Sunday, December 21, 2014

Update on the Kittens



After losing Lori, I wanted to bring Lena home to give her time to adjust to life without her sister. When I brought her home she was moble, walking around. She examined the whole room - and part of me wondered if she wasn't looking for her sister - but she was not looking particularly drunk,wobbly or disorientated,  but she was acting odd. She didn't want to lay on me, nor on the bed, nor on Happy Bear, preferring to sleep on the cold hard ground. Seeing her there broke my heart so I picked her up and brought her over to the couch to snuggle. She cried out when I picked her up, it was hard to tell if it was because she was in pain or because I was annoying her. While I snuggled her she seemed to not be able to settle, her legs would jerk occasionally and her whole demeanor really bothered me. When she realized she was laying on me she got up and went to the couch and laid down. I had a feeling I was obsessing so I gave her a kiss and left.

Several hours later when my husband got home there was a loud crash. The new kittens knocked over the barrier I put up in front of their cage. My husband went down to check it out and Lena was still on the couch. She didn't move when the bang happened, she didn't move when my husband walked in the room. This too was extremely concerning to me because that is completely unlike her. She is very fearful of new things/sounds and would have run. I know that kittens who were just sedated can need to sleep but often they will have a bit to eat and I've never seen them this out of it. She was completely unresponsive to external stimuli unless it was directly touching her. I checked her incision and she looked fine, but she did chatter a bit when I touched her rear end like it was little bit painful. I decided to take her temperature and came up with a temp of 103.

I eventually was able to get in contact with the shelter and they agreed that she should see the emergency vet. Sadly vet options past 9-5 are so limited around me, and even sadder (for me) is that the shelter uses the eclinic that I really do not like.  I was sure we weren't dealing with life and death at the moment, but I was so concerned after the fact that we lost Lori, that I could not live with my deciding what to do for her. I needed / wanted a professional opinion.

We got up there and had to wait.. (ugh - so much waiting at this particular facility) and wait.. but eventually a vet showed up and manhandled the living daylights out of her.  I was kinda distressed over it only because I knew what a rough day Lena just had... Any other time it wouldn't have really been manhandling, but this kitten just spent half an hour laying down in an open carrier not walking not exploring not playing after being neutered that morning and losing her sister to a congenital defect.  yeah, I wasn't comfortable with it. I didn't say anything and after we got home my husband - who is generally pretty unobservant to these types of things - said that vet was way too rough with her.

Anyway, by the time we got to the vet Lena had been laying belly up for quite some time and since her belly was shaved I'm guessing that helped vent some heat because her temp was 101.7  The vet said we had two choices, watch her as is or give her a bit of buprenex for pain. I took the buprenex.

Because her fever was down, I decided not to hover but I put her back in the kitten room and when she climbed up on Happy Bear to go to sleep I left. In the morning she was far more alert and took a nibble of some food and ate a few pieces of kibble. Not nearly enough in my mind, but far better than the night before.

Unfortunately I had some family obligations and I didn't fix the dropcam before I left, so I spent the entire day wondering how Lena was doing. When I finally got home I was greeted with four kittens who wanted to eat. Lena was still not as interested in food as she had been, but she was eating enough to sustain her. She also started showing interest in the new kittens, so I decided to let one out to see how it would go, and it went very well. So well that I decided to just let them all out. The little black and white kitten has major infatuation with Lena, and follows her around and does what she does it is so cute. The other two were just so happy to not be locked up any more they spent nearly an hour running around like fools.

I have to say the new kittens are coming around nicely. The tabby - the one who told me to go away and die when she first met me was the first one to allow me to pat her and pick her up (and she purred) now that they are free. I was so sure it was going to be the one with white paws, but she isn't interested in that yet. Confidence building is first and foremost in my mind, and we are working on that every chance we get. It is nice they are so very play motivated it allows me to interact with them... well once they get over the fear of the toy.. 



The new kittens seem very healthy. so far their stool has been nice and solid. The solid tabby does have a lot of flea dirt on her back so she is going to need a bath at some point - probably today since I can get my hands on her. I am always afraid mixing litters since this new litter is too young to test for felv, but I think the good they can do each other far outweighs the small risk of the new ones passing on an illness.

Now.. we need to come up with names.. 

9 comments:

  1. I'm glad Lena is doing better! That was scary for a while.

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  2. Poor sweet Lena, she has been through so much but what a relief to hear that she is now starting to do and feel better. I'm glad she has the kittens, sending many purrs and prayers her way.

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  3. I've been keeping Lena in my prayers I am so glad she is better!

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  4. glad Lena is doing so much better....we bet being around each other will be good for all of them. and the white spot on the forehead of the black and white one kills us :)

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  5. I sure am glad dear Lena is doing some better, poor little sweetie.

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  6. Lena sweetheart please get better soon.

    Happy Holidays to everyone.

    Emma and Buster

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  7. It's so good to hear that Lena is improving! We were very worried.

    That little white spot on the black and white kitten's forehead is priceless. It's just begging for a smooch.

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  8. I'm so sorry about Lena but glad she's doing better. What a sweetheart.

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  9. I am glad you took Lena home, I kept thinking about her losing her sister and the place she called home. It is a good thing you had her to notice her illness and get help.

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