Cat with Spinal Injury = elimination problems

[Greg]

My cat was attacked by dogs yesterday after she managed to slip out of the house without my realizing it. I managed to rescue her before they killed her but according to the vet she has a spinal injury. She drags her back legs and won't move her tail but she does pull the legs up under her as she crawls so she does have some movement in them. According to the xrays nothing is broken and the vet thinks that the spinal cord may be bruised or swollen and will get better with time. The problem is that she hasn't urinated or eliminated for 24 hours now. She is going to the the vet this afternoon. He said he could give her an enima! I saw similar posts and mention of manually stimulating the bladder and bowels. I just wondered if some one might be able to give me some advice on how to do this. I plan to ask my vet also but thought it wouldn't hurt to ask some of you for your help and any encouraging stories. I raised this cat and her sister from 2 weeks old by bottle feeding them after finding them abandoned so I know how I did it when they were kittens but assume it is different now. Plus I had a lot of help from my Golden Retriever who decided that she was their mother and took care of most of that for me. Unfortunatley they meant that she was not afraid of the dogs when she got out! Any help will be appreciated! Thanks! Greg

[SpringGlory]

Greg, A couple things dont sound right here to me. I would recomend a second opinion with another vet. First off when an animal has a spinal injury to the degree that they cant walk and cant go to the bathroom , they need to be confined to a small space for a few weeks to allow the spine to heal without it being irritated by to much movement. Second, she doesnt need an enima! She needs to have her bladder expressed, yes you can do that for her but it is much differant then when they are babies and you will need to have a vet show you how. It is not an easy thing to do and may require several trips to the vet till you get it down pat. When an animal is incontinent(cant go potty on its own) they need to be manually relieved at least every 8 hours to prevent their systems from being poisoned. I hope thei helps. As the pressure is taken off her spine as she heals she should gain her bladder control back. Watch her close and make sure she is eating and drinking enough and confine her to a small area. Put her in a medium size dog kennel if you need to in order to keep her confined. I know this is hard and she wont like it but it is for her own good and will help her to heal. Be brave and take the steps you need to for her and dont let emotions get in the way or it can hinder her recovery. I have gone through all this with my dog so i know what you are going through. Let me know when she can go on her own again and i will try to help you with some tips on what to do next as she probably will not be able to feel when she has to go and will need a diaper for awhile. Thats a whole nother deal and takes patience and lots of love. Remember your kitty doesnt like this any more then you do and she is probably in some pain and confused so give her lots of love and comfort during this time of trial. I will say a prayer for you and her, God can heal her just like He has my dog:)

SpringGlory

[Jennifer]

I was kitty nurse last summer to a Tom with a spinal cord injury as the result of an accident unfortunately his was more permanent and he did eventually pass on from complications. I did learn a good bladder expression form that being to hold him gently of course under his "arms" and with my finger find his rib cage and trace to the bottom of the rib cage, there will be a squishy or semi firm depending on fullness ball feeling mass if you squeeze this between your thumb and forefinger while moving down towards the genitals this should cause elimination of bladder, dont' want to squeeze the dickens out of him..lol but just a light squeeze while sliding down , you can do this over the toilet ,, the bowels I don't have any experience with Smokey Cat's bowels were everywhere.

They probably have kitty on an anti inflamitory which is good Smokes was on Prednisone and something else I believe when he came home.

Let us know how you make out!

Jennifer

[SpringGlory]

Another thing you can do for your cat is to get her started on CP7. Go to this website and email the guy and explain what happened to your cat and ask him for a bottle of CP7. It is free and he will give you the dose for her. God bless.

http://dogparalysis.com/

SpringGlory

[critters]

She might need an enema, but the lack of pee is of far more concern to me. I also agree with SpringGlory about crating her; this is normal, and I'm surprised the vet didn't mention it. She also needs steroids, as somebody mentioned below (sorry, can't remember everything ). Steroids reduce swelling and inflammation, helping to prevent further damage to the spinal cord. For more info you can try joining the VERY active email list associated with abledogs.net; it's open to everyone, regardless of the down critters' species, and most of the humans have been in your situation.

Good luck!

[SpringGlory]

You will want to really ask the vet about putting the cat on an anti inflamitory..this is not normally a good thing because it will cause the animal to feel better to fast and therefor they want to do more and this can cause them permanant injury or delayed recovery. That is why it is important to confine the animal to a small space, this illiminates the use of drugs and also forces the animal to limited activity allowing the natural healing process.

[Debbie-Spain]

I found a cat that had been hit by a car and she has spinal cord injury. She recovered the use of her legs but her tail was paralysed and she remains incontinent. However, I have seen many cases that have recovered bladder and bowel function so don't lose hope!
It is important that a vet with experience of SCI sees her quickly, the first few days post-trauma are vital. If you can I would get her to a veterinary neurologist.
Jennifer's description of bladder expression is perfect, but you may need someone to show you a few times before you get the hang of it. Once you get the hang of it, you wonder why it took you so long! I put Kat on the bidet (not sure if that's what you call it in the U.S.), and do it there, now she half climbs up my knee and gets into position, which makes it easier. The vet can show you how to express the bowels too. In the same position as for bladder expression, once the bladder is empty, you can feel up to the colon and with Kat all I had to do was "shape" or "flatten" the poops inside her by pinching (carefully) between fingers and thumb and they would then make their own way out.
As regards Predisnone, studies in humans show that the sooner it is given after the injury the better the recovery.
If you prefer the alternative route, I have just started Kat on acupuncture and have seen a slight improvemnent, but she was injured 7 months ago. If I found her again today I would take her to a veterinary acupuncturist straight away, the best recovery cases I have seen started acupuncture soon after the injury. In fact, I would try just about any remedy that was suggested, including the CP7 if I could get it.
The problem with SCI in cats is it is impossible to immobilise them completely in the same way that humans can be immobilised. So things take time to heal, you will need to arm yourself with loads of patience. I was told that having an incontinent cat would be impossible, and yet we get along just fine. It has been a learning experience for me, and a very rewarding one.
I live in Spain and vets here have relatively little experience in these cases, it took me a while to get the information, much of it came from this (excellent) website and I had to pass it on to my own vets. So get to the specialists as soon as you can!
Good luck and do let us know how she is doing...

Debbie

[SpringGlory]

Critter is right but i want to make a note here. A steroid and an anti inflamitory are 2 differant things! The steroid is given the first day or 2 after the accident to bring swelling down and prevent further injury to the spine, this is normally a one time dose and that is it. An anti inflamitory is given to reduce swelling and allow the animal mobility, this is NOT recomended for spinal injuries. My vet was very much against it when I asked about it for my dog and she gave me a run down on why and how it can cause the animal more injury because they feel better to fast. The steroid usually will let the vet know the extent of the injury by the response the animal has to it. Normally the animal will have reduces swelling right away but still needs to be confined to not hurt itself. With my dog she did not respond to the steroid at all and we were very discouraged. However the good Lord took care of her and she has been recovering very well. Keep in mind also that each case is going to be differant and your kitty may responde differant then our animals have, the tips we give are a starting place and in no way can take the place of your vet so please talk everything over with your vet very well and go with what your vet tells you unless they are way out in left field..in that case find a new vet:) Lord bless you and your kitty.

SpringGlory

[Jennifer]

From my experience with Smokey Cat and being on a few different forums for handicats I came to find that most vets simply do not have that much experience or research to go on since it has been that most people in the past opted to have animals with these times of disabilities put down. I think you will find that there are lots of handicats and owners living wonderful lives together. They do require more attention but they are still the same knuckleheads they always were.

We are always here for your support =)

Jennifer

[Debbie-Spain]

I agree with Jennifer (again), one vet said to me that Kat should be put to sleep. I asked why I should put her to sleep if she was not suffering. He said no, she wasn't suffering but that I would suffer if she didn't recover because living with an incontinent cat was impossible... and I find more and more people who are doing the impossible! My own vets had Kat stay with them a few days and they said they hoped I wouldn't put her to sleep because they had grown so fond of her (they don't charge me for her visits, so it's not like they have a vested interest!) Kat has not had a urine infection to date, even though it took me while to perfect the "expressing" technique and there were days I worried that I had not completely emptied her.

From everything I read and consulted about spinal injury and neurological damage in cats, generally it seems you should expect to the main signs of recovery in the first month, but that damage could take up to 6 months to heal completely, although it is unlikely that there will be major improvements after that first month. That time scale can vary but they always say that spinal injury is notoriously slow to heal.

I know of another case that after 1 month was still completely incontinent. It's now nearly 2 months and the cat has regained bowel control and is still improving with the urinary incontinence. And several cases that regained control within the first few weeks.

So lots of encouragement to you to give Annie the time she needs to recover, I hope you can find a vet that will be sympathetic and willing to help. I am sure you will be delighted that you took the decision not to give up.

I wish you all the luck in the world, and will be interested to hear how Annie progresses...

Debbie

[Greg]

Thanks to everyone for all of the information. I failed to mention that the vet did have me put Annie in a kennel so that she wouldn't be dragging herself around. The vet clinic I go to has several vets. The first one gave her prednizone(sp)within an hour of the injury and gave her antibiotics for any possible infection. He had us take her home an put her in the kennel with a litter tray. He said to bring her back for the enema and bladder expression if she hadn't gone on her own within 24 hours. She didn't so we took her back in 24 hours. The next vet said that it didn't look good because she didn't pull her rear foot back into place immediately when he pulled it back behind her. He kept her for observation. When we called the next day we got yet another vet that said she still would go on her own and that it didn't look good. She said she had a 50/50 chance and that she wanted to keep her trough the weekend to express her bladder regularly. We went by to visit and asked if we could take her home and do the expressing our selves so that she would be home in a familiar environment. I was afraid that the other animals especially dogs barking would scare her. The vet said that she was afraid we would not completely empty the bladder and she would get an infection. She called this morning and said that Annie still had'nt gone on her own and it didn't look good. She told us to come in the morning and we would make a descision what to do next. I am getting the impression that she wants to put her down. When we went yesterday to see her she seemed to be in good spirits and was very happy to see us. She doesn't seem to be in much pain. I am thinking that I am going to bring her home no matter what the vets think and do everything I can to make her comfortable and give her as much time as possible to recover. I'm not ready to give up this easy! Thanks for all of the suggestions and prays and please keep them coming! I will keep you all updated.

[critters]

I can't tell you the battles I've had with vets over the years; most just don't know about options, etc.

[critters]

Charlie took pred for 10 days after each spinal exacerbation with no trouble, so it need not be a one-time only thing.