Okay. It may be a terrible photo, but this is a minor miracle. This is Britney, she came in to my work yesterday in a box looking like mangled road kill. We thought she was dead. She’s almost 4 months old and only 1.8 pounds. Yesterday she couldn’t move… but she would eat. And the day had been so goddamned horrible that the vet and I just HAD to try to save her because there was too much death already.
She survived the day at work, so I took her home overnight to continue feeding her a couple teaspoons of slurry every 3 to 4 hours. And she starting moving some. And this morning she was able to turn her head enough to groom a hind foot for a few seconds.
Now, I don’t know if you know cats, but a cat that feels like crap does not groom. And while she doubtless feels like crap… she already apparently felt so much better that she expended that tiny bit of effort. Over the course of today she has been moving about more. And so with the last feeding, I tried to see if she wanted to eat in a normal cat position.
Sure, I had to help her position her hind legs correctly (we’re quite worried about that, but she can pee and poop on her own and move her tail) and sure, she was wobbly as hell and fell over several times, but that my friends is our train wreck kitten sit/standing.
So Britney may be on Death’s doorstep, but she’s no longer in his living room having tea and biscuits and we’ll take what improvements we can get.
Can I just say that Britney is amazing? This is her third evening in my care. Tonight she was able to stand with her belly off the ground, with some leg positioning help. She can also pull herself sternal whenever she wants and kinda shift herself around a bit.
And and and…. just a little bit ago she army crawled a couple steps to me! She positioned her legs herself and wobble-scootched to me because I had stopped petting her itchy ears.
There’s an adage that if you put all the bits of a cat together in one room, it will heal. I think this little girl is trying to prove it true.
I love you Britney! You’re the most fabulous cat ever. You’re on Death’s driveway… and not looking back.
Oh my god! What a strong and beautiful baby! She is amazing and so are you for believing in her! ❤️❤️❤️ I am sending all of my kitty love her way! Please give her special snuggles for me!
Aww poor little baby!!!! Such a strong little baby!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I’m starting to think Britney actually has super powers. I blogged that last update a mere 4 hours ago. I got her out to feed her… and she stood! On her Own! AND SHE WALKED. Not well. But it was up and it was walking, no matter how wobbly, and she walked her way over to me (about 5 steps total) and then CLIMBED ON MY LEGS and is laying there purring and I might be crying right now.
She did that, everyone. On her own.
Yeah. Crying.
Britney is rather amazing. She is doing far better and far faster than we had any reason to expect or even hope for. I mean, 4 days ago we were fairly certain she *wasn’t* going to make it, and now? She’s still weak and wobbly, but when you started with a body condition score (BCS) of 1/9 (5 being ideal) and have graduated to a 2/9, what can you expect?
A different vet did her recheck today. This vet got a glimpse of her on Tuesday, the morning after she arrived. She couldn’t believe the first vet and I were trying to save her. So today she does the exam, and Britney turns and give her the same look that she gave us that first day and this vet looks up at me and says “I thought you both were crazy to even try… but I can see now why you did. She’s won me over. I’m team Britney now.”
She’s still getting fluids under the skin twice a day, and antibiotics. And she got a bath (horror) and a brush out to remove the gunk that was in her fur. Her wounds are healing really well. She is SO soft now, and she purrs SO loud and she loves SO fiercely that her biscuits are painful.
“Ow”
This is the best kitten.
I have given her super long lap sessions because of you all. Britney is very grateful.
Britney had her 3rd recheck exam today with the vet who first helped me save her. She’s far surpassed our wildest hopes. She’s still ataxic (wobbly when walking) and we are unsure if it’s from muscle weakness, toxicity/trauma, or something congenital like a minor case of cerebellar hypoplasia. We’ll have to see how she progresses. She gets her next vet exam in a week. The vet also told me that because she’s no longer in critical condition that she doesn’t *need* to be fostered to me. I’m sure I gave the vet a very strange and fierce expression as I said “But I love her. And she loves me.” And therefore even though I’m NOT keeping her forever, she gets to stay with me until she’s adopted. Because MY foster kitten.
She’s currently helping me enter physical exams and booster vaccines that I’ve done today into the computer. Very useful kitten.
It’s been 2 weeks since I took Britney home, fully expecting her to not make it. Today she was spayed and she did really well during the surgery and had a very gentle recovery.
Two vets did an extra thorough exam on her today and they’ve ruled out cerebellar hypoplasia as a likely cause for her issues for two reasons: 1- she doesn’t have intention tremors, and her issues are limited to her hind legs, and 2- she is painful when you press on her back where the thoracic vertebrae meet the lumbar vertebrae.
We took some really good spinal radiographs while she was under anesthesia and she doesn’t have any breaks or compressions or anything obvious. Both vets think she is not in any danger, but that I should not encourage her to be super active for a while longer. She should not get any worse, and will hopefully get better. So current thought is trauma, probably caused by whatever caused the head and neck wounds as well.
Britney on the recovery bed after surgery.
Super soon Britney is going to be up for adoption. She’s got an ‘unknown neuro’ waiver in place as well as one that she had height restrictions as it’s more accurate to say she flops off the couch rather than jumps. This would be exceptionally bad news if she did it off, say, a 6ft tall cat tree. She is also going to get a big story about her done by my shelter that should go out soon-ish so she can get a wide pool of potential adopters and we can choose the best one for this little miracle kitten.
I’m going to definitely demand (politely!) regular updates from whomever adopts her, because I really love her.
A short video of her and the laser pointer, to show how she kind of flops around when chasing it.
Fibromyangela 