Has the vet suggested lactulose for the constipation? Does she get enough fluids? Canned food? I have a friend who has had a cat or more with CH. Is there an internal medicine specialist anywhere near you? Would you be interested in a telephone consult with one? L now I really am going off line for the night!
-----Original Message----- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Kim Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2009 10:43 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Jenny-How is Autumn?? Laurie, I actually attached a small rug to a plastic carpet runner with those large metal clasps. She wouldn't use it. I'd place her on it and she would crawl off of it and go beside it when I had carpet there. Then I just started carrying her to her box a few times a day. She is very constipated. I think it is because she gets very little exercise/movement from her rear end and legs part of her body. She really just pulls her rear part along with her front limbs. She has very little muscle mass in her hind leg region. Her upper body strength is tremendous. I have found though that all this pulling herself along seems to exert so much energy from her that it will make her asthma start acting up. That's part of the reason I try to help her out as much as I can by taking her places. She also has lymphoid hypoplasia. She has already had one surgery to remove a few nodes and have them studied and she is in need of having this done again. She has a huge amount of real and "fake" enlarged lymph nodes around her intestines. Currently she is not healthy enough to have this surgery again to investigate more of what her problem might be with the enlargements of her nodes. CH is cerebellar hypoplasia. This is the definition from Wikopedia: Cerebellar hypoplasia is a disorder found in cats and dogs in which the cerebellum is not completely mature at birth. Usually symptoms of cerebellar hypoplasia can be seen immediately at birth in cats, but sometimes can take two months or so to become apparent in dogs. Cerebellar hypoplasia causes jerky movements, tremors and generally uncoordinated motion. The animal often falls down and has trouble walking. Tremors increase when the animal is excited and subside when at ease. There are several bacterial infections and viral infections such as feline panleukopenia, caused by feline parvovirus, [1] that can result in the disorder in both cats and dogs. However, the disease can also be caused by malnutrition, poisoning, injury or general accidents during development in the fetus. The disease does not get better or worse with age, but the cat or dog can usually learn to somewhat compensate for it and should have a normal lifespan. Most afflicted animals can lead a fairly normal life if special considerations for the animal's disability are taken by the pet's owner. "...Saving just one pet won't change the world....but surely the world will change for that one pet..." "One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home." -----Original Message----- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Laurieskatz Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2009 11:10 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Jenny-How is Autumn?? Hi Kim Wonder if you put a rug or towel in the litter box if she would use it there. Wonder if the sides of the box scare her. I try to "think like a cat". She is telling you she likes something soft and flat to urinate. I feel your fear. Sometimes when I don't know what to do, I put it "out there" when I go to bed and sometimes I know what to do in the morning. Have you considered acupuncture? A friend had this for her cat whose rear legs were no longer working and she had a complete return of function. That kitty did not have FELV or the other issues you are dealing with. (What is CH?) The fits seem so odd...I am recalling that my Teddy (also asthmatic) started having what looked like seizures. He would stop with one paw in the air, like he was frozen. By the time I rushed him to the vet, it had passed. He would thrash around in the bed at night. After he died we discovered he had metastasized lung cancer. The vet didn't know how he could even breathe because his lungs were so full of cancer. The specialists did not detect his cancer despite doing biopsies (including a needle biopsy of his lungs), blood work, etc. I was frustrated to learn the vet did not include Teddy's brain in the necropsy as I truly felt he must have had some cancer in his brain because of the apparent seizures. L _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
