Limping Kitten

ginger's mum

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Could someone advise me please.

My darling 7 week kitten Ginger which I've had for a month now started limping on Friday. I was only out for an hour or so and when I got back her back right ankle? was swollen so I took her to the vets. He said she probably twisted it and to give it a couple of days for the swelling to go down and then come back.
She is currently in the process of weaning as well.
I took her back Sunday as I had my husband with me to translate.
The vet took an x-ray, nothing broken and then gave me some Hills a/p for her to eat (she's eaten half a can just today!)
He suspects she might have some kind of virus as when I found her a month a go (she found us
) she had an infected right eye and was sneezing.
We have to take her back in ten days.
She is all stiff in the morning and by the afternoon will rest her foot on the ground but gives a shrill little meow if you should touch anywhere on that leg.
Have you any experience in treating/caring for a kitten with what I think is Calici virus, should I prepare my young son for the worst?
 

coaster

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Paula - your vet "suspects she might have some kind of virus" and you want to treat "what I think is Calici virus". I'm sorry....but this sounds like some kind of lapse in vet-patient communication. Didn't your vet say? Or does your vet not know? If you aren't confident in your vet, I think you should seek a second opinion. If you are confident in your vet, I don't think you should be second-guessing.

In any case, the only home-treatment you can do for a virus is supportive care. Same with an ankle sprain.
 

stephenq

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It may be calici, the definitive symptom being sores in the mouth. Somtimes a limp from joint pain is a symptom as well, although in your case it really may be a twisted foot.

I've had lots of experience with calici, and have seen more cases than I can count. With treatment and supportive therapies your kitten should survive it. She should be on antibiotics immediately to take care of any secondary bacterial infections which are both common and dangerous. Eye cream may be indicated for the eye.

If you do the above then the only real remaining threat to the kittens health and life will come from the effects of not eating or dehydration. It's great she has a good appetite, but the sores in the mouth are often painful, and this can result in reduced eating or no eating. If this starts to occur you will want to provide soft food that's not painful when eaten (like hard food, or even with some canned foods), like human baby food (chicken flavor) stage one. I'm not familiar with baby food in japan, but make sure it has NO ONION in it as this is toxic to cats.

If she refuses to eat you will need to begin hand feeding (force feeding) using a feeding syringe. Your vet can explain to you how to do this should it prove necessary. In rare instances a cat is so unhappy being force fed that a vet may need to keep the cat and feed the cat through an implanted feeding tube. I've rarely seen this happen.

Hopefully its not calici and instead is just a garden variety URI. You can read more at http://www.thecatsite.com/Cats/Cat_H...lter_cats.html

Be proactive and the kitten should recover fine!
Stephen
 
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ginger's mum

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If its not one thing with this girl its another, she is stressing me out no end.
Today her leg is fine but over the course of today its become all swollen around her eyes. No discharge but she looks like shes got 2 black eyes and very bad tempered and sleepy, and is also off her food.
The vet I go to is closed 2moro and the only one I know of in the area.
I'll take her first thing thursday if she still has a fat face.

Thankyou so much to everyone offering their advice from experience.
I have owned cats my whole life but never a young kitten.
Pets get treated to a certain extent as fashion accessories here so maybe the vet is just holding off on any expensive treatment until she starts thriving.
I couldn't believe it but my city here doesn't even have a policy on feral cat control so there is no incentive for people to get their cats fixed.
There are a LOT of wild cats around where I live.

I really pray she'll be alright, I lost a baby last year, I don't know if I could handle loosing another
 

cjandbilly

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It's possible you're vet may not know what he's takling about. I have no idea about what's wrong with your kitty, but sometimes, the vet may not either. May I just say, from expirience, that it's possible he's a wonderful vet, but not in the field your kitty may need. I had a vet who I thought was so wonderful! She did everything right, clean place, neutered Billy and did a wonderful job, but she was only knowledgable in the basic things and she didn't know what was wrong with my kitty. I thought she was doing the same.... didn't want to suggest someting so expensive. But she just didn't know what was wrong. Well, I did some researching, found what I thought was wrong with my kitty, Annie, and took her to another vet for a second opinion and found that he did everything right... clean place and all the works, but was knowledgable of more advanced things, too, and he gave us information, which was really what we needed. All this to say that you might need to get a second opinion. Turns out it was what I researched on. And it also turns out it was something as inexpensive as a course of antibiotics and medicine (Which didn't cure it, but my vet told me it was a 50/50 chance of healing it.... could be in the brain, and apparently it was). Vestibular Disease, and my first vet didn't know it... so now we have a new vet.

Just a suggestion, and I wish you all the best with your new kitty!
 
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