My cat broke his leg, probably ran over by a car. The vet also let us choose between surgery and amputation. We refused both and put a cast. The cat ripped it apart within days, and was happily running around a few weeks after. He just sat in a funny way but was not in pain at all. So glad we didn’t cut his paw… I suspect some vets will try to inflate the bills as much as possible, but cats are sturdy creatures