Hi, I came down the other morning to find my cat screaming in pain and dragging his hind legs behind him. My first thought was that he had been hit by a car so rushed him to the vets. The vet x-rayed him and said there was no damaged and thought that he just had tissue damaged then felt a little abnormality in one of his hind knees so thought that he had just had a blunt trauma and rest and pain killers would do the trick. 4 or so hours later I called the vet to see how he was doing and he said he was stable but no real change, when i mentioned again that it was both legs and a small injury to one knee would be unlikely to cause problems in both legs he felt his feet and said they were cold so then thought that it a blood clot. He did another scan and saw that he had an enlarged heart and a large clot,some of which had broken off and lodged in the vein going to his hind legs stopping blood flow. The vet then put him on some different medication and said he will put him on aspirin too. The aspirin was only given to him today for the first time, when i went to see him he was much better in himself, fairly relaxed and pleased to see me, but still could not move his legs. The problem fist occurred on Wednesday morning, its now Friday,has it been left to long for the aspirin to work?? What are the odds of him pulling through this and regaining use of his hind legs? Its killing me not having him snuggled up with me and thinking about him not knowing whats going on and getting frustrated because he cant move the way he wants. I

jojo

This is called a thromboembolism or saddle thrombus. This is very similar to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in people. In cats this is nearly always caused by a clot coming from the heart because the cat has heart disease. The prognosis for a good recovery is very poor sadly to say. Cats typically show loss of use of one or both back legs (sometimes it can affect the front legs or internal organs but this is not so common), dragging the legs and usually howling in pain; the feet are usually cold in the affected legs due to the fact that the blood clot is stopping blood flowing to the legs. The cat must see a vet immediately if there is to be any real hope to making any headway. In people 'clot-busting' drugs are used to dissolve the clots or they are removed by surgery but only in veterinary specialist centres are you likely to be able to do this for a cat and the results are erratic. The main stay of treatment at most vets has been pain relief and trying to control the heart disease while waiting to see if the clot moves or breaks down; unfortunately this has a poor success rate and it is unusual for cats to get over this, especially because their hearts are often in a bad way by the time this happens. That is not to say things are hopeless, but apart from treating the underlying heart disease only time will tell whether your cat will regain the use of its legs.

As far as aspirin goes there is no proof that it is a successful treatment in cats.

Dear Jojo,

I had an abused cat move in from sickening new neighbours who moved in, they have abused both cats and a dog (I wont rant on about that... ), ive had her about three months, she was drastically underweight, as shed not been fed, she had laboured breathing and an bad heart. I took her in straight away to the vet as I only noticed how bad her breathing was. The vet said it was most likey due to not been fed, anyways she had some shots and two days later she got a blood clot as you describe but she was not screaming in pain, they say it is painful. The good news is this happened about the first week in Jan, she is still with me three month later, although the leg fully recovered we still have a few problems. she is on, heart tablets, fortekor, and a duretic as she quickly gains fluids. I carried her to the tray a litter tray that is, when she first went with her leg, kept her a tray in the same room and confined her to one room, and had constant food and water for her. I stronly advise that your cat has to now be an indoor cat. They do adjust as hopefullly if your cat recovers they can have another 'dooo' and they could be anywhere and not able to get home. So please please do keep him inside now. She is also on a very small does of asiprin ever four days. She is also on steriod injections every four days as her stomach again due to not being fed, is seriously ulcerated and she keeps getting vomit and diarhea as soon as the steriod wears off so this is sadly her last call on treatment for her stomach. Its been tough to say the least as if they had fed her she probably would not be in this state, so thats a hard part for me to deal with as I am a big animal lover, and have three cats of my own, (all rescue). Her breathing has massivly improved, so far no more blood clots, her leg improved within two to three weeks. Therefore its so sad we have her tummy upset as shes improved and recovered over the more serious of the illnessed. They do say 6months to 4 years after a blood clot is the lifespan. I hope you can give your cat the chance it needs. It is very very tough on the soul when your much loved pet is poorly, I have been here before with a much loved pet, which id had for ten years so that was bad. This still feels as bad, even though shes only been with me a few months. If you are prescribed aspirin its probably the childs does and the halved or quatered every four to five days, but make sure you check with the vet and DONT give her paracetamol or other tablets similar as they work for us but are deadly in cats, (probably dogs too but I am not sure) so do make sure its the right tablet.
If you want to email me direct I am not sure if my email shows up, but ill check back in a day or so, it may help as we are in similar boat to have a chat. ITs 3am, she had a bit of a doo tonight so im staying up for a while, I hope its just side effects of the asiprin, im just about to google it, shes ok she sort of stumbled and sat for a while, then she got up and went for her food, so thats a sign its not too bad as they hide and dont eat if they are quite poorly.
I hope your fella gets a quick recovery dont give up and be strong. Love Gail and the cat is Rinky Dinky Doo (I felt she needed a VIP name!!) XX

Glad to here your cat is doing ok. Just a reminder that there is no proof aspirin helps and as you very wisely say don't give drugs your vet doesn't prescribe - paracetomol is lethal in cats.

My husband and I have taken my deceased Mother's cat. As we were caring for my mother, we found that her cat had hypertension thyroid and worms. My mother could not get her to the vet and said she had had severe diaherria for about 4 or five months and severe weight lose. So, she was not diagnosed for some time. She has been with us since 12/22/10. She has been doing great weight gain and her fur has softened up nicely. About a month ago, she came out to be feed and I noticed her right front leg was useless at the last joint by her paw. I thought she might have suffered a stroke. We took her to the vet and he said she did not look like she suffered a stoke and thought she might have gotten her claw hung up in something and hurt her leg. He gave her three doses of metaeam. He told us it was a steroid. She improved right away, which he said she would. He was more interested in how she did after it was out of her system. She was fine. Now, three weeks later, she came out for her food and her left front leg was up off the floor. Within 12 hours, her left front was fine and now her left back leg is completely useless. So we took her to the vet. They gave her pain medicine and want to do a blood test and x-rays after weekend. While she was there, her nose started bleeding. That's never happened before. So doctor thinks she has high blood pressure. If she does, getting rid of blood clot will be tricky. What should I do? I really don't want to put her down, but diffenetly don't want her in pain.

This is not straightforward. The intermittent signs in the legs could be due to blood clots from heart disease (thyroid disease in cats causes heart disease and if the thyroid does not get sorted out for a long time then the heart may be permanently damaged and not recover after correction of the thyroid problem) but the descriptions you give are not classical in that the leg is usually floppy. Nose bleeds are often due to nasal tumours or low platelets counts (blood clotting factors) in older cats and I would advise that the nose is xrayed and a platelet count checked as well as looking for heart disease with xrays or preferably with an ultrasound scan. The signs may not be related to each other but it is best to make sure. There may be more than one problem here from what you say.

Thankyou all for your replys. I am pleased to say that vets have been amazing in looking after my baby. He has been home now for over a week and with alot of physio and patience from us he is now walking again! Still a little weak and some times still struggles, but everyday he is getting stronger and more confident. we still have a long way to go and will have to start on heart meds soon but we will not give up!! He is still a happy cat. xx

Dera Gail and Rinky Dinky Doo,

Ginge (my cat) would like to thankyou for your kind words of support. Like Rinky, Ginge was also rescued from a neighbour. This neighbour buys kittens then shuts them out in all weathers in leaves its food outside for all the cats in area to eat and the poor kittens cant defend themselves!! Ginge is one of three rescues that now live with us, and we have re-homed a forth. It makes me so angry that people treat animals this way!!! The RSPCA were not interested when we told them what was happening and said cats can look after them selves! One of our cats who is now 5 was spotted outside our gate by my step mum, she was curled up in a ball shivering on a cold december night so she bought her into the house,she knew she had come from the same neighbour and that she wouldn't care. She kept her warm and stayed up with her all night and took her to the vets first thing the next morning. The vet said she had cat flu among other things and was moments away from death! Thanks to my step mum another cat was saved and now happily lives with us.
Ginge is making a great recovery, still have a long way to go, he is still wobbly on his feet but is waliking! The vet will start him on heart meds this week,and as far as not letting him out is a struggle at mo, but like you say i'm sure he will adjust soon.
we will not give up!!!
With love from me and our rescues. x

Dear Connie,

I'm so sorry to hear about your mothers cat. I know how hard this can be, I had a similar situation with my grandmothers cat.
All i can say is trust your vet and your instinks. And it may sound funny, but listen to the cat, animals are good a letting you know when they are ready to give up.
The vet gave me several options with my grandmothers cat that would have prolonged her life, but would not have nesseceraly made her more comfortable. I spent several days sat with her and she was getting very depressed and one night she just looked at me so misserable and i realised that she was ready to join my grandmother whereever she was. So the next day i went to the vet and disscussed the options and he said the only road for her was realy to go downhill. I trusted him, and the way the cat 'spoke' to me and i thought about what my grandmother would have done, i know she would have not wanted her baby to suffer, so we said goodbye. It broke my heart but i knew it was for the best.
I'm sorry i dont have any real answers and cant give you any possitive advice, all i can say as before is trust your vet, trust your instincts and trust the cat.

I wish you all the best and hope things turn out well for you. x

Hello.

We have had the unfortunate experience of having two cats suffer from Arterial Thromboembolism in the past thirteen months.

Our first experience was with our 7 yr old DSH, Psychafunkapuss (P-funk). After a rather stressful vet visit for a rabies booster (for fear of exposure to a bat in the house), P-Funk developed shortness of breath and became gradually more and more lethargic. After bringing him back to the Vet (Banfield), they concluded from xrays that he had fluid in his chest. By the next day, his breathing became more labored so we rushed him to another ER for an MRI. Their conclusion was that he was suffering from Congestive Heart Failure brought on by Heart Disease.

We brought him home and became apprentice pharmacists, mixing a cocktail of 7 meds every morning and night. P-funk gradually regained his appetite and spirit, only to develop a paralyzing blood clot in his hind quarters.

After a very miserable and seemingly painful day, we had him put to rest. March 2, 2010.

As sad as that was for us, we just had another dose of this with our older cat, Twitch, this past weekend.
Twitch was an 11 yr old DSH, of considerable vigor and seemingly good health -- with no previously known symptoms. But this past Sunday morning, our dear friend suffered what was diagnosed as Arterial Thromboembolism, a paralysis of his hind quarters -- seemingly due to a blood clot in his saddle area. His pain and fear was awful and his subsequent panting and drooling was only mildly eased by sedative. We, and the ER vet, felt that all we could do was to put him out of his misery.

We were told that this is a common occurrence in cats with heart disease -- but what are the chances of this occurring with two, unrelated cats in the same household, within 13months and 1 day of each other?
This post is not an effort to assign blame, but a call for information about this shocking course of events.
Our first cat, we assumed was so stressed from the rabies/vet experience, that his underlying heart issues became apparent. But this second event seems so out of place. So odd.

Both cats were treated by the same vet for the Rabies booster. Both had a diet based on Fancy Feast (2cans in the AM, 2 in the PM) and dry food. Both shared a single litter box. Both cats were primarily indoor, but had regular exposure to our back yard.

Does anyone in this community have any information that may help us better understand this?
More importantly, are there other known causes of these afflictions, such as heart worm or viruses that may spread to other cats?

Please let us know if you have any information about this.

Thank you.

Chris and Meghan

N Plainfiled, NJ

I am very sorry to hear you have lost two cats to thromboembolism in such a short time. DSH cats are the commonest breed to be affected with acquired heart disease and thromboembolism is only seen in a relatively small proportion but is often fatal when it happens. I do not think this was any more than bad luck to have 2 cats with the same problem. Unfortunately cats do not show signs of heart disease as easily as dogs and often do not have a heart murmur so they can be very difficult to diagnose. Early diagnosis is however really important in getting the best long-term outcome. Some vets who only deal with cats may pick up the signs a bit earlier but without getting your cat screened by ultrasound say once a year (which can be expensive) there is no easy answer to pre-empting this disease. My sympathies are with you after your loss.

Hi.

Last Monday I was woken up by my housemate at 4.30am to discover that my 16 year old cat with cardiomyopathy had collapsed next to her in the shower when she was getting ready for work. I rushed him to the vet who is only in the next block straight away. His back legs were paralysed.

Each vet the day has not been optimistic and he prepared me that last night (Thurs night) would be the night I would have to say goodbye.

I prepared myself and borrowed a shovel so that we could bury him in his favourite spot in the backyard, stuffed my purse full of tissues and marched into the vet in tears to say my goodbye.

Now the vet has had a turn around of opinion. He is trying to walk, has blood flow to both his legs (the right is actually quite strong) but his left leg is very weak.

The vet even told us to take him home for the night where we cooked up his favourite meal of prawns. He sat in his favourite corner and purred all night and was very alert and sniffing his food. He even got up at one point and was balancing on all 4 legs and used his litter.

He had to go back to the vet today, to be under supervision while I work, but now I dont know what to do.

He is very old, but he is in no pain and the vet says he has full circulation in his legs. His little feet are warm (not icy cold like some other people's cats have been) and he is purring, eating and seems happy.

The vet is fantastic, he is not the kind of vet that would dole out false hope and would definitely not let an animal suffer.

Is it possible he could make some kind of temporary recovery? Have other people experienced a happy result even if its only for a few months?

Hi, this sounds very positive and I hope your cat makes a full recovery. It is the case, I am sorry to say, that the severity of the cardiomyopathy tends to reflect the chance of of 'throwing a clot' and if it has happened once then it could happen again although I hope not for your sake and that of your cat that that is not the case. Unfortunately no drug trials have shown any realistic benefit in cats from the drugs used in humans to prevent this so you can only hope that it does not recur.

Hi Chris and Meghan
I'm very sorry to hear about your two unrelated cats suffering from this condition. It was three years ago today that my own male cat named Jack suffered from this condition "saddle thrombus". Jack was a half Himalayan Persian crossed with a Ginger Tabby I believe. Jack did have Cardiomyopathy and had developed sudden onset Pneumonia at just 2.5 years of age immediately after his yearly vaccinations. I remember blaming the vet at the time for Jack becomming sick.... but it wasn't the vets fault.... this is when Jack first got diagnosed with his heart condition. I remember the vet at the emergency center Southern Animal Referal Centre in Highett Victoria on that most horendous night of my life telling me that Cardiomyopathy is frequently found in cat breeds like the Himalayan, Siamese and Abyssinian. Cardiomyopathy can also occur due to Thyroid conditions or from poor diet, like Taurine deficiency for example. It was the heart condition which caused the saddle thrombus in Jack's hind legs. The vet at SARC chopped half a nail of Jack's hind claw, and it didn't bleed. There also were no pulses to be found in his hind legs and Jack was in terrible pain prior to arriving at SARC. The car drive there was a nightmare, with my little best mate in such pain. I was informed that Jack would have to have surgery to remove the saddle clot and he was already an anaesthetic risk due to his heart condition. My other vet wouldn't clean his teeth due to his heart condition at least 18 months prior to this "saddle clot" occuring. This vet my regular (non-specialist vet) said Jack's case of "saddle thrombus" was the first case he'd seen in 25 years. Jack was just 5.5 years old and I wish he was still with me today, we loved him dearly and he loved us back every single day.
Jack was a very special cat!!

Lucianne Ringwood East
Victoria, Australia

Not one of three vets know what is causing blood clots in my cats rear and front leg. He has had a cardio scan and it revealed no heart problems after he was originally diagnosed with saddle thrombrus. His back leg made a recovery but it is swellinh and front paw is still dragging.,he appears to be in little pain and is eating drinking and maintaininh mostly nnormal routines besides lethargy. He is diagnosed with slight kidney impairment and slight hyperthyroidism. He is on blood thinners and thyroid medication. But the question persists and has stumped vets with ivy league educations because he HAS NO HEART PROBLEM. Has anyone seen this? Any info is very appreciated.

Assuming your cat does not have heart disease then swelling could be caused by obstruction of the lymphatic or venous system. Kidney disease can cause clotting problems and uncontrolled hyperthyroidism may also be contributary. The residual neurological deficits you describe could be the result of permanent damage from previous clots.

Well I must say that this is very interesting. Yesterday my neighbours cat was playing in my garden with my cat. 30 minutes later my neighbour in a panic is knocking at my door asking me to drive her to the vet. I went to look at her cat and his back legs had simply given way. He could not stand and had to drag them. On the journey to the vet he gave out such a harrowing howl, a sound we had never heard before. He was sick too and managed to free himself from the cat basket and quietyl nestled for the remainder of the journey at the base of the feet while driving. He suffered a blood clot and after a thorough consultaion with the vet my neighbour decided to have him put down. The recovery rate is indeed poor. On making the decision the vet said he would have done exactly the same thing if it were his cat. Sometimes our need for our pets are greater than thier need of us!

my cat who is 12 was diagnosed with a blood clot in her right front paw. When i noticed she was limping and wouldnt put weight on it I started feeling he leg to see if it was broken or fractured but it didnt feel like it and she didnt squak like it hurt her. Her paw was cold and like I said she wouldnt put any weight on it. She is currently taking 3 different pain meds and will star asprin in the morning. She is also in the early stages of Kidney Failure and has liver problems. Is there any chance of her recovering and gaing use of her paw again or will she not make it? Any info at all would be greatly appriciated. cjorge97@ymail.com

Unfortunately only time will tell whether there is any improvement in limb function. There is no proof that aspirin works to reduce the chance of clots and if your cat has kidney and liver problems then aspirin could cause more problems; personally I would not use aspirin. Most cases of clots are due to heart disease and the best way to prevent clots is to treat the heart disease.

Hi,

yesterday morning our 8-year-old female cat Mary suffered a saddle thrombus and was sadly put to sleep two hours later after enduring great pain and distress. We didn't hesitate to have her euthanised as her daughter suffered exactly the same fate just over a year ago at the age of 5. At the time we were told that it was just an extremely unlucky occurrence due to the fact that both cats had heart murmurs (grade 1) and that Mary's chances of suffering the same fate were slim. Now it looks like they both had severe hereditary heart conditions that brought about these awful circumstances as it seems almost certain to be more than an awful coincidence given that they were related. However, I can't help but be suspicious about veterinary treatments they received prior to their events - they both had to have their annual vaccinations started from scratch just before our first cat's death as we had stupidly neglected to get them their boosters in time. Mary then underwent steroid injections three times in the past year for a seasonal skin condition and for a bite that wasn't healing. She also had antibiotics for the bite, and in a different episode, had antibiotics for a bout of cystitis. Quite a lot of medical intervention in less than a year. She had the last steroid injection just two weeks ago. I would love to think that this was a hereditary thing that could not have been prevented, and nothing we did contributed to it, but I am currently tormenting myself with the suspicion that the injections hastened their demise, and we should have been more questioning.
Patricia

I am sorry to hear about the loss of your cats. Unfortunately heart disease in cats is very much underdiagnosed particular as cats often have no overt symptoms. As a general rule any cat with a heart murmur, however slight needs an ultrasound to see if the have heart disease as treatment before they become symptomatic makes a massive difference to life expectancy. About a third of cats with heart disease have a murmur, the rest do not so it can be really hard to spot unless you are a specialist in this area.

Hi,
I lost one of my cats to this awful condition on Saturday night. He had been as right as rain until about 10.30pm. He had just come in and jumped onto my lap. He them did a strange and pained mew and jumped off and appeared to be wobbly on his feet. He went through to the sofa in another room and was yowling in pain. I at first thought he might have eaten something bad or had something caught in his throat, particulary as he was them sick. But is lack of standing up made me also think he might have been hit by a car.
I phoned the vets emergency number and ran through the developing symtoms where now I could see that he had lost the use of his rear legs and his tail was limp. It was so sad and disturbing in see his distress as he dragged himself across the room to the kitchen and tried to get through the catflap.
The vet said it sounded like saddle thrombus and arranged to meet me at the local vets. Unfortunately as the vet lived in Herne Bay he would still take him about a hour to travel to Deal. I took Fred down by taxi and waited- Freds cries will haunt me for a long time. When the vet arrived he confirmed the condition and began treatment. Soon afterwards another blood clot affected his lungs and he died shortly afterwards. A truly nightmare situration and do just hope that Fred was not in too much pain. But judging by his loud cries I fear he was.

Freds death follows on from me losing another cat in July from complications from her Stomatitis condition. She had suffered from this condition for about 11 years. And had just finished a course of Interferon which had produced the largest improvement to her general well being. But three weeks after the treatment had finished she went downhill fast and died overnight at the vets. Inbetween losing these two beloved cats I also lost a tortoise I had had for 42 years from unknown causes so an awful year for my family of pets.
Most depressing.

bill

Hello, my 9 year old female cat has a murmur and an ultrasound showed she has an enlarged heart. Her regular blood tests show no other problems except slightly elevated potassium levels. She has been on Fortekor for several years and was put on ASA a few years ago after what we thought was a blood clot. One morning she started dragging her hind legs and couldn't walk so I rushed her to emerg. By the time I got there she had recovered so the emerg vet thought the clot had broken upon its own and she was put on ASA. She had a second similar episode about a year later. A couple of weeks ago a feline cardiologist recommended stopping the ASA, which we did. Last night she had episode number three. She doesn't howl, but suddenly can't walk, drags her hind legs, and then after several minutes she recovers and acts completely normal. She purrs a lot and gets very clingy afterward, but no crying. This has caused my regular vet to think it is not being caused by blood clots, despite her heart condition, but she has no other answers for me yet. Any suggestions as to what this might be?

There is no proof aspirin works so I agree with the cardiologist. However Fortekor alone is probably not all the cat needs treatment wise. Most cat's with heart disease need a beta blocker (usually the problem is a disease of the muscle) unless the heart problem is related to a valvular problem or congenital problem. Unfortunately there are no trials on other drugs to prevent clots, so it is important to make sure the heart is being treated correctly to minimise the problems. I suspect that you cat is having clots but they may be small so the symptoms are less dramatic. Have you seen a cardiologist for a proper consultation?

I was told not to give cats aspirin as it could kill them, my cat also has the leg problem, I took him to the vet and he received a depo injection which helped a bit but he still isnt walking, he is 15 (last month) I am now trying the (B12) methylo type still nothing, can I give him a vitamin? It's a powered vitamin and very safe, I dont know what else to do, thanks

Hi Phyllis,
I'm glad you've been to your vet but before you give any vitamins, particularly high powered ones, you would need to consult with the vet who is treating your cat. Some vitamins get excreted out in the urine, but others can accumulate in your cat's fatty tissue and occasionally vitamin overdose can cause problems. Vitamin B is something your vet will be able to give as an injection and it may be helpful, but if it's a saddle thrombus problem that you have, it's unlikely to have a huge impact.
Best of luck,
Zara The Vet

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