Poor kitty

This morning we had a salesman over to give us a quote on the windows that we want to order. While he was writing up the quote, Deuce jumped on the dining room table (like he usually does...he's a very social kitty). When I went to pick him up and put him back down on the floor, he let out a big hiss at me. I figured he was just annoyed with me and *really* wanted to be on the table, so I didn't give it another thought.

He tried to jump on the table about ten minutes later, but didn't quite make it. I thought it was odd, since he always makes that jump from the floor. He turned away and walked up the stairs to our bedroom.

After the guy left, I went to lie down on the bed and pet Deuce, and again, he hissed at me. Now Deuce isn't a kitty that lets out a lot of hisses, so now I knew something was wrong. I thought I noticed that he was tender in his left hind leg, so I touched it again (just to test my theory), and again he hissed at me.

Now I knew something was wrong.

I yelled for Josh to come upstairs, told him what happened, and he touched Deuce, and again he hissed. We rushed over to the phone and called the vet and made arrangements to take him in to be seen.

When it was time to get to his appointment I had a hard time getting him into his cage. He *loves* his cage. When we can't find him in the house, he often walks into his cage and sleeps there...that's how much he loves it. I had to disassemble the cage, pick him up by the scruff of the neck (I know that sounds awful, but he was in pain so to do it any other way would have caused him discomfort), and place him in it, then put the top over him and snap it into place.

On the drive over to the vet, Deuce started hissing. This is odd for him, usually on the way to the vet he sits on my lap and purrs.

We finally got to the vet and he was meowing so loudly that they put us right into an examination room because they thought he was in distress. Usually at the vet's he just sits and hisses at everyone. This time, however, he meowed and let the vet release him from the cage and he walked across the table. The only time he hissed was, again, when she touched his left hind leg.

Obviously, since they can't give us an immediate diagnosis, we left him there overnight. They're doing blood tests, X-rays, urinalysis, etc., etc., etc.

Hopefully we'll have some answers in the morning. I'm not a vet, but I'm thinking he's either got arthritis or perhaps a strained muscle. He woke up in the middle of the night, sneezed a few times, and then went back to sleep...perhaps he hurt himself (pulled a muscle) during that or during a big jump?

I don't know...but I'm worried.