LUCI - AUGUST 13 2015

Luci is our miracle cat. When she came into a clinic I worked at in Florida after her mother was killed by a stray dog, I immediately fell in love with her. She was half a pound, had her eyes matted shut, was coated in fleas, and wobbled. Though we cleared up her eyes and rid her of the fleas, her wobble remained. She has cerebellar hypoplasia, meaning part of her brain controlling balance and motor function underdeveloped in-utero. This was likely due to her mother contracting feline distemper or another viral disease while she was pregnant that could cause a high fever, leading to abnormal fetal development. Unfortunately, her congenital problems go beyond just wobbling. She also did not develop half of her uro-genital tract, which we discovered when she was being spayed. She has a remnant of an ovary that has yet to be found as she still goes into heat, but otherwise lacks her kidney, adrenal gland, and uterine horn on her left side. Additionally, her right kidney is compromised due to polycystic kidney disease and renal dysplasia, leaving her in chronic renal failure from very early on. Thankfully, we have her disease under control via medications and a special diet and her renal values have been decreasing and stable since this discovery when she was 6 months old.