 If you have any kitten type questions, feel free to email me via posting a comment.
Wednesday, September 29
~*when it rains, it freakin pours*~
I brought the four kittens that were ready to be adopted back to the shelter today. It hurt that I couldn't be there. Kristin offered to stay late so I could come in and say goodbye again, but unfortunately I couldn't. See... I also had to bring Emerald in this morning. She has been coughing for a few weeks now, and it is starting to sound worse. I figured before I went on vacation Id get her checked out. Well she has fluid on the lungs - the doctor things it might be pneumonia. Although her heart is a little out of whack, and her lymph nodes seem a bit enlarged, so this also might be the beginning of the end. (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) So she is on baytril (antibiotic) and lasix (for her heart aka to help drain the fluid out of her lungs) He wants to recheck her in two weeks. (when I say beginning of the end, Im not talking imminent) Em was supposed to spend the next week with my mother, but I was concerned how she would deal with the three pills a day she has to have. I am beyond fortunate to have a woman at work who also has five cats who knows my pain at this, and she has offered to take Em to her house for me. Her bedroom is off limits to her cats, so Em has a place to go. Im torn up about leaving her, but I know that if she can't be in my care, Sandy is the next best thing. I also have a new foster here for the night. A little peanut of a thing that came into the clinic today with seizures. They weren't sure what was wrong for a while. His blood sugars were too low to register and he was severely dehydrated. It turns out that for some reason he went into kidney failure, and that shot his blood pressure up so high it detached his retinas, and burned up all his glucose, thus resulting in everything else. We have given him fluids and A/D, and he has perked up 100%. He's still not perfect, and by no means out of the woods, he is here in my bathroom at the moment hopefully sleeping away. Im giving him food and fluids every hour or so. We'll see what happens in the AM. I'll have to take a picture of him... although he's a mess from all the food. Id give him a bath, but he has a catheter in him.
Friday, September 24
~*no spay for tweedle*~
Well they didn't do her today either. They felt it would be better to give her more time and Dana wasn't comfortable giving her gas after what happened. I can't blame her. So I'll send the troops all back together on tuesday, and have to trust the women at the shelter to find them good homes. I helped the staff at the clinic give birth to puppies today. We had a bulldog go into labor at least a week early. There were six puppies all together, three made it. Ollie seems to have an uri now. *sigh* Im trying to decide if I should medicate him or just let it be.
Thursday, September 23
~*Emotional rollercoster*~
Well.. Ollie is back to his old self. We had poop the other day (he kept getting constipated) and no vomit now for several days. I had to wonder if it wasn't the herb I was giving him to make him less grumpy. I had increased his dose to what the vet had recommended originally. I had been giving him one a week simply because I had been forgetting about it, but I had gone to once a day until pretty much the day he started vomiting. Regardless, I doubt I'll be giving him any more of those on the remote chance it was that. So good news there. More good news was Tweedle had put on enough weight to be spayed. I had brought them all in because the surgery was light today. However.... bad news was she had a reaction to the anesthesia that they used, and they couldn't spay her. They started reversing it when I noticed that something was going on, so I stepped in to find out. She was breathing rather heavily, and that is a sign that fluid is building up in the lungs. All of a sudden she seemed to stop breathing. I asked the surgeon if she had, and he felt her heart and said it was beating just fine - but I know it can after the lungs give out. He then put on his stethoscope and asked the tech to pump some oxygen. I then said I had to go, and headed back up front. I told a co-worker that tweedle was having a bad reaction. i had another one die on the table before, so she asked if it was the same kind of reaction. I said it looked like it, so she went out back to check. While she was gone, I heard a major kitten scream. Tweed is very very vocal when you are making her do something she doesn't want to do, so I had hope it was her. My co-worker came up front a few moments later and told me she was fine. They had taken an xray to make sure her lungs would be ok, and she woke up half way through, having hallucinations. I so wonder what kitties hallucinate about. so good news is she's fine. bad news is she isn't spayed. Good news is they can do it tomorrow. bad news is she's still got a problem with the anesthesia, so who ever adopts her has to be very careful. Good news is I can bring them in on saturday and do their adoptions myself. Bad news is there is no guarantee that they will be adopted on saturday. Yes.. I am exhausted.. :)
Tuesday, September 21
~*so now what do we do.*~
Ok.. so Eli was fine. He MIGHT have a urinary issue, but I don't see any other signs, so Im not going to worry about that right now. Ollie however is a totally different story. He spent friday, and he didn't eat at all, but he did move his bowels, and the barium came out. This means he is not totally blocked. One vet is thinking irritable bowel or a food allergie. I don't like either of those. Another is thinking pancreatitis (I can't believe I spelt that right). This I don't mind so much, but again, I don't like the options (ESPECIALLY since Im supposed to be leaving town on the first) The third thought is that there is a reason his intestines aren't moving - because they aren't. The barium showed the intestines were smooth. When they move food down, they pinch up to push it through. The question would be is it mechanical (aka something he ate that is blocking the solid food) or neurilogical. I don't like the neurlogical options either. So sadly Im hoping he's eaten something he shouldn't have. The doctors are thinking they should do an exploritory tomorrow. He's home tonight to see if he will eat and move things through tonight - since he wont eat at the clinic. He has lost about half a pound during all of this, and has been on fluids for about 24 hours now. I could deal with this SOOO much better if I just knew what was going on. 
Friday, September 17
~*Ollie, would you please stop vomiting!*~
For the past week Ollie has been vomiting nightly. Violent hairball hurls, that wake us up in the middle of the night. I took him in to the clinic on thursday, and the dr didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I brought him home and he proceeded to vomit four more times. Back in he goes, and we take more xrays, and do a barium study.. nothing is moving in his intestines nor in his colon. so we do an enema. A small amount of movement at that point.. but I doubt we are out of the woods yet. At least he is still wanting to eat, and he's not dehydrated, so I caught it early. THEN.. get this, cause when it rains it pours... I went to feed the kitties tonight, and I cleaned out the litter box. Doing so is a radar to all kitties to come pee. I don't know why, but it is. Muffin got in first. Eli climbed in a few moments later. I was intent on watching Emmy eat, cause she was slow to start, when I realized Eli was still in the box. I walked over near him and sat down, which didn't phase him. Which in itself is odd. He continued to sit there, as if in a trance. a full 10 minutes past, and he finally got out and started licking his gentiles.. I hope to all get out he isn't blocked!! So he'll be going to visit Ollie, who had to spend the night at the clinic. Guess its a darn good thing I started working for a vet! two surgeries, two dentals, and now this!! Who's smart idea was it to get 5 cats anyway?? (oh hush.. of course I want more!) 
Tweedle, Dennis, and Google.
Saturday, September 11
~*I apparently have a problem*~
I was searching through my draw of cards that I keep so I can send them to my friends when the occasion or spirit strikes me... and I realized I have a draw full of kitty cards that I can't bear to part with. Im not kidding when I say a draw full. I have some that are from collections so I have several of them, so I could send one of those, but I was planning on sending a birthday card to a friend of mine who doesn't like cats (yes.. I know.. it doesn't seem right does it?) So now Im going to have to go out and BUY a card, when I have a draw full of them.. but not one generic birthday card in the bunch. On the kitty front, I brought mom and the kittens in to work the other day for a quick once over. Mom has been hacking badly, and I wanted a full work up on tweedle. Mom was put on pred and baytril, and tweedle is apparently in perfectly good health. X-rays showed nothing wrong with her although her belly was still full of food - despite not being fed since the night before and it was food no one liked. She's just the runt, and slow going. She is 1.5 lbs, where her siblings are 2. On a side note, Im not quite sure what is going to happen to them. See, October 1st, we are going to florida for a few days (yes... hurricane season, I know, but it is a spa resort hotel and the room is paid for.. how can I refuse?!?) All of the kittens except tweedle will be big enough to be neutered and go up for adoption, but I doubt she'll put on an entire pound in three weeks. I did joke that I was going to bring her to FL with me, sneak her in to my carry on, but I don't think that will go over well. The resident cats are going to have fun. I have a friend from work coming over to feed them, and Emmy is most likely going to be staying with my parents (because of her insulin) Its going to be so hard to leave them! I did it for one night a few weeks back, and it hurt. What am I thinking leaving for five days?!?! (SPA RESORT! oh yea.. that's it.) they will be fine.. I know it. I'll just miss them.
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