Friday, November 28, 2003

Happy Thanksgiving


We cooked a turkey here at the house, and my own kitties were quite enthralled with the scent. When it was done, I took little pieces and gave it to my kitties. They all enjoyed it, but jack and muffin became turkey vultures. I went off to give Emerald some, and she took her sweet time standing up and before she could get to the piece both of the turkey vultures were poised to steal it from her.. so I dangled a larger piece in front of them, and led them off into the other room.

Later that night I took a small plate into the kittens. The pieces were small but they were big compared to what the kittens normally eat. They were absolutely thrilled. George and Gracie had to "kill" their meat before they ate it. They had so much fun and enjoyed it a lot.


Tuesday, November 25, 2003

can you say AWWWW.. i knew you could


I went in to cuddle with kittens last night. They are always very cuddly before dinner, but this time, after I fed them I hung out for a while.. laid down on the couch in the room, and started watching TV. One at a time the kittens all came back to sit on me and groom. after they were clean, they then cuddled up to me. Gracie got under my chin, George was on my shoulder attacking my glasses and my ear, Shirley cuddled up next to Gracie, and The Fluffinator started out on my stomach next to Shirley, but then moved up near George, and fell asleep next to me on my arm, on his back.. it was EVER so cute.. sleeping in the same position as I was laying down.

Sunday, November 23, 2003

ever had four kitties in your lap at once?


It was so fun today.. I went into the kitten room late this morning, and they were happy to see me. They have figured out what dry food is for, but they do not like to eat it.. so they were a little hungry, so all four kittens were on my lap purring, being absolutely adorable.. it was so sweet. Sadly the Fluffinator is still a little skittish of me.. he stands off to the side when I walk in the room. I suppose that is a good thing, I won't step on him again that way. Unfortunately, they are still going pale in the gums from time to time.. I really should look into it and see what is going on. Shirley's glands are still very swollen as well. I think I'll mention it to the vet when I go in on Tuesday.

yes.. Tuesday. I'm taking a personal day off from work. My grandmother died last night. I met her once. I personally am not upset about it. I'm more just out of whack. Just seems so strange. My mother.. she's a different story. It's like her mother's death didn't affect her at all. It feels like she's only taking the time off because it's in her contract, and since she didn't take any time off when her father died - a couple of years ago.. which totally didn't affect me - she feels she has this time coming to her. I'm going to go over tomorrow and bake cookies with her for a bit, then come home and sleep. I'm sure a nice long nap will put things back into perspective for me.

Thursday, November 20, 2003

oops


I stepped on Fluffy today. I didn't mean to, and I didn't do an ounce of damage physically, but the poor thing was terrified of me afterwards.. So I picked him up and cuddled him, making sure everything was okay, and gaining back his trust. After a few moments I had it, so I put him down.. he was fine.. untill I stood up, then he was all cowering again. It would have been so adorable if I hadn't felt so horrible about it

Emerald has been on the PZI now for a few days and has been doing extremely well on it. Her coat is better, and she seems a bit more interested in what is going on around her.

I think there has been a slight improvement in Eli's eyes. He has been visiting the herbalist twice a week now for a bit.. she's using a laser on his face to stimulate growth of healthy tissue around his blockage. He's such a sweet little boy, but I think he's catching on to his Monday and Friday trips to the vet..

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Vaccinating kittens


Well.. the kittens are doing so well that I gave them their first round of shots today. All kittens get at least one distemper shot and a rabies shot when they are neutered. If they have been at the shelter long enough (one month) they get their second set as well. I should have given them the first shot the other week, but they were so sick, the doctors recommended against it. Today Fluffy's eye is so much better it's not noticeable, and we only have an occasional sneeze.. although was a pile up of snot around fluffy's nose.. but I wasn't worried. They took it beautifully.. although fluffy did squirm quite a bit, and I did need some help holding him still. I took a few more pictures. Lest you think getting good kitten pictures is easy, let me assure you, it is not..


I spent some time today and did a little grooming of my own kitties.the whole teeth cleaning, nail trimming, combing thing.. which usually follows giving out a whole bag of kitty treats to tempt another kitty to come close to me when they just saw what was going on. We got through it all with relatively little hassle. Going to start Emerald's PZI tomorrow.. hopefully, she'll do well on a low dose, cause that stuff is expensive. Not that she's not worth it.. but we can hope.

Sunday, November 9, 2003

oh those fall kitties.


Well, let's see. Last night I went into the kitten room and the Fluffinator's eye was once again completely covered. I was on my way out the door, and there really wasn't anything I could do at that time of night anyway (there would be if it were a major emergency) so I just gave them some more food, and went out. I checked on him when I got back, and his eye was back to what it was when we were leaving the vets.. so crisis averted. they are quite messy kitties. Keep getting in the way when I am putting food down, so they are always covered in wet food mess. I was giving them a bath today, and I realized how pale their tongues and gums are. Shirley's is okay.. the Fluffinator is semi okay.. but both George and Gracie have very pale gums, and semi-pale tongues. I have to wonder if they aren't eating like fools to try to get the necessary minerals. I'm considering going out and spending money on kitten food. I did buy some to put the panacur in, but I think I'm going to have to give it to them now, and go out and buy even better stuff.

One weekend soon I am going to be putting up a bunch of auctions on ebay to help raise some money to buy really good kitten food for the shelter. If you would like to help, feel free to email me (link at top of page) and I'll let you know when I do. I have a bunch of beanie babies, and some other things.. I need to sort through my stuff. I'll also accept straight donations, or you can make them directly to the shelter if you want Then again, you'll probably want to donate to your own local shelter... but I'd sure appreciate your help.

Saturday, November 8, 2003

And the eye issues keep going on.


So Eli's surgery was a waste of time. *sigh* poor boy. He is blocked somewhere down where the tear ducts drain out into the nose. The surgeon tried everything he could, but to no avail. So he's a blocked little boy. He also recommended I put ointment in his eyes for a couple of days to help him after surgery. Eli was not thrilled with that idea. He HATES eye ointments.

He came through the surgery with flying colors. Woke up quickly. Downed the can of wet food they gave him (he rarely gets wet food at home) and went home at noon time. The only problem so far was he sneezed out a wad of mucus with blood in it.

This morning, Fluffy the foster kitty's eye was so swollen you couldn't see his eyeball.. so I packed him up and brought him down to work on my day off. The doctor who looked at him "broke" his eye and found a huge mucus plug. EWWW.. but at least we can see his eyeball now. I also have different ointment for him now. It has hydrocortisone in it.. so we should be seeing some improvements soon. I also brought Gracie in cause her URI was sounding horrible, and I wanted to make sure it hadn't gotten in her lungs. It hadn't. On the ride home, I took them out of the carrier, and Gracie cuddled up on my chest and went to sleep. Fluffy was full of spit and vinegar, and was a bit of a handful, but it was nice to see him so active. I still really hadn't settled on a name for him. I was calling him Sam, but I didn't really like that.. he's always just been fluffy.. so I called him fluffinutter.. which I liked.. then I called him the fluffinator.. which I LOVE.. :) He's got such big feet, and he's going to be such a big boy when all is said and done. I know that the name probably won't stick with him, but it is going to for now. I'll probably still call him fluffy for short.. but at least it won't sound so girly to me now.. :)

and I still can't express how much I want to adopt him. Especially when he rolls on his back and lets me pat his tummy.

(update 2016 - it breaks my heart to read that I fed my cats so poorly back then. *sigh* if I could go back in time and tell myself what I know now... )

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

my new past time - drugging kitties


Gracie is still leaking out of her butt, and George is still sneezing and wheezing.. so I packed up the crew this morning and brought them in for a recheck.

I'm unpacking them, and Fluffy's eye is all swollen. Looks very much like what Muffin had last year around this time.

A little later on in the day I'm playing with George, and he stuck his tongue out to bite me and I see huge blisters on it - looks very much like what Eli had last year around this time.. didn't that just totally freak me out to no end.. (cause we lost Kodi)

so anyway.. We took an x-ray of Gracie.. we didn't see anything wrong with her... but boy her little bones are cute.

so now.. (get ready for this)

I have to give Shirley - the non-sick one - zithromax twice a day, and panacur once a day for three days then repeat in three weeks.

I have to give Fluffy eye ointment twice a day, zithromax twice a day, and panacure (see above)

I have to give George zithromax twice a day, baytril (an 1/8 of a tablet) once a day and panacure

I have to give Gracie zithromax twice a day, metronidazole once a day (a smidge more than an 1/8 of a tablet) and panacur, and - get this - tender vittles.. which she is NEVER going to recognize as food since none of them know what dry food is for. Gracie actually went pee in a bowl of dry food the other day. They play in their water bowl cause they have no idea what that is for either.

I'm going to need a tote board to keep track of all of this.

It's surgery day for Eli tomorrow.. Wish him well.

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

if its not for one end, it MUST be for the other


I've said before that the new guys have no idea what the dry food is for. They also have no idea what water is for. I went in to medicate them today, and I find they have knocked over the water bowl and gotten their bedding all wet. So I let them run around the room while I clean it up. I put wet food out for them which they chow down on, then they start running around the room. Gracie (butt girl) proceeded to climb into a container of dry food. I start to think, oh goodie.. she's gonna have a few bites.. but nooooo she starts doing the pee scoot, and starts to go pee!!! oh Gracie.. it's food! not litter. Silly girl. Her butt still looks quite nasty, so back in she goes. She's also starting to sneeze quite a bit. George is sounding a LOT better.. an occasional sneeze, but I'm not going to worry about that. I am going to bring them all in though, cause I don't want to separate them. If it were just a quick trip down I would, but she'd have to stay there all day.. and setting up a cage for one kitty for the day is the same as setting it up for four.

Sunday, November 2, 2003

Emmy and the needle


Well we've made some changes to Emmy's food and insulin so Ive been meaning to do a blood glucose curve to see how she's dealing with the new food and what not. I had a feeling the readings wouldn't be good as her skin is horribly flaky and her fur is dull. and it wasn't. After giving her 6.5 units of insulin at 5:30.. her readings were as follows
  • 7:00 365
  • 9:30 209
  • 2:45 372
  • 5:30 396

a good reading is around 100.. so I'm going to go talk to the doctors and see what they recommend

awwww



I took the kittens to the clinic yesterday. George was still wheezing after a week of antibiotics, and Gracie (the other black one) is/was leaking out of her anus. I had to give her baths every single day. Saturday morning I went to wipe off her tushie before running off to work and she screamed so loud that I just packed them all up and brought them down. So now George is on zithromax due to having pneumonia, and Gracie is on Albon as well.

One of the girls at the clinic gave them baths, and combed Sam (aka fluffy) He didn't much like it. He's going to have to learn though.. being so long, he already had a matt. He's doing much better at keeping the poop off his fur.. which is good.

I let them run around the kitten room after coming home. That night the hubby and I went in to see them, and they were all tuckered out, so a few fell asleep on me, and Sam fell asleep on him. George was wheezing and laying on the floor, so I gave the kittens on me to the hubby, and they proceeded to make a little kitten pile on him and fall asleep. George was limp for a while, then started biting my thumb, and attacking my hair. He has way too much energy for someone who has pneumonia. For as much trouble as these guys are (man I say that a lot) they are awful good kitties.

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