Spinal ataxia?

[robinsnest1967]

Yesterday my lovely rescue cat couldn't put weight on his back legs and was falling over/dragging himself to his food. I took him to the vet as an emergency and he said he wasn't sure what's caused it but has prescribed gabapentin and told me to cage rest him for 4 weeks. He's still eating, pooing, etc but it's breaking my heart seeing him wobbling all over the place. I got him 2 months ago from the rspca (age unknown but between 10 and 14) and he had had such a difficult life before I got him. I just don't know if it would be kinder to put him to sleep? The vet wasn't suggesting it BTW but it's me seeing him struggling. Wwyd?

Hi, so our 11 year old boy got this. It happened slowly and then was quite bad eventually. We thought it was arthritis etc etc. Anyway finally a specialist saw him and he was given gabapentin and steroids (he has a swelling in his neck). He ended up having cage rest inadvertently as he was at Cattery for 2 weeks. The steroids helped so much (he was never a fan of the gabapentin so we stopped it) and his waking improved so much. He is still wobbly and can’t jump and struggles with stairs and chairs so we lift him onto and off everything and he is carried around the house like a king. He’s now almost 2 years into it and other than being a grumpy and ungrateful sod he is still with us and still happy. Ask you vet if steroids would work as they were life changing for our boy.

My cat did this. We initially thought she had arthritis. But she deteriorated in a couple of days, and couldn't stand. She then started fitting, so had to be PTS. What ever caused it wasn't going to be fixable.

Thank you ladies. Yes he has a big swelling in his neck too! I'll ask about steroids, can you remember how much they cost? I've been lifting him on and off the sofa and made a little cushion ramp thing for him. He's still dragging himself to the potty and he is acting his absolute normal self other than not being able to support his weight. He lies down to eat 😭

So steroids are really very cheap. Boone has an injection every 3 weeks which is £20 and the pills are literally pennies each but he was being difficult taking them so we decided to do the injection.