Cat hit by a car, not sure what to do, possibly paralyzed.

[Sinclair]

Hello, yesterday morning I found my 1 year old cat laying in the ditch out side my house in great pain and breathing rapidly. He appeared to have been hit by a car. My first concern was getting him to the local vet office. Once there they took him from me and put him on pain killers and fluids. They said to come back at 12 to take him to a emergency 24h vet office where he had to stay over night. When they called in the morning they said that he had a fractured pelvis and internal bleeding. The doctor also said that he was required to have a urinary catheter during his night stay. The doctor was able to get a response from all his legs except his rear left leg. His main concern is my cat not being able to urinate on his own. He was so concerned about this that he even suggested I put him down if he doesn't regain the ability to urinate on his own. From the x-rays there appears to be no spine injuries. I am completely lossed on what to do. Should I bring him home tomorrow? If he still cant urinate after his second night at the vet how long should I give him?? Sorry for the length of this thread.

[CarolC]

Hi Sinclair,

I am not a vet so I can only tell you what I might do in your situation. I would (personally) want to keep my cat whether he could urinate independently or not, and also I would like to give it time to find out if he recovers bladder control, which can take weeks or sometimes months. There is a technique to help your pet urinate, called expressing the bladder. Basically, you squeeze his tummy here the bladder resides and he pees. It is something you develop a skill at with practice. I am not sure where his internal injuries are, but if they are in the abdomen then I probably would not want to be squeezing his tummy. So that would make me think that if your trust the vet hospital that is caring for him, you might want to see if they can keep him there a little longer with the catheter in until his internal injuries and pelvic fracture have a little time to improve. When they think it is safe, they could try expressing his bladder and they could show you how to do it. If there do not appear to be spinal injuries (not even a pulled tail) then it seems likely he might regain bladder control. It is hard to tell about a spinal injury, he may have had some kind of bruising to the spine at least on one side, since you are seeing the one leg less responsive than the other. Hopefully the leg will improve as the swelling or bruising goes down. His age is in his favor. Also, it is worth considering that some pets with full control will retain their urine when they are first injured. Maybe it is instinct, if you were in the wild and were injured, you would not want to urinate where you are lying. Anyway, I hope you can work something out for him. Here is a link showing what I mean by expressing the bladder. The easiest thing for you might be to go to the very bottom of the article and watch some of the videos showing people expressing their cat's bladder.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=16027

[critters]

I couldn't agree with Carol more, and I've been there, done that. Buddy was hit by a car and "didn't show" a spinal cord injury, but he had one. In time he got all of his faculties back, even peeing. It took months, though.

[critters]

ahsin!

[Sinclair]

Thanks for the replies! I glad to say that after about a month my cat was able to regain control of everything exempt his rear left leg. He is know acting completely normal and happy! Thanks guys

[critters]

Does he need a splint for that leg? Take it from me--do WHATEVER you can to prevent contractures, if you need to. Skin breakdown is also easier to prevent than to heal.