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Old February 12th, 2017, 09:28 PM
Tazafraz Tazafraz is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 2
Hi everyone.

Like many people, I joined this thread because we are having a (kind of) similar situation that I feel I need to share (to make myself less worried).

So our little 10 month old Calico named Stella started acting weird one day. She's a super healthy kitten (along with her brother Taz, both from the same litter). At first she was acting super tired, and we just thought this was a phase she was going through because we've seen both the cats grow up from day one (and usually when they are tired they are going through a growth spurt). But then we realized that she wasn't getting up to do anything.

So basically she stopped eating and drinking on her own (but still able to use the cat pan). We thought that she looked like she was sort of limping and favoring her left leg, but really it looks like she was having issues with her hips. As soon as we realized that she was not eating, we immediately started her on a syringe of water to keep her hydrated and tried every food imaginable. We had to resort to that gel stuff that gives animals the calories they need. So we take her to the vet Monday (she showed the first symptoms on Thursday and we decided to wait it out just in case... my partners mom used to be a vet tech and she cares for large animals such as horses and alpacas... she came over and took her temperature and checked her gums and eyes and she was fine in all of those departments). So Stella was not vomiting or defecating on herself or anything. In fact, she would hold her pee in and wait until we placed her in her litter pan in case she couldn't get herself there.

We took her to the vet Monday (2/6/17). The vet thought it might be a left knee problem, so they gave us a low dose (1.5MG) of Meloxicam to distribute orally to her for four days. We did this, and no change. In fact she seemed to get into a depression. So exactly a week and a day later from Thursday, we took her to the vet again immediately (2/10/17) and had another vet at the same place check her out (and re-do the XRAYS and blood tests). One again, all came back looking great. The one thing this vet said is that she thinks it might be swelling in her spine, there were a few tender spots that she would get upset when she touched them consistently. I'm a bit hesitant to believe this because you could tell Stella was just in pain and uncomfortable. But, then again, Stella is a clumsy cat and I wouldn't be surprised if her and her brother were playing around and she fell off of something. We live in an apartment, but we do have a fridge and an array of tall bookshelves.

So, the vet basically gave us an ultimatum. End up paying $5k plus for an MRI and appointment at the nearest vet hospital and possibly end up with no answer, or give her a steroid shot, put her on Prednisolone Tabs (5 MG) for a few days and keep her confined in a smallish cage, and then call her back the Monday after the weekend (this was all given to her Friday, so the vet was giving us this weekend to see whether we are going to have to euthanize her or if we can heal her).

Friday night we saw a HUGE difference with the steroid shot they gave her. She took a nap once we got home, and when she woke up I tried to feed her some canned cat food and she GOBBLED it up. I didn't want to feed her too much because she hasn't really eaten anything of substance in the past week, so we kept the doses of food small and then kept some dry food in her cage for a snack. She was eating, drinking, AND using the litter pan that was inside of her cage by herself. She turned into our Stella-bug again overnight.

So far the Prednisolone seems to be working. She has not meowed in pain, even when we pick her up. She is eating normally now (not excessively, I think she regained her calories that she lost, haha) and she even had a bowel movement last night that was perfectly normal (we were literally clapping and jumping for joy.. the pleasure of being in love with your cats). She's back to normal, though we are still confining her to her cage so that if it is something that has been damaged, she can heal without a swollen spine -- steroids, do your work, please!

We are still a little worried, however. She has strength in her hind legs to stand on all fours. No more shaking. BUT she is still swaying and staggering like she's drunk (but only on her hinds, not her front). She has full neck range and everything, she can squat to pee and do a BM, but her hind legs are still a little lazy. We let her walk a little today (basically almost two full days since the steroid shot from the vet) just to let her stretch out. She can walk a good distance, just super wobbly. She also has a lot more control when she goes to sit down (when before she literally just plopped herself down anywhere). She is also now laying and sitting like a normal cat (curled up) as opposed to what she was doing before which was laying on her side with all her feet out.

I have to call the vet tomorrow with our update and we have to take her in one more time this week so that the vet can make the call: euthanasia or keep on with the steroids but at a lower dose and then ween her off of them and gradually allow her to start roaming the apartment again. (FYI:I don't like the idea of steroids, I realize the consequences of them for cats, but that was literally our only option).

Like I said, she seems to be fully back to normal, except for the hind leg thing. It almost looks like they are asleep (don't worry, vet checked for blood clots). It's so confusing because we know she has strength in them, she's just walking strangely. And she is not acting like she is in pain when walking, in fact she is acting like everything is normal (albeit the sitting every once in a while because of loss of balance).

I will keep everyone updated on what the vet will say to me tomorrow with this news, and I will keep you all updated when we bring her into the vet again this week (probably Thursday, 2/16/17).

I really hope this is enough progress to keep her alive. Not only are we incredibly attached to her, but her brother is SO in love with her. He keeps sleeping by her cage and patting her head through the bars, and when we let her out to stretch he will come up and groom her face. Today, when we let her out for a stretch, she went straight to the food bowl (even though she has the exact same food in her cage that she's been eating... cat) and HE took some food out and ate right next to her... even though it was the complete opposite when she was healthy (he would eat from the bowl and she would take some out and eat next to him... they're very attached, usually eat at the same time and go to the bathroom after each other). He misses his sister!
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