Kitten Severed Foot

[Joffion]

we recently adopted a year old cat to subsequently find out she was pregnant. Just over a week ago she gave birth. All seemed well until 4 days ago we noticed one of the kittens had its foot entwined in another kittens umbilical cord. The foot has been completely severed off and is just hanging on by a very small piece of skin. The kitten doesn’t seem bothered by it and is nursing well and no sign of any infection at the wound site or does the kitten seem to be having any pain from it. There isn’t any bleeding and all in all the kitten is thriving. We have decided that should it survive then we shall keep it but I’m worried about a kitten with no foot and know that it is likely that the whole leg will need amputating but I’m wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and whether it will cope without a foot, need amputation? And what age would the vet operate if this is the case?

[Lilith]

OMG. I've never ever heard of this happening, although I once knew a guy who was born with a leg wrapped round his neck; he needed several operations to give him the use of it back.

What's happened to your kitten sounds to be similar to the process of 'banding' male lambs and kids in order to castrate them; lambs' tails are docked on a similar principle too. In the kitten's case, the ankle has gradually withered, severing the foot from the leg. I can imagine it's causing the kitten little discomfort at the moment, but personally I would ring my vet and discuss this with them; they're the best people to advise you and answer questions about what needs to be done next.

Poor little kitty - what a million to one chance of this happening. Please keep updating and all the very best.

[Ruth B]

I've know of a few cats with three legs and they all managed to get around fine, I can see no reason why your kitten shouldn't thrive with only three legs. Talk to your vet as soon as possible to discuss the situation and arrange to have him checked over (you might have to take the whole family in to prevent any rejections afterwards, again ask your vet), there is a small risk that if the paw hasn't completely severed but has died it could cause an infection in the rest of the leg which could cause more of an issue.

Unless you are willing to go down the prosthetic option and have an artificial back paw fitted (very expensive), he will probably be best with the whole leg amputated in the future rather than have a useless leg hanging there, again the vet is the one to tell you when it is best to operate, or if there are other options I don't know about.

If you are interested check out Cassidy the Miracle Kitten on Tinykittens HQs Youtube, he was a feral kitten in Canada that was found at about 9 weeks old missing both back paws, whether they had been lost to a similar accident to yours, or whether the Mother made a mistake when biting through the cord, or whether an animal attacked we will never know. The charity decided to see if they could help rather than put him to sleep and now about 4 years on he is racing around in his own unique way.

[MahailaZ]

I recently had a similar thing happen. My kitten is one month old now and gets around great, no signs of any infection. How is your kitty? Did it require further amputation or were you able to find another solution? Really hoping my precious baby won't need amputation.