Caring for a very uncooperative paralyzed cat?

[Schmurrr]

In February, my seven-year old cat, Sarge, ruptured a disc (presumably in a fall) in the lower part of his spine. I took him to the emergency vet when I discovered in the late afternoon that he could not jump on the sofa. The back half of his body was paralyzed by the next morning, and a neurosurgeon operated on him that day. Sarge started moving his back legs the day after the surgery, which was awesome, and I eventually transferred him to the care of a vet who specializes in physical therapy and rehab. He was under her care for several weeks. He's been at home for more than three months now, and he can run and jump almost like he did before the injury. He is incontinent, though, and he cannot voluntarily control his tail or feel sensation in his tail. (His tail curls up under his body when he is anxious or angry, and the fur will stand on end if he is spooked, so I have hope that he will continue recovering.)

The biggest problem I am having right now is Sarge's complete unwillingness to cooperate with me when I try to care for him. He absolutely will not let me express his bladder. I can get my hands on his belly for a couple of seconds, but he hisses and screams (literal screaming!) as soon as I try to restrain him to any degree, and he will aggressively claw at me. If I approach him to try to put a medicated cream on his backside to treat urine scalding (because he leaks a lot), he runs away the first time and starts hissing and screaming and clawing at me if I keep trying. Sometimes he starts hissing as soon as he sees the tube that the cream comes in. His lack of cooperation upsets me greatly. His surgery and recovery took a lot out of me because I was in a constant state of worry that he would not survive (at first) or not recover (later). I am trying as hard as I can to be a good mom to him now and keep him as healthy as possible, but he fights me at all stages, and I am constantly reduced to tears of frustration. Does anybody here have ideas for how I can take care of him when he's not willing to let me help him?

For the record, he is incredibly sweet and loving as long as I'm not trying to restrain him in any way. He was orphaned when he was one day old, and I raised him. He's wholly spoiled. He sits next to me on the sofa. He follows me from room to room. He sleeps next to me--and sometimes on top of me. He just has an illogically violent reaction to being restrained. Possibly it is a feral cat instinct, since I am sure his parents were both feral.

Thank you!

[critters]

Actually, that's fairly typical of the species. Have you seen the expressing page? http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Express_a_dog_or_cat
On it is my story of expressing Buddy--I'd scruff him, hold him on his back on a towel pad, and express him into a baby diaper with the other hand. Our vet swore it couldn't be done by only one person.

I use tough love on all my monsters--I'm bigger, badder, and uglier than them, and I WILL prevail. They can scratch, fight, bite, or whatever, and it won't help. We scrap and cuss, and eventually they give in. Vets think it's hysterical.

[Schmurrr]

Thanks for the reply! I've been hesitant to get too tough with him because I don't want to hurt him or traumatize him to the point where he refuses to have anything to do with me, but your story is reassuring.

I'm also going to buy some long welding gloves and cut the fingertips off. He doesn't usually attack my fingertips, and I need them free so that I can feel his bladder.

[critters]

Somebody else around here uses welding gloves...maybe Les? I don't do gloves of almost any kind, but there've been times I wish I did.

[FYI]

I use a welding jacket with a rawhide sleeve this protects me from his back legs scratching me. You can buy welding sleeves at any welding supply house, a Lowes or Home depot may also carry them. When I express my cat "a male" after he urinates squeezing the bladder again to restart the flow never worked, we had to stop, sit him up and just give him a minute or two just to relax and then repeat the process. Sort of like he needs to re-set himself. The welding jacket is almost unnecessary for me now since either I am better at this or Norris my cat understands what we are trying to do, or both.

[Jean]

How about trying to make expressing time a happy time. I adopted a cat off of Craig's list who had a tail pull injury from having hung upside down from a fence for several hours. She had never before been expressed until she came to me. I have had her for several months now and I only feed her during expressing times. She is so busy eating that she pays little attention to being expressed.