Visiting the kittens at the shelter

Went to the shelter today at lunch time.. I needed to cuddle a kitten. All seven were still there. I pulled Nanoo out of the cage, she got all hissy with me. I held her for half an hour and about half way through she started purring. actually purring without the help of medication!! it was great. I got back to work and a little while later K called to let me know that Triddle and Friddle were adopted together. About an hour later she called to tell me that Nanoo and Mikitu were going home together. :) she said that the new owners spent about an hour with them, and were really happy with them. YEA! I'm kinda surprised Allie is still there, she was the 'pretty' one.. along with Sushi.. who's also still there. tomorrow is a different day.

Tobin is still hanging in there. Got more baytril in him.. some pineapple juice.. and not much more. Although he did eat some clover and some yogurt chips on his own.

more about the bunny

well.. he was running around his cage.. showing agression.. but running.. so that was something. I force fed him again.. nothing went well. I put his pill in his mouth and forced a little more food in, so hopefully, he got it.. who knows..

towards the end, he started getting feisty.. wanting to run away.. so I put him back in the cage, and he ran right into the wall.. then dove in his house.. and it sounded like he hit the wall. He then did another run around the cage and went back into the house.. I'm hoping this is a good sign..

I think if he eats some more clover or yogurt chips I'll keep trying.. but if not, I think we'll call this the end. He's never ever been a social bunny, so all this attention is probably driving him insane. If I thought he was enjoying anything right now, I'd fight for him.. but I think all this is just making him miserable... then there is the thought that if I do get him through this, we'd just be waiting for the other shoe to drop.. He's basically 120 yrs old in human years..

Reading back to the last kitty post, I was looking forward to not having to feed kitties, but now I have to feed my bunny.. how ironic. I'd be glad to do it if I knew I was doing him any good.

Btw.. I stopped in on Tuesday and saw the kittens.. they were being put up for adoption yesterday for the open house the shelter was having. Poor Nanoo was so scared.. she hissed at me when I picked her up. I couldn't go see them yesterday cause of the bunny.. My girlfriend emailed me and said they were still all available, so I'll go today at lunch..

The foster room is empty

the only kittens in the house are now mine.. it is nice not to have to go try to feed them when I'm half asleep this morning.. but I do miss the small little mewing.

Wasabi didn't take to kindly to being neutered. He had some pretty explicit things to say right after the surgery.. you could hear his howling all the way to the front of the clinic. He got over it fairly quickly.. the girls did okay.. I went to pat them, and Nanoo actually started purring and arched her back when I scratched the base of her tail. :) Everyone but Wasabi has put on weight nicely and look like normal sleek beautiful kittens. Poor wasabi is taking a bit longer.. he's getting there.. I'm sure a loving home is just what he needs - lots of kitty treats :)

This will be the first set that I haven't been around for their adoptions. Only a handful of my kittens weren't adopted the first or second day, and thus were missed.. but in my experience, while people say they were glad to meet me and were willing to stay in touch.. only one person has sent me any info on the kittens they adopted.. well ok three if you count the two people I knew before they adopted my kittens. it really is surprising the number of people who claim to love cats, but who don't take into consideration their personalities nor who really understand kitty behaviour. *shrug* I can't change the world.

Oh the fun of owning a diabetic cat

We increased emerald's insulin to 5.5 units tonight. I looked at her and thought she looked a little scraggly.. so for the fun of it I did a reading.. it was down to 40!! Didn't I panic? I offered her some regular cat food, and she ate a bit of it. So I decided she needed a little extra help, and put some honey on her gums. an hour later it was up to 52.. I gave her a little more honey.. she's acting fine, she just looks a little scraggly.. well and she doesn't much like the honey so back down to 5 units we go.. maybe we'll increase the amount of the DM she's getting. We are trying to go slowly with it to make sure it doesn't upset her digestive system..

kinda glad I got her a full vial of test strips now..

when searching to make sure that honey was ok to use, I came across http://www.felinediabetes.com/ Don't read the diary unless you have a big box of tissues with you.

Got some flea meds for the kitties.. so they should be flea free by tomorrow.. yea!

Also made an appointment with the vet for the muppets on Thursday. They'll come home with me afterwards and I'll bring them back to the shelter on Saturday for adoption. Wasabi is gaining a little weight despite not appearing to eat much.. Man, these kitties need to find their owners..

well... we have fleas.. again

Somehow my own kitties now have fleas. It's not bad.. a smidge of dander, and one or two darting around.. but its enough to make me run out and get some front line for them. I HATE fleas.

I started to do a blood glucose curve on Em. It was in the 400's before breakfast and her insulin.. then a couple of hours later it was down to the 200's. It's supposed to be around 100. It was in the 300's when she went in to the clinic for the curve, so it was stress, but it's not as low as it should be, so we'll be increasing her insulin a bit - as recommended.

Muffin is also having a reaction to her acne. It's extremely mild, I hadn't even noticed she had any - and I was looking (but not searching) her lip puffed up again.. doing a search for swollen lip on google, I found it can be a reaction to acne, so I cleaned off her nice white sparkling chin with peroxide and found a bit of black dander. Will have to talk to the vet about that too. He is so going to regret hiring me.. but hey.. he knew my kitties had health issues before he hired me.. so he can't complain now.

The orphans are still flea free. Ate up a STORM today.. normally they have one can per feeding, and there is some left over, today they had FOUR cans.. and then they cleaned off my plate of ranch dressing.. it was cute.. Nanoo stood in the dish to get a better angle at cleaning it off. I read down there for a while and ended up with a couple of kitties in my lap. :)

I then went upstairs, and the muppets weren't crazed out of their gourd.. I fed them, and they left half the food down.. quite odd. I sat in there reading.. Gonzo and peanut couldn't figure out why I was staring at this thing, and did their best to distract me, it was ever so cute. Peanut laid down on my chest and let me pat his belly. I REALLY love that kitten....

I say that as Jack jumps into my lap and starts purring. Yes Jack.. I still love you most of all.. and no.. you shouldn't be disappointed because I didn't do a blood glucose test on you.. ask em.. she wasn't too thrilled about it.. (but when she was done.. jack was right there wanting his.. he's such a strange little boy - and I love him so)

Poking around blogger

Well..I'm having the worst time getting my archives to work. I want them to be monthly.. but when I changed it, it only changed the archive page, not the actual archives themselves, so when you click on a month it can't find it unless perchance the week one started on the first... so.. I guess I'll have to go back to weekly. I'm making this post basically to see if by posting it will repost all the archives.. lol

While poking around, I found the title bar.. Pretty cool. Not sure how often I'll use it.. but I've always wanted one.

Now.. kitten-y stuff. Not a whole heck of a lot to report.. they are cute, and healthy, and are just biding their time till they go back to be adopted...

Yesterday I fed the Muppets two large cans and two regular size cans of cat food. one large in the AM, the two small around 6, then another large one at around 9. This morning when I went to feed them, they had dried out wet food left over.. so it is good to know that their stomachs actually do have limits.. lol. Peanut aka Pepe is getting obnoxiously affectionate.. was walking circles around my head the other day, and my hubby's last night.. Kermit was cuddled up in my lap.. Gonzo - who btw is 90% legs - is an absolute laugh riot.. and also loves to cuddle. It's so fun going in there.

The orphans.. Not quite sure what to make of them. They always seem so mellow when I go in there, but looking around I see the remains of their play time.. Like the box of tissues pushed off the shelf, and scattered all over the floor... or the roll of paper towels pushed off the desk and thoroughly and totally killed.. right down to the cardboard tube. Nanoo's peanut sized ear things were much less noticeable today.. I had to search for them. once I found them though they didn't seem to be any smaller.. which I thought was very weird.. but hey.. I can't know everything.

Jack woke me up last night.. he wanted to cuddle. Hasn't done that in a very long time, so I just woke up and cuddled him. I found a mat under his front leg.. that's the third or fourth one.. the others were all in his groin, though. Hopefully, he'll be like Ollie and be able to get them out himself.. Ollie had small mats for about a year.. after he was about 6-9 months old, but he hasn't had any since. I'm assuming he's getting them out on his own.

I'm going to be doing a blood glucose curve on Em this weekend.. Hopefully, it will go well, and we won't need to increase her insulin.. somehow I doubt it though.*shrug* you never know.

Lumps, bumps and scabs

Well, this is strange.. I went down to take care of the orphans, and Nanoo has peanut sized bumps at the base of her ears.. my first thought is lymph nodes, but I would think if they were, that the ones under her chin would be swollen too. Wasabi has two small scab-like marks on either side of her neck, under her ears.. but actually on her neck. I'm hoping very much that someone just got a little too rough with her, and that it's not ringworm. *crosses fingers that it's not ringworm*

The muppets are doing wonderfully. Did I mention that I'm thinking about renaming peanut to Pepe? (the prawn from the last muppet movie) It would fit into the muppet theme better.. and it really does fit him personality wise.. he is such an on the go kitty.. doesn't like to sit still for anything.. even when he's eating, he's going from dish to dish. We were cuddling the other day.. his version of cuddling which is to walk circles around my neck.. (I was lounging on the couch)

Although I really hate not being able to adopt any more kittens, I'm kinda glad.. cause I doubt I'd be able to give up Peanut. I pray that whoever adopts him keeps me in the loop about his health - for a while anyway..

Life with kitties

Its my morning off from work, so I slept in. When I finally woke up, I was surrounded by kitties - except Em - who all seemed to say to me, so you've finally quit your job hun? good. now pat me.

I went downstairs to feed the orphans.. somehow they had turned the heater on in the room and it was sweltering.. those silly kittens. I have yet to feed the muppets this morning, as I want them to learn they have dry food in the room.. every time I go in there they tell me they haven't eaten in weeks.. those bunch of liers.

Be careful what you wish for

WE HAVE POOP!! lol.. the orphans have started pooping up a storm.. guess all that eating has caught up with them. The litter box was full after one day. They also found a box of tissues I had in there.. there was tissues all over the room, not to mention a huge pile shoved under the radiator. *rolls eyes* so I cleaned up a little.. they had also found a roll of paper towels and destroyed that, and shoved most of the towels outside the second door in the room.. (there are boxes on the other side of it) yea.. they are acting like normal kittens.

The muppets are getting uber cuddly. Gonzo takes after his mother so much.. it's uncanny. He so smart.. and talented.

I gave them a felt mouse tonight.. Kermit took a turn at playing with it.. as did MP and Peanut.. but Fozzie decided that mouse was hers, darn it.. and death to anyone who would try to get it from her.. :) it was cute. Peanut still isn't much into standing still, but if you rub his cheeks just right he'll tilt his head to the side and just enjoy it.. Man, I wish I could keep him.. Oh well. *prays whoever adopts him keeps in touch*

Peanut is two pounds now!

well, my muppets are of size now.. but peanut is only 2lbs (OMG he's two freakin pounds!! I remember being excited about 2 oz!!), so he's got half a pound to go.. although the way they are eating, it will be fast.. too fast for me.. but alas, all great things must come to an end..

I'm hoping my idea of building a second entrance into a kitten room will fly with the shelter. It won't happen anytime soon, but hopefully, within a year, I could be back fostering.. I will need to sit down and talk to them about it.. I think I am going to talk to the boss vet about what happened as well. Unfortunately, it won't be for a bit, as he just lost his own cat to cancer.. She died on the table as they were about to explore a mass on her. She was 17 years old.... so he's been a bit grumpy - trying not to show his emotions.. It's strange.. but I really do "get him".. everyone else working there, except maybe J has complained about him at one time or another. And while his actions are often odd, and confusing if you don't understand, I just do to some extent. (should I be scared? lol)

Anyway having the kittens and a full-time job has been hard on me, and I am looking forward to not having to tend to them all the time, but boy am I going to miss this. Despite the time and the pain and agony of the illnesses and deaths, fostering has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I got to see Edgar again today.. He's gotten so big.. he's still purring up a storm. He still recognizes me too.. :) they do that for four or five months afterwards - at least in my experience.

*sigh*

sooooo...

the orphans are doing well.. up to 6 three ounce cans a day, plus half a bowl of dry food. Nanoo is still quite shy, but at least she isn't hissing at me when I go to pick her up.. she's going to need a home where the owners can give her LOTS of attention for a couple of weeks. Wasabi is still painfully thing, along with Friddle.. but they eat until their little bellys stick out.. its so cute. So hopefully with some time, and some Nutrical, they'll fill out. Wasabi weighed 1.5lbs the other day, and was up to 1.7ish.. so I'll probably have these guys longer than the muppets.. Im not bringing them back till at least the 9th, since that is the first saturday I can be there for the adoptions.. Charlie went back to the shelter, and it freaked her out.. I feel bad for her, but that's one more step closer to being adopted.. so I don't feel that bad. Sometimes ya got to do, what ya gotta do..

Vet vists

the orphans went to a different vet on Saturday. I felt uncomfortable taking them back to the place I work cause they don't get the attention they need when I bring them in cause they don't have an appointment. (well that and what just happened) so the hubby brought them down. The vet he talked to agreed with me that something wasn't quite right, but she didn't find anything wrong either. She did give them some advantage for the fleas - and thank goodness they are flea free now.. she also dewormed them.. and they have been steadily improving ever since. I actually put down three cans of food for them this evening. they didn't eat it all, but I'm sure they will by the morning. I cleaned their ears out again, which they hated. but I'm sure this will be the last time.

I'm going to bring Charlie back to the shelter tomorrow. She is determined to get out of the kitten room, every time I open the door she tries to make a break for it. I've been able to keep her distracted enough not to get away, until yesterday.. she's gotten out twice now. She doesn't get far, but it's enough... so back she goes. The Muppets are big enough to do with out her.. Besides, I want them to start bonding with people more.. so it's all good. (even though I am a major advocate of keeping the kittens with the mom as long as possible). They are getting so long.. no necessarily big, but long. I really should weigh them, but I don't want to... if I don't know how big they are, I can't bring them back.. I'm thinking another week or two will probably put them over the top.. Hopefully, it will be a weekend Im not working. I wonder if the shelter will want to do a further exam on peanut, where he's deformed. I would love to know what's wrong with him.. outwardly you'd never know.. but I can feel something when I pick him up.. his chest / stomach area.. hubby doesn't notice.. but I do. I hope who ever adopts him keeps in touch with me.. that one is special.

Fleas

I was down playing with the kittens last night, when I realized they had fleas.. yes.. the dreaded flea. oh how I hate them. I emailed the shelter asking them to send some supplies over, including something for the fleas, something for the mites, something for the coccidia, and something to deworm the muppets cause they hadn't been dewormed. Well, my message fell into a computer that wasn't going to be accessed till later in the day, so I had to run over to the shelter on my lunch break. I felt like I was shopping.. I left there with quite a bit of drugs.

I went to deworm the Muppets first.. they took it rather well I must say.. although the promise of food afterwards I'm sure had a lot to do with it. I know they aren't starving, cause there is always dry food left over, but if you listen to them, they'd tell you they suffer from hunger so. While they are still on the small side, they are getting so big.. :(

The orphans got a bit more done to them.. and I have to tell you it was NOT easy.. but it was way easier than I thought it was going to be. First, it was a cc of albon, then a cleaning of the ears - and MAN were they dirty.. despite being cleaned the other day. then the medicating of the ears, then a dunk in the bucket, a good scrubbing with flea shampoo.. then the sitting and waiting while the fleas either die or jump off and land on your face.. then the rinse.. oh how not fun is the rinse.. let me tell you! then the drying.. the picking off of fleas.. the searching for any that might be still alive.. took me almost two hours to do seven kittens. I do have to say though that despite the initial bad start, Nanoo took it really well. She is starting to remind me of my first kitty, Tigger.. he too was mostly feral, hated to be picked up in the beginning.. you could appease him by rubbing his chin.. *sigh* I miss that kitty.

I took Emerald to the vets today for a B/G curve.. (blood glucose). Sadly her glucose was quite high. We talked about increasing her insulin.. we talked about a different diet (which we are going to try) and we also talked about doing another curve at home before increasing her insulin since stress can cause high readings.. and she was totally stressed out all day. It was so funny once I got her home, though.. she went right to the food bowl and sat down.. as if to say, okay.. I had to go through all of that, now give me something good to eat.

which is EXACTLY what Muffin said to me yesterday after I took her out on a little ride to "Nana"'s house. I had to go fix something on my parent's computer, and I wanted to see how well Muffin traveled.. so I took her along. While I wouldn't say she travels badly, I wouldn't say she takes it all that well either. Not like Jack. He loves to travel.. mostly cause he likes to be with us I think.. but that's fine by me :D

I was thinking Muffin wouldn't forgive me very quickly for inflicting the trip on her, but within a few moments (okay well after dinner) she was her same ol self.. until this morning when I caught her up on the table she KNOWS she's not supposed to be on.. splayed out trying to take up as much room as possible. I yelled at her to get down, she refused.. I yelled again.. no reaction.. I actually had to walk up to her and boink her on the nose for her to move.. talk about your stubborn kitties.. Guess we won't be taking her out anytime soon.

Vet issues.

I brought in the seven today.. and wouldn't you know it they started pooping up a storm.. and they ate everything Dr. S gave them. *rolls eyes* now don't I look silly. but I can deal with that.. as long as they are fine.

Dr. Kim was surprised I was fostering because of the state of my own kitties (FIP titres* and Jack being Felv positive) . I told her I had talked it over with the shelter, and that I was being careful, and she didn't let it drop, mentioning stuff could be brought in on the clothes. Yes, Kim.. I KNOW that... I also know they are only positive for exposure, and could very well be perfectly fine, and they have been since we found out about it. both FIP and Felv impact the immune system, so I'm sure that she's worried about that.. but I can't live my life for what ifs... if I did that I would never ever do anything.. ever. I take precautions.. I visit with the kittens either at the beginning of my day so I immediately leave the house afterwards, or at the end of my day so afterwards I'm changing my clothes, washing my hands, and then playing with my kitties. I care very much about them, and will be absolutely lost if / when I lose them (cause chances are I will outlive them unless of course something happens to me first)

ugh.

*mentally pictures water rolling off a duck's back*

anyway. I also brought in a stool sample from the first set.. someone has coccidia. I don't know who. I'm assuming Peanut, since he's the one who would be most susceptible to something like that. I'm going to try to spend some time with them tomorrow and see who has the runny stools.

why can't this every go smoothly? *sigh* after I get these guys adopted I think I'll take some time off and bleach the living daylights out of my house.. *wonders how long coccidia can live outside of a host*

*googles*
oooh.. lookie here a nice picture of some coccidia..

well in my research, it says "Several references in veterinary literature suggest that almost every cat will become infected by coccidia at some point in their life" hum.. interesting.. another site said that most fight it off themselves. good to know. no idea how long it can survive without a host though.. doesn't tell me that. (I've since learned a couple of days in a dry environment, weeks in a damp one)


Em is in major need of a bath. she's quite oily.. poor thing doesn't groom herself very well.. well if you were her age, and all you had was your tongue, you probably wouldn't either.. :)

Fun with Post-its

Tim mentioned in the comment that his friend recently lost a kitty named Wasabi.. which is interesting, because Mikitu came from the clinic where I work and was from a cat that recently died. Here's hoping that this set has a nice long full lives.

I'm 90% sure I'm bringing them into the clinic tomorrow. They don't eat much at all. Today they had maybe half a bowl of dry food, and half a can of wet food (small) and when I put more food down they were totally uninterested. One or two bites maybe I did get some nutrical for them, and wasabi was interested in that - which is good because he is the skinniest.. you can feel every bone in his spine... but the reason I'm going to bring them into the clinic is that there is been very little poop (which isn't strange in and of its self since they aren't eating much) and their bellies feel like balloons. I don't know if they are constipated, or if they are just really suffering from worms (although if they were I would think they would be eating like horses) I'm probably over reacting.. but better to over react then under. I figure a vet can take one feel and know what's going on.. better than me sitting around wondering.

We had fun with post-its tonight. I went down to check on them, and started playing with them with my pen. One of them picked it up and carried it off, so I searched my pockets and found a small pack of small post-its. I took one and plunked it on wasabi's head.. he didn't know what to make of it for a moment, then got it off and chewed it up dead. :) I then put one on Allie and she totally freaked out.. ran around till it fell off. I put one on sushi's side, and she took it off. it got Triddle's attention though, and he killed it right and good.. :)

I'll get some more pictures for you this weekend.

Muffin is currently licking my ankle.. she's such a silly kitty.

I'm thinking I need to get some dewormers for the first set of kitties.. now they eat like horses.. and still very much on the thin side.

We have names

the new ones have names..
triddle
friddle
sushi
wasabi
allie
mikitu
nanoo

:) Nanoo is the skittish one.. (mikitu is also skittish, but not as bad) but she's gotten to the point where she's now playing and eating in the room with us - as opposed to the sitting in the corner or under the desk that she used to. but she still hisses when I go to pick her up. still is ok with being held.. just doesn't like the being picked up part. Triddle and Friddle are the two orange ones, they are the friendliest. Wasabi is the smallest skinniest one.. sushi hangs out with wasabi. I actually had their names reversed originally, but the skinny one definitely is more of a wasabi kind of kitty :D Allie is the orange and gray tiger.. she's a cutie. they are 1.5 -1.8 lbs. so it looks like they will be here for at least three weeks.. depending. Hopefully, they will start eating soon. they eat so little.. the set of 10 I just had would eat two huge cans of food in one feeding and they had two feedings a day. these guys barely eat one small can. I'm starting to consider getting some supplement for them... something high in calories.. either nutrical or a/d..

A new game

The kitties decided to play "king of Connie" this morning.. It started with Jack, moved to Muffin, then Eli decided to get in the game.. *rolls eyes* I don't mind being slept on when I'm sleeping, but they don't just do that, they want attention, and for me to wake up.. so here I am awake, and they are all off doing whatever it is kitties do..

The newbies are still quite skittish. Will have to make a point to spend a lot of time with them today.

Peanut had a black bowel movement the other day.. he was eating and acting fine, but that worried me. Black is indicative of blood in the stool. Last night it was brown. so I'm not going to worry, just keep a good eye on him. I picked him up and he went straight for my shoulder. I decided to leave the kitten room with him on there to see what he would do, and he was fine till we entered the other kitten room where my hubby was. then he started getting concerned... it was so cute. - I can't keep any more kittens, I can't keep any more kittens, I can't keep any more kittens....


I saw another foster mom in the clinic on Wednesday. Her kitten has a collapsed lung. We talked about fostering, and she started out with one kitty, and now has 10.

What have I done?

 

Yup.. I'm insane.. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again.

There is one in the bunch that is hand shy.. she's okay once you pick her up, but she gets so frightened when you come at her. She's the gray one in the box. I've got to come up with seven more names.. hum.. seven? sleepy sneezy, dopey, doc.. nah.. those wouldn't work. Oh well.. guess we are going to have to come up with something else. They were also throwing up.. I saw two do it. Hopefully, it was the food they got at the shelter. It had to have been fish. I don't do fish.. cause it makes the kittens smell, it makes the room smell, it makes the poop smell. Fish for kittens is right out. I do not want another kitten that throws up.. Mew was more than enough thank you.. and that did not end well at all. They should only be here a couple of weeks. The staff said six weeks, but looking at my six-week-old kittens, they have to be older.. probably more like seven. and feeling their ribs like I did, they could probably even be eight.

the .. hum.. what am I going to call the different sets.. lol. The Muppets have found the joys of playing with jingly balls and fuzzy mice. I tied a ball to a piece of string, and that kept them going till I was pooped. The TV is making a big difference. they are much more outgoing. Still not into being cuddled.. *sigh* but that's okay. I don't think I'll ever get another set as cuddly as Gimmie and her gang..