Saddle Thrombus - Feline Hind Leg Paralysis

In early August 2008, Candy began to walk with a swagger in his rear legs. Favoring one side then the other. It became progressively worse to the point that by 8/10/2008 he was dragging his hind quarters. He was taken to several vets who ran tests, but could not explain what was wrong with him.

I went to Yahoo Answers and typed in feline paralysis back legs in their search engine and did the same at Google and found descriptions of exactly the same symptoms he was exibiting.

Caudal aortic thrombus (saddle thrombus) is caused by an underlying congestive heart condition. Pieces of the aging heart tear off and travel through the body. In Candy's case, it was the hind legs that were affected. It's a common disease among older cats, too. Candy is 13 years old and my vet told me that's around 80 years in a human.

Other symptoms are blue pads and toes on the rear legs and no pulse (femoral pulse) in the rear legs. The legs will feel cold to the touch because no blood is flowing through them.

Today, August 16th, 2008, I will talk to his vet about this and if he does have saddle thrombus, I will have him put down. He's in pain and he won't get better.

Treatments include a blood thinner called warfarin, but with Candy's advanced feline leukemia and AIDS also damaging his body, it's kinder to put him to sleep. I will miss him forever.

----
At 9:00 a.m. today (8/16/08), I had Candy put to sleep. He suffers no more. I will miss you for the rest of my life, Candy. I love you.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• snocamo154
• Mississippi
• cat
• feline
• hind
• leg
• paralysis
• rear
• saddle
• thrombus
• caudal
• aortic

[ParadoxGamingLimited]

I lost a cat called Smudge who I loved and adored. I have sympothy for you and I know how much it is to lose a cat.

R.I.P Smudge

R.I.P Candy

[snocamo154]

@ParadoxGamingLimited If I could, I would go get my Candy Boy, as we called him. We miss him and have to acknowledge that there was no other cat like Candy and never will be. Abia, Zeb, and Pilgrim are great cats, but they can never be Candy. He was incredibly smart and was definitely a one in a million cat.

[Izzie4321]

My 15yo cat lost the use of his hind legs for 2 days in Aug & could not empty his bladder. The vet thinks he threw a clot that eventually passed. His hind leg function has come back & his bladder works with the help of drugs, but he is weaker & he also has cancer and kidney failure. I believe he "threw a clot" on 3 previous occasions that I witnessed but didn't recognize. I'm just grateful for each day I have with him at this point. Candy had a good life, sounds like he was a true soul cat.

[snocamo154]

@Izzie4321 You're right, Izzie4321, Candy was my soul mate of a cat. We've got new cats now (Abia, Zeb, and Pilgrim), but Candy is with us everyday. Candy was his own man of a cat, with his authoritive, firm nature, and I miss him.

Honestly, I hope I never have another cat like Candy. He was too unique, too special; those kind of pets are hard to forget. Their passing takes away something from life, something good.

[1976Pianoman]

Plavix - 1/4 tablet daily plus a daily dose of blood pressure medication of your vet's choosing will prevent further incidents, assuming kitty recovers from the initial thrombus. You can NEVER miss a dose or kitty will thrombus again, and may not recover. This problem is due to cardiomyopathy. I have been able to successfully extend kitty's life far beyond what the statistics show with the latter mentioned meds, along with prayer, love and close attention.

Vets should know what this is!

[danieljh]

Its not just in older cats. My cat was only 2 years old and very healthy exept....I knew he had heart murmur and one day he got too exited and next thing you know it...he had NO rear leg traction. He was in very horrible pain and the vet said he had saddle thrombus due to a clot.. All we could do is to give him pain killers. His legs were already ice cold when I got him into the animal hospital. He lasted three days...and died peacefully in the company of people who loved him.

[Torgo1969]

Sweet kitty! I'm sorry for your loss. Saddle thrombus is usually agonizingly painful for the poor cat, but he's getting around fairly well for a cat with that. His hind leg gait could have been due to diabetes which causes "dropped ankles" in cats, but it makes people think Puss has had a stroke or a broken leg, etc.

Thanks for being a friend to cats. We have to carry the burden of losing our sweet kitties and saying goodbye and making the final decisons for them. Hug your new ones for me!

[fuzzpawz86]

I think you need to find a new vet...if they couldn;t figure that out...

Anyway, the saddle thrombus is a blood clot, which is caused by heart diseases, it is not 'pieces' of he heart breaking away and getting stuck somewhere

[kittehboidotcom]

Dis did happen to sisfurcat Chilipepper in 2002. She woke up wif her back end completely paralyzed. We took her to da veterinary hospital of the University of Pennsyvania and after a few days she could walk again. They were unable to tell us what it was, but we later concluded it was likely a blood clot like the one you describe.

[tesgnol]

My cat had this, couldn't use her back legs at all, but it happened right in front of me so I was able to take her to the vets within half an hour. 3 days later she was walking pretty much normally.

[learn2luvme24]

i'm more than positive my cat has this. he was fine last night but this morning we found him dragging his hind legs. i have to take him to the vet hospital later on today.. i feel so bad cuz i'm pretty sure they're gonna put him to sleep : (

[TheJamesstark]

:( :( poor kat