Cat with neurological problems

summerrrrxo

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Hello! New here. About a year and a half ago I found a very small kitten on the side of the street. From the begining he always seemed to need more care than any of the other cats I’ve had in the past. He has a hard time balancing and running, and doesn’t really clean himself so I have to give him baths. His eyes are a little off and he meows a lot over nothing. He’s about 6lbs full grown so I’m assuming he was a sick runt left behind. He has started peeing all over my house and when I went to get him fixed they denied me because of him shaking and being off balanced. He now spends most of his time in my mud room or outside supervised. I was advised to see a specialist, I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on my kitten right now but I really need to get him spayed so he can atleast walk around the house again without destroying it. Has anyone else ever went through this and have any tips or recommendations that would be great, I live in the Miami area.
 

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di and bob

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He looks awfully thin in those photos, he may be malnourished, which wouldn't help any problems he is having. Try giving him all he wants of good nutritious cat food and see if that helps. With his balance problems they may be hesitant to give him anesthesia, it may really be bad for him. He may have had a head injury, the shaking could be small seizures. It may be worth it, in the long run, to save and bring him to someone who could neuter him with what is going on. Maybe not an expensive specialist, but another vet who is more knowledgeable on these things. You could call some in your area. You are doing all you can with what you have, bless you for helping him......
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. I agree about feeding him more food if he will eat it. Have you had any sort of tests done on him - blood work, urinalysis, anything else? If so, there is a possibility you could at least call around looking for - at a minimum - an internal medicine vet - and ask how much it would cost for a second opinion consult - based on copies of those test records from the current vet (they are free to you if you ask for them). If you could accomplish that, they would give you a run down on what they might suspect, what other tests that they thought would be appropriate and the associated costs. It would at least give you an idea of a direction to head in as you try to accumulate the funds to get some of the testing done.

It is my personal opinion some further testing will be needed before he can be neutered - and, to help with his long term care. But, an internal medicine vet might have some other options for you to consider as well.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Since he has had the balance and shaking issues since he was a small kitten, I wonder if he has
cerebellar hypoplasia. Has your vet ever mentioned that? It sometimes looks like the kitten/cat is drunk and often they will actually fall down when they try to walk, run, play, even eat or use the litter box, depending on the severity of it. But they still live healthy and happy lives. If that's what he has, there isn't any "cure" for it, because their brains aren't completely developed in the area of fine motor skills. Of course, that doesn't explain the urinating outside of the litter box. Did they check him for a UTI or anything like that?

And I do agree that he looks awfully thin. If you can get him to eat more, I definitely would try.
 

StanAndAlf

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Also have him checked for an ear infection. Severe infections (middle ear ones in particular, which cannot be seen by just looking in the ear) can cause very bad balance issues. They are also quite painful, which may explain the vocalization. Seeing as you bathe him often, some water may have gotten into the ear and caused such an infection. It might be worth checking out before running more expensive tests :dunno:
 

Tik cat's mum

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My kitten had vestibular desease caused by a middle ear infection. At the vets his ears looked fine no rupture or fluid. But he did have a head tilt to the side of the infection. So we went with a course of antibiotics for 8 weeks and slowly his balance came back. No specialist or expensive test. Maybe its worth talking to your vet about vestibular problems. I know the head tilt isn't always present with vestibular disease but the unsteadyness is a factor. So maybe some antibiotics will sort this out. We put off nurturing until my boy had finished his meds and was back to normal, vet's like to know what the problem is before they put them under in case they have a problem. Once he's neutered his peeing might inprove. Good luck hope you can get some answers for your boy.
 
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