What can I give my cat for a blood clot? Please read before judging

Question

Before judging, here's the background story.

Two months ago, my cat fell and fractured a hind leg. I took him to the only specialized vet in a 200-mile radius, and an orthopedist operated on him. The bill was $2,800 which I gladly paid.

He was improving, but then he suddenly became ill; he's dragging his hind leg, his paw is bending under the leg, he can barely stand, his eye's drooping a bit, and he's eating very little. He's always sleeping. I'm not a doctor, but it looked like some form of a heart attack to me.

So, I take him to the specialized vet again and they do $900 worth of tests. After all these tests, they say that he possibly has a blood clot, but that they have to operate to make sure. I told them not to operate now because 1) He's 11 years old and still recovering from the 1st operation, 2) I'm still recovering from the $4,000, 3) if the operation involving a fracture was $2,800, this operation will easily be over $3,500. I cannot afford it now.

I asked them if they could prescribe something for the blood clot, but they refused because they insist on operating. I don't want to put my cat under the knife and, financially speaking, I can't pay $3,500 unless I know he'll get better.

Since the vets said that it was possibly a blood clot, I want to give him something that may dissolve it.

My question: what can I give my cat for the blood clot?

Answer 1

You must consider the indication and counterindication.

• If there is a blood clot (and that's a very vague if) then a blood thinner can help dissolve it.
• But if the fracture isn't healed yet the blood thinner may increase any internal bleeding there is or cause internal bleeding if there is none right now. That's possibly the reason why this vet didn't prescribe any for your cat.
• If his condition is not caused by a blood clot (and keep in mind that the vet wasn't even sure about it), then you have all the negative side effects without any gain.

Please keep in mind that I'm not a vet, but the symptoms you describe can be caused by many things. Whether or not a blood clot is even one of them is something I cannot answer with my limited knowledge, but it honestly sounds strange. As harsh as it sounds, if this really was a heart attack, your cat would be dead before any over-the-counter medication would take effect. Even if this is not a heart attack but a blood clot in any other organ, the tissue damage would most like be irreparable by the time the medication takes effect. My personal advice (again, without any knowledge of veterinarian medicine) is to not self-medicate your cat with blood thinners.

In the comments there already were more probable causes mentioned like an infection or inflammation. That can effect the whole body and of course the appetite. In medicine there is a saying that "If you hear hooves, think horse, not zebra", meaning that you need to rule out the most common and obvious causes before you should even think about some rare condition. In this case, when I hear "weak, sleepy and low appetite" I think it's caused by the existing fracture and after-effects of the operation, not a blood clot.

If I were in your situation, I would try an anti-inflammatory pain killer for cats for 3 days and see if it improves anything. Please only give your cat medication specifically designed for cats, otherwise you might poison him! For more information, read this post.

In case the fracture doesn't heal due to a calcium deficit, I would offer the cat some lactose free milk or plain yogurt (yogurt must not contain the sweetener xylithol, because it's poisonous for cats).