 If you have any kitten type questions, feel free to email me via posting a comment.
Friday, November 26
~*six weeks*~
Wow.. six weeks already?!?! I was thinking more along the lines of somewhere between four and five. Everyone but Reagor knows how to eat. They don't all want to. Mona is the best eater.. Cheryl is the worst one who will eat. All the kittens like nutrical, and have figured how to suck that down. They are all about 1 pound now, which isn't that great of a weight, but it isn't horrible either. They look all fat and chubby, and are active and happy, so Im not going to worry. 
Monday, November 15
~*Eating on their own.... sorta*~
For the past few days I have been giving the kittens tiny pieces of wet food in their mouths to get them ready for wet food... Well today two of them took it one step further and actually started to eat the food on their own. One did it out of the container, the other would only eat it out of my hand. They are so cute!! 
Saturday, November 13
~*Update on Eli & kitten surgery*~
ok.. well this boy is apparently destined to have nothing but trouble in his life. Poor thing. Last night he was straining to go, so I brought him in to work for a check up His bladder is spasming, so he is on yet another medication. The surgeon also is thinking he needs a "PU" which is surgery to remove his penis and widen the opening from his bladder to penis. basically making him a girl. *sigh* poor boy has been through so much in his short little life. Dealing with Eli, I forgot to mention that one of the kittens needed surgery last week. the little boy had a hernia, and it abscessed. They fixed him up good, and sent him home. Well, it abscessed again. I pulled a little corner off the scab, and puss oozed out. I talked to the dr, and he recommended pulling the entire scab off. That worked ok. I didn't like the way his belly looked, it was quite red and raw, but I figured that was just what it should look like. I tried to let it air dry before putting him down. Apparently I didn't though, cause he crawled through some litter on the floor and it stuck to it. I gently pulled it off, but it made him bleed pretty badly. Fortunately I have liquid bandaid here, and I put a towel on his tummy till I could get the bandaid ready. I covered the incision with the liquid bandaid, and it looks MUCH better now. He doesn't like the antibiotics he is on, but other than that he seems fine. I finally took a sharpie and marked the ears of the girls so I could tell them apart at a glance. They are wicked cute.. they jump out of the cage, and run around for a second or two, then start climbing Mt connie :) I really miss Fifi. The new foster mom wants to call her Nicolette, even after I told her she could only take her if she called her Fifi.
Friday, November 12
~*Updates*~
Well Eli came home yesterday. He originally pulled out his catheter with his Ecollar on, so they put a second one on over the first. He also had chewed out his IV, so they put vet wrap all up his arm. Very attractive! he was quite grumpy to the girls, hissing at them, so they asked that I pill him. He continued to eat the whole time, but his urine was quite bloody. Wednesday night someone took his Ecollar off him and so he pulled out his catheter again, but they were going to take it out anyway and see if he could pee on his own. He eventually did. so he came home. He is on special food which he loved at the clinic, but doesn't seem too thrilled with now. I think it is because he's paranoid that we put something in it. We have to separate the cats out at dinner time, so everyone else gets locked downstairs with their food, and eli has the run of the upstairs. He hasn't eaten well, but again, I think it is because he is paranoid. Hopefully tonight he will.
After I got home Sunday night, the shelter called me about an abandoned kitten. It was left outside with two others, and unfortunately the other two died. She was flea ridden and totally emaciated. I think she's a week older than my other kittens - because of her teeth, but she is actually smaller than them. She took a while to figure out how to eat, but once she did, she ate with a vengance. Which also spurred her to finally start having bowel movements. She hits the litterbox about half the time. Because of the fleas, I kept her separated out.. and I had her living in my bathroom in a laundry basket. Once she figured out how to get out of that, I put her in my bath tub. It is so cute!
Unfortunately Im going to hand her over to another foster mom. I love her to pieces, but having two rooms of kittens going is a lot of work, and we are becoming WAY too attached to her, and we can NOT have seven cats.. really :D
Sunday, November 7
~*Poor Eli*~
Eli is currently having some major hallucinations. My boss called me at around 10, and met me at work. I gathered up eli from the bathroom I had put him in to see if he would pee, and found a few drops of urine with blood in it. Dr. A said he was blocked. We put him to sleep using stamina valium, and got a catheter in him. It was hard as he was blocked well. We finally got it in, and streams of red urine came out. Poor thing must have been so uncomfortable. They tape up the end of the catheter, and then suture it in his scrotum. Which was not fun, cause he was waking up at the time. We put an e collar on him, and left him with his IV catheter and his urinary one, and he is at the clinic for a while. Worst part for me was when I got faint. I don't know why. All of a sudden the world got very bright, and there was a large snowflake looking thing in my vision. I have a feeling I had a reaction the ketamine as I didn't feel majorly stressed out at the time. I knew eli was in trouble, but I knew that it was solvable and he would be fine. So now I have to figure out how to deal with the crystals. The recommended course of treatment is to put him on urinary food which increased the PH of his urine. The dr yesterday who tested his urine said it was already acidic. The food he is on has cranberries in it, so Im not quite sure what the switch will do. One issue around the house though has been the lack of fresh water. I have tried and tried, but with six cats it takes two of us to make sure there is always fresh water down. The hubby wouldn't listen to me before, and it would often run out. When I would fill it, there would be a line of cats waiting to get water. Hopefully this will spur him to be better on that end. arrrgh!
~*Oh great!*~
Well the eli saga continues. Hubby found him squatting in the litter box not producing urine. We went to catch him to see what was going on - cause it takes two of us - and we found him squatting in the sunroom still not producing urine. Looks like he is blocked, which is deadly. I confined him to a bathroom while im trying to get a hold of my boss (cause I work for a vet) and see if we can get him help there as opposed to dragging him 45 minutes up into the big city to get him help at the emergancy clinic. (not to mention I don't like the idea of the cost of that) I'll keep ya all posted (i know you are hanging on the edge of your seats on this one) :)
Friday, November 5
~*gratuitous kitten picture*~
Kittens at 3 weeks
~*Eli's trip to the vet.*~
Well, since he peed in the bed, there wasn't much urine to get out of him this morning, so they waited till just about closing time. We stuck his bladder with a big ol needle and pulled it out. This of course made him have to go pee, and vomit. Poor thing. He vomited in his bag on the way home, so then he needed a bath. He screamed so loud you would have thought I was pulling his arms off. I feel so bad that he had to go through all that. He has a raging urinary infection, and actually has crystals in his urine. They recommend a special diet for that which will increase the acidity of his urine. The dr mentioned that his urine was acidic. I explained how it would be difficult to not put them all on it, and he suggested we just do antibiotics for now (baytril 22.7 1 SID) and recheck him in a couple of weeks. Again, Im certain this has been going on for a month. I feel so bad, knowing he must have felt uncomfortable all this time. I just wish there was a way for him to say "Um.. excuse me, but it hurts when I urinate. Could you fix me?" On a side note. I just got back from Target. They had some of the cutest pet things in their dollar spot. I got all the kitties christmas stockings. I'll have to take a picture when I hang them out :) Oh yea, about the fosters.. :) I gave mom some more pyrantal for round worms, and this time it made her drool so badly that she looked rabid! but she ate all her wet food, and drank all her water. The kittens weren't as hungry today as they had been, so it looks like things are on the incline.
~*ok then.. *~
Ask and you shall receive. I had a thought yesterday while blogging, that if I didn't catch the peeing culprit in the act, Id never figure out who did it. Well, just now, while I am laying in bed waking up slowly, Eli squatted and let loose a nice puddle. Thank you.. I think. At least now the mystery is solved and we can get him some help.
Thursday, November 4
~*who peed in my bed!?!*~
After blogging last night, I immediately went to bed. There was a huge urine mark in my bed. SOMONE peed in my bed right where my head goes. This is the third instance of improper urination. The first was while I was on vacation. I assumed that was Muffin, since it was on my chair. The second was in a laundry basket last week. We assumed that was a territorial thing, since it was kitten laundry. Now this. I don't know if I have a physical problem here, or if it is just muffin being annoyed that tweedle is here and is telling me so. One more instance, and we are going to start treking kitties into the clinic for check ups.
Wednesday, November 3
~*Happy 3 week birthday!*~
The kittens are 3 weeks old today. They are doing pretty well. Mom is looking a bit worse for the wear. She has had some pretty bad diarrhea, so I took a stool sample in. She has coccidia. We are treating her with albon, and doing some nemex to help get rid of any round worms. Hopefully she'll be filling out soon. She looked a bit dehydrated, so I mixed up some KMR to help her out nutrionally. I gave some to the kittens too. They loved it. I left them with a clean cage and fully bellies. One of the girls purred. It was uber cute! The boy had a hernia and it began to develop what looked like scabbing. It didn't seem to be effecting him, so I let it go, but it got progressively worse over the weekend, so I brought him in on tuesday. I had brought him in the week before because his cord hadn't fallen off, but the dr wasn't worried, but when he saw it Tuesday, he said it had to come off. So he had surgery. He is doing very well, except he hates the antibiotics they put him on. They make him foam at the mouth. One of the girls has a bum leg. We aren't sure if it is deformed or if it is just dislocated. The dr isn't worried about it at this point, and suggests we look further into it at 8 weeks. She is the chubbiest one, so she is not suffering because of it. One of the other girls is a bit antisocial. She screams whenever I pick her up. The others used to, but quickly came around. I'll have to work harder on this one, but it is hard, as all the girls look a like. Maybe I'll get a sharpie and mark her head :) 
Kittens at two weeks
|
