Purrs for Dorian

Well I had to hurry up and name the new kittens because Dorian is starting to scare me.

Dorian, pict taken on Friday

I hadn't noticed this on Friday, but he looks like he is holding his foot up.  Is this a first sign or was he just standing like that?? *shrug*  well let me introduce you to the whole crew first and then we'll get in to what is going on with Dorian.

Agatha, Henry, Dorian

Don't know if you noticed or not, but I lowered their shelf because it used to be right level with the door and they would try to push their way out and when I opened the door they would charge right out and thus risk falling if I didn't catch them, by lowering it a bit I've got a few more seconds to try to catch them before Agatha does what she's doing in the pict above.

So tonight Dorian was slow to come to the door to ask to be let out.  He did, and I figured I just woke him up.  He then sat down by my knee and meowed at me... One meow, the rest were silent meows.

I'm thinking how cute, he must be hungry.  Henry and Agatha were running around and being silly

So I assumed he was still waking up, but as time passed I was starting to get concerned.  Dorian just sat there.  So I gave him the kitten massage, stimulating him to get his blood flowing.  His back legs reacted differently from what I expected, but not so majorly that it freaked me out, but enough that it added to my concern.  I put him down and he just sat there.  My husband mentioned that he thought he was walking funny, so I put him in the middle of the room and moved away from him and he stood up and started to walk towards us.  He walks, but there is a little too much toddling for my tastes.  Kind of like he has lost a little of his balance or his feet have pins and needles.

at this point I fed them.  And he ate.  I became less concerned because he ate.  if he didn't, I might have run him to an emergency clinic (considering what came next)

After the three of them ate, Agatha and Henry ran around a bit more and Dorian just sat there, so I put him back in his bed.  He sorta fell where I laid him and he just stayed there.

which of course freaked me out even more.  I picked him back out and tried to engage him in play.  He played a little, but seemed so uncomfortable I couldn't deal with it so I stopped and watched him.  He seemed to start shivering, and I couldn't help but wonder if he had a fever (please, no fever, nothing good ever starts with a fever) and I got up to try to find my thermometer.  He followed me over to the drawers and sat at my ankles, which I thought was really cute, until I realized he was cold not hot..

so now I'm wondering if he wasn't cold because of the food, cold food can challenge a small kitten's internal temperature and cause them to be cold, in this case the food was room temp, which is about 20 degrees lower then a kitten's regular temperature. Then I had the thought that maybe I took the formula away from them too soon and I'm hoping (against hope) that it was simply a case of low blood sugar due to not getting enough food (although the plump stomach says no) so I sent my husband to make some formula for him.  He came back and I was able to get some formula in him.  He would take one or two cc's easily but then would start rejecting.  I would wait a bit and try again and he would take more.  He stopped shivering at this point and was feeling warmer.  His brother and sister joined in and they took some as well but not a whole heck of a lot as they don't like to be fed.  I cuddled him into my chest and tucked him in with my shirt and a face cloth and we sat like that for way too long.  At some point I knew I would have to go to bed, so I put him back in the cage and left to wash my hands (so I could let Simon & Schuster out to run around) and when I came back down he had gotten back into his box on his own.

so

I haven't ruled out low blood glucose.  Might be the main reason or simply a symptom.  Could be lyme *shrug*  Doesn't seem likely because it seems that it takes some time for symptoms to appear, but they can show up as early as 7 days..  I wouldn't mind if that was the case because for the most part that is treatable.  other then that, I can't imagine any scenario where this ends positively.  I'm going to get him in to the shelter in the morning (unless we have a full and utter recovery in the AM) and see what they want to do about it.  I'll probably dig out my glucometer and see if I can get a blood sugar reading too.

Get well my darlin..