Author Lisa Rowe Heavenly Muffins
In May 2020 I could not find my RagaMuffin girl, Baby kitty. My granddaughter named her when we brought her home as a baby, the name stuck. Baby kitty turned 5 in April. I finally found her meowing under my couch. I actually had to lift up the couch to get her. She could no longer use her back legs. She seemed in shock and in pain. She was cold from laying on the cold floor under the couch all night. In the room was some items laying on the floor from a low cabinet. Nothing super heavy. All I could think of is that she opened the cabinet and the items fell on her and it scared her and somehow she hurt her legs. The vet did X-rays and found that the last vertebrae before her tail was shifted and looked like it was pinching her spinal column. He gave her a pain shot and told me that the prognosis was poor but if I wanted to take her home to see how she does over the next week or two he was not against it. He said steroids would not help nor would surgery. He had said the x-ray looked like cats that had been hit but he knew she had not been outside so he was unsure how she ended up hurting her spine. He assumed some type of accident like falling from a high spot or something heavy falling on her.
The vet warned me that she may not have control over her bladder and may need to be expressed. If that was the case I would need to do that and 
help her use the litterbox. That evening Baby Kitty would pull herself to the litterbox and actually use the box. She would drag her back legs but got around surprisingly well. We modified the box. We cut out one side so she did not have to pull herself over the top. Over the next week we noticed that she actually could move her tail. I was hoping that was a good sign. 2 weeks after that her back legs would twitch and she actually could move her legs up to groom herself she just could not put her feet down correctly or put any weight on her legs. Within a month after that she was moving her feet around correctly while she was sitting up eating. As soon as she would walk they would dangle. Two weeks after she could actually put her feet under her while eating one foot she could finally walk on but not put a lot of weight on it. Two weeks after that she was using both feet correctly.
This whole time I had her in a room where she could not get up high and nothing would happen with her. I wanted her to rest and not be around other RagaMuffin cats or the dog. I contacted the vet and told him that she was finally using both feet but her legs were very weak. It told me to do resistance exercises with her. So I would have her laying on my lap and I would have her push her back feet against my hands. I would push up and she would push down. Then I would move her legs while she was laying down like she was walking to get her used to that motion again. She was finally walking on her feet 100% but doing it very slowly and her back end was very low to the ground. She was also jumping onto my lap while I sat in a low chair so she was building back up her muscles in her back legs. Slowly she has gotten better. I let her out of the room staying right with her and do not let her climb steps or jump up higher than the couch. She eventually goes back in the room to sleep and eat and use the litterbox.
The vet told me since she was so healthy and still young at 5 years old her nerves started to regenerate. We are taking it slow with this sweet RagaMuffin but she continues to improve each month. I think one reason she did so well was the fact that the injury did not affect her bowels. Still being able to move her tail and her hips also was a good sign that she may get better. The vet is amazed she has done so well and is glad I did not give up on her. I am too. She is an amazing sweet kitty.