By Barbara
My cat Millie is 13 years old. We hadn’t seen her for about 2 1/2 days and assumed she got herself stuck in some neighbor’s garage or something.
This morning we found her laying in our yard under a lilac bush. When she got up she seemed to be staggering and felt really thin when we held her. We immediately gave her some wet cat food and she ate voraciously.
I thought it made sense that she would be very hungry and thirsty if she hadn’t had any food or water for 2 1/2 days.
However, after more watching, we noticed that all of her wobbliness seemed to be on her right side. What the heck could be wrong with her? She also has a little bit of discharge from her right eye.
Please help! Millie is part of our family.
Barbara
Response
Hi Barbara. Thanks for visiting and asking. You made the post about 24 hours ago. Could you please leave a comment to update us? Is Millie feeling better?
Ruth, a valuable, regular visitor who is a retired vet tech. would advise that you take her to a veterinarian for a check up, as soon as possible. That must be the sensible response.
However, as you have taken the time to ask, I’ll respond as best as I can and perhaps Ruth might add a comment too.
I will assume that Millie was in good health before she disappeared for two and half days. If she is wobbly on one side it indicates that she has been injured over those 60 hours.
As the lack of coordination affects one side it indicates nerve damage incurred through injury, perhaps a fall or a car accident or even abuse. Perhaps her spine is hurt or something like that.
Spinal cord injury can cause neck and back pain with weakness (or paralysis) of one or more legs. Millie’s problem appears to be one-sided indicating a spinal injury. Her wobbly gait is consistent with such an injury.
Other possible causes of limb weakness are:
- arterial thromboembolism (blood clot in artery) – unlikely in this instance.
- nerve injury.
- broken bones.
I would take her to the vet asap. Sorry.
I am not a vet. There is no substitute for seeing a good vet. The best of luck to Millie and yourself.
Nice point about the Animal Welfare Act. Vets killing (not euthanasia, obviously) pets is outside the ambit of the Act, I am sure, because the pet is killed humanely – no pain or suffering. I think that is the point. The act protects against unnecessary pain and suffering. However, it is a vague grey area I feel. It is straight killing without reason.
If you’d like to do an article by all means use a pseudonym.
Yes because that lady owned that poodle x puppy only she could decide its fate. We’d have to find out if it’s still the same since the Animal Welfare Law took effect although I expect it is because I’ve never seen anything about the owner not having the right to decide what becomes of their pet, have you?
Yes it would make a good article.
I think I’d have to use a different name to write it under, I don’t think anyone from those days would ever see it on PoC and kick up a fuss, they’d never be able to prove it now anyway as the vets I worked for are either dead or retired, but to be on the safe side ……..
You should do an article on that. It is a nightmare image but interesting. It is the mentality of demanding their animal be killed and watching it and insisting it happens. Sadistic? What is it?
The person with the poodle. I presume she thought that only she had the right the own the dog and no one else should. Is that the correct interpretation? If I am correct it shows how people can treat animals as “possessions” and jealously guarding their possession even to this extreme.
That was my interpretation of what Kidncook meant Michael, it may not be right but it sounded that way to me. I don’t suppose she will ever come back here to clarify it, I’ve noticed some people don’t.
Like the Barbara who asked the question to start the article here, we will never know if her cat survived will we!
Yes people stood and watched while I held their healthy pet to be killed by a vet, because pets are property with no rights of their own, we could have been sued if we hadn’t done what they asked.
I must admit I took that risk if the person didn’t stay to watch, I put the money they’d paid for their cruel deed into an animal charity box and whisked away the victim to be rehomed.
lol I once took a HUGE alsation home on the bus as we had a friend I knew would love him. Once I had to hold a tiny poodle x pup as the owner watched her die, I knew the perfect home but although I begged the person she refused to let the puppy live. There are many things I will never ever forget from my career as a vet nurse and if I had my time over I could never ever live through them again and stay sane.
God, I hate to read that. I didn’t understand what she said but you did. It must have been that. The wife loved this cat and the husband had the cat killed by a vet. Phew… some marriage and a crazy world.