A couple of days ago, Nova was brought inside and jumped from a height out of the arms of the family member who was carrying her. She would have easily been about a metre above the ground, and because she was excited for her “tea” she took a flying leap and landed on the padded carpets of the indoor pen.

After that she didn’t move. She found a quiet place behind the litter box and laid down on her tummy, like a crooked sploot. Nova was not herself… she didn’t eat… she didn’t use the litter box… she didn’t even want an “Up” (treat). That’s when I realised something was really wrong.

Oh no, Not Nova

I picked her up, wrapped her in a soft blanket and cuddled her on my lap. She fell asleep but was breathing heavy. She was in pain. I cuddled her for about two hours and in that time she didn’t move but she stayed breathing.

I checked her over, she didn’t have any broken bones – especially her shoulders or front legs, spine and ribs. Her guts weren’t twisted or blocked, I couldn’t feel lumps and twists or tears, it felt normal.

I put her back in her pen and she hid under the blanket and didn’t move. She usually would have immediately jumped into the litter box, but she didn’t. I tried to feed her some lettuce, she didn’t eat it. I also tried to give her another treat, but she didn’t eat it.

What next?

Of course, when bed time came around we were all scared that we would lose her over night. She hadn’t eaten for a few hours, but her tummy was still moving – I could hear the sounds. I didn’t want to force her to eat Critical Care, so I left her hunched in the darkness.

I got up every hour to check her. Midnight, 1am, 2am… no change. She was still sitting in the corner under the blanket. Then at 3:45am I checked her again…

She was racing around doing zoomies! Nova leaped into the litter box and ate hay. She ate some pellets, I was relieved that she was happy. Very, very happy. Of course I woke everyone up to let them know that she was fine.

We went back to bed at about 4:30am, relieved that we didn’t lose her.

Ever since that happened, Nova has been overly happy. More so than usual. She is bouncy, fast and does plenty of head-shaking binkies.