Bujang and Idiopathic Vestibular Disease

 

He has the characteristic  head tilt of sufferers of this disease. This was taken on the day that he had physiotherapy with Dr Lalani 4 June.

This was Bujang yesterday 8 June 2021. 

Here he was able to walk. Although he stumbled a bit, his legs did not collapse from under him. He was stronger as well and did not have to make wide circles when he needed to turn. He did decide to pee in front of my cupboard but that was an accident. This morning 9 June, he went to his bins twice and did everything well. 

This is my record of his progress. Usually I would do a blog but I think this would also suffice for me to keep a record. This was the advice given to me by Dr Ly when my cat Megat had lymphoma. He said many people with pets search for information and all notes would be useful. When Bujang was diagnosed with this, I also looked for information about cats with this disease but there were few. It seemed this disease would affect mostly dogs and there were a few that I found on FB but no one has managed to give me new information about cats. So I thought I should begin but have not decided if I should do up a separate blog just for this or just to write the progress here. But I should begin from the beginning.

15 days into idiopathic vestibular disease (26 May - 9 Jun 2021)

This is a very long post about his journey with Idiopathic Vestibular Disease. Still ongoing.

26 May (Wed) - fell off when he wanted to get to his cat seat that was about 1 foot off the floor. I heard a loud bang and it seemed that he had hit his head. He then fell off the cupboard where his carrier was. The cupboard was about 5 feet off the floor. He would usually get to the carrier by jumping on my bed. onto the headboard and then to his carrier.

27 May (Thur) - went to vet, unable to check thoroughly as B was angry and hissing. At home he could not walk and hid under chairs and finally camped in the study. He was upset and confused.

29 May (sat) - went to vet; did senior checkup for kidney and blood, X-rays done. X-ray showed deteriorating spine condition. Vet diagnosed inability to walk could be from a collapsed intervertebral disc space. However, Bujang was referred to a specialist vet Dr L. Still could not walk and stumbled his way , sometimes his legs would collapse under him. Still confused (both Bujang and me and his vet)

1 Jun (Tue) - MRI with Dr L. Diagnosed with Idiopathic Vestibular Disease as his head was tilted to the right and he tilted to the right when he walked. The vet said it could not be a spinal cause as he was walking in that way. Did MRI and found his head to be clear of tumours. His right ear canal was clear as well but his left ear was filled with fluids. Dr L said it could be from a previous infection but that fluid needed to be resolved as it was like a soup of infection. (‘Soup’ is my word, not Dr L’s but I understood it to be like that). The test had yet to be read and Dr L said I was to bring Bujang back in 2 weeks. The fluids in his left ear did not explain the right head tilt as there were no fluids in his right ear. He still walked poorly and had poor motor skills. Was miserable and confused.

4 Jun (Fri) - went to physiotherapy with Dr Lalani with all his reports from the 2 vets and his other tests. He said that we knew from 5 years ago that he had a back problem and so that was not new but the vestibular problem was the new one. He worked with Bujang for 30 minutes, manipulating his neck where the muscle had frozen. Dr L ( who had been working with him for almost 5 years to increase his mobility and decrease his back pain) massaged Bujang’s neck muscles and did a cranial manipulation to relieve the stress on the spine. I think it was more like your body being able to take deep relaxing breath.

When Bujang came home I was quite relieved that he was able to move his neck a little more. Dr L showed me how to massage his neck muscles to relax it and also how to put a cold compress on it. This I had done every day. I was also asked to take pictures of his progress so we can keep track of his walk.

8 June 2021

Bujang was a little better. His head tilt was a little gentler instead of that very sharp downward angle that he had in the 1st week. As a result of this, he was now able to do sharper turns and not have to do wide sweeping angles to go where he wanted. But if he missed his step, he still had to do the wide sweeps. But he was able to walk a little more quickly without falling.

The other cats were also less worried. Tanaka has stopped pulling his hair (from anxiety) as well. Rezki has turned from the gangsta boy to a sweet little brother.

We also like to thank everyone who has thought of Bujang kindly and given us support.

9 June 2021

He was able to go to the bins and we are keeping close watch. He still stumbles a little, if you see from the video, but he was quite able to maneuver himself without hitting things.

Medication:

• 1 week of antibiotics for ear infection (the only presciption meds from vet)
• pumpkin puree (for constipation) plus Turmeric from NHV
• daily neck massages (advice from Dr Lalani)
• a lot of care and attention and treats for antibiotics