5 week old kitten got slammed in door

[beckibelle]

I just found this site and am soooo thankful I did.

We have a litter of 5 week old kittens and they and mom are in a huge carrier in the living room. Of course we let them out quite a few times every day to play and exercise. One of the kittens accidentally got her back end slammed in a door 5 days ago. She is nursing, eating, peeing, pooping, and moving pretty fast. Even purring. She is very alert and has beeen spoiled from day 1, so she gets tons of love and attention. The problem is even though she moves VERY FAST she is still dragging her hind legs. We have been gently exercising her legs hoping she willl eventually get some use back. Our 2 concerns right now are:

Her using the litterbox when she gets old enough
Use of her legs (quality of life)

We can't afford to take her to the vet. It would cost waaay to much.

Any suggestions?
Thanks

[BendyMom]

how is she doing today?
its hard to say the prognosis without knowing if anything is broken. If she is just badly bruised, then the problems are coming from swelling and will hopefully will resolve over time (can take months). If her spine or pelvis is fractured or broken then it is a different long term picture. I would think if there was any other internal damage, such as a ruptured bowel, you would see gut swelling and that she wouldn't be running around.
keeping her as still as possible (keep her in teh crate) is the best way to let her heal up.
it will be difficult to express her bladder bowels right now (which is a big help with cleanliness) because she is undoubtedly very sore, and if there is a break in there you could injure her worse.

in some places there are vets who will take payments or offer discounts for financial hardship, i would call around to see if any in your area would be willing to work with you on this. Without knowing the extent of the injury, it is hard to know what to say. You can insist that only minimal diagnostics are done. you don't need a FeIv/Fiv test (they always suggest that), you don' t need blood work, you don't need a fecal. you need an x-ray to see the extend of the damage. then you can think about where to go from there. good luck.