Hoping to get some answers, had put my cat to sleep on the weekend

Had taken my three old cat to a local vet where i live after she was involved in a dog attack, she was mainly an inside door cat, not allowed outside though someone else in the house accidentally let her out, Been emotionally very difficult the last few days. At the vet we had x-rays done and the veterinarian already from doing a physical exam the Pelvis, left leg had injury. Pretty much the only options were to have Euthanasia or contacting a different veterinary doctor for surgery quote, most likely would've costed over $5000. So did chose to put her to sleep. I emailed the veterinarian's office after wanting to get the x-ray copies so not sure if someone here can review the copies of the x-rays and give opinion/thought. Maybe overthinking too much, but i'd read online a lot that cage rest is effective in a lot of these cases, the doctor thought in this case with my cat she wouldn't have recovered on her own. the first picture showing most of the injury pretty sure in this link - https://imgur.com/a/7LnGbJT In medical terms the vet described it like this in the email also, quoted - "the Vet you seen on Sunday said that there were fractures through both the Left pubis and ilium, effectively isolating the acetabulum and hip joint floating without communication with the rest of the pelvis. Also fractured through the Right iliosacral joint."

Hello!   I'm sorry that you have lost your cat.  It's always going to be a rough time and the first thing to say, is to check out the RALPH site, a charity set up by a vet who lost his cat and felt that there was inadequate support available.  They sometimes help with second opinions in a way that we can't:  we do not deal in them.  However, I can make some general comments about pelvic injuries in cats.

It's always a grueling decision to have a cat put to sleep and one owners often blame themselves for.  Sometimes we want someone to just tell us what to do;  it can feel overwhelming to have responsibility for making a decision about something that is hard to fully visualise.  Well done for making contact - I think that trying to understand the facts may be the most difficult, but also one of the best, ways of dealing with that difficult early stage of grief.

So... pelvises.  Think of a plywood box, made from 6 sheets (faces) stuck together to make a box.  Essentially this is what a pelvis is, but much of the sides of the box have been cut away, leaving a pelvis-shaped rigid, box-based frame above the back legs of a cat.   Now:  the thing is, that the box is rigid, hence plywood not cardboard.  A rigid box cannot break in just one place;  if it breaks in one place, it will almost certainly break somewhere else too.  Your description of the injuries is realistic.

The acetabulum is the joint where the femur, the "thigh-bone", joins on to the pelvis (google a picture if you haven't).  What you are describing seems to be two fractures, such that the acetabulum was floating around, not joined on to the rest of the box, leaving one hind leg without support and the whole pelvis ('box' frame) unstable.  I have seen some pelvis fractures left to heal by themselves and sometimes they do, but if the box is moving around unsupported to this degree, first the cat is going to be in a lot of pain and unable to walk.   Secondly, even supposing the moving fragments joined together for long enough to fuse back together, it is extremely unlikely they  would hold together and fuse in a box-shape by themselves;  to fuse well, metal work is likely to be necessary.  If the orthopaedic work is not performed, what most cats end up with is a very wobbly box that eventually heals badly if at all, affecting the cats ability to urinate, to deafeacate, to have babies and causing a lot of pain and arthritis.   Vets are experts at spotting fractures that will heal with cage-rest, but when the structural integrity of the box is badly broken down, the chances of healing well become very low.

I'm afraid it is not my job to look at your vets x-rays and give second opinions;  there are procedures for this and either your vet or the Ralph team will point you in the correct direction.  The 'bargaining' stage of grief is where your brain says to you 'this isn't right, it hasn't happened' or 'this shouldn't be right - it shouldn't have happened - somebody must have done something wrong to make this happen.'   It is therefore very common for clients to question vets' reading of x-rays after the event.  Your vets should be used to the idea that sometimes they will need to talk you through the x-rays again (after all, who is taking scientific stuff in when their cats' in that condition and the news is so hard?) They may also be used to clients asking respectfully to arrange a second opinion in order to put their own minds at rest / rule out the vets as a source of inadequacy.  It is very much ok to do what feels right for you at this horrible time.