nikolai-and-dimitri-blog

[nikolai-and-dimitri-blog]

Nikolai: This photo is from the first day I went out to the garden after the accident. It’s a little difficult to walk, but I can handle it.

So far I’m doing well, I’m eating well, everything is fine, I had lost some weight but gaining back a little since I’m home. I got used to the litter thingy our human improvised so there’s no problem when it comes to doing my business haha.

I’ve also been playful, last night I caught a moth and ate it! I caught it with only one paw! Cool isn’t it? 

[nikolai-and-dimitri-blog]

Donation update!

Thanks to your donations we have been able to pay 1/3 of the debt from Niko’s last hospitalization at CEDIVET.

 We are very grateful for it and we are very impressed by your generosity, a huge thank to all the ones who have donated. It means a lot to us because that way it will be easier to be able to afford the following treatment in Niko’s recovery process: Neurologist’s consultation and treatment, plus physiotherapy to try to make Niko’s left paw funtional.

There’s still a big part left to reach our goal, but so far it has been great. The #coicommunity of Instagram is unbelievable amazing and supportive. We definitely wouldn’t be able to do it without your help, it would be so much harder because of the previus economical problems our family is still dealing with, but again, thanks to your support and help we have made a little step that makes us feel that this recovery can be posible. 

If you haven’t and you want to donate head over to:  PayPal.Me/carolabarbieriv if you can’t donate, you can help us by sharing our Instagram posts or keep sending good vibes to Nikolai

[nikolai-and-dimitri-blog]

If you want to help Nikolai to recover, you can donate here!

If there’s something wrong with the link just write us a message here or send us a DM on Instagram 

Lot’s of luv

Niko’s family

xx

[nikolai-and-dimitri-blog]

Let’s help Niko to recover!

Hello everyone. I'm writing in behalf of Nikolai. Many of you might already know him, but if you don't, let me introduce him.

Nikolai is a two and a half year old cat who decided to escape his old house and live exciting adventures in his new forever home (We are from Chile). During the time he was wandering the streets he found a mate that followed him everywhere, Dimitri, and together they created The Cat Mafia when they where officially adopted by us on February 16th, 2017  https://www.instagram.com/nikolai.and.dimitri

Everything went well this past year and a half since we adopted them, I am sure you have seen many of their adventures, but not everything is perfect, not when you are an adventurous cat.

Things changed on Monday 8th

Unfortunately, Nikolai is not having the greatest time of his life now. He had an accident on Monday 8th of October, what we assume was a car accident.

On Monday 8th I got a phone call at 23:49, it was the person who found him laying on the ground in front of our house. We took him to the vet immediately and left him there overnight. 

Nikolai didn’t die that night, he didn't want to die, he wanted to fight, like the great fighter he is.

From that night a series of events have happened regarding his recovery and here are the details of it.

Recovery Day 1 Tuesday 9th

First visit, After work we visited Nikolai at 12:42, by that time a scan was taken to see if he had any fractures, in fact he had, two of them in his ribs, they weren't damaging the lungs. No more fractures were shown, but the vet team was worried because he had no response and he couldn't move any part of his body, legs, tail, jaw, neck, head and so on, so they predicted he had neurological damage and told us that he would be under observation to evaluate his situation better before suggesting putting him to sleep. He looked like he was invertebrate and his eyes were lost.

Second visit, We visited him again at  20:25 we saw him more responsive, but still numb, and the vet team made sure to tell us: he is not sedated he has neurological damage, by that time they had already established he had an encephalocranial trauma, better known as Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and that was stopping him from controlling specific parts of his body. Despite that when we saw him he looked more conscious, he could recognize our voices and even tried to move to stand up, he obviously couldn't, he could only knead with his right paw and move his right arm a little bit, but again, no control of his jaw, neck, head, he had lost sensibility of his back and belly.

Recovery Day 2 Wednesday 10th

First visit,  At 11:30, by that time he could finally have control of his neck and move his head, he couldn’t stand up or have any sensitivity in his back yet, but he was waaay more responsive, he was back to being Niko again, the room where we saw him had a window, so he could do his favorite activity: be a nosy cat and look through it, he was very alert and aware of everything that was happening in the room, it was such a relief seeing him in his “normal” state. To be honest I had lost the hope he could ever move again after seeing him the day before, but he showed this little improvement that kept us having faith. He also had more control of his jaw and attempted to stand up, the vet said he could now smell food but he couldn’t eat yet, he also said Niko started hissing some dog when he took it out if his cage and that was a good sign

Second visit, at 19:44 The vet said he ate a bit, they said they had to force him, cuz he doesn't want to eat. We could see that  he had more control of his jaw, but the greatest part of this visit was: He could stand up for a couple of seconds when the vet tried to feed him. So far he had been getting his nutrition via IV.

You can see in the last picture where the hematoma is, we think that's where the impact with the car was (or any other object), because he has two of his ribs fractured, we also think he might have landed on his head because of the traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Recovery Day 3 Thursday 11th

First visit, at 13:08, Niko was showing signs of improvements, at this point he was more aware of the things that surrounded him, the noises, the voices, etc. He was very curious and back to being his cuddle self, he demanded many scratches from all of us. We took him to look through the window a little bit. In the video you can see how his neurological problem has impact on his movement, he tries to move his right paw but he has to make a big effort in oder for that to happen, his arm was shaking.

Second Visit, at 17:44 this was a very short visit. The vet informed us that Nikolai is not controlling his sphincter, he hadn't excremented and he peed himself several times. You can see him with a diaper the vet had just put him because they had bathed him and they didn't want him to get dirty again, but guess what happened? He peed himself when we tried to hold him, luckily he didn't make a big mess.

Recovery Day 4 Friday 12th

First visit, at 11:16, We helped him stand on his own by massaging him like the vet said. He seemed to have improved, because he could now move and control more parts of his body, in fact, that day, he surprised us by standing up alone and trying to walk as he could. It was a very special day because it was the first time we saw him do everything on his own without us helping him.

Second visit, at 20:00, This visit was a short one, Nikolai had just been under treatment and he was very tried. Earlier in the first visit  the vet asked us to bring him food because he didn't want to eat, so they wanted to try if he would eat from his bowl or if he would eat his regular food. Bad news is: he hasn't, he doesn't want to eat. We didn't try to make him walk or anything because he was super tired. As you can see in the second picture at this point it is noticeable he has a floppy leg that he can not control, his left leg. 

Recovery Day 5 Saturday 13th

 First visit, As you can see in the picture at this point it is noticeable he has a floppy leg that he can not control, his left leg. He was a lot more active and curious, he wanted to explore the vet room and he even jumped on a chair. He wants to do things, he wants to move and explore and he is finding his way to do it even with his floppy leg.

Second visit, at 19:18, Niko showed us that he really want to move and explore things, he is more than willing to do thing, but the neurological damage he has has left him with a floppy leg that makes everything to be a little bit more difficult. The vets were considering amputation, but that's not what we want, we want to try everything before making that decision. He needs neurological assistance in order to identify where specifically the damage is and treat it in order to start exercising and treating his muscles so he can have control of his left leg.

He will be derived to another facility that specializes in neurological treatment and for that, we need money in other to give him the best option before making the decision of amputating his leg.

The veterinary team in his vet clinic CEDIVET (Concepción, Chile) has been amazing,  the care and treatments to stabilize him were held in the best way possible and we are very grateful for that, but their job will be done by Monday 15th and the next step is to treat Nikolai's neurological problems at this other facility. They will put us in contact with them on Monday 15th and then we'll see how the next process will be. We will be giving you details and updates about that in the next days.

What we have so far is the receipt and detail made for his week of stabilization at CEDIVET (Monday 8th - Monday 15th). By Monday 15th we'll know the full total of the expenses.  After that we'll know the budget at the neurological vet center will be. We might not have the exact number yet, but we know it will be expensive and we want try everything to help him get, if not 100%, 90% better and avoid amputation, but we can not afford it. 

So far total expenses are:

Urgency / hopitalization: $ 104.000 CPL /  154,39 USD

Stabilization / hospitalization: $199.360  CPL /  295,95 USD

Medicine/treatment at home: $38.330  CPL /   56,90 USD

Neurology consultation: $20.000  CPL /  29,69 USD

Neurology treatment: Unknown yet.

Total: $361.690  CPL /  536,44 USD

Nikolai is showing signs of improvement, he's showing us he is a fighter and that he doesn't want to stop living his best life. He chose us to be his family, he chose us to love us, and the least we can do to give his love back is to help him as much as we can. 

If  you can help us help Niko we will be able to do it. And we will be forever grateful for it.

Every donation counts, even if it is a little, everything is gonna helps us to make Nikolai be the best cat he can be. 

You can donate money to our Paypal account:

paypal.me/carolabarbieriv

In case there's extra money left from this campaign, it will be used to Niko's  medical treatment or it will be donated to our local shelter or to any other organization helping animals.  Hope you can help us make Nikola’s life better, we will be forever grateful for that.