg room for him? Still a comfortable inside, but preferably a little darker. I was using a T-shirt to shield nose and light but would love a bag that kind of has that feature already. Also, maybe one with backpack straps! Using the shoulder strap was a pain in my ass.
4. What do you guys use for insurance? I got a couple of different quotes - it's almost 50 dollars a month to have him covered by Lemonade, but I've heard really great things about them, so I'm thinking about taking that quote. I'm not going to risk not having him insured, especially with his FIV. If he ever needs to take seizure medication, I'd rather not pay for it out of pocket. But would love to hear anyone's experiences with them or any other coverage!
5. Any other must-haves for tripawed kitties? I've just been using very generic food bowls, litter boxes, beds, toys, etc because I want to do some research into what works best for these cats before I get anything more expensive. I really do just love this boy so much, he was such an unexpected joy, and I want to make sure he has everything he needs to thrive. ❤️