Left to right: Sherrie & Browny on May 5. Though siblings from the same litter, he's 40% bigger than her.
Of Goose's previous litter of 4, we gave away two who were adopted by a nice family. The remaining two stayed with us - one female, Sherrie, and one male, Browny, now about 6.5 months old.
The 26th night, the two went out as usual. They usually come back at 6am to feed and rest. The minute I saw Brownie on the 27th morning, I knew something was wrong. He was droopy, he limped, and his front right paw appeared to be swollen. There was fluid on it as well. In a few minutes, I realized his right rear paw was also swollen, though not as badly. The tips of his ears had become thin and were flopping down like a dog's. The skin had also peeled off a couple of pads on the left rear foot. A whole set of weird circumstances.
I called the vet and went as soon as I could - reached there around 9:45 am. Initially he said it was due to an infection, but I said that couldn't be since he was absolutely fine less than 12 hours ago. They sedated him, x-rayed his front and hind feet, shaved the two right legs then called me in. "He's been in a cat fight, and has been badly scratched, This has caused an infection. Give him this antibiotic twice a day". He also said the swelling was consistent with soft tissue damage, like a huge weight had fallen on the paws, or somebody had stepped on them and didn't let go. He couldn't explain why the ear tips were folding down. For the pads peeling off, the vet said it looked like Browny had stepped into some acid.
There is a nasty white male in the neighborhood who terrorizes all the other males around, but I thought Browny was a tad young to be considered competition.
We brought him home, but he seemed to be increasingly uncomfortable. Slowly, his rear right paw began to balloon, while his front right continued to leak. By nightfall it was evident we needed to see the vet again.
This morning the vet said pus or fluid had accumulated and would need to be drained surgically. During surgery he would implant drains in both feet to allow the drainage to continue, and the drains would be rmoved after a few days. Browny was admitted for a few days.
The vet called in the afternoon. "I'm changing my diagnosis", he said. "Browny was electrocuted. When I opened him up, I saw extensive tissue necrosis due to burns. The burns are severe, and usually they die of septicaemia and infection", said the vet. To let the dead tissue drain away, the vet has made a lot of cuts on Browny's legs. If he heals, Browny will be stitched up.
In a nutshell, the prognosis is not good. If he survives for 4-5 days, he'll live.
This has already cost us a good sum of money - a nice kick in the butt, but there was absolutely no hesitation spending it. I only hope the poor fellow recovers quickly and completely, or passes away quickly without suffering.
There is a whole lot of construction of small homes behind out apartment complex, with a lot of power tools being used. I think Browny walked into a carelessly strewn live wire.
Posting this here since some of you have cats. Swollen paws
could indicate electrocution.