My name is Leah and Sasha is my male Persian mix that I have had the honour of caring for since mid-December 2009.
Sasha was thrown out on the street by his previous owners, when the wife of the couple became pregnant. It would be good to mention I am currently residing in Bulgaria, where old wive's tales are sometimes taken as gospel truth. Someone told the couple about the "possible" dangers of a cat's feces harming a fetus, and instead of taking the necessary precautions to avoid harm, the couple simply threw this gorgeous animal out on the street sometime in November 2009.
Fast forward to December 12, 2009:
Sasha's previous owners "refound" their cat on the street in such a horrendous condition that they felt a pang of remorse and took the poor animal to the local vet. When the vet said the cat needed x-rays and were told it would cost 15 leva (less than $10), they said they could not afford it. Another fellow who runs a local kennel offered to pay for the x-ray and the couple agreed. When the vet and kennel owner went into the back room to perform the x-ray, the couple left, abandoning the cat at the vet's. The kennel owner decided to take him in and clean him up. He is a pure white cat that was covered from head to tail tip in feces and fleas. His eyes were glued shut from infection and bloodied here and there from bites. When the kennel owner told me about the cat, I became interested and met him at the vet's with the cat a couple days later. It was love at first sight.
Sasha was in such horrible shape, I don't know where to begin, so let's skip to the big stuff. We don't know why or how his hind legs became paralyzed, but from the hips down, there is paralysis. When I first brought Sasha home, the hind legs were nothing more than fur and bone and he was, of course, incontinent. His initial blood work indicated renal failure, but through excellent nutrition and care, that is no longer a danger. He was infested with fleas, suffered numerous bites and had one broken-off-at-the-root canine tooth, which I finally had extracted this past week. (He was took weak to go under anesthesia and then it was too cold. Vets send animals home immediately after surgery - no facilities for overnight care.)
Sometime in January, rather than being incontinent, he stopped urinating on his own completely. We had a very close call when the cage filled with bloody urine one very cold and snowy afternoon. The vet immediately catheterized Sasha and relieved him of 550 ml (that's 18 oz.) of urine. Another few hours and Sasha would not be with me today. Since that time, after being catheterized, getting infections from the tube, endless disagreements with the vet (got rid of him - he was an arrogant "know-it-all" whose prime income comes from farm animal insemination), I have had to express the bladder manually twice a day. Sasha handles extremely well and daily injections of Nivalin, vitamin pills, etc..., are administered with relative ease. He responds to voice commands for the daily routine and even turns over for his diaper when he knows the "milking" is over. He can move his bowels on his own, but he is usually gracious enough to wait until I am expressing the bladder and sometimes I help him along.
The veterinarians here do not have the same facilities as stateside and I am basically on my own in trying to do what is best for Sasha. I am almost 100% certain there is some degree of neurological damage, but there are no MRIs or CTs for domestic animals here.
In the past five months, he has gained 7 pounds, his legs have filled out again and legs and tail react to some stimuli. He can move his hind legs to a degree, but still drags like a paralyzed animal. I do PT and massage the legs twice a day for about 20 minutes a session and have tried "re-training" him to walk, but to no avail.
That brings me to my first question (finally):
Other than a wheeled cart (I know for fact cats do not acclimate to carts like dogs) are there any specific exercises I can do with him to get him up on his hind legs again?
Going to cut here as this post is already too long and have not mentioned half the problems, but this will give you a general idea of the situation. Main thing is to see what can be done to get Sasha up and moving around again.
Leah
Sasha's Mom
Poor little boy!! He definitely has a spinal cord injury; maybe he was hit by a car or something else while he was out. I'd do what I could to make him intake fluids--flavor water, use subcutaneous fluids, or whatever. That will help prevent UTIs as well as the blocking it sounds like he had before. You might also consider meds for his bladder. Phenoxybenzamine (PBZ) seems to be especially good for a spastic (tight) bladder, and bethanechol (sp?) is good for a loose one.
Bless you for taking this beautiful little girl in. The before clean up pictures just break my heart! Please definitely stick around. We have some true cat experts here with hearts of gold. You met one of them in Critters. Sasha, Bendy's mom is another and that's just two of them. We are glad you are here!
The main message (which I could have said in a lot fewer words) is that the hip bone fits in the hip socket, and when you are x-raying the hip, it is hard to see the hip bone because it is inside the socket which is also bone. It is hard to see bone through bone. That was all I meant! 
Cheddar came out of the storm sewer last Fall as an emaciated little fartling of about 4 weeks old, and his mouth and claw manners stink to this day. Persians are typically pretty laid back; I wish my Koi were as cooperative as Sasha!!
Leah
