The Occasionally Challenging Life of a Three-legged Cat

Having only three legs presents a few challenges for Sammi but it doesn't prevent her from being a happy, healthy cat. This page describes a few things she has difficulty doing, and how we’ve tried to make her life as a three-legged kitty easier and safe. 

Sammi was surrendered to the SPCA and had her left front leg amputated by U.C. Davis veterinarians in November 2008. We adopted her about one month after her amputation with little information about what happened to her. We believe her paw was injured and not affected by some type of disease. We were amazed at how active and capable she was just one month after the amputation. She has certainly demonstrated how resilient cats are. 

We’ve had Sammi 8 months, and I think she’s fully adapted to losing her leg. I’m sure her right front leg and shoulder are stronger than before so that helps her mobility. Her slight build and healthy weight (just over 6 pounds) also makes it easier for her to adapt. Just a couple pounds overweight and I’d be describing a very different situation. 

Jumping & Climbing

Sammi is a long, lean, jumping machine. Her hind legs are strong so she has no difficulty jumping up or leaping forward. She is a little less agile than a 4-legged cat because she has only one front leg for pulling up or balancing, but that doesn’t affect her too much.

Getting down from perches or other high places is what gives Sammi the greatest challenges. With only one front leg to do all the work, descending puts a lot of strain on that leg & shoulder and makes it more difficult to balance. When we first adopted her she was eager climb the perches we had, but she had a difficult time getting down. On most perches, the platforms are either too far apart vertically or too close-in to the support post – so she’d get her front paw on the platform, but couldn’t support her weight and balance long enough to have time to get her back legs down to that level. This meant her momentum would carry her rump over her shoulders and she’d tumble down. It was not enjoyable for her and it was dangerous. The last thing we wanted was for her to fall off the perch and hit a lower level or the hard floor, or grab on with her front paw and strain it trying to catch all her body weight.

To make Sammi’s life more fun and safer, we’ve purchased additional perches with her special needs in mind. It’s difficult to find a perch with the platforms positioned suitably for her so we get two perches that can be placed next to each other in a way that she can criss-cross between levels coming down. This way she uses more of a walking motion to descend the perches rather than putting a lot of impact on her front leg. The photos show we put one perch on cinderblocks so it was the correct height for her to criss-cross between levels. From the top view you can see she has a lot of room on each level.

We’ve also arranged furniture so that Sammi has steps down from tall places. For example, an ottoman sits beside a tall table in front of a favorite window, another perch is behind the couch so she can get up and down easily, and we have a bench at the foot of our bed that she uses as a step to get up and down. She tends to slide a little hen she jumps up on smooth surfaces, so we put non-skid pads on top of these areas.

Walking & Running

Sammi’s walking is awkward and a bit slow as she uses her single front paw to balance and move forward. She gets around just fine, it just appears to take a lot of effort.

Her gait seems more natural when she’s running. She can run quickly, especially when she hears the can of cat food open or when she senses she’s going to get her ears cleaned! She and Raven do a little bit of chasing every day, and Sammi is usually the “chasee”.

Two perches side-by-side

The same perches from the top.

Perches behind the couch.
We added 4-inch feet
to the perch on the left.

Play

Sammi doesn’t run long distances chasing toys, but she plays in-place just like a 4-legged cat. She grabs toy mice with her teeth, tosses them in the air, then pounces on them with her front paw. Of course it’s always fun to bite the little tails off and eat them. She rolls on her back, swats for toys, pounces on things just like any other cat. She loves to pounce on her wand toy with mylar strips on the end. We wiggle it beneath tissue paper to make it extra enticing. She’ll chase/pounce on it about up to about 3 feet away, but not much farther.

Two of her favorite activities are playing in a pile of tissue paper and playing on the bed with a sheet on top. On the bed we call it “chasing crinkles”. She leaps & crawls around the bed attacking the crinkles in the sheet. She grabs at them with her right paw or smoothes them out by sliding on them with her left shoulder area while propelling herself with her back legs. She’s almost fallen off the bed several times because she gets so rambunctious chasing crinkles – and this is a king-sized bed. 

Sometimes during play or scratching we see her move her left shoulder area as if her paw were still there. The only adjustments we make during play time is to try to keep her toys in front of her so she can swat or catch them with her right paw. She won’t reach across her body too far to the left because she’d be off balance. 

Scratchers

The litter box can be a bit frustrating when you have only 3 legs.

Since she has only one front leg she can balance better if the cat litter isn’t too deep. I have two litter boxes: a jumbo box filled 3-4 inches deep, and a smaller box with litter only 1-2 inches deep. Sammi prefers the shallower box. She wants to bury her waste, and like any other cat she uses her front paw to do it. It does take a bit of effort though. Sometimes I see her trying to use her amputated left leg, and it makes me feel a little sorry for her. Poor girl is trying to bury, but nothing is happening! So, I get out the litter scoop and help her bury. I say “I’ll take care of it” and she scampers out of the bathroom. I figure she can save her energy for something more fun. 

Grooming presents some challenges

Like all cats, Sammi is meticulous about grooming, but there are a few things she has difficulty doing. It’s a little harder for her to groom her legs because she has only one front leg to balance on while she’s cleaning a leg or twisting backwards. She grooms the right side of her head with her right front paw, but since there’s no left paw she can’t groom the left side of her head. She’s devised her own ingenious method of grooming her head using a perch. She licks the edge of her carpeted perch, then rubs her head on it! What a creative thinker! Sometimes I help her out by wiping her face and head with a damp washcloth, but for the most part she’s figured out how to give herself a thorough grooming.