What is Cerebellar Hypoplasia?
3 Days Old |
Who is Scrapper, and How I Became Her
'Mother'
Three Days Old |
In One End …
Scrapper
needed to be on a heating pad, and bottle-fed. I wasn’t happy setting my alarm
to get up in the very early morning hours … but, when you have a baby to care
for, that’s the way it is. We held the kitten a lot - she liked to be under our
sweatshirts near our shoulders, where we could keep her warm. She was so tiny! I
purchased a couple tiny bottles with nipples designed to feed kittens with, and
fed her warmed cows milk. Scrapper didn't drink much of the milk, and was
loosing weight. We found out that goats milk would be better, but what a job it
was to find goats milk in February! We finally did, thanks to my husband for
searching any possible place that might sell it. Scrapper loved the goat’s milk
and began putting on weight. To be sure she was getting the nutrition she
needed, powdered kitten vitamins were mixed in with the warmed milk. I took her
to my local veterinarian when she was 10 days old - she weighed 4 ounces. My
veterinarian said Scrapper was doing well - and that I needed to keep her sugar
levels up. To do this, I dipped my pinky finger in maple syrup and rubbed it on
the inside of her mouth. What a sticky job!
In the
middle of March she began licking up canned food. But, because of her
disability, she would go for the food, her mouth would touch it, and her head
would bounce back. This would repeat many times, which caused the food to be
flattened out and difficult for her to get a hold of. I would hold her steady,
and also ‘pinch’ her food into peaks to make it easier for her. I gradually got
her used to eating dry food by mixing the wet with the dry, decreasing the
amounts of the wet until she was eating only dry food. She was so accustomed to
having my hands in her food, and me holding her while she ate, that graduating
from this was challenging and took a long time. I got to her eating the dry,
then gradually moved my hands further from the food, and then I would sit near
her but not be involved in the eating, then I would sit in a chair a little
ways away, and finally I could move about and she would eat without me. I
needed to figure out something to hold her food dish – otherwise she would
knock it over when she’d flop on her side. I cut a bowl-shaped opening into a
stiff piece of foam that was as high as the food bowl. Over this I placed a
towel, and a rolled towel on top so she’d have something to lean on and steady
her. The food bowl went on top of the towel and into the foam shape. This way
the bowl stayed in one place.
Her food and
water bowls are now stainless bowls that set into a plastic shape that holds
them. I have strings through the plastic openings where the bowls set, and
around the legs of my utility sink to hold the feeding station in place. She now
goes into her room (the laundry room) and she eats and drinks when she wants to.
Sometimes I’ll sit with her in my lap and hold the water bowl under her chin.
This way she doesn’t have to steady her whole body and bend her head down and
she can drink much easier.
… And Out the Other
Mother cats
lick their babies’ bellies to help them pee, so I would gently rub
Scrapper's belly, from chest to abdomen to help with this process. When she got
mobile, I used cardboard boxes cut so the sides were about 1” high, and lined
with newspaper. She could get to them and flop in, and she quickly learned this
was the place to do her business. As she got older, using newspaper wasn’t
enough, but I didn’t want her to use litter. With all of her flipping and
flopping, a litter box would have been a grand mess. I have two of the wee wee
pad trays that were invented to help train puppies and dogs to go in one area,
then that area is gradually moved outdoors. Inside the trays I put the wee wee
pads (a large flat thin absorbent pad with a plastic backing). Along the back
of the trays I’ve attached a low ‘wall’ of corrugated plastic – this gives her
extra security to not roll or flop out of the tray so easily. She has one tray
she used for ‘number one’, and the other for ‘number two’.
And More
Her box with
heating pad on the kitchen counter graduated to a larger box on the floor; then
to a sleeping area with a small enclosed area, then the enclosed area got
larger and larger. Eventually, Scrapper had the ‘run’ of the first floor of the
house. When she was young and not able to run or walk as well as she can
now, I kept a large cardboard box on the floor that was cut to be only about
3" tall - so it was like a large cardboard tray. In this tray I would put
a couple toys like those small plastic balls with bells inside. She could bat
them around but they wouldn't get too far away from her. She would spend hours
in these trays playing, then flop out of them when tired, and flop back in when
ready to play again.
Six Weeks Old |
Between
giving her maple syrup, and her getting herself soiled, she occasionally
required a bath when she was really young. I would hold her under the faucet
and wash her off with soap and warm water, then towel dry. Now, she
occasionally needs a little cleaning up, because she doesn’t have the ability
to wash herself like a normal cat. I wet a washcloth with warm water and a tiny
bit of soap and wipe her down, then towel dry. She isn’t fond of this
treatment, but tolerates it with a scowl and just a little impatience.
Most cats, when they look at things around them, will turn their heads back and forth and not move their eyes very much. Well, sometimes it looks very strange to see Scrapper's eyes moving all about while her head stays still. My brother thinks this could be because it's easier to move just her eyes and not try and keep her balance while moving her whole head. That sounds like a good reason to me!
I never had a cat, and I've had many, whose tail often lays flat against her back. Sometimes it touches the back of her head, and she turns around to see what it is that's touching her. When she's happy, that's the position of her tail. It can be difficult to pet her back because the tail is in the way.
Snoozing in the Car (25 Days Old) |
Yawn .... About Seven Weeks Old |
Enjoying the Sunshine - 6.5 Weeks Old |
Silly Things
I love prisms,
and I have several prisms and a small mirrored ball hanging over the kitchen
sink on the south side of the house. One day the sun was shining, and with the
slight air currents in the house it was enough to create rainbows and small points
of light to move around the kitchen. We noticed Scrapper staring at the wall. I
realized she was very intently watching the reflected light moving ever so
slightly. On sunny days I now get the prisms spinning for her and it sets off a
light show in the kitchen that she absolutely loves – she flips and flops and
runs about the kitchen pouncing on the lights. She loves chasing rainbows.
Scrapper also
loves ice cubes. Whenever the freezer door gets opened, here comes Scrapper –
thumping and banging her way as fast as she can to get to the freezer before
the door closes. She even knows that getting a glass out of the cupboard
usually means we’ll be opening the freezer. If given an ice cube, she bats it
around the kitchen and runs after it, then when she tires of this, she lays
still and watches it melt.
For some reason Scrapper
has become very interested in the sounds of me cutting up food or peeling
vegetables. One day I was peeling an apple, and she came running. For the heck
of it, I tossed her one of the apple peels. She spent hours playing with it!
She picks up anything she really likes and carries it into the living room on a
particular rug to play with. The apple peel was the hit of the day. Another day
I was peeling potatoes, and again, she came ‘running’. Same reaction of delight
as with the apple peel. Now, all I need to do is get the peeler out of the
drawer and she hears the slight rattle of the blade in the handle of the peeler
and she runs to see what I’m peeling next. If she misplaces her scrap of a peel
under a rug or something, she runs to my husband or I, constantly meowing as if
to let us know that the house was on fire. She stops before us with all four
legs well apart to keep her balance and continues to meow and stare at us, then
she turns and runs back to where she last saw the peel. Peace is not restored
until the peel is located.
A few days old ..... Almost Four Months Old |
This video shows how she lays on her side and eats ... it looks like she's 'pecking' at her food. She can't control her head movements, and when she dips down to the food her nose hits the food and she jerks her head back up. After doing this a few times she can finally keep her head on the food long enough to grab a piece of it.
When she was almost two years old, she began playing fetch! Her favorite toys are these small mouse shaped toys made of rabbit fur and plastic, with a rattle inside. She brought one to me while I was sitting on the couch and dropped it at my feet. I picked it up and she got very excited - so I tossed it a short distance from her. She ran after it, picket it up in her mouth, and brought it back! Eventually I was throwing it as far as I could, and thoroughly enjoying her delight in the chase. We did this over and over until she plopped down in exhaustion. Now she's learned the word "mouse" ,and if I say "mouse" she makes her chirp sound and gets very excited to play fetch.