New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

For those seeking advice on caring for incontinent pets and animals with kidney-related problems.
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BrianN
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Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 6:13 pm

New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by BrianN »

On Friday my wife and I adopted a one-year-old cat Susan. We were taking her to her vet appointment when she escaped from the carrier, and then we got a call a few hours later as we were trying to track her down. A good samaritan found her on the road and took her to a local animal hospital.

Initially, the vet was very hopeful. There is a broken pelvis that is expected to heal on its own, and the tail would need to be partially amputated. However, they called this morning and reported that they missed something on the X-Rays: a fracture on the spinal cord (between the sacrum and tail junction). She has poor anal tone and the moment and is being expressed a few times a day.

The vets - that one and our normal vet - don't know if the spinal cord damage permanent. She could have paralysis and lose control of bowel/bladder, or it could just be inflammation. They differ on one point, though. Our vet thinks that if her condition doesn't improve within a few days, the chances are greatly diminished that the damage to the spinal cord is temporary. However, the other vet thinks that it could take several weeks, or even months, to see improvement with the nerves (perhaps our vet was referencing inflammation versus nerves?). Of course, the damage could be permanent.

Hopefully the damage is temporary, and she'll have control of her bowel and bladder, which is the primary concern. I'm curious to see others' experience on the whole timeline issue, as the two vets certainly don't agree on this point.

Part of me keeps asking the "what if" question as well: If it's permanent, can we really do this? I pray that she makes a full recovery, but my wife and I keep talking about the feasibility of maintaining that level of care. It looks like others have had good experiences in this department, but it's scary.

Thanks for any help - and prayers for Susan are always appreciated :)
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CarolC
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Re: New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by CarolC »

Hi BrianN,

We have quite a few cat people on the board that the moment, hopefully you will be hearing from some of them soon. I just wanted to say, I'm so sorry this happened right when you were adopting the kitty. I can just imagine your situation. It was the last thing you expected.

On your comment about the level of care, really even if it should happen to turn out that the kitty did not recover bladder control, the level of care for a paralyzed cat is not all that involved. It's not like a large dog, for example. You would plan on having to express her bladder 3x a day. This takes less than 5 minutes. It would be no problem for you and your family unless you are a family where everyone is gone a lot. For example, if you were planning to leave the new kitty in the house over a long weekend with food and water and a litterbox, you would not really be able to do that because she would need to have her bladder emptied. But if you are generally home, and especially since there is you and your wife to share the care, it should be manageable. Many people here with paralyzed pets are single and they do it, so you are fortunate to have a partner. Also, I'm not sure if you were thinking this (?), but generally cats do not use wheelchairs, many prefer to drag and not be encumbered by a mechanical device. Some cats do use wheelchairs as well, but many do not, and I would not be considering the task of putting the kitty in a wheelchair every day as a necessary part of the daily routine. The choice to do that or not would be up to you and your kitty. I didn't say that very well but I hope it made sense.

Here is a video of Pookie, which gives you an idea of how a paralyzed kitty gets around in the house. They can do everything including climb the cat tree.



It is in this article, which has tips on expressing the bladder.

http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Express_a_dog_or_cat

I agree with your vet who said nerves heal slowly over time. That is the truth. There is no way to be sure whether she will regain bladder control, but it can take several months to see improvement. If you are lucky you see improvement more quickly, but not seeing immediate improvement does not mean nothing is happening. With my dog, I began to see a change after 5 months. Nerves heal very slowly in the background, you can't even tell they are improving, but in reality they are. Then one day you see a noticeable difference, it's a slow miracle. I sure hope it works out for you and your new kitty.

:group:
BrianN
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Re: New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by BrianN »

Hi Carol,

Thanks so much for your response. It's encouraging to know that pet owners can manage with this sort of arrangement, if that's what in fact we're looking at. We just got back and had some good news - and I was just thinking that I should give an update, so I guess I'll do so now.

I made the appointment so that they could show us how to express her bladder. However, it wasn't full enough to do so. It turned out that, after he asked a couple of vet techs, that they believed she did it on her own. She was able to crawl (she can't use her back legs yet) and pee in her litter box! The vet cautioned that there could be a tear or some other reason, and that he wanted to see if her bladder would fill up and that she could do it consistently. They did another scan later and they said her bladder looks good, so hopefully she can pee on her own.

There were some more encouraging signs. The doctor checked if there was sensation in parts of her lower body. It turns out that along with her back feet, which are healing (and hopefully she can walk soon on those), there is some sensation in the tail. From what I've heard (online, and my wife's cousin is an orthopedic specialist in veterinary medicine, who said this is a big indicator for her prognosis), that is a huge deal with feeling in the tail. Hopefully that means she will in fact be able to have control over both her bladder and bowel.

He brought up a concern from the past, though. Both the original vet and our vet dismissed the pelvic injury, saying it would heal on its own. However, this vet (who is a surgeon who deal with orthopedics, and he mentioned that he may be over-cautious) said that the pelvis has collapsed a bit. This might make it difficult for her to have a BM, in terms of space, even if she has that ability in terms of nerves. Hopefully that isn't a problem.

Anyways, there were some good signs and news, but it could be a long recovery and items could pop up. It was great to spend time with Susan. She was purring a loud as normal, loving the attention while my wife and I petted her, and reacting to the loud noises from the other pets. She seemed about as normal as we could have hoped, behaviorally.

Image

Thanks for your response! I really hope that she's able to regain this function for bladder/bowel. If that goes well, we could be looking only at a partial tail removal and time for that pelvis to heal. I really hope that she hasn't suffered any permanent damage, though (and I know the signs look good so far). She is such a sweet cat and already a daddy's girl :D

Any comments - and certainly any prayers - are appreciated!
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critters
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Re: New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by critters »

:whale: Yes, it takes time to see what will happen, and months would be a more accurate timeline. It sounds pretty good so far!!

My Beauty had also been hit by a car and had a crushed pelvis that healed by itself. When she was spayed Dr. C. tried to look to make sure there was enough room for her colon to get through, and it never gave Beauty any problems.
BrianN
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Re: New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by BrianN »

Thanks for the help! We got great news yesterday, that she had a BM and kept peeing in her litter box, so we got a great Valentine's Day gift in taking her home. She is doing well, even walking around in her big crate as we give her time to heal. We have an appointment on Monday to determine when to proceed with the partial tail amputation, but as long as there complications, she should make a full recovery :D

What a crazy few days. She's a tough little girl. I can't believe that she's doing this well just four days after being hit by a car and a vet saying the "e" word!
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critters
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Re: New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by critters »

BrianN wrote: What a crazy few days. She's a tough little girl. I can't believe that she's doing this well just four days after being hit by a car and a vet saying the "e" word!
I can. :D

Congrats!
kerryj67
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Re: New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by kerryj67 »

Hi

I just joined and looking for some help please. My beautiful cat Lucy got hit by a car on the 22nd of October.She has a broken pelvis, leg and tail. She is still at the vets. The first vet realeased her on the 24th October in the hope of me expressing her bladder this didn't work as she didn't like so taking her back to my own local vet they were unsuccessful expressing her bladder and this was due to her muscles starting to work just a little and her fighting it and it hurting her. So then from Wednesday the 25th of October and until today she has been at the vets. She seems very happy when i go to see her everyday and looks sad when I leave. She can stand now and walk but she cannot urinate at all and they think she now might be a little aware of when she is doing a poo.The vets told me Saturday she thinks she wants to teach me how to put a catheter into lucy daily so I can empty her bladder at home to save me some money paid over 1400 for last ten days. I dont cvare about the money I just want Lucy home with me.
Please Im kind of scared about the catheter and how hard is it and no expressing isnt an option as it hurts her.

Also Im starting to really stress she cant urinate and everything but this is ok, amitly she is getting her tale amputated after everything else is sorted please help me so nervous stressed and worried and feel so alone :(
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critters
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Re: New Cat Hit by Car, Possible Paralysis

Post by critters »

kerryj--I answered in the other thread.
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