Neurotoxins found on farm?

[DamnearaFarm]

Those that feel you must flame, go ahead if it makes you feel better. I just hope y'all have the money or method available when you need to put an animal down.

One day last week, our oldest barn cat (a small tom that just wandered up one day a year or so ago. Not old but not a kitten either) was sitting in the yard, like normal. When we walked up to him pulling a little wagon he didn't offer to move at first. When he did move, he was dragging his hind end. As in his whole rear, from hips back. He moved rapidly and with great control. I examined him and found no marks. No blood, no missing hair, no mud-not even messed up looking hair. He had no response to sharp pressure on his rear paws.
Hoping against hope it was something simple like a wrong landing that created swelling, I crated him with food and water. The second day he seemed to have feeling in his back end as he began complaining when I cleaned him up and applied diaper rash ointment. He was moved into a well bedded stock tank with a heat lamp. He wasn't much on eating dry catfood but ate the raw meat and canned cat food I fed him. I had already arranged for the money to have him put down if there was no improvement over the weekend. He spent the weekend eating, gripping me tightly when I held him and complaining when he was cleaned.
Yesterday morning, I noticed he seemed shaky and unable to drink, snorting when he put his face in his bowl of milk. I began feeding him with a syringe. Last night my oldest daughter was doing the night chores and told me to hurry to the garage, TD was dying.
And he was. Instead of being curled up as usual, he was spread out on his side,twitching and nonresponsive. I gathered him up and held him, comforting as I could until almost two this morning when he passed. Here's the odd part....
Other than the initial rear dragging and the Sunday morning inability to drink, he'd shown no signs of additional paralysis. Last night.....he was TOTALLY paralyzed. He couldn't move anything, including his eyes, no blinking, very little pupil movement....it was just odd. His ears and nose were cold too. The entire time I held him, the only discernable movement was his chest slowing rising with very shallow breaths.
We have nothing he could get into, poison-wise. He never went near the road and the only animals he visited other than the other cats was the goats, who ignored him.
What on earth could have killed him? Is there anything that grows wild that would tempt a cat that could have caused this? I never saw him go near the neighbor's house, so toxins there could be ruled out. He did venture into the neighbor's field from time to time but it is left fallow and mowed with a riding mower. If he were a horse, I would have said he'd gotten into pigweed.
Thoughts?

[PrettyPaisley]

When we lived in Baltimore my mom's cat was found unable to walk and very unresponsive. We took him to the vet and we were told that he had most likely been poisoned by a yard recently sprayed with Chem-Lawn or something similiar. Could someone close by have been spraying chemicals that he was playing in?

I'm sorry your kitty is gone.

[Bearfootfarm]

He could have had a broken back with no visible trauma.
It could also have been a brain tumor

[simi-steading]

Almost sounds to me like he had a spinal injury, or some sort of spinal infection...

So sorry to hear you had to deal with that... I've got a cat with cancer right now, and I'm still trying to prepare myself for losing her... best cat I've ever had... It's never easy losing any pet, especially when it's something like you described..

[TedH71]

If possible, get him autopsy done on him.

[frogmammy]

There's a nasty form of distemper around, and I Have seen that cause paralysis.

Mon

[Glacialtill]

Sound like it could be a stroke.

[Kel T]

We had a couple of dogs do that when I was a kid and the vet told us that it was botulism. Sorry you lost your cat, no flames here.

[farmrbrown]

Our neighbor lost his beloved dog when I was a kid, and he thought it might have been poisoned, so he had the vet do a post mortem, with a lot of blood tests, etc.
When he got the results, I still remember because I had no idea such a thing was possible. In short the vet told him that he had indeed gotten into something poison, but the indications were that it was naturally occurring toxin, most likely from eating an old, dead animal. I can't remember what it was called, but it shut down the dog's liver and he died within a day or two.

[cathleenc]

I am sorry!

[GrannieD]

Be careful when you encounter illness in a pet.esp. one that is outdoors...Rabies has a neurological effect & cats encounter the wildlife that wander the same territory.. Better to isolate & confine until it becomes more clear one way or the other.. GrannieD

[meanwhile]

I am sorry for your loss. We lost our cat Fluffy last year to a coyote and we still miss him. Time does help but we still miss him. I hope it was just a stroke and not something else around. So sorry. Loosing a pet is hard.

[barnyardgal]

I am no help but am so sorry for your loss!!!!! So hard to watch a dying fur baby!!!

[Minelson]

It sounds like Aortic Thromboembolism to me....

http://pets.webmd.com/cats/aortic-thromboembolism-cats
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Con...EVetID=3001459

[rambler]

Sorry for the loss. I like my kitties too, we have many but still when one goes.....

There are many things that could have happened.

Antifreeze.
Diabetes.
Spinal injury.
And the rest as mentioned.
They found aflotoxin in some dog food made in Kansas this week. The drought made that a problem this year, widespread, might have been something in the catfood.
Lot of the things most of us have under the kitchen sink are rather toxic, rarely reacts but just right and something coulda happened.
I've heard of rare reactions to flea collars.

Paul
--->Paul

[Common Tator]

It sounds like he either had a stroke, or sustained a spinal cord injury. Perhaps hit by a car or picked up and shaken by a larger animal.

We used to have a horse that picked up any smaller animals that got too close to his hay and shake them. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen him do it to a baby goat.

I'm sorry you lost your kitty. They do work their way into your heart, don't they?

[mekasmom]

Did he ever have a rabies vaccine? You need to have the cat tested. Rabies causes paralysis. It is the primary symptom even though it isn't often shown on TV shows. At least call a vet or doctor and ask about if you could be in danger.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rabi...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[agmantoo]

From your description the cat suffered from rabies. I would be concerned for the welfare of the family at this time. Take the cat to the vet and have it tested immediately. Rabies is highly transmittable. You cannot procrastinate with this threat.

[starjj]

I agree that it could be rabies. I would definately have him tested Nothing to mess with.

[julieq]

Oh, I'm so very sorry. I agree that you should have him tested for rabies. But I'm so very sorry you're going through this! ((hugs))