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Hind limb weakness in otherwise healthy 9 month old cat.
- Thread starter Rax
- Start Date
This is the thing. So many things that happen with cats (and humans, and everyone else) are idiopathic, meaning the scientists and doctors simply don't know the causes.
It's a choice we all make every time something goes wrong. Spend lots of time and money looking for a diagnosis and then, a fix. Or not. Most people will opt for the former. That's understandable. The culture promotes that because it's big, big business -- the biggest, in fact. If a cause is found and a fix is done, great. If not...a lot of times, we get better anyway.
*PRAYERS* for Ernie, and for everyone in this situation. I know it's not easy when someone we love has a problem and we don't know why, or how to deal with it.
It's a choice we all make every time something goes wrong. Spend lots of time and money looking for a diagnosis and then, a fix. Or not. Most people will opt for the former. That's understandable. The culture promotes that because it's big, big business -- the biggest, in fact. If a cause is found and a fix is done, great. If not...a lot of times, we get better anyway.
*PRAYERS* for Ernie, and for everyone in this situation. I know it's not easy when someone we love has a problem and we don't know why, or how to deal with it.
Thank you for posting such great news! You did everything you could for her and, while it cost a lot of money, it is wonderful that it was all negative and you were able to at least buy peace of mind. The fact that you got "rule out" diagnoses is more common than you might think in these kinds of cases. Here is to a long and happy life for your baby!
Thank you for your support. This has been really difficult because the vet visits are stressful for my cat and everything costs so much. Seems like this discospondylitis is quite rare illness in cats and I can't find much information about it. The only treatment the vet could think of is giving antibiotics and Metacam for three months to try out if it works out. I'm just terrified of the side effects these meds can cause in a long term use for such a young cat.
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Great news for Ernie!
Lucye-I hope your cat gets better. I did as much research as possible with this (and there's not much!) and they can recover completely. Our poor baby was literally at death's door before getting her treatment. If you would like I can send you her vet reports with her medications and some more details if that helps? Please PM me (private Conversation).
The vet that is treating her for this has been amazing. Its an all cat clinic and they also work with the university here. I would be more than happy to share everything with you. Our cat is still improving. She still has a jerky leg motion, but can climb, walk, sorta jump on furniture, and can sorta run for short bursts before she falls. Our biggest issue has been her weight gain. Steroids and limited mobility has made it difficult. Her progress has been slower to because her vet thinks she did actually suffer some perm. nerve damage because it went undiagnosed so long. She was spayed right before this all happened. She started to lose loss of her legs about two days after her surgery, so the vets were all looking at that. And they even did an exploratory surgery about a week after her spay surgery. They didn't know it was her spine so she wasn't restricted in her movements, etc. She really did almost die. She was young too when it happened-maybe 8 mths or so. But its been almost a year since she was diagnosed so there is definite hope!
I will say that the prednisilone she has been on has been vital. At the beginning when we reduced her dose too much her legs would get worse, so I would definitely speak to you vet about it. Gabapentin also helped with the spasms in her legs and pain.
Sorry this is so long and not well written! I'm on my phone sitting in my car
Lucye-I hope your cat gets better. I did as much research as possible with this (and there's not much!) and they can recover completely. Our poor baby was literally at death's door before getting her treatment. If you would like I can send you her vet reports with her medications and some more details if that helps? Please PM me (private Conversation).
The vet that is treating her for this has been amazing. Its an all cat clinic and they also work with the university here. I would be more than happy to share everything with you. Our cat is still improving. She still has a jerky leg motion, but can climb, walk, sorta jump on furniture, and can sorta run for short bursts before she falls. Our biggest issue has been her weight gain. Steroids and limited mobility has made it difficult. Her progress has been slower to because her vet thinks she did actually suffer some perm. nerve damage because it went undiagnosed so long. She was spayed right before this all happened. She started to lose loss of her legs about two days after her surgery, so the vets were all looking at that. And they even did an exploratory surgery about a week after her spay surgery. They didn't know it was her spine so she wasn't restricted in her movements, etc. She really did almost die. She was young too when it happened-maybe 8 mths or so. But its been almost a year since she was diagnosed so there is definite hope!
I will say that the prednisilone she has been on has been vital. At the beginning when we reduced her dose too much her legs would get worse, so I would definitely speak to you vet about it. Gabapentin also helped with the spasms in her legs and pain.
Sorry this is so long and not well written! I'm on my phone sitting in my car
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Your story sounds so familiar! My kitten was also just spayed before these symptoms started. She was spayed in July 2021 and the symptoms started about two weeks later. First she stopped jumping, then she got a fever and the blood test revealed high crp level. She got antibiotics and got better but still was not able to jump at all. They also did xrays, ultrasound and found nothing. My vet suggested that it's possible some bacteria went into her blood stream during the spay surgery and caused the discospondylitis. I started the antibiotics yesterday and hope this will work out. I'm still looking into alternative treatments too so I will definitely write you MissDonutsMom
DEFINITELY a possibility especially in these pandemic times where the terrible previous Surgeon General made spay/neuter "elective" rather than ESSENTIAL and designated PPE for human-specific procedures rather than for everyone of any species in need of it. I have no doubt that contamination risk is elevated because of this.Your story sounds so familiar! My kitten was also just spayed before these symptoms started. She was spayed in July 2021 and the symptoms started about two weeks later. First she stopped jumping, then she got a fever and the blood test revealed high crp level. She got antibiotics and got better but still was not able to jump at all. They also did xrays, ultrasound and found nothing. My vet suggested that it's possible some bacteria went into her blood stream during the spay surgery and caused the discospondylitis. I started the antibiotics yesterday and hope this will work out. I'm still looking into alternative treatments too so I will definitely write you MissDonutsMom
It is commonly a disease of dogs, especially large breeds, and they do recover usually after an intensive and extended treatment with the correct antibiotics....so hopefully that is the case with cats as well.
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Hi! Just wanted to see how your cat was doing? I really hope she/he is okay!Your story sounds so familiar! My kitten was also just spayed before these symptoms started. She was spayed in July 2021 and the symptoms started about two weeks later. First she stopped jumping, then she got a fever and the blood test revealed high crp level. She got antibiotics and got better but still was not able to jump at all. They also did xrays, ultrasound and found nothing. My vet suggested that it's possible some bacteria went into her blood stream during the spay surgery and caused the discospondylitis. I started the antibiotics yesterday and hope this will work out. I'm still looking into alternative treatments too so I will definitely write you MissDonutsMom
Hey, sorry it took such a long time to write updates! My cat was 3 months on antibiotics and pain medicines (Gabapentin) and she did recover! After 2,5 months of starting the meds, she started jumping again. First on my bed and eventually high jumps on countertops. I was crying for happiness the first time I saw her doing that.. Also the xrays after 3 months of treatment showed that her spine was healing. Since then she has been normal until now. It's been one year since she was spayed and now for the first time she is on heat. It really looks like something went badly wrong when she was spayed because the discospondylitis symptoms started 2 weeks after the operation and now after one year she is on heat which should be impossible. I contacted to the vet and will get some bloodwork done where they check her hormone levels. I'm afraid she has the ovarian remnant syndrome and needs another surgery. All these vet visits and treatments have been stressful for her and I feel so bad that a young cat has to go through so much.. 
I am so sorry that your cat is having to go through all of this! *PRAYERS* for her NOT to have to go through another surgery but if she does, for it to be successful and with no aftereffects.Hey, sorry it took such a long time to write updates! My cat was 3 months on antibiotics and pain medicines (Gabapentin) and she did recover! After 2,5 months of starting the meds, she started jumping again. First on my bed and eventually high jumps on countertops. I was crying for happiness the first time I saw her doing that.. Also the xrays after 3 months of treatment showed that her spine was healing. Since then she has been normal until now. It's been one year since she was spayed and now for the first time she is on heat. It really looks like something went badly wrong when she was spayed because the discospondylitis symptoms started 2 weeks after the operation and now after one year she is on heat which should be impossible. I contacted to the vet and will get some bloodwork done where they check her hormone levels. I'm afraid she has the ovarian remnant syndrome and needs another surgery. All these vet visits and treatments have been stressful for her and I feel so bad that a young cat has to go through so much..
Great news for Ernie!
Lucye-I hope your cat gets better. I did as much research as possible with this (and there's not much!) and they can recover completely. Our poor baby was literally at death's door before getting her treatment. If you would like I can send you her vet reports with her medications and some more details if that helps? Please PM me (private Conversation).
The vet that is treating her for this has been amazing. Its an all cat clinic and they also work with the university here. I would be more than happy to share everything with you. Our cat is still improving. She still has a jerky leg motion, but can climb, walk, sorta jump on furniture, and can sorta run for short bursts before she falls. Our biggest issue has been her weight gain. Steroids and limited mobility has made it difficult. Her progress has been slower to because her vet thinks she did actually suffer some perm. nerve damage because it went undiagnosed so long. She was spayed right before this all happened. She started to lose loss of her legs about two days after her surgery, so the vets were all looking at that. And they even did an exploratory surgery about a week after her spay surgery. They didn't know it was her spine so she wasn't restricted in her movements, etc. She really did almost die. She was young too when it happened-maybe 8 mths or so. But its been almost a year since she was diagnosed so there is definite hope!
I will say that the prednisilone she has been on has been vital. At the beginning when we reduced her dose too much her legs would get worse, so I would definitely speak to you vet about it. Gabapentin also helped with the spasms in her legs and pain.
Sorry this is so long and not well written! I'm on my phone sitting in my car
