[Hillview Farm]

My 6 month old kitten had a fall last week and couldn't walk so she went to the vet that day and the long and the short of it...

I have a cat with a detached pelvis from the spine and is on 4 weeks... yes you read that right! 4 weeks! On cage rest. Now the first 4 days she was happy in her dog cage. Asleep most of the day but now she's walking and looking back to normal she is being a pain! Hang from the top of the cage,  becoming very vocal and now putting her blanket in a fleshly soiled litter tray!

Anyone have any ideas how I can keep her calm? Or a way to keep her occupied ?

[Ghdp]

Huge sympathy. We had similar problems with a puppy  who fell and had ligament damage - and it was hard- and she did more moving around than we wanted. She survived and survived well. You can only do your best. What about filling a large box with shredded paper, the sort Ihave to regularly burn for security reasons. Kitten could scrabble around with limited 'resistence' - a bit like swimming??
Good luck.

[Carse Goodlifers]

Lots of catnip drenched toys?

[Caroline1]

Could you hang things from the top of the cage for her to bat. Also use a great ball for her food so it takes a lot of mental stimulation for her to eat that should also help tire her out

[SallyintNorth]

[member=24474]Mammyshaz[/member]

[Fleecewife]

We had a little tabby cat which was on cage rest twice.  First time she caught her leg in a foot rest when she jumped off a (parked) motorbike seat.  She had a twisted butterfly fracture of a front leg.  First vetling took out the butterfly fragment  so there was nothing to hold the bones together and her leg swivelled in spite of plastering.  Eventually vet payed for it to be plated at the Edinburgh Dick Vet School. There's no way we could have afforded that ourselves  .   Second time she was chased under a moving car by one of her daughters and had one side of her face separated from the other - jaw wired, tube fed, left with a droopy face, but she lived for years.  As well as the droopy face, she had a 'pit-bonk' walk, with the mended leg turned out a bit and quite a limp.  Didn't stop her walking a mile a day to visit our neighbour 

We built her a very low but fairly large cage, about 4' x 18" and maybe one foot high, so she couldn't climb up and swing from the roof, but could shuffle around.  She had toys but we also played with her a lot, cuddled her and brought her out frequently to sit on our laps.  Time seemed to fly past and soon she was allowed out full time.  One day someone will come across her buried skeleton and be amazed 

[Mammyshaz]

Its a nightmare for young being cage rested but mental stimulation is a must. If you are busy in a room take the cage in. There is nothing worse than staring at the same four walls for weeks on end. Mental stimulation watching and looking around a different room can help with boredom.

Use a feed dispenser instead of a bowl. It will take much longer to eat the meal, especially if you use wet food that can be packed into the dispenser so the kitten must spend the time figuring out how to get to  the deeper area. A meal becomes a half hour entertainment instead of five minute stomach fill. The Kitty Kong is ideal for this

A little box to sleep inside is comforting but without the roof  so no climbing for that pelvis. A small catnip toy that is grabable with from claws is also good. There are lots and kong do some great ones of these too. Keep away from fast moving items like balls as that can cause a sudden jolt on the pelvis or hind limbs. Change the toy to a different type after a couple of days and only pop it in the cage for an hour at a time otherwise it becomes an item of furniture instead of a fun new item. Spend the hour playing with kitten with the toy so she still gets the human contact she needs.

Training little tricks can be done with kittens as well as puppies, 'sit' or 'give a paw' takes  concentration and mental energy to learn but for a treat and to break the boredom kittens love it.

Have you been put in contact with a registered animal physiotherapist. They are worth their weight in gold. They teach you to do massage and exercises on the limbs which speed up the healing processes and keep the strength in those muscles not being used so the kitten will recover much more quickly. Ask your vet to refer you as you need to be referred, under regulations physics can only work under the referral of a vet. It is also stimulation and contact for the kitten so again reduces boredom.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck with her hope she is back on all four feet soon ??


 

[Beeducked]

I have found feliway useful with cats who are agitated or unsettled in the past.