I have had a good look through your lovely boards and have seen so many of you have a vast amount of knowledge and experiences in these matters, so wanted to see if anyone out there might be able to give me some advice or information.
First: a word of Phoenix. Phoenix is my "wonder kitty". Shelters in our area have a nearly 100% kill rate of cats, and whenever possible I like to rescue kitties from our area and try to find them new homes. Phoenix was brought to me as a starving orphan in need of bottle feeding, skeletally thin and desperately ill. He has asthma, and has pulled through more diseases and problems than the majority of the animals I have rescued over the past 6 years combined. I've been told by the vet multiple times that Phoenix would not live the night, yet here Phoenix still is, defying the odds.
Needless to say, after all of the uphill battles with Phoenix, he adopted me and he's never had to search for a new home
My little Phoenix has recently developed a case of IVDD-in which the vet at first told me Phoenix would quite probably be permanently paralyzed, even with surgery, since Phoenix had developed paralysis and was unable to feel deep pain from approximately the hips down. Long story short: he gave me the typical line, you have two choices an outrageously expensive surgery that probably won't do any good, or euthanasia. (Let me pause here to say that our area is such a small back-woods place that we don't even have any veterinarians to do this surgery, so Phoenix would have to go to a University Hospital (teaching school) in the next state for the surgery.) He gave Phoenix a steroid injection to at least start the process of decreasing the swelling of the disk, and warned me that the surgery needed to be performed ASAP, but allowed me a 24-hour period to think over my decision. I was SO ready to spring for the surgery, but after hearing all of the special attention and care Phoenix would need if he was permanently paralyzed, I was unsure if I was able to provide him that care alone, and still maintain my livelihood, and I can tell you I cried most of that 24-hour period thinking I was going to lose my little one, who had bounced back from so many problems before. By the next morning Phoenix had taken that decision from me-he was definitely attempting to move his legs, hovering one little foot off the bedding for seconds at a time-and he definitely had bowel and bladder control-if he was gonna try, so was I!
In the last 5 days (has it ONLY been that long?) he's moving his legs again (clumsily, but they do kick) and the feeling is returning (he complains when you touch or massage them) and his tail is on a near "permanent twitch" mode. The vet thinks Phoenix might have a chance of recover without surgery, so I've been very, very excited to say the least
However, over the last few days his beautiful little pads have gone from a pretty light pink color, to a steadily deepening purple. The vet assures me this is normal, but I am concerned. I have been massaging and doing gentle "physical therapy" exercises (such as gentle "bicycle" movements that keep the spine still, while exercising the legs, bending little joints of toes, legs, etc). I have tried alternating hot and cold packs, have even tried a few hours of "compression therapy" by wrapping his little legs in ace bandages, snugly but not too tightly, but his toes are staying that deep dark angry purple-red color, and the pads are becoming stiff and hard. The compression therapy did help his upper legs tremendously-I noticed them returning to normal color, where they had been darker before. Phoenix has predominantly white fur, with lilac-colored skin, normally-so color-checking is rather easy, luckily! As his normally pink toes have turned purple, the skin under his fur has turned a deeper purple color too, which also says to me that he's having a lack of blood flow up and down the entire hind legs.
Is this a normal case, or is it, as I fear more severe? My vet has said one of the treatments for this is electroacupuncture, which is uncomfortable in ANYONE, but kitties in particular aren't fond of it, so he wishes to wait a few more days before trying it. I'm afraid the circulation has been damaged very badly inside of him, or is too very poor to wait that long. On top of his asthma, I'm not sure he's getting the proper amount of oxygen to those limbs that he is trying so desperately to move again. Should I be worried? I am going to mention his poor circulation to the vet again tomorrow about the issue, but any advice in the meantime is VERY much appreciated
Should I go ahead and push for the electroacupuncture to be on the safe side? Is there anything more I can do at home? Or am I being an obsessive worrier again 
Kimiko&Phoenix
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(I actually know this reaction first hand, as I have tried reaching out to organizations to help us with our rescue efforts and strays and have been told by everybody under the sun (HSUS, ASPCA included) that they don't "service our area" and it would be best to just "round them up and mass euthanize" 
I've written it down in case Phoenix continues to chew his legs, or show signs that the pain/tingling isn't fading 
