We had quite an AMAZING kitty come into our clinic Monday. He presented to us with a hurt foot. His owner said she let him out earlier that morning but when returned home from work she found him unable to use his rear left leg. An x-ray revealed his left metatarsal bones (which are the bones in his rear foot) were crushed. With the severity of his injuries the chance of these bones healing properly were slim to none. A valiant effort could have been made but would be extremely costly and more than likely end in amputation. So after discussion and deliberation the owner opted to have the leg amputated. Tuesday morning we took Diamond to surgery and amputated his leg at the midshaft of the femur (AKA the thigh bone). Usually in my experience animals who have a leg amputated do well. It may take a few days but as a general rule they go right on to having a normal life. To say that Diamond did well is truly an understatement. The surgery itself took about 45 minutes; a few hours later he stood up, on three legs, and ate some yummy canned food!
Many might frown upon the idea of amputating a leg on an animal, thinking it cruel or unfair. We so often transpose our feelings into the feelings of an animal. But the truth is we are not cats and we are not dogs. We do not share the same feelings, nor think like they do; our emotions are compeltely differnt as well as our thought process. There is a word for this transposing of feelings; the word is anthropomorphize. What anthropomorphize means, according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary,11th edition, is to attribute human form or personality to something not human. In this case the thing not human is a cat...Diamond.
It is often hard for me not to attribute my feelings to my patients every day. Don't get me wrong...it is good to have compassion and to care and to "put myself in their shoes" but as a veterinarian, I must be careful to remember my needs are not theirs and to not assume what is good for me is good for them. For example, if I were to have my leg amputated I would go through several months of depression wondering how I would do the things I love to do... ride a horse, run a race, or just simply drive my car to work and walk up and down the front stairs to my home. But similar thoughts never crossed Diamond's mind. Personally I do not believe animals think about the past. They do not mope or drown in their sorrows about what could have been or what they would change if they could go back in time . Not to say they are incapable of emotions but rather that they do not have our same emotions. And maybe that is the way we should be as well. Oh what we can learn from a cat!
Diamond went home today. He left us seeming to be happy and ready to take on life with one less leg!
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