This is Neko. He is one of the 5 young kittens I brought home recently. Last Thursday I went down to the foster room around 5 pm to give the kittens their dinner and noticed that Neko seemed unsteady when he was in the litter box. When he crawled out of the litter box I saw that he was not using his right hind leg at all and that the leg was swollen to about two times its normal size. I immediately scooped him up and called the shelter foster coordinator to let her know I was on my way in with Neko. I was very concerned that he had somehow broken his leg.
The foster coordinator and the vet of staff and the time looked at his leg, but we were not really sure what had happened. It was obviously painful to the touch and to use even though he had been fine at about 2pm that same day. The vet prescribed pain medication for the next three days and told me to keep him confined to a cat carrier in the hopes that the swelling would go down. So I took him home with the instructions that if he got any worse at all, or the swelling did not improve over the next few days, to bring him right back in for an x-ray.
I brought him back the next day because it was Friday and there was no improvement. Both the foster coordinator and I were concerned about waiting any longer for x-rays. The vet on staff that day agreed and I took him to a local animal hospital for x-rays. As our vet had thought, the leg was not broken. She was concerned that what he had was a septic joint, so she sedated him and withdrew fluid from the swollen leg to send out for testing. He was also put on multiple antibiotics.
Saturday morning I woke up and got ready to head to the shelter to do an orientation for a new foster family. After checking on Neko, I called in to the shelter and said I was bringing him with me, because I was not comfortable leaving him home alone. His paw was now swollen three times its normal size and I wanted him where I could check on him throughout the day. And it was a good thing I did because midway through the day, he started shaking and breathing hard and stopped eating. We tried to drain the fluid from the foot, but nothing came out. We gave him fluids to help with the fever and the shelter manager called the vet on call who said to give him a shot of prednisone which thankfully seemed to help somewhat.
By Sunday morning the foot was no smaller, but he appeared to be feeling better and acting more normal and was eating again. He still needed to stay in his carrier though. (Just an FYI, a Siamese kitten unhappily confined to a small cat carrier equals sleepless meow filled nights for his foster mom). He went with me to the shelter again that day since I had another orientation to do. Everyone checked on him throughout the day. We repeated the fluids to control the temp again. He appeared in good spirits, but had no improvement in the swelling. The shelter manager told me to bring him back first thing in the morning on Monday to be re-examined by the vet even though they were doing a feral cat spay clinic that day and were not doing exam appointments. He felt that it could not wait until the next day.
The vet looked at him again on Monday and decided to repeat the prednisone shot since it seemed to be helping, at least until the results of the joint tap came back. He continued to feel good and want out of the crate for the next two days. The swelling even seemed to go down just a little bit. And I was so happy because I was really concerned I was going to lose him over the weekend.
Yesterday, the results of the joint tap came back and it turns out that he has a bacterial infection in his leg. His medication has been changed to a different antibiotic and he will be weaned off the prednisone over the next few days. The vet told me that we will probably not be able to figure out how he got this infection. The most likely reason is that he was bitten by one of his litter mates during play, but she had not found a puncture or bite wound when she examined him. So we may never know how this happened, but at least we know what is wrong and how to treat it.
He will been seen by the vet again tomorrow as a follow up to be sure that he is continuing to improve. And hopefully as time goes on he will start to move the leg and regain function. I am just glad that he is feeling well and wanting to run and jump and play even if I can not let him.
So that was my week. How was yours?
Oh, and somewhere during this stressful week, I brought home two new semi-social foster kittens (Yes I know I am crazy). They are named Spider Monkey (just Monkey in our house because Paige does not like spiders) and Tiana (after Tatiana from Disney's Princess and the Frog). They are cute but scared. I will have more on them later, but for now I think I need a nap.
No comments:
Post a Comment