Precious

This is an Amazing story of Courage and Determination l wanted to share, of a wee little Singapura kitten called “Precious”.

We had a 5 week old Singapura kitten, who was mysteriously totally paralysed one morning from her waist down, back legs dragging, cold and lifeless, her upper torso warm and she herself was running a temp of 39.9, mad rush to the Vets, x-rays were done and my Vet thought it was rickets, mum still feeding and kittens not eating any solid food as yet, (typical of this queens babies), he wanted to put her to sleep due to the severity of her paralysis, l was not happy with this and said NO.

I took her home and separated her from the others, bottle fed her, then searched their room, although my Vet said if it was a spider bite and due to her being so young she would have died quickly, so he said he was fairly sure it was rickets, mum and babies were in the ensuite due to the mother liking privacy and a quiet place. I was still convinced it was a spider bite of some sort.

After searching under everything and moving things l found two white tail spiders and rang my Vet, I was told she would not probably survive and l should consider euthanasia, due to her size and age, a small kitten was not going to survive a white tail bite.

I injected .2ml of histamil, (on his advice) also started cold water massages every two hours on her tiny lifeless hind legs, rubbed pure Alovera gel all over her hind legs and hip area. In her milk bottle l gave her crushed Vit C with a dash of Nutra gel and Protexin powder.

The massaging continued for 5 days every 2 hours to try and stop the swelling and the heat that was consuming the lower half of her wee little body; mind you at this stage she is as bright as a button. After this point, (4 days) the swelling was subsiding a little, she was not on antibiotics so started her on Antirobe, .2ml once a day, after speaking to my Vet.

I was so distressed and just couldn’t put her to sleep, she would hug our face when picked up and lick your nose, such a happy baby, I was racking my brain of what to do and had many sleepless nights spent with her in my arms asleep.

By the second week, her right hind leg was shrivelling, swelling & heat now gone down, and only having cold water massages four times a day, still rubbing in the Alovera gel. By the Friday, (hope you all have strong tummies,) her hind leg was coming away from her body (yes, l hit the panic button) and I rang my Vet, once again l was told that we should euthanize her.

Well, l do not give up easily and she was not giving up either. She had started to use her litter, dragging herself to a bread & butter plate with a small amount of paper litter in it, and had also started eating Royal Canin Baby Cat 34, she didn’t want to touch meat or anything else offered to her.

All weekend l rubbed in the Alovera gel and plugged this gaping hole with it, by the Sunday morning her hind leg was only hanging by a tiny bit of healthy skin, though there was no smell coming from the huge hole in which we could see her thigh bone clearly, no necrotic tissue and she was hopping around and was so very responsive. l snipped off the tiny thread of skin, unable to bandage or try to keep the hole closed which was around the size of a 50 cent piece, l just keep pumping the wound full of Alovera gel every hour, spotless bedding at all times, by Monday this hole was amazingly a small wound about the size of a 5 cent piece. Her toes on her other back leg were also now shrivelling and so too the tip of her tail. Her strength and determination to move around by herself was so emotional, l would just cry a soon as l picked her up, she was not showing any signs of discomfort, pain, eating really well including red meat and chicken now. Growing stronger each day in her front shoulders and had such confidence in manoeuvring herself around.

So back to the Vet on the Monday with her little shrivelled leg in a jar, he was in shock, but knew now not to mention ending it for her, she was getting around in her box, eating well and toilet trained.

By the end of that week the toes that were shrivelling had just dropped off, like a piece of dried wood and so had the tip of her tail.

Today she is 7 months old, has two fine front legs, 3/4 of her back left leg with just her toes missing and the tip of her tail.

Now, there will be some of you who will be horrified that l allowed her to live & go through all of this, but if she had shown any signs of distress or refusal to eat l would have certainly put her to sleep, but those big bright green eyes of hers…. and watching her use her toilet, the loving way in which she uses her front paws to touch your face in the wee hours of the night while sucking on her bottle, l just couldn’t do it.

I do not have a problem with a 2¾ legged cat and she certainly does not think she is any different from the rest of the cats in our home. She is a SINGAPURA, the world’s smallest pedigreed cat, a breed that l believe has an enormous amount of determination and courage to survive. After all, their origins are that of the drain cats of Singapore in the beginning.

Today the Singapura cat is considered a National Treasure and featured on the Singapore tourist information sheets.