Kitten Injury

[saifhussain23]

Hello,

My kittens are 2+ months old. Just day before, about 54 hours ago!, when i walked into my home after watering my plants,one of my kittens came to me meowing, and i set out to look for her brother.....and i finally found him lying on the floor in my room,.....The carrom board had fallen on him and he was bleeding lots. But he wasnt at all totally under the board, just his nose was, and the blood had already begin to clot. and as i picked him up he passed stools.

We rushed him to the vet nearby, he just cleaned him thoroughly and injected some pain killer and asked us to "wait and observe".
That we did, again in the evening we took him there, the vet injected the pain killer again along with some "neuro tonic" which he said would calm the nerves . All this while he'd been "sleeping", or in a almost unconscious state. He passed urine thrice, but did not feed.

We are asked to get him again the next morning. In the night once, he got startled and lifted his head up briefly, as the door banged loudly. But ten again he slept off.

The next morning at the vet's, the vet said that he may have internal head injury and tried to put him on his paws. He did stand for a while n then lied down again.One of his pupil is dialated and quite unresponsive to light. This time though he reacted to the pain caused by the injection and tried to resist.the doctor said he's improving and will be fine in due course of time. After we got him home, he did react to sound by turning his head around. I was told that putting him on drips or IV would be hard and i should try to force feed him. So i got this syringe and removed the needle and tried to feed him warm milk. To my delight he did start sucking and had his fill.
Later at night he passed stools again. But he looked frail n just slept , hardly opening his eyes.

This morning again at the vet's, he passed urine and stood on all fours briefly. His body temp hasnt changed though. Its 80 degrees plus. i was told the normal is above 100. He woke up during the examination and meowed n resisted to the injections. the doctor told me that he's fine and would sleep. and its normal...and he would get better.

he hasnt really woken up again. but he is drinking milk and responding to sounds occasionally. He even looks better now.

Please comment, he's gonna be alright right??

[saifhussain23]

....And also, what extra care should i provide him to ensure a speedy recovery...???
and well its been almost 24 hours, and he hasnt pissed or ****.....is it ok????

[saifhussain23]

I just took him to another vet, for his opinion,
He checked him and said it could be spinal cord injury as he dint react when the vet pressed his tail......he did when he pressed his paws.
He's given some injection,and asked me to return after 3 days.
he asked me to keep him warm........
when i asked why he wasnt discharging the waste from his body, he said he has given an injection for that as well......... and it would do him good if i mixed about 1/2 ml of cooking oil with his milk. is that fine???

(also when i came home, i tried during the procedure of pressing his paws n tail, like the vet...... but this time my baby dint react to the tail press or paw press)

Please comment, i have been checking every other hour......... :(

[Savas]

firstly, be sure you're giving your kitten a mother's milk replacer (KMR is a good brand), and not actual milk. I'm not sure if your vet mentioned this (cats can't handle lactose, which causes serious digestive problems).

Unfortunately you're dealing with a head injury here, and possibly spinal. At the very least, there's neurological damage.  I hate to say it, but your vet probably simply doesn't know what the result will be. Unless you're willing to run extensive x-rays and other testing, there's no way to be sure. (If you are, you'll need a certified animal hospital).

8 weeks is a borderline age for a kitten to start eating solids, so the bowel issues may not be related. A kitten can adjust at this age, but it can take a bit of time before proper excretion starts on a regular schedule.

The best advice I can offer is keep your kitten in a low stimulus environment for a week or so (no loud sounds, music, dim light, constant temperature). I'd even suggest a cage rest scenario (keeping it locked in a cage).

It's really a situation of seeing what happens. Even if you're willing to foot the bill for surgery, it very rarely is successful with young kittens.

Don't lose hope though, animals have amazing recuperative skills, there's a good chance it will adjust to any problems it's having and soldier on to a long, happy life.

Let us know how it goes.

[fluffypurrcat]

I agree with Savos, and I am very sorry for your poor little kitten, It is very traumatic having a little one injured like this. I agree that you need KMS or somthing similiar, goats milk is a possbile subsitute if no KMS can be found, but not cows milk. Also the idea of a quiet dark room constant warm temperature with no or little stimulus such as noise, etc is very important. Dont give up but realize that he has had a serious injury. Like Savas said, it doesn't mean that he is doomed or won't recover, but he may allways be a little slow or different than most cats. He may even have some physical impairment, trouble walking etc, but that is still along way down the road.
        Putting him in a cage is definitly a good idea, perhaps padded with blankets along the side, just incase he was to have a seizure or was too falll, to make sure he is safe, is the most important thing right now. The fact that he is getting all this love from you is a sure sign that he is getting the best he can right now. The one encouraging thing is that neither of the vets reccomended euthanzing him. If he was in intractable pain or irreversable brain or spinal cord damage, I would hope they were ethical enough to give that advice. Animals as humans can recover from some tremendous adverse conditions given enough time and given the proper care and of course, love. Good luck and lt is obvious you are a very compassionate loving person.          fluffypurrcat

[saifhussain23]

Hey,
Thanks a bunch for the advice guys.....

Its been 7 days now, and my baby's showing , but minor improvement, which is a good thing. But i guess i've had enough of the waiting, without knowing what actually the problem is....

So i have decided to take him to CUPA (first thing tomorrow morning), which is a animal shelter and hospital. I'm sure they'll provide me better advice and remedy. My only wish is that he recovers soon. Well, atleast I'll finally know what the problem exactly is.....

For now he sleeps by me on my bed and his bowel/bladder is clear.
I'm praying for him......He meowed today quite a bit, raising my hopes that he's gonna be ok.

Will keep you all posted....

[Ghilly]

Wow, what a week you have had with your poor, injured kitty!  I really hope that things go well for himwhen you take him to be examined tomorrow.  What I cant figure out is why neither of the vets that have looked at him have wanted to keep him, at least overnight, for observation.  It seems to me that they would have been better equipped to maybe find a way to help him more had they kept an eye on him and watched what he was doing rather than just checking him out when you brought him in and letting him go home.  Neurological injuries are very odd things to deal with, the only thing you have to go on in the absence of MRI images are the outward symptoms, most of which the vets didn't see since they didn't keep him at least overnight.  I'll keep the little one in my prayers, and I look forward to reading your update on Monday.

Ghilly

[saifhussain23]

I'm just back from the hospital, and its been hell for me!!

As soon as i laid my baby on the table, this vet comes up, just sees it, pokes it here and there and says,there is no hope!! he said,he's not gonna mince and weigh his words and sentenced my totu to "mercy killing" :'( :'(

It took me a while to collect myself and as i carried my baby n left , I told him that i would pray that such a thing wouldnt happen.......

From there i took him to another hospital where he was checked by various departments. Finally i was asked to come again tomorrow morning for an x ray ,after which they'll give their verdict. So one more day went by...........bringing tears to my eyes...... and decreasing my hope!!

And to think i got two kittens and my excuse to my mom was "if something happens to one, I'll have another!" Also its not even a year since my old cat disappeared mysteriously.........i had had her for 4 years!! and one days she goes out, never to return!! that too when she was in her last week of pregnancy!! :(

Lets see how things work out tomorrow......for now all i can do is sit here with my baby in my arms and pray to god...... :(

[saifhussain23]

I'm just back from the vet's. Takes me about an hour's drive to go there and the traffic out here is hell!
Anyways the x ray was taken(lunar lateral view) and the doc concluded that there is NO skeletal injury.
Thus they concluded that it has to do with the nervous system, possibly spine(as suspected!)  So they injected something called defomatin???(not sure, i couldnt follow the vet's accent!) and asked me to return after 3 days. I guess thats the same thing that my second vet had administered!! So all the trouble i took seems worthless now. Because if he was treating him with the same medicine, going so far wasnt worth, also considering the fact that this vet stays much much nearer to home.... and moreover that place turned out to be a college as well!! so my baby became an experiment kinda...they shaved is back partially, just to show the students around, where the injection is given!! I was so angry!! but i had to be quiet!!

Anyways they have asked me to keep him as still as possible, which shouldnt be too difficult as he's still as drowsy as he was a week back!!! :(
Please pray for him and me too....... cause its been very traumatic for me.....
I'm hardly interested in anything ....all i do is think and pray for him.......... :(

.............

[saifhussain23]

Oh ,and i forgot to mention there is sensation in all his limb and tail, though the hind limb and tail showed very little response, there was movement and sensation to pain all the same........

The doctor just termed reflexes as"sluggish"......and even said there could be "partial paraplegia"

i really hope that's a good sign that there is sensation......

[Savas]

Well, there's some hope. You will have to make a decision at some point based on the doctor's input. If he's got control of bowel movement, that's a good sign. I'm sure we've all seen the video of the cat with paralyzed hind quarters who walks on his front legs. Which shows anything is possible.

Let us know what happens next, and best wishes.

[saifhussain23]