This past week we took in a little black and white Kitten that is four months old. She was an owner surrender and in desperate need of medical attention.
The day she came to us she was terrified. She was shaking and panting, her belly was extremely large and she was passing blood and she also had a very unpleasant odor coming from her. But that was not all … she was paralyzed on the hind quarters.
A phone call was made to our vet and they told us to get her there ASAP. We had two volunteers here taking inventory, they dropped everything to help this little girl. One of the volunteers jumped in the car and rushed this little girl to the vet. After a thorough examination it was determined that the kitten had a severe UTI which was causing the blood and the odor. X-rays also showed that she had two bladder stones which were most likely caused by letting the UTI go untreated for so long. The injury causing the paralysis was an old injury and the bones had already fused together. She was quickly put on antibiotics to take care of the UTI but she still had the bladder stones to contend with.
After a little more investigating we found out that the kitten had been injured when she was a tiny kitten not much older than 2 or 3 weeks which caused the paralysis. Most usually when cats are paralyzed on the hind end they cannot go to the bathroom on their own, they need their bladder expressed. We are not sure if that was even happening.
We still have so many unanswered questions about this little girl. For now she is at the vets receiving the best possible care. The girls there have named her “Cola” as she is hanging out with another paralyzed kitten her age who looks just like her named “Pepsi.”
Cola is coming out of her shell a little every day. On Thursday she had surgery to remove the bladder stones and she was spayed at the same time. Her surgery went really well and we are thankful for that. As far as her health, we are not sure right now what the future holds for Cola but we are going to give her every chance. It is clear that she has decided to hang around for a while given the fact that she has survived this long with her injuries and medical condition.
We are educating ourselves on how to care for a paralyzed cat. If we are going to help Cola we need all the knowledge we can get. It is a lot of work expressing her bladder four times a day; making sure she gets the proper diet; keeping an eye out to make sure she does not get another UTI; and making sure her environment allows her to be a kitten and not get hurt.
If we are going to do this we need to do it right. Cola deserves all the love and care we can give her and we do not take this responsibility lightly. We ask you all to keep Cola in your thoughts and prayers.
I would like to leave you with one final thought. Before taking on a special needs animal ask yourself the hard questions. Do you know anything at all about its special needs? Is your home set up for a special needs animal? Are you able to afford the medical bills that comes with a special needs animal? Do you have the time for a special needs animal?
Caring for as special needs animal is a big responsibility and takes a lot of time. If you can not answer yes to all of the above then you need to ask for help. We will keep you updated on Cola’s progress
We have received the results of Lilly’s biopsy. Lilly is the little shih tzu we told you about a few weeks ago. The results were not what we wanted to hear. Some of the tumors were benign while others were malignant. Lilly will have a second surgery in August. For now she is resting comfortably and loving life.
Thank you for your continued support and as always thank you for reading our column.
