Cat can’t jump!

[ProfessorRadcliffeEmerson]

We have a vet’s appointment for an X-Ray and blood tests. Vet initially thought it was probably just a strain and gave her painkillers, but it didn’t clear up.

She’s not obviously in pain, and is running up and down the stairs and going in and out of her cat flap. I think she’s very slightly lame on her left hind leg, but I may be imagining that. But she can’t jump up, even from the floor to the sofa, and it’s really sad to see. It’s as though she’s lost power. Has anyone had a cat with these symptoms and found it was something treatable? Google is suggesting a number of sinister possibilities and I’m bracing myself to lose her. She’s only six .

Anyone? Nothing showed up on the x-ray but she's limping and losing weight fast .

Bump. Has she had bloods done?

Yes. Nothing there either (though we’re still waiting for the thyroid result).

I'm sorry op that sounds very worrying. I haven't had experience of this. Losing weight fast is concerning, do the vets have any ideas?

They don’t seem to have any ideas so far, or at least if they do they’re not sharing their thoughts with us. Next step is apparently an MRI.

Do you have insurance? At least she doesn't seem too bothered by it.

One of ours has never been able to jump more than about 50cm. She is not the brightest cat. With her it seems to be a depth perception issue as she spends a lot of time adjusting her position in preparation to jump. Her brother just sails into the air in comparison. It could be something neurological/eye related.

Mine are Persians and they don't jump either.

I'm worried about a possible neurological thing. Not being able to jump is new, she used to be into everything.

How’s her vision? If you put obstacles in her usual routes can she navigate round them?

My childhood elderly cat, blood pressure was too high affected her eyes and vision lived 2 more years on daily medication.

Her vision is fine; our house is not as tidy as it might be and she navigates round it with no trouble. I don’t actually know if the vet checked her blood pressure- will ask DH.

It’s all a bit confusing. The vet has finally emailed to say it could be an infection, a herniated disc or a bone tumour. They want to do an MRI. I want to know, before we put her through the MRI, what the prognosis is for each of the possibilities, and whether there are other tests they could do that don’t involve us driving her miles to the veterinary hospital to be given a general anaesthetic. I don’t grudge the money or the time if there’s a value to her in having the scan - but if the message is likely to be either that there’s nothing they can do or that any treatment will be so invasive and painful that we wouldn’t want to put her through it, I don’t see the point.

I'm in agreement with you on that OP, lots of investigations are very stressful for cats and pointless if there isn't a potential good treatment. I guess with an infection, that might be treatable. How old is she?

She's 6. Possibly 7 - we got her from a shelter so don't know her exact age. Anyway, not very old for a cat.

If she were a human, she’d be sent off with a prescription for antibiotics and told to come back if the problem didn’t clear up. I don’t know if vets are willing to try that.

@ProfessorRadcliffeEmerson mine had that with kidney failure. But that would show on the blood tests.

I'd go for the MRI, she's young, it may be something that can be easily(ish) fixed. If they did the blood, surely they'd notice an infection, hence the ATB could help but if no infection, ATB is useless.

Of course if there’s no infection ABs are useless, but they definitely haven’t ruled out infection- and it would explain her weight loss, unlike the herniated disc. (So would cancer, of course, but we’re clear that we would never put a pet through chemotherapy or radiotherapy, so if it’s that, we’re into waiting and watching for the moment when she isn’t enjoying life any more.) I agree with @MonsteraCheeseplant that it’s not good to put her through too much stress; she has a bit of a history of getting stressed and over-grooming. So I instinctively like the idea of doing something relatively easy and straightforward first, and moving on to more major investigation later. But I feel I need a bit more actual advice from the vet first. I’ve emailed her a list of questions.

To return to this - and thanks to everyone who gave us practical advice - the vet was no help but my husband spotted the issue: she was poisoning herself on a plant in the garden. We got a job lot of "rescued" plants during lockdown, and she'd been eating one of those (which we originally thought was catmint, but obviously wasn't!). DH noticed that the start of her symptoms had been not long after we got the plants: we pulled it up, and she started recovering within days (so we cancelled the MRI scan). She's totally back to normal now. It's an awful warning for people with outdoor cats.

Good grief, you wouldn’t expect it to be that would you?.

Oh my goodness! What was the plant? You would expect cats to avoid plants that could harm them. I wouldn't have lilies in the garden due to the falling pollen but wouldn't avoid anything they would have to eat as would have assumed they'd be put off after smelling it.

Really glad to hear that she's on the mend though and it doesn't sound as if lasting damage was caused.