Poe's Path to Recovery Needs Your Help

Poe is an 8 week old kitten that was found by a Good Samaritan in May. When he was found he was paralyzed from the waist down. He also had a large abscess that was infected and pushing on his spinal cord. We immediately took him into the rescue and rushed him to our vets. At that time the vets suggested euthanasia due to his many medical complications. But we felt like that wasn’t the right decision and we chose to bring him home and reach out to specialist rescues for advice.

Within 5 days a miracle happened. Poe was WALKING!! His abscess drained on its own and little by little he began to regain function and sedation in his lower body. We took him back to the specialist for a follow up and decided to wait on further testing due to his amazing amount of progress or POEgress as we like to call it. Lol

But this past week we noticed that his abscess started to return and it was affecting his ability to walk. He also developed mild tremors in his lower legs and seemed very lethargic. We took him to our primary vet yesterday morning and they were able to drain some fluid from the abscess and look at it under a microscope. They determined that he had an infection within the abscess again. We started him on Clindamycin 0.75mL every 24 hrs. Later that evening his condition wasn’t improving and his abscess had quadrupled in size.

We took him back to our primary vet this morning and they determined that he had a fever of 103.2 and he was experiencing pain due to the pressure of the abscess on his spinal cord. It was suggested that we move forward with conducting an MRI to try to determine the cause of his abscess/spinal issues to try and find a better long-term solution for his condition. We also started him on Meloxicam 0.1mL every 24 hrs to help with the inflammation and pain.

Poe currently weighs 2.1 lbs and he is 8 weeks old which means he may be too small or not old enough to move forward with an MRI procedure right now. He would have to be sedated and for an extended period of time and if he can’t regulate his own body temperature during that time he could die of hypothermia.

We emailed his neurologist to let them know what was going on and requested a plan for moving forward with an MRI once it was safe to do so and we had the funding to pay for it. An MRI of the spine for a cat is $3,000 to $4,000. Once we get the results from the MRI we can determine the cause of his infections, the abscess, and his spinal issues and develop a better solution for long-term care for his condition.

Without the MRI we will continue to fight a never ending battle of the abscess and infection returning and run the risk of Poe becoming immune to antibiotics over time.

It is very possible that we will have to fundraise for a surgical procedure as well for Poe in the future. If the abscess is operable, it would be best to surgically remove the abscess sack so it can’t return in the future.