Please help! Cat in pain. :/

[tisjaeso]

Hello all.

I am new to this site and just need fresh opinions/thoughts about the situation that my cat is in.

Around a week ago, he started feeling down...only sleeping on the floor and not really moving his tail. Well fast forward a few days and two vet visits (same vet), I found out that he has a lifeless tail (no feeling, but can move very slightly). The doctors couldn't figure out what's wrong with him, but I think it might be nerve damage at the base of his tail which is where when I touch, he growls. He has had X-rays done but nothing abnormal is seen. Also, he has been given pain meds and a steroid injection, the injection helped but only for a few days.

He is now having trouble walking, getting comfortable while laying, and I've seen stool but whether he urinates or not is unknown. Are there any risks to him not urinating? What should I do? In regards to the bigger picture, has anyone dealt with this? Please help, I've never seen this in a cat and it hurts me to see and hear him this way.

Thank you.

[tisjaeso]

Also, might it be IVDD? I'm not sure.

[CarolC]

It sounds like a possible tail injury, but I don't know. A common type of tail injury is a tail pull injury. For example, the cat is crossing the street and a car runs over his tail, and his tail is pulled because he jerks when it is pinned down. Other ways this can happen is if a person pulls or it gets caught in a door, etc.

Here is some information on tail pull injuries.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Conten ... ourceID=42

You need to determine if he is urinating. This is because a tail pull injury can cause nerve damage in the tail area as you said, and make the cat unable to urinate. One way to determine if he is emptying his bladder is to feel his bladder and feel if it is too full. The vet can check this for you. If he is not urinating, you may need to help him by a procedure called expressing the bladder. Basically it means you squeeze his tummy to make him pee. Cats with tail injuries can also have problems defecating. You would need to watch to be sure he does not become constipated.

I'm a little surprised they could not see anything on the x-ray, but I speak from ignorance there (ignorance about x-rays and not sure what your cat's diagnosis really is). I think you might need to take him to another vet, because you need a more definite diagnosis. If it is a tail injury, you need a vet who will check his bladder status, teach you how to help him empty his bladder if needed, and it sounds like he also needs additional pain medication since it still hurts. There are many messages on this message board from people who have cats with a tail injury. One of them made a really wonderful website on the subject.

http://www.kestrel.ws/erasmus.html

[critters]

Carol's exactly right. A pulled tail can cause problems which don't necessarily show up on xrays. Bladder status is probably most important of them.

[tisjaeso]

Hello all.

I am finally back from the vet and there is not a definite diagnosis yet. The vet said the only possible way to get an answer is an MRI and I just don't have that kind of money. He said that it's most likely not physical trauma and that it might be something from within?

I wish I knew what was going on. ): He is currently on liquid steroids and doxycycline because his left eye has become cloudy, possibly due to FeLV.

Please keep us in your thoughts.

[critters]

I'm mystified how he can say it's not trauma?? Tail pulls don't necessarily show on the outside. Frankly, I doubt an MRI would give enough info to be worth it. I would do steroids too; they're good for spinal cord injuries.

[tisjaeso]

Now I'm worried about his liver. The vet prescribed 1.5 mls of doxycycline every 12 hrs along with 0.8 ml of the steroids every 12 hrs. That's way more than my previous vet prescribed.

And somehow I don't think it's trauma either...well, idk it could be but his lower back is so SKINNY now, it sort of looks elongated too. Also, he was trying to defecate or urinate today in the box, and with constant pushing nothing came out.

I'm trying to do everything I can, but my family is on a tight budget with my dad being laid off. What more can I do? Please advise, he is my little boy.

[CarolC]

If he is not urinating, you can help him by expressing his bladder. That means you squeeze his abdomen in a certain way to make him urinate. The vet should show you how to do it. Your kitty will probably fuss while you do it, but he will love you afterward and he will feel much better. He needs to have his bladder completely empty about every 8 hours to avoid infection. By doing this you can keep him healthy while the nerve damage begins to heal. Here is an article with a lot of videos about expressing at the end. Scroll to the very end to see the videos about expressing a cat.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=16027

If you express directly into the sink, you don't have to buy puppytraining pads, so it's free!

[tisjaeso]

Hi.

I am running low on options and hope. After the third vet visit, he doesn't seem to be getting better. I just don't know when the right time to PTS is. I don't want to, but he's so much in pain.

Please help.

[CarolC]

Did you express his bladder?

[tisjaeso]

Apparently, I didn't need to. The vet said that his bladder was not full whatsoever. He claimed that he did an ultrasound (I didn't actually see if he did this) and he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

[CarolC]

Is he urinating by himself then?
You said before with constant straining in the litter box nothing came out.
Do you find a wet spot in the litter box?
Does he dribble on himself?

[critters]

Does he have puddles under his butt, especially when or after sleeping?

The box hopping boogie can come from a UTI.

[CarolC]

If his tail hurts, he probably needs more pain medication while he is recovering from whatever happened to it. A couple of weeks of pain meds might help a lot.

[tisjaeso]

Hi urine kind of "spurts" out, I'm not sure if he's incontinent....

I'm not sure if it's exactly his tail anymore, it's more like his lower back to his upper tail (if that makes sense). He has trouble holding himself up now, especially because for the past few weeks he's been depending on his front legs. Also, when he walks...he uses the flat part of his hind legs to walk and I hear nails (maybe from clawing the ground)?