Well, first off, I have good and bad news.

The Good News is that Wampi got his cast off.

The Bad News is that the break in his leg is not completely healed, but it is as "healed as it's going to get" with the cast on. Keeping the cast on longer would cause the leg to atrophy.

So Dr. Cohen said it was time to take Wampi's cast off and it is time to start slowly getting him to use his leg. He showed me the x-rays of both his legs that they did yesterday and the x-rays of both his legs that were taken right after his surgery on June 10 at the Animal Medical Center.

The back right leg is the one that was shattered, had a bone infection and had to have surgery to save his life. It's doing great now.

The back left leg is the one that was broken near the joint and although they recommended surgery for it too, they said keeping it immobile with a cast might help it heal. Dr. Cohen explained to me that the joint had small fractures and it was dislocated. The fractures were preventing the joint from going back into place properly making it very painful and most likely he would develop arthritis and have a limp. (He told me the exact technical name of the injury and I forgot ... I'll ask him on Monday for those of you medically-minded types who would like to know ... I want to know ... can't believe I forgot!)

Wampi will be reevaluated in 1-2 weeks to see if he is making progress with regaining the use of his leg. Dr. Cohen said that this leg was a candidate for surgery too (yes, the AMC vets told me this back in June) but he might very well do ok with out it. I told him we couldn't get the money for surgery for that leg too and we still didn't have it ... he knows we are fund raising to pay off the first surgery. He seemed cautiously optimistic that Wampi would get control of it himself but just to "wait and see".

The next 2 weeks I will be spending a lot of time working with Wampi encouraging him to use his leg. I also have some pain killer drops that I can give him to help him work through the next week. I think he will really need them. I will post photos every day of his progress.

Here are the pictures from yesterday:


My daughter is fascinated with Wampi & vice versa. Here we are waiting in the lobby of Urban Vets for the vet to see Wampi. The hand belongs to my neighbor April, a wonderful friend and Wampi supporter who walks with me to the vets office since I can't push a stroller and carry Wampi at the same time.


Wampi was nervous and shaking waiting to see the vet



This is the x-ray taken on Friday at Urban Vets. The back right leg had the surgery and you can see there is a steel plate, 9 screws and a long pin keeping the bone together. The other one is the one that had the cast on and you can see that the joint is out of place and doesn't quite look the same as the other good joint on the steel plate leg.



Up close of the steel plate & screws.




Up close of joint on the leg with the cast.




Dr. Cohen (veternarian in beige) starts taking off Wampi's cast while Jamaal (vet. technician in blue) holds him still. They both said it was ok to include their photo on Wampi's website.



Getting the cast off.



Getting the cast off, con't.


Wampi is getting upset and meowing a lot here.


He kept meowing and meowing. I felt so bad for him.


At this point, Wampi got really, really mad. He started meowing and screaming and it was quite upsetting so I stopped taking pictures. I wanted to stay out of the way so they could do their job quickly and Wampi would calm down.


Wampi takes a few steps out of the cat carrier after the cast is off. He was in a lot of pain so I picked him up and put him back in the cat cage. He meowed and meowed and was pretty upset. He wouldn't use the newly liberated leg...he probably felt scared to put any weight on it so soon.