Introducing Winston
About a week ago, I got a new kitten. I have been wanting a new cat for a while now but hadn't found one that worked for us, either because of time or availability of a younger cat. We have 4 cats and in another post, I talked about my cats and why I wanted another one.
After going to a couple of PetsMarts many times and looking at ads on the internet over several months, I found a kitten, a 4 month old male, named Loki (now Winston) at a PetsMart. I asked to look at him and the PetsMart worker let me go into the back, and she let Winston out and another kitten who was in the same cage. They were running on the floor in this small space and Winston was tripping over the other one (or so I thought). I picked him up, and he was very responsive to being held. He purred and relaxed into my arms. So . . . of course I took him home. I held him on my lap for a while on the way home, and he was chilled and purring happily.
When we got home, I put him down on the ground, and he looked like he had a hurt back leg. He was tripping and kind of flopping his back end over, sometimes even dragging it. He seemed to be doing better the next day, but I took him to the vet the next day just to be sure. The vet wasn't really sure what was wrong with him after a thorough check through; he mentioned it was possible that he had a certain condition but didn't think the kitten would seem better if he had that.
Well, after observing him for a while and doing research, it seems that he either got injured at some time that caused his back end to not work not, or he might have a condition called Cerebellar hypoplasia. Either way, we now have a special needs kitten. Although it may be more work than a regular cat, we decided to keep him and see how it goes. He may need a little hind leg support but he might just figure it out without it. So far he does walk around sometimes with hind legs dragging, and sometimes using them a little bit.
Winston is quite a lover kitten so far, and we have only had to do a few things to help him like get a food bowl on legs, and a high walled litter box my husband modified so he can get in and out easier. We also try to exercise his back legs when we hold him.
I'll keep you updated about how things turn out with this little guy. :) Isn't life interesting!?
Hugs!
After going to a couple of PetsMarts many times and looking at ads on the internet over several months, I found a kitten, a 4 month old male, named Loki (now Winston) at a PetsMart. I asked to look at him and the PetsMart worker let me go into the back, and she let Winston out and another kitten who was in the same cage. They were running on the floor in this small space and Winston was tripping over the other one (or so I thought). I picked him up, and he was very responsive to being held. He purred and relaxed into my arms. So . . . of course I took him home. I held him on my lap for a while on the way home, and he was chilled and purring happily.
When we got home, I put him down on the ground, and he looked like he had a hurt back leg. He was tripping and kind of flopping his back end over, sometimes even dragging it. He seemed to be doing better the next day, but I took him to the vet the next day just to be sure. The vet wasn't really sure what was wrong with him after a thorough check through; he mentioned it was possible that he had a certain condition but didn't think the kitten would seem better if he had that.
Well, after observing him for a while and doing research, it seems that he either got injured at some time that caused his back end to not work not, or he might have a condition called Cerebellar hypoplasia. Either way, we now have a special needs kitten. Although it may be more work than a regular cat, we decided to keep him and see how it goes. He may need a little hind leg support but he might just figure it out without it. So far he does walk around sometimes with hind legs dragging, and sometimes using them a little bit.
Winston is quite a lover kitten so far, and we have only had to do a few things to help him like get a food bowl on legs, and a high walled litter box my husband modified so he can get in and out easier. We also try to exercise his back legs when we hold him.
I'll keep you updated about how things turn out with this little guy. :) Isn't life interesting!?
Hugs!
