OT: My cat Sea Urchin

[tlhdoc]

Three weeks ago, my DS woke me at 0230 and said "Mom there is something wrong with Urchin."  Urchin was on the far side of his bed between the bed and the wall.  He was shaking, had defecated and was holding his head on an angle.  His tail was whipping back and forth, you could see he was very agitated.  I thought he was having a seizure.  After checking him out as well as I could in that spot, I slowly lifted him up and carried him into the living room.  He continued with the same symptoms and I noticed that his eyes were moving fast to the left and slow to the right.  Back and forth constantly.  When he tried to move he would just roll over, he couldn't sit or stand.  He threw up and defecated again.  At 0330 his condition had not changed, so off to the ER Vet we went.  I was thinking maybe he had been poisoned or had fallen and had suffered a head trauma.  The vet admitted him saying it could be a brain tumor, a middle ear infection or a nerve problem with the middle ear.  They put an IV in and started him on antibiotics and steroids.  At 0730 I called the ER Vet and new doctor had come on duty.  He was leaning toward it being a nerve thing with the middle ear, but that Urchin's condition had not changed.  I called again after 1500 and there was some improvement.  Urchin could sit for a short time before he fell over.  At 0230 am on Monday morning I called to check on him again.  They told me that they were going to allow him to come home, but that he may need to be readmitted at the ER place (only open 7 pm to 7 am and full time on the weekend) or my regular vet if he couldn't/wouldn't drink or eat.  So at 0600 I picked him up and brought him home.  So $425 later I have a motion sick cat that we don't know how much he will recover.  He was able to take a couple of steps at this point.  I moved a bed, water bowl and litter box into the living room (the dogs liked that).  We offered him the normal dry food and he wouldn't eat.  He did eat some of his crunchy treats though.  He only used the living room litter box once, but would urinate when I carried him to the regular litter box.  So with all this going on I decided to buy him some wet cat food to encourage him to eat.  Guess what?  The moist food is the poisoned food that has been recalled.  Here is my cat so ill, and I give him poisoned cat food to eat.  Every day he improved a small amount.  9 days after this started my DH took him to our regular vet for a follow up visit.  At home he had been able to run a few steps before he would fall over.  At the vet's office he couldn't run, couldn't walk, couldn't stand or sit.  He fell over when ever he tried to move.  He had been fine and now this.  DH brought him home with more steroids.  He put him on a chair to take the harness off and then Urchin jumped down and waled off.  We don't know what to think.  So the final diagnosis is that Urchin has a brain lesion.   Most cats recover/ or adapt to it with in 3 days.  His case was very sever and a full recovery is doubtful.  He is doing well and seems to be comfortable.  We have a few days of steroids left and then we will see what happens.

[Hargus]

Tracy,
        My thoughts are with you and Urchin. Not only are our animals our companions, they are family members. I hope Urchin is comfortable and feeling better.
 I enjoyed the company of your dog (the name escapes me) for a couple of days at the last rally. Very friendly and well behaved. I wouldn't have known the dog was there if I wasn't camping behind you. May we see the dog at the next rally? Maybe to long of a trip. It's obvious to see you take great care caring for your animals.

[tlhdoc]

KC is our Dalmatian and thank you for the complements.  She loves to go camping, but when I take her my activities are limited.  I took her to the Rally last year, because I had to go to work on that Monday.  I took her home on my way to work.  So she got to camp and I had time to do some sight seeing after I took her home.  She will be going to North South Lake campground in the Catskill Mts. of NY the first weekend in May.  She is also planning on going to Locust Lake SP, PA for our fall rally.  In between she may go on some other trips, but most PA SPs don't allow pets, so she has to stay home most of the time.

[copcarguy]

I hope Urchin is okay...

 
awwww I miss my little KC.  

[AustinBoston]

Last fall (or early winter), we were just about ready to put our German Canardley dog, Rescue, down for good.  She has arthritis in her hind knees and has trouble with stairs, and she came in from doing her business one morning shaking.  She just stood over the heat register trying to get warm, something I'd never seen her do before.

We figured it was over, but within 48 hours she seemed to be 80% recovered.  We decided to see how things went day by day, and she never seemed to get really bad again, so she's still with us.  

There are some funny things that happen, though.  She won't go out through the back deck.  It has 12 stairs in a row.  But she'll go out through the garage, which means only seven stairs to the landing, then three to the garage, then another two to the yard, for a total of 12 stairs.  

In another incident, she was offered to go for a car ride.  After deciding the hop to get into my car was too much, she backed off and nosed the van door to say "Can we take the van instead?"  Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?  At least, they can try new ones themselves!

In any case, I do hope your Urchin will be his/her old self soon.

The moist food is the poisoned food that has been recalled. Here is my cat so ill, and I give him poisoned cat food to eat.

My understanding is that most of it is fine, but they can't identify which containers are contaminated without knowing how it got there in the first place.

Austin

[pershingd]

I hope Urchin is doing better as well.

The wife and I have a mixed breed dog (Baby Dog) that went through a similar bout about a year ago. She had many of the same symptoms you described and so we rushed her off to the vet. Now, this dog is OLD. She was almost a year old when she arrived at our front gate 14 years ago, followed us in, turned around and pushed the gate closed.

The vet looked over her and declared that she had had a stroke. She was prescribed a weeks worth of steriods and then a daily dosage of aspirin. That was almost a year ago and she's doing very well. Even the vet was amazed at her recovery when she got her vaccinations a few months later.

My point is this: No matter how bad it looks, pets can adapt to things far better than you or I can sometimes. Everyday I am amazed that Baby Dog is still with us. She doesn't see, hear, or move as well as she used to (I swear she's ignoring us sometimes), but she still is a part of our lives.

My best wishes to your family.
David

[tlhdoc]

I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes.  Urchin is sleeping on the back of the sofa as I type this.

[wavery]

I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes.  Urchin is sleeping on the back of the sofa as I type this.

Well.................that's 1 down...8 to go :sombraro:

Seriously....I hope that Urchin recovers completely. Cats are amazing that way.

[tlhdoc]

Seriously....I hope that Urchin recovers completely. Cats are amazing that way.

Thank you.

[SheBantam]

Tracy, is he still doing OK?

[tlhdoc]

Urchin is holding his own.  He still holds his head to the right and is a little clumsy, but other than that he does ok.  I guess he is not going to fully recover, but that is all right with me.  I am just happy he is still here and seems comfortable.