May 2008 - 12 Kittens
So, after my first incredibly easy foster experience, I was thrown feet first into the deep end. It began when the shelter manager contacted me about fostering 6 kittens who were rescued from the home of a cat hoarder. They were about 4-6 weeks old and were from two litters, one of which lost their mom to an inoperable tumor. The morning of the day that I was to pick them up, I got a call from the shelter manager. The conversation went something like this:
Shelter Manager: "How much room do you have?"
Me: [skeptically] "Why do you ask?"
Shelter Manager: "Well a litter of six feral kittens was found this morning and we put the in with yours. In the short time they've been together, your kittens have taught the feral kittens how to use the litter box and eat out of a bowl. They're now also allowing us to pick them up and pet them. We're afraid if we separate them now, they'll revert back to their feral state and won't let us handle them."
Me: "Uh, all right."
Okay. It's official. I can now claim the title of Crazy Cat Lady.
Sorting Kittens
One of the problems with having all those kittens was trying to match their paperwork with the actual kitten. The physical descriptions I got for each didn't exactly match the actual collection of kittens. For example, the paperwork said I had three black kittens, a solid black male, a solid black female and a black on black "tiger" male. What I actually had was a solid black male and a black on black female.
There were three litters. The litter of four consisted of Mirrim, Mikhail, Kindra and Alessan. Then there was a litter of two black kittens, Regis and Rayna. Finally, there was a litter of 6 kittens consisting of Damon, Dominic, Derek, Donal, Kyril and Kayla.
Medical Crisis
This fostering didn't go as easily as the first for multiple reasons. A couple of weeks after I took them home, one of the kittens, Derek, refused both the canned food and the formula I put down. This was very unusual for him so I used a needle-less syringe and force fed him formula by squirting it in his mouth. I had used this technique for some of the others when they were getting dehydrated due to diarrhea. By Tuesday morning, he seemed like he was starting to perk up and actually tried eating a little. However, by that evening, he was much worse and had no energy and was breathing hard as if he'd been running a marathon when all he managed to do was lay spread out on the floor. Worried he might not make it through the night, I called the shelter manager who echoed my concern and had me meet her at a local 24 hour emergency animal hospital. After examining him, they said he was not only dehydrated but that his temperature was low and they were having difficulty hearing his heart. He didn't have any fluid in his abdomen (a symptom of feline infectious peritonitis or FIP) or signs of pneumonia but was constipated and had a lot of fecal matter in his bowels. They put him on an IV and gave him some dextrose to boost his blood sugar. They were also going to see if they could give him an enema to help clear his bowel (a difficult operation considering how small he was). We left him in the care of the hospital and went home.
The next morning, Regis was now not eating or drinking and was avoiding both me and the other kittens. He lay stretched out on the floor and appeared to be in some degree of discomfort. I called the shelter manager again and she arranged for me to take Regis to the hospital. It was then that I found out that Derek hadn't made it. The hospital had called her about 1am to tell her his heart gave out on him. They believed that he had some kind of heart defect and that his body had grown too large for his heart to support.
So, back to the animal hospital I went. I waited for some time to find out what was wrong with him. During their exam, they saw what appeared to be ulcers on his tongue. They also palpated his abdomen and reported that his intestines felt thick and rope like. They called the shelter manager to decide a course of action. They believed his intestinal problem was likely a malformation of the bowel that would prevent him from being able to absorb enough nutrients as he grew older and that the ulcers on his tongue were likely from some viral infection. The recommendation by the hospital was euthanasia followed by a necropsy to determine which virus had caused the ulcers so they would know what they needed to treat the other kittens who had, by now, all been exposed. The shelter agreed. When I next spoke with the hospital staff, it was when they returned my carrier and told me to call the shelter manager. She informed me of the diagnosis but reassured me that none of this was a reflection of my care, it was the result of birth defects and what ever he'd been exposed to from the hoarder's house he came from.
So off to work I went, feeling very depressed about losing two kittens in less than 12 hours. Fast forward a few hours and I get a call from the shelter manager. She asked if I was sitting down because she had something quite unbelievable to tell me. The hospital had had some emergency come up and had to postpone the euthanasia of Regis. When they finally got back to him he was sitting up in the cage, alert and showing no signs of his previous symptoms. They re-examined him and determined that what they originally thought were ulcers was the result of residual formula I had tried feeding him that morning. The intestines were returning to normal and, surprise! he ate with vigor when presented with some canned food. They finally decided that the problem was that he was allergic to the doxycycline that all the kittens had been on for their upper respiratory infections. He continued to improve throughout the day and I was able to pick him up that evening on my way home from work.
Once home, I was given instruction to keep him isolated initially to see that he continued to improve and was eating, drinking and going to the bathroom the way he should. They gave me some prescription food that is very bland so that it wouldn't upset his digestive system which was probably irritated by the doxycycline (thus causing the issues with his intestines). He ate some of the bland stuff. I also put a small amount of the regular kitten food he'd been eating. He seemed to like that much more. The next day I tried giving him equal amounts of regular and bland food. He definitely preferred the regular food. He was also his usual, active self, running around, pouncing on me, crawling up me like his own personal cat tree, sitting on my shoulder, playing with my hair, nuzzling my ear, and all the while his little motor going non-stop. Needless to say, he didn't stay isolated for long. He immediately went back with the rest of the kittens and was quite happy (when I first put him back in the room, he ran around to the other kittens rubbing faces with all of them).
After recovering from his medical scare, I figure that makes Regis the real “Once and Future King”! [chortle] (Yes, I’m laughing at my own joke. I told this one at work and it went over their heads. Alas, the bane of being an English major....)
Shelter Manager: "How much room do you have?"
Me: [skeptically] "Why do you ask?"
Shelter Manager: "Well a litter of six feral kittens was found this morning and we put the in with yours. In the short time they've been together, your kittens have taught the feral kittens how to use the litter box and eat out of a bowl. They're now also allowing us to pick them up and pet them. We're afraid if we separate them now, they'll revert back to their feral state and won't let us handle them."
Me: "Uh, all right."
Okay. It's official. I can now claim the title of Crazy Cat Lady.
Sorting Kittens
One of the problems with having all those kittens was trying to match their paperwork with the actual kitten. The physical descriptions I got for each didn't exactly match the actual collection of kittens. For example, the paperwork said I had three black kittens, a solid black male, a solid black female and a black on black "tiger" male. What I actually had was a solid black male and a black on black female.
There were three litters. The litter of four consisted of Mirrim, Mikhail, Kindra and Alessan. Then there was a litter of two black kittens, Regis and Rayna. Finally, there was a litter of 6 kittens consisting of Damon, Dominic, Derek, Donal, Kyril and Kayla.
Medical Crisis
This fostering didn't go as easily as the first for multiple reasons. A couple of weeks after I took them home, one of the kittens, Derek, refused both the canned food and the formula I put down. This was very unusual for him so I used a needle-less syringe and force fed him formula by squirting it in his mouth. I had used this technique for some of the others when they were getting dehydrated due to diarrhea. By Tuesday morning, he seemed like he was starting to perk up and actually tried eating a little. However, by that evening, he was much worse and had no energy and was breathing hard as if he'd been running a marathon when all he managed to do was lay spread out on the floor. Worried he might not make it through the night, I called the shelter manager who echoed my concern and had me meet her at a local 24 hour emergency animal hospital. After examining him, they said he was not only dehydrated but that his temperature was low and they were having difficulty hearing his heart. He didn't have any fluid in his abdomen (a symptom of feline infectious peritonitis or FIP) or signs of pneumonia but was constipated and had a lot of fecal matter in his bowels. They put him on an IV and gave him some dextrose to boost his blood sugar. They were also going to see if they could give him an enema to help clear his bowel (a difficult operation considering how small he was). We left him in the care of the hospital and went home.
The next morning, Regis was now not eating or drinking and was avoiding both me and the other kittens. He lay stretched out on the floor and appeared to be in some degree of discomfort. I called the shelter manager again and she arranged for me to take Regis to the hospital. It was then that I found out that Derek hadn't made it. The hospital had called her about 1am to tell her his heart gave out on him. They believed that he had some kind of heart defect and that his body had grown too large for his heart to support.
So, back to the animal hospital I went. I waited for some time to find out what was wrong with him. During their exam, they saw what appeared to be ulcers on his tongue. They also palpated his abdomen and reported that his intestines felt thick and rope like. They called the shelter manager to decide a course of action. They believed his intestinal problem was likely a malformation of the bowel that would prevent him from being able to absorb enough nutrients as he grew older and that the ulcers on his tongue were likely from some viral infection. The recommendation by the hospital was euthanasia followed by a necropsy to determine which virus had caused the ulcers so they would know what they needed to treat the other kittens who had, by now, all been exposed. The shelter agreed. When I next spoke with the hospital staff, it was when they returned my carrier and told me to call the shelter manager. She informed me of the diagnosis but reassured me that none of this was a reflection of my care, it was the result of birth defects and what ever he'd been exposed to from the hoarder's house he came from.
So off to work I went, feeling very depressed about losing two kittens in less than 12 hours. Fast forward a few hours and I get a call from the shelter manager. She asked if I was sitting down because she had something quite unbelievable to tell me. The hospital had had some emergency come up and had to postpone the euthanasia of Regis. When they finally got back to him he was sitting up in the cage, alert and showing no signs of his previous symptoms. They re-examined him and determined that what they originally thought were ulcers was the result of residual formula I had tried feeding him that morning. The intestines were returning to normal and, surprise! he ate with vigor when presented with some canned food. They finally decided that the problem was that he was allergic to the doxycycline that all the kittens had been on for their upper respiratory infections. He continued to improve throughout the day and I was able to pick him up that evening on my way home from work.
Once home, I was given instruction to keep him isolated initially to see that he continued to improve and was eating, drinking and going to the bathroom the way he should. They gave me some prescription food that is very bland so that it wouldn't upset his digestive system which was probably irritated by the doxycycline (thus causing the issues with his intestines). He ate some of the bland stuff. I also put a small amount of the regular kitten food he'd been eating. He seemed to like that much more. The next day I tried giving him equal amounts of regular and bland food. He definitely preferred the regular food. He was also his usual, active self, running around, pouncing on me, crawling up me like his own personal cat tree, sitting on my shoulder, playing with my hair, nuzzling my ear, and all the while his little motor going non-stop. Needless to say, he didn't stay isolated for long. He immediately went back with the rest of the kittens and was quite happy (when I first put him back in the room, he ran around to the other kittens rubbing faces with all of them).
After recovering from his medical scare, I figure that makes Regis the real “Once and Future King”! [chortle] (Yes, I’m laughing at my own joke. I told this one at work and it went over their heads. Alas, the bane of being an English major....)