Hi Jerry, Holly, and gnosis -- thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I meant to post back sooner, but work long hours, and spent lots of time watching (and spazzing) over Jonesy during the weekend. I did take the time to look at the recovery suit -- had seen them before, but nothing that would be suitable for a back leg amputee. The VetMedWear suit looks great, but by the time it would get here, he should have the all clear. Hope so, anyway. His incision site already looks so much better -- the bruising is all but gone!

I did order a couple more collars yesterday that should be here Wednesday. Hopefully he'll like at least one of them better and won't be able to remove!

As for the stair issue, we actually have the *exact* same playpen Holly posted.We started with two small playpens hooked together, but on the second day, he figured out how to escape from between them. My daughter was pretty surprised to come out of her room and find him lying in the middle of the living room floor -- with his recovery collar off -- looking happy as a clam. Turned out that a friend of mine has the 48" pen and was able to loan it to us. It is a lifesaver! I just wanted him to be able to have free reign of the upper floor while we're around, so that he can get some exercise without having to have eyes on him every second. On Sunday, my husband pushed one of the smaller pens in front of the stairs, and that has kept Jones cordoned off pretty well, and the four-legged cats were able to work around it. 9 days to go! 

To answer the other questions, he will be 12 in March. Long story short, he had been limping, and an x-ray revealed degradation of the tarsal bones. We tried a course of antibiotics and the situation didn't improve, and the area actually became more swollen during that time. Our vet and another vet who consulted felt that it looked/acted like cancer. With that being the case, and the obvious amount of pain he was in, we moved pretty quickly on the amp. We're having histology done on the limb, so will know for sure before long. At least it's obvious that he feels a lot better now - what a terrible decision to have to make! 

Jerry - Thanks for asking about Jonesy. 🙂 A little late with the update, but it has been a good week! He is eating really well, stump still looks great, and he's just super chill and seems happy. We've noticed that he is lying on his left side a lot, so it must not be hurting. The new collars arrived in the mail yesterday and one of them is working well for him. 5 days to go!

Gnosis - looking back with happiness does seem a little weird, but I am starting to see it! Jonesy seems happier than he has in weeks. It may be the pain meds, but we'll see. 😀 At this point, I am dreading getting the histology results back, but trying to just enjoy him and not think about it too much. His rate of healing is encouraging for sure. 

I should mention that I have been providing photography services for a cat rescue for the past 5 years. I am so glad to have found this site, not only for the community support, but it is good to know about the rescue fund. I'm sure an opportunity will come to pass the info along.

Some pics here! 🙂 🙂 🙂 

Hi! Late as always, but wanting to say thanks again for all the encouragement and commiseration!

Just ending a three-day weekend full of fretting. 😛 We finished up Jonesy's Torb (Butorphanol) on Saturday. I was thinking he had 14 days worth instead of 10, and was thinking I would check into gradually weaning him off it, but then found out from my husband on Friday that he had two doses left (he is the medicine giver). We did space those last two out by 24 hours instead of 12. 

So Saturday morning, he was full of beans (Jones, not my husband), and all he wanted to do was clean his stitches. He seemed to get really irritable after a while and ended up sleeping all day, and not as comfortably as he had in the past week -- seemed to be favoring his non-amp side and was stretching/extending his stump a lot. Sunday he slept a lot, too. 

I actually did a search of Torb in the forums and found a post where Jerry had mentioned that it's common for amputees to have a crash of sorts at 10 days post op. It totally makes sense that all the energy it takes to heal starts to catch up with them. And it's probably not uncommon for them to have 10 days worth of pain meds, too, and stopping can't be easy. So that was just what I needed to see. 🙂 

In Jonesy's case, I think the incision site is probably itching like crazy, which could be why he was moving his stump a lot. That has to suck.

I'm sure that on the weekends I have so much more time to focus on him (and spaz). I need to remind myself that before all this he slept a lot, too. He would sleep (with his wife, April the tortie) on the futon in my home office all day and into the evening sometimes. 

Anyway, this whole time he has been eating and eliminating well, so no worries there. He has been in good spirits today and napped in the sun this morning with all the other cats. 

Oh yeah, speaking of the other cats -- all good on that front. There was some intense sniffing and a couple of tentative hisses/swipes the first day, but the cat I was most worried about didn't hassle him at all. And April didn't miss a beat. She is so bonded to him and treated him no differently than before.

Thanks for all the nice comments on the photos -- my daughter took them, and said it is cool to use them in the gallery. As for the collar, it is from UsefulThingy. 😀 Link here. I can't say it 100% keeps him from the incision area, but it is a very good deterrent. He really has to work his way to it. We have the best-case scenario here, as I am working at home right now and we have two older kids, one who is very much a night owl, so he pretty much has someone watching him all the time. Between the collar and the level of supervision, he hasn't had a chance to get at it much. He can get the collar off, but that also takes a lot of work, and since it snaps, it is very easy to get back on. I recommend! His neck is 8 inches around and we did the size small. It is thin enough to move up so that he can scratch under it, and it is easy for us to scratch around, which he appreciates. There is a similar collar that I think always has the same-size neck hole, but you can get different outside circumferences? That might just be the one that could work 100% for the rear leggers -- if they can't get it off easily. Link for that one here. 

Thanks, Holly, for posting that link to the care packages. Still don't know if he/we will qualify, but will for sure apply if he does. Hugs to Purrkins as well!

And thanks again to Barb for offering the suit. Hopefully some other tripawd will be able to use it for the full recovery period. 🙂

You guys are awesome!