# Front/four legs paralysis?



## Doug5d9x (Aug 16, 2009)

I have an indoor-only ~9-yr old solitary female spayed cat. Wednesday 2AM she was running around normal, the next day Thursday 10am she could no longer walk. In particular she could not straighten her front legs, and scooted around on her "elbows" for a short time, while her rear legs would extend completely. After about 30 minutes of this (-to make certain it was not something temporary, caused from possibly sleeping wrong?-) I took her to the local vet.

Later that evening they said she would not stand at all anymore, but part of that I suspect was just stress of being in a strange place. They gave an antibiotic and a steroid shot (in case the cause was either a bacterial infection that I forget the name of [they told me at the time] or a fall injury). Blood and urine test didn't show anything alarming (slightly raised sugar levels; she is fed Eukanuba regular/adult, Royal Canin Indoor, Science Diet Hairball Control and every other day she gets Meow Mix wet food).

Friday she showed no improvement so they did an x-ray and didn't see anything unusual with the spine at all, and gave another larger dose of steroids/antibiotics. Saturday morning there was still no improvement, and I took her home. The local vet said it could be a fall injury or could be a tumor (?) on the spine or brain and that the next step was to take her to somewhere that could do CT or MRI imaging, and mentioned a cost estimate of $3000 US for that, which included some level of remedial surgery. I don't know how much the imaging alone would cost, but that will be my first question. 

(?) I did not argue with the vet, but from my two-bit medical reading, it seems like tumors show progressive effects over time of months or weeks, not overnight. I would think this would have to be something rapid like a stroke or aneurysm, which is still not good. 

I have not had the chance to speak with the CT/MRI place at all yet; I plan on calling them Monday morning to discuss the details but this info was given to me on Saturday afternoon and everything's closed on Sunday. I expect I will pay for the imaging, at least--it seems to be the only way to really know what happened.

The cat can still move her head/neck/trunk very well, and alternates between appearing as alert as normal (such as looking in the directions of any odd noises) and just curling up into a ball--though I am wondering if this is pain? Or just being tired? This cat has never been hurt before so I don't know. Mentally she appears normal--she has no problem holding her head level for example, even though she cannot stand by herself. She did not appear to be in any pain that the vet could localize, and still doesn't. Since getting home, she does not vocalize like she's in pain at all. She does seem to purr a lot, but not as much as a vet-tech relative had me believe she should if she was in _great_ pain. 

She alternates between mostly lying on her right side, and sitting up on her haunches (but her legs are not well placed underneath when she sits this way, unless I move them). She defecated inside the carrier cage as I was driving her to the vet, and it appeared normal. She has urinated a couple times since coming home, but not defecated at all--though the vet said she refused to eat the whole time she was in there (two days) and now it is two days after that. She has eaten a small amount of food and water since getting home, but has vomited up some of the food.

When she is alert she will even play with toys. If a stick is moved around on the floor she will try to put one of her front paws on it, but can only LAY her paw on it--the ability to press down seems to be completely gone. She will occasionally try to pull herself around on the carpeted floor, and will even stretch her legs normally (front legs straight out forward with toes spread & claws out, rear legs straight down from torso with toes spread and claws out) just like she did before this problem started. If she is laying on her side and "alert", and I dangle a toy in the air, she will feebly attempt to grab it with her front paws if she cannot grab it with her mouth.

Sorry to be so lengthy, but I'm putting in everything I've seen.
I have looked around much online since yesterday morning and not seen anything similar reported. 

Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? The vet did not recall any condition that caused paralysis primarily in the front legs. 

Also if you have any suggestions feel free to chime in.  
~


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Welcome Doug,
I am so sorry to hear about your wonderful kitty. I do not have much to add, but I wanted to welcome you and say *something*, since you posted 5hrs ago. We have some Vet Techs here who may be able to provide more information, _so my post will help bump this up in the New Post Queue in hopes they will see it and respond_.

I did have a cat who slowly lost function of his back legs. This took place, I believe, over Reilly's entire 7yrs of life. However, the dramatic degeneration of his back and legs wasn't really noticed by me as a significant problem until 2004, when he was about 5yrs old and all the litte 'hints' added up to one Big Problem. He declined in motor ability very steadily over the last few years of his life, eventually losing all control of his back legs. He could still stretch and sometimes appeared to have tremors/spasms, like a charlie-horse, though he never indicated he knew what his legs were doing. The vet did not feel he was having seizures since it was only his back legs affected. I could massage them and get them to relax. He was a very happy and cheerful cat. He finally indicated he was ready-to-go in mid-2007. At that time, he had minimal control over his back legs and could only drag himself around the carpet with his front claws. We made concessions to feed him and provide him a place to eliminate his waste and he did his best, but we knew it was a losing battle and we enjoyed our time with him and made sure he enjoyed himself in all things.
After his passing, the vet did some research (_attended a vet symposium and spoke with colleagues_) and found Reilly probably had a spinal tumor whose continual growth caused his symptoms. She did not feel that any diagnostic or treatment options would have changed the outcome at all. That helped to relieve the Husband and I of any guilt we had over our decisions.

Best of luck to you and your cat. I wish I could have been more helpful. atback 
Heidi =^..^=


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## Doug5d9x (Aug 16, 2009)

This morning I called the local vet and they referred me to 
Veterinary Specialty Services in Manchester, MO. I got an appointment and took the cat there this afternoon, and they would begin on it the next day. 

The vet there thought that it appeared neurological and not physical, said it could be as bad as cancer or as easy as a vitamin deficiency but other than that did not really guess what it is either. Most paralysis in cats affects the rear legs most, not the front and in this case the fronts are much weaker than the rears. 

They gave me an estimate of $850-$1400, and I had to pay $700 up front. The list starts off with a myelogram and some blood and spinal fluid tests, and ending with a CT scan and has a bunch of other things in there I dunno nutting about. 
~


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

*_closes eyes to send good thoughts and healing wishes to you and your cat_*

I am hoping they are able to find the cause and successfully treat it. My first thoughts would have been an injury, either a fall or something falling on her, to cause a spinal inflamation and reduced signals until the inflamation goes down. I do think their diagnostics should be able to determine if that was the case. I hope they will do an MRI, I was just reading about them and it appears the MRI gives better (_sharper_) images than a CT scan.

Thank you for coming back to let us know what is going on with your kitty. I don't think anyone here has encountered something like this before. The closest I could think of would be my Rei, but his condition was gradual and not sudden, like your kitty's problems. What is your kitty's name?
Best of luck to you both, _I'll keep you both in my thoughts._
Heidi =^..^=


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## Doug5d9x (Aug 16, 2009)

Update--the cat is still not really walking, but is doing somewhat better. 

The invoices from the two vets are here-
http://www.norcom2000.com/users/dcimper/assorted/inanities/cat/info.html

The first (smaller-amount) one is from the local vet, and the second is from the other. The first vet couldn't determine anything, except to rule out several common possibilities. 

The final diagnosis was that there was some kind of spinal infection, as the white blood cell count in the spinal fluid was very high. The second place ordered four more tests on the spinal fluid but hasn't reported back with the results yet. The last vet said that he would likely try one of two antibiotics (Clindamyacin and Doxycycline) so he just prescribed both. 

I tried a couple days myself and couldn't get the cat to take the dang stuff, so I boarded it back at the local vet for a couple weeks to make sure they could do it. They said today that it is alert, it is eating and trying to walk around more than seven days ago when I brought it in again. It was vomiting fairly often when I got it back from VSS but the local vet says it's not now, so that may have been a side effect of all that VSS did to it. 

The second place was stumped as well. He did say that the CT scan showed that there appeared to be two areas of infection in the spine--one in the neck and the other right below the shoulders, and that the myelogram fluid would not penetrate normally. There was no indication that the infection entered through the skin.

I left the business and vet's name un-blacked in case a similar situation should occur to anyone else. (Veterinary Specialty Services in Manchester MO, Mark Anderson) 
~


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Yowza! 8O 
Well, it looks like Ginger is getting the best of care and they've certainly been thorough. Hopefully the meds will make a difference and help her to recover. There is a sticky-post in the top of the "health & nutrition" forum about "How To Medicate A Cat" that could help you with giving Ginger meds...
heidi


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## Doug5d9x (Aug 16, 2009)

The four tests were the ones on the invoice--Cryptococcosis, toxoplasmosis, ehrlichia and FIP. I have been told that all of those came back negative. 
~


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

To my untrained eye, that seems like they've ruled out some major-players, unless they were false negative tests, and I don't know the probability for that. It still seems like they're being thorough. I guess I had hoped they'd be able to find a more definitive diagnosis, like a spinal injury. Th epresense of the WBC in the spinal fluid does seem to indicate an infection, but I am surprised they haven't located the source of the infection. That is just *me* being surprised. I always want there to be "an obvious answer" and sometimes there just are none.
Still wishing the best of luck and healing wishes for a quick/full recovery for Ginger.
h


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## Mom of 4 (Jul 29, 2006)

I'm glad that your cat is doing better.

As for a tumor suddenly causing something like the paralysis you described, it can happen, but is rarely without some mild symptoms before hand.

Did they culture the spinal fluid?


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## Doug5d9x (Aug 16, 2009)

I don't know exactly what they did with the spinal fluid. 

------- 

The cat is at home now and slowly getting better so far. 

Her back legs are almost normal strength, but the fronts are still very weak. She can walk ~20-25 feet if she's really determined but usually only goes 8-10 feet before stopping to sit for a few minutes. She is not eating much but then it is possible that she's just eating proportional to her activity level, which is much lower than normal. She also tends to hide a lot, but I think that is just the leftover stress of her veterinary travels. 

There never was any conclusive diagnosis. They gave me some more antibiotic to give her, but the cat is very resistant to that. The local vet said there were some other antibiotics that could be tried but I declined for now; the cat is already significantly improved since this happened, and the vet could not offer any guess as to how much or low long recovery would take anyway. 

----- 

I also realized that I made a mistake in the original post: I spread {the last time I saw her normal} and {the time found her crippled} across two days, when both these events happened on the same Thursday morning. I saw the cat running around the house at 2AM, but by 10AM (*eight hours later*) she couldn't walk. 
~


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Wow. Even with your adjusted times of normal-to-abnormal, and a lack of a definitive diagnosis, this is just very weird. I am glad to hear she is improving and I hope she continues to get better.


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## tigerally (Sep 25, 2009)

Hi,

I came across this post while searching for information on sudden loss of use of legs. My cat is currently going through a very similar situation. Last week he was fine, and I came home from work one day, and he was having a lot of difficulty walking on his back legs. We took him to the vet immediately, and the blood tests and physical exam didn't offer any explanation. All they could suggest was a potassium deficiency.

He seemed to be getting a bit better over the week, and now today he doesn't seem to be able to stand on his back legs at all. He can move them, but just not put any weight on them. I've moved them around and squeezed them all over and he doesn't react as if there's any pain. I checked if his back legs were cold, in case there might be a blood clot, but they seem fine (and the vet had also checked his pulse in his legs, and it was fine). 

I'm at a loss - I guess we will take him back to the vet, but your story doesn't give me a lot of hope that they will be able to tell us anything new. 

If anyone does have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Was Lyme Disease considered for either of these cats?


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

tigerally said:


> If anyone does have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it.


Could your cat have injured his back/spine and has swelling or a slipped disc, and if that can be controlled or repaired, he could return to normal? Was his spine examined?
h


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## tigerally (Sep 25, 2009)

Heidi n Q said:


> tigerally said:
> 
> 
> > If anyone does have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it.
> ...


The vet did mention it as a possibility, but they don't want to do any kind of examination that involves sedation, because he's older (17) and has been diagnosed with chronic renal failure for the past five years, so putting him under could be dangerous. They said if it was trauma to the spine, it would likely heal itself.

We hoped that rest would do him good, and it seemed to be until yesterday, so perhaps he hurt himself again while we were out. Last night and today I have just been carrying him from the bed to his litter and food & water, he's not even trying to walk.


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## Doug5d9x (Aug 16, 2009)

doodlebug said:


> Was Lyme Disease considered for either of these cats?


With mine it wasn't considered to be a very likely possibility. 

This cat is kept indoors at all times, and even so it gets Advantage once a month (except during the winter sub-freezing months) because it still picks up fleas without that. I've never found any ticks inside the house or on the cat, ever. 

Besides that--no local reports of Lyme disease otherwise, and the cat's symptoms did not match the disease. 
~


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## tigerally (Sep 25, 2009)

Well, my cat stopped eating last week, so we went back to the emergency clinic, and they said that his body was shutting down - the difficulty walking was just a sign of that. So they put him to sleep that night. I am devastated, of course - he was a fantastic friend and companion for 17 years, and I miss him terribly already.

As your cat is younger, Doug, I doubt it's the same issue - I hope you're both doing well.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Oh, TA, I'm sorry to hear about your kitty. atback 
Would you like to post a memorial/remembrance of him in the Rainbow Bridge Forum?


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