My Cat broke his spine and is paralyzed now

[ropikutya]

Hello,

Tuesday afternoon my cat fell out of the window from the 4th floor and unfortunately he landed on a metal bar that broke his spine. (what a misfortune, he is a black cat by the way).
We took him immediately to our vet, she gave him a painkiller injection and we brang him home. It was too late to take him to xray since it was past 9pm.
The next day we took him to xray her back, then back to the vet. She gave him some more painkillers, antiinflammatory injection, and some other medication. The cat was put to a cage to move as little as possible. Next day (36 hours after the trauma) he had the surgery. The spine was leveled back and the doctor said that most of the spinal cord was undamaged. After this we took him back to the vet where he will stay in cage for a week.

The cat (his name is Ropi, 10 months old neutralized male) cannot move his back legs and tail since the trauma, completely paralyed. If the vet pinches his foot, he drags it.

What concerns me:
- Ropi didn't poop since the accident, that is 4 days. Isn't that dangerous? Shouldn't the vet make him poop?
- In the last two days he peed, but the pee was reddish. I guess this was just an overflow of the bladder.
- I wonder in how much time should we see some very minor improvements in moving... to move at least a bit his leg or tail?

I'm attaching the xray and a pic of Ropi after the surgery.
Any information and suggestion is really welcome. I fully trust the vet, she's an expert and really loves animals but second opinions don't hurt

[CarolC]

Hi ropikutya,



I am glad you got surgery to stabilize the spine. It is difficult to predict how soon your cat will regain sensation. Nerves heal very, very slowly. My dog had a similar injury (her spine was broken in the same place and she had surgery to stabilize her spine) and it took months for her to regain feeling. Right now the most important thing is to provide good nursing care, so your cat remains healthy while the spinal injury is healing. The vet should empty your cat's bladder 3 times a day, and the vet should show you how to do this when you take him home. This is called "expressing the bladder". It is not healthy to let the bladder overflow. It will cause the bladder to become stretched. It will also cause an infection. When old urine is left in the bladder, it creates an environment where germs can grow, and then the cat develops an infection. One of the symptoms of bladder infection is the appearance of blood in the urine, however trauma can also cause blood in the urine, so the reddish urine you saw may be trauma or infection, I do not know. The vet should look at a specimen of the urine under a microscope to see if there is an infection. If there is an infection, it can be treated with antibiotics.

Here is an article about expressing the bladder. At the end are many videos showing how to express the bladder of a cat.

http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Express_a_dog_or_cat (see videos at the end)

Here is the same article translated, if you want to show it to your vet.

http://handicappedpet.net/helppets/view ... 28&t=13654

If your cat is not pooping, you might want to give him a medication to make the poop softer. Usually a paralyzed animal can still poop, even if they cannot urinate. Pooping is more automatic than urinating. But sometimes they get constipated and need medication.

https://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/?title=Bowel_management_in_incontinent_pets

http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Evacuarea_intestinal%C4%83_la_animale_de_cas%C4%83_care_sufer%C4%83_de_incontinen%C5%A3%C4%83

Here is a wonderful video of a cat who fell out of an window and broke his spine. The cat in the video remained paralyzed but has a very good life.

[critters]

That's an impressive break!

CarolC gave you the information on expressing, which will be very important. As she says, the blood could be from an infection or from trauma to the kidneys, so the vet will probably want to check that out more. Poor Ropi! You should see more nerve function eventually, but nobody can tell you when. Nerves usually heal slowly, then "suddenly" they can do something they couldn't do before.

[ropikutya]

Thank you for your answers.
Ropi is better now, today we took him home from the vet. Sometimes there is a very tiny move on his back leg or tail. I think he will be fine and in a couple of months he'll stand up.

He had a trauma on the kidneys - hence the reddish urine - but that has been stabilized and currently the urine color is okay. Tomorrow there will be another blood urine test.

[critters]

That all sounds good. If he should have a problem with "funny feelings" in his legs or tail as nerve healing takes place neurontin/gabapentin can help.

[Jean]

How is your kitty doing now? Hope he is better.

[ropikutya]

Thank you for asking.

Ropi is better now, but he can't stand up yet and is not room clean. Some movement of the legs can be observed but it's uncontrolled, for example when he pees his legs are shaking.
We make hydrotherapy in the bathtub, every day for 15 minutes, and lots of massaging.

He regained his sense of pain, and some reflexes, when I tickle his feet, he puts his fingers apart. Blood tests are also good.
Sometimes his whole body is shaking and we don't know why. The wet says he is not in pain. The shaking was present also when he was on Tramadol.

[Jean]

Glad your kitty is better. Just a thought my paralyzed kitty can't maintain her
body temp. When she shakes I know she is cold which is confirmed with a low temp. Could his possibly be your kitties problem? When Jaime is home she is under a heat lamp.

[critters]

I'd bet the shaking is neurological. My boys seem to have a "shaking" phase just as recovery is starting to ramp up; it's like their muscles are exercising, but they're not strong enough for more normal movement.

[gowtham]

Hi Ropikutya,

I am going through the same situation what you had faced last year ..
my cat is injured and its backbone is broken ..its is crawling ....can not able to move hind legs , tails not moving ...exactly like the cat in the video...
could you please reply how is your cat now ( i pray god and hope its okay ) .
i sometimes think it would have been better if it is died instead of going through this h e l l !.
please reply what are the steps need to be taken ..is surgery a good idea? ....
thanks,
Gowtham

[critters]

gowtham. When was your baby injured?

[gowtham]

Its been two and a half months now !..

[critters]

That's a good while. If he's commando crawling, you'll need to watch out for skin breakdown in particular, and contractures as well. Is he taking any meds for peeing? Do you express him?

[ropikutya]

Hi all,

Me and my wife decided to euthanize the poor soul after months passing by and seeing no improvement. He wasn't able to piss or poop (so we had to forcibly empty the bladder for it to not get infected), and he became very introverted, mostly lying around. We though he is in pain. The nappies that we put on him (that are for little dogs, that would also protect his bummy) always came down as he crawled and the house ended up smelling 'Ropi'. The vet also recommended making him a bath every day - hydrotherapy, when we moved his legs in the water to facilitate nerve regeneration. Ropi really hated this and the blow-drier that came after it. After some time his back legs became tense, almost straight! and I couldn't even bend them. They no longer responded to pinching.

Looking back, one possible cause that he wasn't able to regenerate can be that he tried to crawl out of his cage once and he got hooked pretty badly so his spine moved away from the optimal position making the operation worthless. Also that daily hydrotherapy may be good for the nerve regeneration but all that movement and protesting could have damaged the spine as well. Another option would have been keeping him on narcotics for month.

I'm attaching the last picture with him days before passing away.

I want to thank everyone who replied to my thread. Sorry for not being able to provide good news. I'm convinced we made the rights decision but every case is unique though.


Message to anyone having this problem: please make sure your pet gets the necessary medical assistance. Take your pet to the vet ASAP because each day will worsen the healing perspectives. Due to the lack of impulses the nerves are starting to die and after 3 months they are completely dead.

[critters]

Aww, what a great picture! I'm sorry for your loss.