Poor kitty!

Last evening we noticed Indy was walking around very slowly and gingerly. We checked him over, but couldn’t see anything wrong, except that he was clearly uncomfortable — not really in pain, but unhappy.

This morning there was no improvement, so Margie took him down to the vet, where, between a preliminary examination and some initial x-ray results and all, we now know:

• He suffered some sort of significant trauma around the base of the tail. Initial thought might have been a car. There was concern about injury to the pelvis and all, but it appears at this point that’s not the case.
• The injury is where the tail starts, right over the pelvis — the vertebrae in question are not fractured (yay) but the space between is dislocated (the “L7-S1 junction”).
• He was suffering from a very full bladder and some muscle tone problems down at that end, which could be spinal/nerve damage, or could be from inflammation from the trauma. 
• He’s been catheterized, which has helped, and is on pain meds, IV fluids, and anti-inflammatories.

I’m guessing he’s going to be in overnight, at least. It’s unclear at this point how long-term/permanent the injuries may be, and we may not know that for a few days. We have an appointment with the vet this evening to look at x-rays and learn more.