Molly went missing approx 4.5 months ago and was gone for two weeks. We'd resigned ourselves to the fact that she was gone when one morning she simply appeared on our window sill, meowing to be let in. Initially we thought she was okay but we later realised that her tail was completely limp. Long story short poor Molly had returned home with a fractured sacrum and severely dislocated tail. She's a quiet wee kitten, who doesn't make much noise when she's in pain so we had no way of knowing how sore she actually was. Amazing she has suffered no paralysis of her back legs and can leap as well as always. But her ability to move her bowels has been compromised and her ability to consciously empty her bladder is non existent
The poor darling has had rather a rough start in life. At only 3 months old and after two days of coming home with us from the shelter she fell seriously ill with catflu. An new strain to NZ, one never seen before so resistant to any treatment. When we called the SPCA they offered to take her back and 'give us a new one'. They didn't see her surviving and to be honest, neither did we. She couldn't work, had sores all over her body and even ulcers in her mouth. All we could do for Molly was to force feed her and keep her hydrated with daily vet visits for IV fluids. Some would argue that we should have put her down but within two days we'd fallen for the gorgeous wee ball of fluff and she was dependent on us. She was fighting so hard to live that we simply couldn't give up on her without helping her fight. Somehow against all odds she survived
Fast forward to now and again we're in a similar position. Molly is fighting hard to be a 'normal' cat. To play with her brother, sit on our laps and snuggle under the bedclothes. She's the most affectionate cat I've ever had, she just sits at your feet and looks at you and you melt. When the accident happened and it was suggested that we put her down we just couldn't. We've thrown everything we can into trying to help her, hence me finding this site.
Over the past few months we've been regulars at the vet, at acupuncture and a chiropractor. We've had to express her daily, something which we never really gained the hang off. I learnt instead to stimulate her female bits which made her pee. Her tail has regained a curve in the base of it, which lifts it off the ground just enough. We made the call early on not to remove it as we basically wanted to see if she would recover first. I know you can't put a time limit on these things but we had to make a call as we knew that we couldn't go on as were indefinitely. It wasn't fair on Molly or us. After we knew she wasn't in pain we made the decision to let her try and live as normal a life as possible. We have another cat so couldn't treat them differently. So Molly roams as she pleases. It was important for us that Molly was happy, well as happy as she could be. Over time her bladder function has altered, probably along with the different stages of treatment. She's leaked, retained and leaked again. We are now a household with baby change mats and towels on the ready for Molly to sit on. The bowel movements have gone from little surprises on your lap and needing laxatives, to controlled movements landing in the litter tray. Yah for no more nugget surprises!
We've been very lucky to date (touch wood) as Molly has had no bladder infections. To begin with she had the sorest little bottom imaginable, large sores around it, burns etc. We had to shave her bottom and used wet wipes every time we expressed her. I think something that worked wonders was the Calendular Welda Nappy Rash cream that I also applied. It's a vicious circle. She would lick herself because she was sore and the urine burnt, but every time she licked she peed a little. But there are no issues with that anymore! We could tell that she was still getting some signals. Every time she needed to pee she'd rush to her litterbox and frantically scrabble around in it, squat and then look around confused to see nothing there. Not even a drop. And when we expressed her she could feel when the flow of pee was coming as her bottom would lift and she'd start kicking her feet about.
Every few weeks we'd notice an improvement of some sort. Her coat would be healthier, she'd be more playful, her tail would have more lift. But still no pee. We were beginning to get upset again as her time limit was drawing closer. That is until last week!!
I had just read another long trail of posts by Maine_coonz about their injured cat Raz - and how they were told to stop expressing him and just let him be. Which they did with their breath held and praying his bladder didn't burst. We were just contemplating whether this was something that we did with Molly. We'd reached a point where we didn't have alot to lose. However it's easier said than done...
And then on Monday night she ran purposefully to her litter tray, squatted and peed! Not a whole lot, but a stream nonetheless. It made us wonder if she's been doing that for the last couple of weeks as expressing her has been really hard. She'd started growling at me and kicking my hands away quite forcibly. Since last week we've seen her pee three times in the litter tray. Still not enough but we're keeping our fingers crossed that we're on the right road. Surely anything is better than nothing?
So I guess after my long lengthy story my question is... do we do as Maine_coonz did? Stop expressing her completely and just let her be? And hope that a) her bladder doesn't burst b) she doesn't get an infection and best of all c) eventually she's peeing 100%
Any help would be appreciated. It's been such a long road to get her and looking back I can see how so many people wouldn't get this far. I've cried numerous times at the unfairness and frustration of it all. Poor Molly has had such a hard life and she's not even two years old! But she just keeps on giving the love and so we just have to keep loving her back....
And even if I don't hear back from anyone I also just want to say 'dont' give up'. So many times we've thought we'd have to and somethings changed meaning we think we can go on that little bit longer. It's like Molly hears us each time. Our vet could also only support us, so we had to source our own info - they haven't had a pet which has got this far with the same difficulties.
Good luck to you all!! x
