Hello everyone. This might be a bit of a long-ish post, so I'll go ahead and put this first part as a brief summary. Last Monday (the 18th) our outside cat came home with a limp in his left hind leg. We immediately took him to the vet which ended up with a biopsy needing to be taken around his knee that Tuesday (the 19th). We were told to expect results within 7-10 days and the wait has been super hard. I've been stressed just about every night (and day) over it and thought I could come here for some support.

Now for the long story version. We had Sammy show up back in April as a stray. He was really scared of us at first, but then warmed up after we talked to him some. We were pretty sure at the time that he had been neutered so he had obviously been someone's pet at some point. Their loss, because he is the sweetest boy ever. Anyway he tended to keep his left hind leg a little straight legged when he would walk. We just thought it was a quirk he had and didn't worry about it. On the 18th of July he had came home with a limp. He was completely normal the day before. We weren't sure if he had gotten hit by a car or perhaps someone had hurt him. We immediately called the vet's office and got him in that day. The vet did X-rays and felt around Sammy's leg. He told us that he thought his kneecap had slid out of place (Luxating patella) and that it was probably something he had always dealt with. He did tell us that this was a pretty rare condition for cats. He told us that Sammy was probably around 4 years old and that he did seem to have some arthritis in the area. They had brought our boy out and we were getting ready to take him back home with some meds when the vet had told us that he was looking back over the X-rays and saw something a little more concerning. My heart immediately dropped and of course immediately went to 'the c word' (yes, I refuse to type it out because I hate it).

He showed us the X-ray and one of Sam's leg bones looked like a tiny bit had been carved out to look like a spoon. He wasn't sure if it was arthritis eating at the bone or the c word eating at the bone. So he recommended a biopsy. We should be getting the results any day now I imagine. After doing the biopsy, in his phone call he told us that he felt it was a little deep in the bone to just be arthritis. At this point, we just really aren't sure if it is a possible c word that started his limp, or if it is his kneecap that is causing his limp, but we just happened to see the spoon shape due to the kneecap being bad.

We're assuming it's probably osteosarcoma, but I don't recall the vet giving any ideas as to what kind it could be. To be honest I kinda wasn't present after the point of him mentioning the word 'neoplastic.' I've seen some sources say that osteo is also a rare condition in cats. Ugh it's just so upsetting to know that whatever he has both conditions are rare in cats. If it's just the kneecap issue or arthritis he'll fix it with surgery. If it is the c word he recommended amputation or chemo. My mom doesn't really like either outcome. She's just afraid that he will have a lot of trouble adjusting if we take his leg, but she's willing to do it. We aren't sure about chemo because we don't know how it affects animals. If it's anything like chemo for humans, then we'd never want to put him through that as we saw the toll it took on my uncle firsthand.

To make all of this a little more upsetting, he also coughs at times which makes me paranoid. I've read that a common place for osteo to spread is to the lungs. However some places I've read say that coughing isn't usually a symptom of lung c word in cats. They mainly mention lack of appetite and lethargy or trouble breathing. He eats like a pig and plays and seems to be a happy boy despite all of the things going on. I know that cats can hide things well though. Next time he coughs, we are going to try to record it so we can show the vet.

Sorry for the super long post! Thanks to anyone who read it. I hope it made some sense I felt I was rambling throughout. This is just what we are going through right now and I could just really use some good vibes. He's been an indoor baby ever since we brought him back home. Our other 2 cats are starting to warm up to him a bit, but it'll still take some time.