A million years ago – OK, more like 3 years ago – when I first started blogging about CH, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I was hoping to share CG’s stories and our experiences, tips and whatever else I came up with to whomever happened to read the blog.
One of those first readers was Laura.
Chatting with Laura during that time was simply wonderful. I knew CH impacted each cat differently, but it was so interesting to chat with another CH cat mom and learn more about how CH impacted her cat specifically.
I recently went back and read over the original post, and wanted to update it and move it here.
So here’s their story:
“Months ago I found three newborn kittens behind our shed. One of the strays I haven’t been able to catch had them. I left them where they were and watched the mama cat. She never left the back yard to feed them.
There were two buff colored (Scooter and Fonzie) and a black one. The next morning I checked on them again and one of the buff colored kittens was missing and the mother was still sitting in the back yard staring at the house. I thought an animal and gotten one, even though our yard is fenced in.
I brought both of them in and the black one died almost right away. The other (Fonzie) I fed him by a bottle night and day until he was able to eat regular food. He was hard to feed because he would act like he was starving at each feeding and went nuts. I was so scared I would do something wrong and he wouldn’t make it. I didn’t leave the house for weeks.
Scooter (floor) and Fonzie.
I read on the Internet and the vet said he should be feed every 2 to 3 hours. We are 20 minutes from the closest store and by the time I would get there and home it didn’t leave much time for shopping. My husband did it for me. The hardest part was acting like the mother and wiping his bottom to make him go to the bathroom. Boy, he was a little stinker.
When Fonzie was about 7-weeks-old I looked out the window into the cat pen we have built onto the house and there was the mama cat (Roxie) laying on the bed we have in there and beside her was Scooter. I was shocked. I thought for a minute Fonzie had gotten outside. In that instant I knew it was the other kitten. She had taken very good care of him. He was in perfect health and beautiful.
As I went to pick him up I could see there was something wrong. He couldn’t use his back legs at all. We took him to the vet and he told us what he had. After reading about it on the Internet I had hopes Scooter would improve and he has.
Remember when I told you he couldn’t sit down. We’ll Thursday he did for the first time. Just when I thought he wouldn’t get any better he fooled me.
Scooter’s CH is worse than any of the cats I’ve seen on the Internet. I had to hand feed him and teach them him to drink water by holding the dish up to him and try to hold his head still enough to drink. He has come a long way.
The litter box was a problem for a while, but one day he dragged himself up to the box and pulled himself into it and laid down and went to the bathroom. I could have had a party I was so happy. The box is 5 inches high and he doesn’t have a problem with it. In fact I have two litter boxes that are 11 inches high and he pulls himself up on those and goes over the side and uses them. Nothing stops him.
I tried to teach him to balance his body on the side of the box so he could stand up and use it but he can’t yet. The taller ones are really storage containers I bought trying to keep the cats from throwing litter all over the floor.
Our cats have lots of toys including the laser pointer. Two of the favorite toys are Loony Loops and a crinkle tunnel. Loony Loops are like the plastic rings you pull off of gallon jugs.”
Some time after this, Laura emailed me with a big breakthrough.
Laura has a cat tree with three tiers for all of her kitties. One day when she walked past the cat tree, she saw Scooter on the second tier! This was a huge accomplishment for him since Laura says he can’t walk without falling.
Scooter now does this all the time. He gets up there by pulling himself through the hole and pulling himself up.
Laura and her husband also found other ways to accomodate Scooter’s needs, like having special beds for him, originally using puppy pads and purchasing plastic dishes so he wouldn’t hurt himself during meal time.
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