# Young Cat with Spondylosis



## RuledByMiso (Aug 17, 2010)

My heart kitty, Miso, was diagnosed with spondylosis just before Christmas. 

She's always been a somewhat timid cat with everyone other than me, but in November I started noticing she was acting even more withdrawn. She was hiding a lot, wanting to be by herself, not playing with the other cats, etc. Then one day I went to pick her up and she screamed and I knew something was really wrong. I made an appointment with my vet right away. My vet took one look at her and said "Oh my, she's in pain". She checked her all over and came to the conclusion that she had pain in her hip/tail area. She did some xrays and found she had spondylosis along her spine close to where her spine and tail meet. She was actually kind of surprised that Miso was in that much pain because it was only on a small section of her spine but she did a very thorough exam and couldn't find anything else that would be causing her pain, and she was only showing signs of pain in the one area. 

The vet prescribed metacam for pain and a joint supplement (glucosomine, chondroitin, and msm). It took a little bit but we started to see definite improvement with her, not perfect but a lot better than what she was. Then Miso started acting out towards my other cats, especially the kitten, Cody. She'd seek him out and attack him, would attack the other cats if they got close to her, and looked very very stressed. So back to the vet we go, my vet checks her out and we talk for a long time about how Miso has been acting and my vet is observing her while all this is going on and she says she thinks Miso is very stressed from being in pain, and since she was already somewhat timid and stresses easily, she thinks that she is over stressed and is not able to cope with it. We discuss options and we both agree that it is best to temporarily put her on Clomicalm, which is for anxiety. 

She has been on the clomicalm for about a month now and is doing very well. For the first week she was a bit groggy but she's gotten over that and is not acting "drugged" at all, she is much more relaxed, and is just a very, very happy cat. It makes me so happy to see her so content and to hear her purr....her happy purr is like nothing I've ever heard. It's the sweetest sound in the world. She stopped being snarky with the other cats, stopped attacking Cody, stopped hiding. I was a bit scared at first to put her on the anxiety meds but I'm really glad that I listened to my vet, to see the change in Miso is amazing. We're hoping to keep her on them for maybe another month and then try and wean her off and see how she does. 

While all of this is going on, I'm still having some concerns about Miso. She has always been a playful cat, and her fave game has always been fetch. She would play fetch for hours and hours, we usually only stopped because my arm got so tired from throwing the mouse. When she was first diagnosed with spondylosis it was obvious why she didn't really want to play anymore, but even after getting the metacam and joint supplements she still didn't really want to play. My vet and I then thought maybe she wasn't playing because she was so stressed and we were hoping that after starting the clomicalm she would start playing again, but she didn't. I started noticing she didn't jump anymore, she didn't go up on the scratching posts, I had to lift her up on the bed at night, etc. Sometimes when she was laying down her back end would tremble, almost like a constant vibration. And when she got up from laying down and started to walk she'd have to stop and kick her back legs a bit. Then last week I noticed she kept going in the litter box but wasn't using it. This had happened when she was first diagnosed because it hurt for her to poop  I called my vet again and made another appointment.

My vet did a really thorough exam and came to the conclusion that my Miso is still in pain  It's not as bad as it was, but it's still there. We talked about options and agreed that neither one of us wanted to increase the metacam if possible as she is only a young cat (she will be 3 this August) and definitely don't want to go the narcotic route unless it's a last resort. Some of the options are: acupuncture, physiotherapy, chinese medicine, and other natural or holistic remedies. We don't want to do to much at once because then we may not be able to tell what worked and what didn't. For now we are trying elk antler velvet that is ground up into a powder and given with food. It is supposed to be really good for mobility, and I've had friends with dogs with hip and elbow displaysia try it and have awesome results. She's been on it since Wednesday so it's too soon to see any results yet.

I apologize for this being such a long post, I don't even really know why I posted it. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a young cat with spondylosis? What did you do that worked? I'm really worried about Miso, the more I read about the more it seems like it is something that is just going to get worse and worse....

If anyone has any experience I'd really appreciate hearing about it.


----------



## suwanee (Jan 22, 2011)

I don't know anything about Spondylosis, but I wanted to say I'm sorry you and Miso are going through this, and hoping it gets better.

I know acupuncture is good for both pain and anxiety: if you can find someone who practices on animals and you can afford it, it might be worth a try.


----------



## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

Your kitty has arthritis? Poor baby. I don't really know what to suggest, but if her quality of life seems improved, she may just be leery of over doing it and causing pain, so she may not want to run for that reason alone. Or maybe she knows that jumping causes pain in joints that she otherwise doesn't feel, sometimes you can feel fine doing something like walking, but moving certain angles or positions is very painful. If that's the case, she's learned that jumping is off the list of things to do...

Spondylosis can be terrible, but there are degrees of it. Sometimes it can go away, other times it's manageable without medication, other times it is crippling. Don't just read the worst case scenario stuff.


----------



## RuledByMiso (Aug 17, 2010)

Carmel said:


> Your kitty has arthritis? Poor baby. I don't really know what to suggest, but if her quality of life seems improved, she may just be leery of over doing it and causing pain, so she may not want to run for that reason alone. Or maybe she knows that jumping causes pain in joints that she otherwise doesn't feel, sometimes you can feel fine doing something like walking, but moving certain angles or positions is very painful. If that's the case, she's learned that jumping is off the list of things to do...
> 
> Spondylosis can be terrible, but there are degrees of it. Sometimes it can go away, other times it's manageable without medication, other times it is crippling. Don't just read the worst case scenario stuff.


Thank you, that makes me feel a bit better. I've been trying to find info online but it seems like all I can find is worse case scenario stuff, or "I don't know".

My vet called me about an hour ago. She's been speaking with other vets to get some of ideas of options for Miso. She spoke with a naturopath vet today that said she thinks we're on the right track with the low dose of metacam and the joint supplements, but that if we didn't see improvement within the next two weeks she would recommend acupuncture. So, I'm hoping within the next 2 weeks Miso feels much better, but if not, off we go to acupuncture.


----------



## RuledByMiso (Aug 17, 2010)

After Miso's 2 week recheck, which was Wednesday, she's still in considerable pain. Her mobility has improved, but it seems her pain is increasing to the point that she is almost where she was at in December when all of this started.
My vet examined her again, agrees she is in pain and that it appears to be coming from the same area that she has the bone spurs, but when looking at her x-rays, her spondylosis doesn't appear to be bad enough to be causing her this much pain and discomfort, and nothing else looks out of place on the x-rays. My vet has even had other vets look at the x-rays just to make sure she is not missing something. Miso is just miserable, she is only moving if she has to otherwise she just lays in one spot.
So, my vet referred us to a chiropractic vet who I have heard a lot of really good things about, and we have an appointment today (6 hours away...I'm counting down the minutes!). I'm hoping that she can figure out what is going on with Miso and offer her some relief. Seeing her in so much pain and not being able to instantly fix it is unbearable.


----------



## Valentine's Heart (Mar 18, 2011)

Please keep us up-dated. I really feel for the poor creature!


----------



## tigressbythetail (Dec 1, 2010)

How heartbreaking. I feel for you and Miso. Nothing worse than having one of our fur kids in pain. I hope your visit to the chiro brings Miso some relief.


----------



## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

I know nothing of Spondylosis, and I thank you for keeping us updated with Miso's condition. So sorry you and Miso are having to deal with this. Will be interested to hear if the acupuncture will work. I certainly hope you find that something does.


----------



## RuledByMiso (Aug 17, 2010)

I am the happiest person in the world 
The acupuncture went great! Miso was really scared at first, new vet office, new vet, etc. But the vet sat right down on the floor with her and just talked with her in a really soothing voice until Miso would let her sit by her. Then the vet petted her but also did some acupressure until Miso relaxed, then she put 4 needles in along her back and said we'd just leave them there until Miso said she had had enough. After a few seconds of having the needles in I saw her visibly relax, it was amazing. And she just laid there on the floor for just short of an hour with the needles in, perfectly relaxed. After the needles were removed she still had a little bit of sensitivity along her spine but not nearly as much as before. The vet said she wanted to see her again in a week and then she might only need occasional treatments or may not even need any more treatments.
We've been home for about 2 hours and she has been following me everywhere, purring, squawking like a seagull, winding in and out between my legs....did I mention purring? The loudest happiest purr I've ever heard...it sounds like music. 4 hours ago she could barely walk!
I can't come up with any words to describe how happy I am, how relieved I am...I can't even stop crying (happy tears of course!). My Miso is going to be okay


----------



## Darkcat (May 27, 2010)

That's wonderful news!


----------



## tigressbythetail (Dec 1, 2010)

I'm so happy for you!:kittyturnThat's what's so great about sharing on this forum. Now if any of us have need of it, we have the information for alternatives if traditional medicine doesn't work. 

Wonderful news!


----------



## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

Fantastic news. I'm so glad this worked for Miso. I hope it will be a permanent cure for her, but at least it's relieved her pain and discomfort and that's the main thing, and she's showing how grateful and happy she is!


----------



## RuledByMiso (Aug 17, 2010)

She's still feeling great this morning although the loud purring has calmed down a bit 

I'm excited for her 2nd acupuncture treatment this coming Saturday as then we should have a better idea of whether she will need continuous treatments, or just occasional "tune ups".


----------



## RuledByMiso (Aug 17, 2010)

Update from the second treatment:

Miso was still doing great when we went in for her appointment last Saturday. Because her pain had decreased so much the vet was actually able to feel around some and decided that Miso's pelvis was misaligned and that is what is causing her to be in so much pain. She does have spondylosis as well, but my regular vet was correct in that the spondylosis she has is very minor, and that something else is causing the problem, the something else being the misaligned pelvis. This vet said that from speaking with me about her symptoms she believes she was born this way, as she has been displaying "discomfort" signs and signs that there were nerve issues since she was a kitten, but I didn't recognize them, and since they didn't happen often it wasn't something I mentioned to my regular vet during annual examination. I feel like the worst cat mom ever....she has been in pain for 3 years and I'm just noticing it now! Granted, I know that I'm noticing it now because the signs were much more obvious now because it has gotten worse, but still.
I'm a bit torn on how the treatment went this time. Miso obviously got great relief from the acupuncture last time and her relief wasn't as obvious this time. But, the vet did have to do some chiropractic adjustments and unfortunately they did cause Miso pain. It was to be expected, the vet said that's why she didn't do any chiro the first time, because Miso had been in so much pain she wouldn't have been to handle it at that point. It was really hard to watch because Miso kept looking at me like "Do something this lady is hurting me!" and all I could do was tell her it was going to be okay. She did some acupuncture afterwards because she said the muscles needed to be told how to properly keep the pelvis in place. Miso wasn't as calm during the acupuncture this time, but that was mostly because of the discomfort from the chiro.
The vet also told me that since Miso's issue has been ongoing for so long she thinks it will take a long time to correct it, possibly 1-2 years. Part of me is very happy that we know the cause now and it is correctable and hopefully Miso is on the track to live a happy and pain free life. But another part of me is freaking out about 1-2 years of treatment...I don't know how I'm going to afford it! I'm obviously going to have to because she needs it, but I'm slightly stressed right now thinking about it.
Miso seemed happy when we got home Saturday and didn't seem to have a lot of discomfort, but Sunday and today she was really "down", sleeping a lot, not really moving around much. I called the vet office and the receptionist there said that can sometimes happen, especially after the first chiropractic adjustment, but I can't help but worry. It's what I do!
She's got another appointment in 3 weeks time and then we should have a better idea of how often she'll need treatments. I'm hoping she'll have lots of improvement!


----------

