One Week Update

I took a picture of Cena as we were laying on the trampoline. I had no idea he had his tongue stuck out! He is doing so well for it to be only one week since his incident. He is trying to get up, but can't get his back legs under him. His right front leg is stronger, but his left front leg is still useless, but had resistance to it when I tried to move it. He flexes his claws on his right front and back legs. He reaches back and licks his back leg now. He is still eating and drinking on his own. When I stand him up, he can get his right front and back leg in position, but his left back leg still does not move right to stand on it and his left front leg still gets in the way since it just hangs down.

Cena still does a lot of sleeping while he is healing. After he's been active, rolling over, scooching around, or eating, he lays down and takes a nap.

This is Cena holding his head up. When we feed him, he can prop himself up to eat, and he drinks out of a shallow watering dish on his own. I am sure hoping by next weekend there is a lot more improvement! He tries to get his back legs under him. If he could get more control of his left back leg, I think he could get up on his own. When we carry him around, he is able to hold his head up and look around for an extended amount of time now. He is making great strides!

Everyone's Happy Cena's Home

Cena has been recuperating for 5 days now. He still can't walk, does not have any strength in his legs, and the vets still don't know what is wrong with him. However, he holds his head up now, stretches and squirms and scooches across the floor, eats, drinks, and moves his legs, all except for the left front leg.

Yesterday, he started licking himself and his right front leg, once he could move it close enough. It's like he's learning to move all over again. Cena uses his back legs to kick your arm away if he's had enough petting. He can now maneuver his back legs to stretch, curl up, or flex. His tail hadn't been moving, but I noticed today he was flicking it back and forth. He still doesn't have the strength to stand, but we are praying he will regain the strength he needs to fully recover. These other guys sure have missed him playing around.

This is our cat Sassy. They usually just tolerate each other, but when I put Cena in the floor, she came over to say hi. She has now gone to the other side of the living room and Cena is snoozing.

This is Milo. He and Cena run around and play. He doesn't know why Cena won't get up. He's giving him encouragement. Cena needs it.

Since he can now move, flex, stretch, lick, we're hoping it won't be long before he gets all better. Really wish the vets knew what was wrong with him so they could tell us how to help him, or how long it will be before he's all better. I'm hoping since he appears to be improving, it wasn't rat poison he came in contact with. I'm leaning more toward a stroke or spinal cord trauma, but I guess we will never know.

Day Three

On Monday, two days after we found Cena unable to move, we took him back to the vet for a follow up appt. He still has no feeling or movement in his legs. He can lift his head, purrs, eats and drinks, but doesn't seem to be improving as far as being able to walk. He is in a lot of pain and is on pain medicine and taking the antibiotics.

During the follow up visit, the vet is clearly not finding out what is wrong with Cena. He has not improved. She decides to keep him for observation and so other vets can put their heads together to see if they can come up with other ideas.

While he's there they go back over the xrays of his back, which didn't show anything. The blood tests didn't raise any flags. Liver and kidneys are fine. They decide to shave him to see if there was any bruising, especially around the left front shoulder. His left front foot is affected the worst. It has no feeling, is completely useless, as is his back left foot. It seems his right side is a little better as far as moving limbs, but Cena can't stand, can't put any weight on his legs, and when the vet would try to stand him up, his legs had no idea what to do. They just hung there. As a last resort, they give him a steroid shot.

He is still very alert, eating and drinking, purring, loving the attention he is getting, but everyone is completely baffled as to what is wrong with him. Please continue to pray for him and his battle with this mystery illness.

Day One

On Saturday June 21, 2014 we found Cena lying on the floor by the front door. He'd been inside all night. No other animals were around. He was seen around midnight the night before and was fine. Around 5:30am on Saturday morning, we found him lying on the floor, unable to move. It was like he was paralyzed from the neck back. His legs wouldn't work; he couldn't walk. He couldn't do anything.

We took him to the vet. She couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. She mentioned a new rat poison that is out now. It targets the neurological system. She mentioned a stroke, spinal cord trauma, but ultimately could not figure out what is wrong.

The vet ran blood work, did xrays, gave him an antibiotic, and pain medicine. Saturday he was completely numb. By Sunday, he was in a lot of pain.

Please be praying for Cena. They still don't know what is wrong with him, what caused his symptoms, or if he'll get better. He is very alert, eats and drinks, he just can't get up and walk.