Kitten Diagnosis - Can't walk

Hi All,

My fiance and I adopted two kittens in August from a reputable cat rescue. All has been well until the last 3 weeks we noticed that Ana (the smaller kitty of the 2) wasn't playing or climbing as nearly as much as she had been. We figured it may have been behavioral with her much bigger sister playing rough. As of 2 weeks ago, we started to realize Ana wasn't eating nearly as much, so we changed up her food and she tended to eat as normal.

This past week we noticed she wasn't eating as much, staying in one spot, hiding under beds, so we took her into the vet. The vet checked her out stating there was no fever, no dehydration, muscle response was great and ultimately we decided to run a blood test. The next morning we noticed Ana wasn't able to sit-up, or walk. We immediately brought her back in and the Vet was able to get the blood results to show everything looked fine. 

We decided to go through x-rays, and nothing was shown in the x-ray. We're currently having the vet put her on an IV and hoping she is feeling better at the end of the day. We still are waiting for the FIP analysis to come back and we're praying it's not that.

It's just so weird that our Ana has no fever, no diarrhea, doesn't seem to be in pain, is hydrated, and has normal glucose levels. I'm not sure what I'm  looking for posting but if anyone has experienced, I would love to hear from you.

I certainly can't give you a diagnosis, but I have had experience with a cat with similar symptoms, also from a shelter situation.  She turned out to have "dry" FIP and it manifested neurologically in the end, and we put her to sleep so she would not suffer, and it was diagnosed on post mortem exam.  I hope this is not the case with your kitten, but you asked for comments from people with similar experiences and it sounds a lot like the one we had.

Thank you for sharing your experience Red Top

I can't give you a diagnoses either, but I do have experience with a suddenly paralyzed cat. Our cat turned out to have hcm, a type of heart failure, she was 3 years old then. HCM tends to cause blood clots, specifically blood clots that get lodged in the distal aorta (saddle thrombus), causing hind leg paralysis.
With immediate treatment, blood thinners, heart medication and some other things I can't remember (it was 14 years ago) she did partially recover but always stayed weak in her back legs. She died a year later, we found her curled up in her bed, she died in her sleep, probably from a stroke or blood clot in her heart.
But the fact that she did recover at all was exceptional, most don't unfortunately. Our vet told us this is the most common cause for sudden paralysis of the hind legs, and HCM is pretty common too.
Are her legs cold, and does she have any feeling in them at all? Cats often do have a lot of pain with a saddle thrombus, but our cat never showed any pain. HCM will also cause lethargy because of decreased cardiac output, so that would fit too. HCM is found at all ages, even as young as a couple months old...
Sorry I don't have a positive story either, but I would really look into HCM.

Thank you all!

Ana has been on Doxy and Prednisone for 3 days and has shown some more signs of life. Still no fever, diarrhea, vomitting, or other indicators of illness outside of not being able to walk. She stretches and can use her paws and responsive to touch, but just not the motor skills to get walking.

She's eating much more and taking water. We're hoping the meds can help get her back to normal!

Thanks for keeping us posted.  We hope Ana continues to improve on the medication. 

I am so happy to have found this site and I wish I would have seen this before my Stud Muffin was euthanized. It makes me so angry to see that there was hope. The 24hr vet hospital sold it to me at there was no hope for him.

He was diagnosed with Straddle Thrombus with advanced heart disease and CHF. It was the most scariest thing I have ever experienced. I miss my Stud Muffin so much and I feel like I still hear him.