Jason
OVERVIEW
NICKNAMES: JayJay
DATE OF BIRTH: May 13, 2013
PERSONALITY: Sweet and quiet
QUIRKS & HABITS: Purrs like a chainsaw when super happy. Loves to “dig” and knead whatever is closest when he sees his favorite people.
GOTCHA DATE: May 13, 2019
We had to say an unexpected goodbye to our wonderful cat ambassador, Jason. Matt found him lateral and non-responsive Monday afternoon and rushed him to the clinic. We took x-rays and ran tests, but nothing told us why he was like this. Unfortunately, he did not respond to any treatment. We made the decision to let him go peacefully. I was right there, telling him what a wonderful boy he was, and how we would miss his precious face and his amazing hugs.
Jason arrived on May 13, 2019 after a 2 week stay at a vet in College Station. He was 6 years old at the time. Many thanks to BCS Spay for reaching out to us about his case. Jason was front declawed and was an indoor/outdoor cat in his former home. His owners brought him in to the vet paralyzed in his rear legs from unknown trauma. Tests showed no bone breakage, but a severely bruised abdomen and bladder.
Final result was that Jason was paraplegic with no bowel or bladder control. He needed to have his bladder expressed (manually squeezed like a water balloon) to eliminate urine from his body. Same with stool. His former owners were unable to deal with that situation so it was a sanctuary or euthanasia. Fortunately we were able to take him in.
Unfortunately his injury caused enough nerve damage in his spine that he also had severe hyperesthesia. That means he had terrible pain in the back half of his body. When he got to us, even touching the hair on his lower back would cause a growling, snapping reaction from this otherwise sweet cat. Bladder expression caused such horrific pain that we decided to take another approach.
Jason started seeing an acupuncturist twice a week to reduce the hyperesthesia in the hopes that we would make bladder expression more comfortable. It definitely helped. We were soon able to pet him all the way down his spine! The doctor reduced him to once a week. He made visible progress every single week! For a while, he had a urinary catheter in place that got changed every 3-5 days or so as long as nothing required us to do it sooner. Fortunately, despite the hyperesthesia elsewhere, Jason had zero feeling “down there,” so the catheters didn’t bother him at all. Thankfully the acupuncture made enough of a difference that eventually he didn’t need his urinary catheter anymore. We were finally able to express his bladder (with a little bit of grumping)!
Jason went on to become one of our cat ambassadors. He would travel with us to events like farmers' markets and cat shows so that people could interact with him and see how happy a paraplegic cat can be. He was always happy to be seen and to be petted. He loved the attention, though he would get tired after a few hours and need a break.
At home, Jason loved being outside in the sun, or resting on one of the many heating pads around the house. He had the sweetest face, and such beautiful eyes. Being declawed made it impossible for him to climb like the other paras, but that did not stop him from enjoying life! He had 6 loving years with his former family and just under 6 wonderful years with us. There is so much more I could say about this precious soul, but I am just going to leave it here. He was a wonderful, loving, sometimes grumpy boy, and we miss him terribly.
