06/02 Tiggy videos -anyone seen leg issues like this?

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Been busy recently and haven't had a chance to come on as much as I would like - doctors and vets and suchlike. Anyway on Friday we took Tiggy to the vet to see about his leg issue (see videos below) and the vet agreed it wasn't likely diabetic neuropathy which is more weakness whereas this is ataxia... so referred us to a neurologist/specialist. So today we took Tiggy in.

History
Having sat and thought about Tiggys legs in preparation for this, we realized this may have been an issue since birth thats getting worse... i.e.

- the reason we noticed him in the pet shop was he drew our attention when he fell off a shelf.. no reason. And three days after we got him he fell again - this time 20 feet from an upper to lower landing. He was up and running soon after so didn't hurt him and we called the vet at that time and they said to monitor him but kittens bones are elastic so should be fine.
- He has always been clumsy. In retrospect most cats aren't that clumsy.
- Age 4 or so..and before his diabetes.. he would smack his tail on the floor when he jumped off things. So hard you could hear it! Again we thought "clumsy", but....
- then its the reason we took him to the vet and discovered the diabetes. It has slowly worsened since then.

Tests
The neurologist ran a lot of nerve and reaction tests on Tiggy and said

- all blood work came back normal -vet is impressed with BG control (he as 180 at the vets on Friday!)
- Tiggys brain is fine. Normal reactions
- Issue is confined to back legs and not front - its an issue with his spine.

Diagnosis
So having run through all possibilities, given his history etc the specialist says its either:

a) a degenerative neurological spinal issue
or
b) something physical with his spine - due a tumour (unlikely unless he always had it - so benign?) or trauma due to the fall I mentioned above.

We won't know for sure without doing X-rays and an MRI. Cost $2500. And they might not even be conclusive or show anything. If there is an issue they can find, and if its fixable ( and its an IF) then its another $2000-$4000 for spinal surgery. Might need a spinal tap too and test that.Sometimes they only way you find what was wrong is autopsy said the vet..... Total cost $6000. Plus the fix is unlikely to resolve any current damage - just prevent progression. We are to stop him jumping on things.

We can't afford this unless we win the lottery - especially since its so inconclusive and has so many "ifs". So we keep going and down the line we are likely to have to put him on painkillers and steroids and likely his lifespan is shortened by a couple of years. We think really its something he was born with and is getting worse with age.

Wendy

PS vet said it could also be a rare form of diabetic neuropathy he has never seen - yet I think if it was - one of you guys would have recognized it from the videos!

PPS videos again

- https://www.flickr.com/photos/14315691@N00/14051322196/ - as he walks towards the camera you can see his hips wobble towards camera left. that happens a lot - and he stumbles on the way back.
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/14315691@N00/14074431595/ - he gets worse when he runs - he loses his balance a little here. Frequently he will even fall over
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/14315691@N00/13887818359/ - stumbles again
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/14315691@N00/13887777827/ - this is his usual routine for sitting down on me. He droops over me but seems to struggle to sit down - he stands on his back paws and wobbles (sorry its dark/grainy) and then kinda drops down. Its like he is stiff in his hips.

I have not seen this before, I am so sorry to hear this, poor baby!

my gut tells me he has had a spinal injury.... or even birth defect....that is worsening with age.... the way he walks.... it's like there is pressure on his spinal cord.
I had a cat once that had it's tail run over by a car... and she walked in a similar fashion as she aged ...
in her case, she couldn't feel her tail anymore... and dragged it behind her..... like a rope....
a spinal injury /defect would make coordination difficult as in Tiggy's case.

a 20 ft fall could have done a lot of things , especially if he landed badly.

My cat used to jump from a 10 ft piece of furniture and at 12 years I discovered had osteoarthritis in her front shoulders/legs because of it....
that's only half the distance.... (discovered by xray)


we always think of cats landing on their feet but I've seen places that say that is a myth. They don't always.... in fact it's more like half and half... They mostly just try to twist and get themselves in a better position but they don't naturally land well as folklore tells us.


I am guessing that you do have Tiggy on methylcobalamin...
one of the major signs for cats with neuropathy is that they have to stop and rest just walking a few feet to the food bowl..... and they even
give up trying to jump on things..... the tingling bothers them too much.... and their legs are just too weak....

if Tiggy is still managing to jump but then just falls over.... I think that's more indicative of other causes....


http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/neurological/c_ct_peripheral_neuropathies

perhaps you could get this vet in Arizona to watch your video and voice his/her opinion....
http://www.vetneuro.com/NeurologicalSignsDiseases/tabid/4171/Default.aspx


If it turns out to be that, then you probably can't afford to get it fixed, even if it can be fixed....
but there may be suggestions from a neuro vet on how to make him hurt less.


Will he let you run your hand down his spine?
Shadow has bitten me for years and meowed if I touched near her hip area.... and she did have an injury....
but my cat that had her tail run over, couldn't feel a thing ... paralyzed tail.... but she sure was cranky so pain was present somewhere.

HI Wendy

Well... Mannie has issues with his rear end too. I'm am trying to remember what it looked like, Basically he suffered from muscle weakness, due to a low potassium level. Ho too walked lopsided and was wobbly, sometimes he just fell down. We didnlt have this issues until his later years, so I'm not too sure that this well help you or not, but take a look at his potassium level, and if below normal, maybe mention that too your vet... ??

The blood work was normal. I had asked about potassium..said it wasn't that.

I suspect the 20 foot fall was a result of the condition.. That was the second time I saw him fall in a few days. Could have already have had a spinal injury by then I guess but I think, having thought about what the neurological specialist said today, that this is a spinal issue from birth. It's likely made worse by weakness due to the diabetic neuropathy when he has high BG and due to his increasing age (he is 9 in July)

Specialist said try as best we can to not let him jump but mainly it's wait and see.. Unless I win the lottery and can afford the $2.5k tests.. I am going to try and save and see if maybe we can at least run some tests next year.

Wendy

Did he give you the exact number for the potassium? It would be good to know that. Sometimes the potassium is just around 3.9 or 4 which is close to normal. But, in CKD cats, for example, if the blood potassium is that low, the cellular potassium is even lower.