My Cat Can't stand up

[Lone Wolf]

PLEASE HELP! MY CAT 'SCAMP"Last week my cat stopped eating.
Then he just went off by himself a lot...Then I noticed that he was stagering and having a hard time standing . I took him to the vet and he started him on antibiotes.I have been giving him 10 ML by dropper 2 X a day. So far its been 3 days. Took him tom the Vets today and Vet said he had lost all ability to use his right side. Thought it might be something wrong in the Brain. Said we could take him to a Nueoligist ( can't spell) To find out. We cannot afford that. He also said if it was a tumor there was very litle he could do for him. He gave him a shot to reduce inflamation and he also re Hydrated him. My pore Scamp will NOT eat or drink WHAT CAN I DO????

 

[AddisonRose]

Lone Wolf, I am so sorry to hear about Scamp...hold on, we have alot of animal expertise on the board. AddyRose

 

[AddisonRose]

BTT.

 

[Cardinal]

Lonewolf, how old is your cat?
I would get him a concentrated cat nutritional supplement which you can buy at a vet's. Maybe a pet store would have it. You squeeze some out on your finger and open his mouth and stick it in on the roof of his mouth. He will then swallow ( or spit it out) it. You can buy a syringe or an eye dropper and force feed him water too. Good luck with him.

 

[summerthyme]

LoneWolf- IF the shot (which I assume is cortisone or one of it's analogs) is going to help, it should show some results fairly quickly.

It's possible your cat has some sort of meningitis or other viral inflammation of the brain. We've had too many of them over the years- the "cat AIDS" which is endemic in our barn cats sooner or later changes from constant upper respiratory crud into brain infections.

In our house cats who have had it, we've managed to save some - extend their lives for several more years- with injections of cortisone plus vitamin B.

The thing with cats, though, is once they stop eating, they often just plain don't start again. You need to do everything you can to "jump start" their appetite... if you know of something your cat absolutely loves when he's healthy, try some of it... run it through the blender or a food processor to make "baby food" and hand feed it, a little at a time. And Cardinal is correct- a syringe or eye dropper can be used to get water into them.. but I'd get some Pedialyte and use that instead.

Sometimes, all it take is getting some calories- actually, sugars- back into them, and they'll start back up. If you can get him to take anything at all, consider making up a batch of the "porridge" I wrote about in the thread on the "skinny cat" and get him to start on that.

Don't give up yet! Cats really do seem to have nine lives- and some of them seem to have a few more than that! Unless he seems to be in pain, keep trying and see what happens.

Summerthyme

 

[ioujc]

Hi....Sorry to hear about your cat....I had one that the same thing happened to several years ago. My vet said she had a stroke. She would not eat or drink either. Vet hydrated her, just like yours did, but also gave me a tube of "Nutri-cal", which you can get at pet supply stores or at a vet. It supplies ALL necessary nutrients in about an inch to an inch & 1/2 of paste that comes out of the tube. Also, he said that she needed TOTALquiet and very dim light for at least 3 days. He suggested we put her in another room seperate from our other cats, and leave only a night light on. She was also to be kept in a cardboard box just big enough for her and a small litter box and bowl of water. We put a window screen on top of the box. With in 4 days she was crying and had started getting up. By 7 days, she was ready to get outa that BOX!! We took her out of the box, but made her stay in the room alone for about 4 more days. She was wobbly at first, but soon regained her former ability to run, jump, and play. She was about 7 years old when this happened. We buried her at 13 years of age....she got 6 MORE years after her strokE!!!! I PRAY your "SCAMP" does too!!!

 

[Willow]

Poor Scamp....

Lots of good suggestions so far. I guess the only thing I would suggest is doing blood work...if it hasn't already been done...to determine what's going on inside the kitty. Check for Leukemia and AIDS. Once the blood work gives you a picture you can proceed.

As for appetite, I have found that cats will eat plan meat baby food when they won't eat anything else..... works wonders...especially if you hand feed it warm. Just make sure you continue to keep hydrated as they cannot really eat and have it do any good if they are not hydrated.

Also, do not let Scamp outside. When animals are vey sick they hide and quite often you can't find them to treat them and they die. It is normal for them to want to find a secluded place so be very careful not to allow him to get away from you.

Willow

 

[SmokeyBear]

Cats that do not eat die from not eating. The liver begins to consume itself basically. The condition is called hepatic lipidosis. If Scamp stopped eating -- no matter what caused Scamp to stop eating -- the non-eating will kill him in and of itself. Food and a fairly good quantity of it must be fed to Scamp by syringing it into his mouth or he can be hospitalized on an IV.

Didn't the vet do blood tests to see what was going on in Scamp's system? Because hepatic lipodosis causes extreme head and neck and body wasting/ weakness and if this is what he has it can be remedied with assisted feeding or IV to get him back so that blood tests can be done to see what else is going on.

Hugs to you and Scamp.