I just wanted to tell you my story about my 3 yr old cat Alfie. Alfie had an accident and whilst he was at the vets i searched the internet for hours trying to find a success story for his injury which unfortunately i only found one successful recovery story. I now want to tell Alfie's story to give other people hope who might be in the same situation that we were in 5 months ago.
Myself and my husband came home from a night away at a family wedding. It was obvious as soon as we were home that something wasn't right with Alfie. There was sick and diarrhea everywhere. As soon as i saw him he looked unwell. When checking him i noticed his claws were all split, his front and back claws. We then realised his tail was just hanging floppy behind him with no movement. It was heartbreaking to see him injured. We called for an emergency appointment at the vets. The vet explained that it looked like a tail pull injury and suspected a road traffic accident (RTA). We were glad that he hadn't been attacked by anyone as we had first wondered. She said that his bladder was full so it was likely he had some nerve damage so would need to be expressed that night and would x-ray him the next day to see if his tail was broken/dislocated.
This was the start of my evening on the internet which only made me worry more.
The next day we were shown the x-ray results, Alfie had a clear dislocation at the base of his spine, his tail was dead. He was not peeing or pooing himself which is a common result of nerve damage. This means he needed to be expressed about 3 times a day. We asked the vet what are the chances of him regaining the functions back and we were greeted with a sympathetic 'it's not common' answer. Our options were to either put him to sleep which is what they advised or send him to a specialist spinal injury vets which would be very expensive. Luckily we had pet insurance which covered the cost of the specialist and they thankfully paid the specialist vets direct rather then us having to pay then claiming back. This was a huge weight off our shoulders at a very difficult time. Alfie is our baby so i would have tried anything, my hubby would have been the realistic voice.
Two days after his accident Alfie was transferred to the specialist vets near Liverpool (UK). The vet explained that they were initially going to scan him but after seeing his x-ray realised there was no point as it was a clear dislocation and it was obvious he had nerve damage. This vet explained that sometimes they can regain their bladder function but it all depended on the extent of the nerve damage. Judging by the gap i had seen on the x-ray between his spine and the base of his tail i was beginning to lose hope that he would regain his bladder function but we had to give him a chance. The vet said most people do put they're cats to sleep after this sort of injury. Mostly because of the care the cat might need if it does not regain function and because of the vet costs. So that's why they cannot give statistics of success rates because they don't know.
They said if he hasn't regained his functions back in 8 wks then he probably never will. Again our choices were to put him to sleep or give him a chance knowing that we might have to either put him to sleep after 8 weeks or learn to express him 2-3times a day, everyday for the rest of his life. At the time i was all for doing anything, but my hubby did remind me that if we were to live with him like that then we couldn't go on holiday or nights away for family occasions, plus he was more at risk for bladder infections. My hubby loves Alfie as much as me so i know that wasn't easy for him to say. We talked it through and made the joint decision to give him a chance.
The vet didn't want to amputate his tail as she said it wasn't important at this time and didn't want to put him through the op if he might be put to sleep weeks later, even though we said we wouldn't. Anyway that was that, we went home and Alfie was looked after by the specialist.
We had daily updates from the vets at the specialist. I really felt happy about my baby being there. Alfie only has one kidney as his other one had to be removed when he was only 1yrs old so he really has been through the mill for such a young cat. I just felt as ease about the way he was being looked after and the daily updates about how he was doing. We did get to visit him once, but not as often as we liked due to work and the travel. I wanted to see him everyday.
Alfie had been there a week when they phoned and told us Alfie had pooed in his litter tray. I never felt so happy about a poo before, haha!! They said he spent a lot of time in his litter tray but normally didn't leave anything in it. Now he was pooing in it daily, which was a great sign but he still might not get his bladder function back. We still felt more hopeful now.
Alfie had been in the specialist vets 8-9 days when they phoned to say Alfie has a lump at the base of his spine which they suspect is an infection. This prompted them to want to amputate his tail, which me and the hubby were pleased about and wanted them to do that earlier. His tail was amputated and he was recovering well. The next day they noticed that Alfie was in his litter tray attempting to have a wee and left a little dribble of a wee. This was great news for us. They were still expressing him 3 times a day but they agreed it was a good sign. He was there another week after his tail was amputated before he was able to come home. They gave us a lesson on how to express him when we came to collect him, this did not go well and was very hard to get the hang of.
Finally Alfie is home, after being away for 19 days altogether. It was great having him home, we had missed him so much and the house was not the same without him. I would just also like to point out that in that 19 days all i did was search for success stories on the internet for his type of injury. Hours and hours i spent on the computer, it was draining.
Anyway he was home now which was the main thing but things weren't that easy. We struggled expressing him. We watched the videos and advice people gave on this site but it was hard. We took him to our local vet the next day for another lesson, we were so scared of not doing it right and worried he would get a urinary infection (It turned out he did have a little sign of infection and was given antibiotics). We went home deflated after not quite doing it and so the vet had to empty Alfie's bladder for us.
Not only was the expressing hard but whilst he was at the specialist we thought his bowel function was working normally as he was pooing in his litter tray but when he was home he spent ages in his tray and looked like he was pushing but nothing was coming out. As soon as he left the litter tray he would walk across the living room and a little poo would drop out, which he was just as surprised to see when he shot round to see what was behind him. It got to the point that the tears were flowing just as much as they did when he wasn't at home. I just wanted my baby better.
Hubby was finally able to express Alfie, i still struggled. My problem was that i gave up as soon as Alfie made a sound. Hubby found it was easier to express him in the sink as advised by the vet. It was a struggle at first but Alfie soon got used to him doing it 3 times a day. We both work full time so hubby had to come home at lunch to express him. We noticed he was pooing in his little tray now and stopped finding little poo's around the house. Alfie is an outdoor cat and was kept in whilst he recovered. We planned on making him an indoor cat but Alfie was having none of that. He meowed and meowed every day, pretty much all day at the back door where his cat flap is. I thought he would get over not going outside but he cried at the door all the time. We started noticing that he seemed depressed. We took Alfie to have his stitches out about a week after he came home. We asked the vet if we could let him out now, which he didn't see a problem with it as long as he always came home to be expressed. We explained that Alfie always came home. He didn't go out til late and was always back in the early morning. So again we made a difficult decision to let him out. We just hoped he stayed away from wherever he had his accident.
Immediately after letting Alfie have his freedom back did we notice a difference in him. He was the same playful, happy, cuddly cat he was before the accident. He was great at balancing on the garden fence and wall. He was jumping just as good without his tail as he did with one. Before we let him out Alfie was still doing little dribbles in the litter tray. My hubby started to notice after a week of letting him out that when he went to express him his bladder wasn't as full as it normally would be. After getting advise from the specialist it was agreed to express him only twice a day and see how it goes. With Alfie going outside he was no longer using his litter tray so it was important to check his bladder regularly. So he was still checked 3 times daily but expressed twice a day. It soon became obvious that he must be peeing outside because hubby noticed that he only needed to express him once a day but still checked him often. It wasn't long before Alfie was making a big fuss when hubby went to do his daily express. So we decided to not express him the next day just check him throughout the day. That day was the last day hubby ever had to express him. We took him to the vets after a week of not expressing him and everything was fine. We couldn't believe it
From the time of the accident it was only 5-6 weeks until we stopped expressing him. It was fantastic. I must admit i prayed every night but really worried about how his recovery would go.I understand we were very fortunate and Alfie is one lucky boy. Many cats are not as lucky with this type of injury. I'm sorry if it seems i've rambled on. I realise there's many people on here who are expressing their pets daily and have been for years. It was something we were prepared to do too. After the vet told us they don't have success rate statistics due to people reluctantly having to their pets down i just wanted to give people hope. People who like me are trawling the internet for successful stories.
Tail-pull cats usually end up completely OK, or almost so. If he needs to self-express by licking, I'd help him by expressing him for awhile. Expressing will usually cut down on the number of nuggets left behind, too; my Buddy always pooped right before he peed when I expressed him. I SO understand the peeing "all over anything in his way." 
Buddy was like a fire hose!! 
