Happy healthy kittens means that we are close to saying goodbye

Sherlock and Watson are doing very well. Both of them have put on weight and are doing so well that they are going to the shelter tomorrow to be neutered. No one has committed to adopting them so they will stay there and once they have recovered enough they will go up for adoption.

I am hopeful that more kittens will be coming quickly. It is still early in kitten season here so it might not be immediate but I am sure it will be soon.

The kittens had visitors this weekend. Our friends Laurie and Peter who adopted Lion like to come out and test out of kittens and I am so happy to have 'strangers' come and see how the kittens react to new people. I generally like taking them to work with me for a morning, but that hasn't worked out for these kittens, so having guests was the next best thing. I was glad to see how they react to me is the same way that they reacted to new people.

I've also noticed that Sherlock, despite being incredibly curious and problem-solving, defers to Watson for a lot of things. He lets Watson eat and does not bully him out of food, which I would have suspected he would have done by how "high octane" he is. He will not be the first one in my lap, but once Watson is up on my lap and purring Sherlock shows up and joins in.

I am going to recommend to the shelter that they are adopted together because I think that Sherlock would be better off with a friend. I try not to do that for several reasons. Despite my fully believing that kittens are better off in pairs, sometimes people connect with two kittens from different litters or they might already have a young kitty at home and are realizing a second one would help.

Where ever they end up, they will have been vetted by the shelter and I trust them to make the best decision they can for them.

I hope you stop by tomorrow as I am going to have a giveaway for a fairly unique product that completely surprised me by how well it worked.

Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

Watson hung out at the shelter yesterday trying to get a urine sample. He didn't want to give them one until the very end of the day, and I was the results was normal so I will be keeping an eye on him from now until Tuesday when they go back to be neutered. I was told they'll pull a cysto then (removing urine from the bladder) if he is still urinating a lot.

When they returned home they were full of energy and ran around quite a bit. The only way to calm them down a bit was to feed them, which they were quite happy to have.

Watson and Sherlock are back at the vet

So when Sherlock and Watson first showed up their stools were loose. This is very common in kittens to have worms and they are dewormed before coming here as a matter of course. Stools usually firm up in a few days, and theirs did and then they weren't.

By the time I realized that things weren't 'normal' Watson was falling a bit behind and wasn't gaining weight, so to be proactive I told the shelter who sent me home with some medicine for coccidia, which is a pretty standard infestation too. I gave the meds, but Watson vomited them right back up. I contacted the shelter and they wanted to see him so I brought him up and we got more medicine and he got some fluids and for fun Sherlock got them too.

Sherlock was not amused. Watson improved, but he had started peeing on soft things. I thought he was doing it just because he wasn't feeling well, or because he was a boy, but as he continued to improve and he continued to pee I thought there might be something wrong. I wasn't quite ready to say so, but I was keeping an eye on it. When I realized we had a good number of urine clumps in the litter box (20 in one day) I realized this was not normal and not part of the healing process. This is why knowing your kitty and its habits are very important to maintaining health. I contacted the shelter again and they wanted me to bring them up today to be checked on. They were holding a fostering seminar last night so I decided to bring them up last night and if they are able to come home tomorrow then they will come home tomorrow.

Hopefully, this is nothing, but if it is, we'll deal with that too. If it is a urinary infection or irritation it will probably mean another week of medications. Since Sherlock is already over two pounds and Watson wasn't too far behind, this means we will probably get to keep them a little while longer.  I'm not complaining about that.

Since they won't be on the web cameras today (you do know there are two web cameras in the kitten room, right?) I thought I'd share a few images my dropcam emailed me when it noticed activity.

Watson and Sherlock welcome the new week

Thanks to some medication and quick intervention, Watson is back on track and gaining fast.  He lost quite a bit of weight during his illness, but he has put that all back on and then some. He is having a really good time wrestling with his brother.

Sherlock is also doing well. He is still dealing with confidence issues, as it takes him quite some time before he remembers that I am not that frightening. He will come up to me, but if I attempt to pick him up he runs. I don't have the feeling it is because I've had to medicate him, but he just simply doesn't remember how much he enjoys cuddling.

As soon as Watson gets up on my lap and starts purring Sherlock is quick to join in. Both of them are nursers, and they have a tendency to move around when they do it so I quite often leave the kitten room with a wet shirt.

Their poop is looking a lot better but it is still kinda smelly. I am hopeful now that the medication is over that will settle down too.

I'm running into the same issue we have had to deal with in the past year that we haven't really had issue with in the past. Someone (looks at Watson) has been peeing outside of the box. Once he started feeling better I changed all of the boxes (there are three) and put cat attract in them hoping that would help, but I put a pee pad on the couch (because that was one of his favorite places to go) and he used it. I'm quite flummoxed why this has all of a sudden become an issue in general. One box is in the litter box box, and they both go out of their way to use it. I have two other boxes against the walls (under the windows) I even bought a new couch on the off chance the futon was holding scents.

Ah well, when you are dealing with kittens learning how to deal with the world, sometimes you have to clean up a little pee.

Sherlock takes over Caturday

I had a few random photos of Sherlock from earlier in the week. I knew you'd appreciate seeing them, so here are a few moments with Sherlock for Caturday. (FYI, Watson is doing much better he is eating on his own and I am hopeful that he will continue to improve and you'll never know he was ill)

The post about Watson and his trip to the vet

As I mentioned earlier in the week, we were having some issues with soft stools. The kittens seemed to fill up the litter box in 12 hours. Now I know kittens are little poop machines, but this was getting ridiculous. The kittens get dewormed for roundworms before they go into foster care and the worms dying off will often cause stool to become loose. I was waiting for them to firm back up, which they generally do, and when I found a few nice stools in the box I thought the worst was over.

I thought wrong.

It was pretty apparent that it was Watson having some issues as he was not putting weight on as well as Sherlock was. By Monday night I was pretty sure things were on that point where they were either going to get better by morning or go rolling down hill. I offered more food and they were eating well, and very active, so I decided check in the morning and if there was soft stool to send a stool sample up to the shelter. In exchange for the stool sample, I was given marquis paste and some fluids in return. (fun trade)

Tuesday night I gave both kittens the medicine and they both reacted quite violently and ended up all drooly. I cleaned them off and cuddled with them for a bit and then attempted to give Watson some fluids and he was having none of that. I think I ended up with more on me than was in him. When I finally got a nice bubble of fluids in him, I let him decide what he was going to do next. It was about half an hour after getting the meds and Watson vomited up some of the marquis paste, so I knew I'd be asking the shelter if they wanted to take additional steps.

In the morning it was apparent that Watson was not eating at all. He felt even thinner to me, so I went and got some goat milk and force fed him. That did not go well at all, but I got some calories and fluid in him so I went off to work and emailed the shelter.

They decided that they wanted to see him and asked if I would drop him off in the morning. I volunteered to leave work to bring him up today if they had time, and they did, so I took a couple hours off of work and drove up.

Sherlock came along because I didn't want to leave him behind. I was able to get a fresh stool sample and it was becoming a yellowish/orange.

The vet looked him over and said he looked good in general (that is because I am proactive) and when I mentioned that he vomited up the medicine she said that he had to keep that down (um, yes, that is why I brought him in) and that he needed to eat (again, that was why we were there) but I smiled and nodded.

The vet prescribed him some metro and a shot of penicillin. I had them give some fluids there and by the time they were done getting the fluids in him he started looking around for food.

He didn't eat a lot, but he ate. Sherlock received the same treatment and had a little snack too.

I brought them home and I'm sure they promptly took a nap, but I had to go back to work. Jack tried to tell them that eating was good, but I'm not sure they listened.

When I got home from work I went down to check on them. Watson was still mopey, still not really eating, and REALLY did not want the medicine.. which is always a good thing when a ill kitty fights you. I offered him some liquid from a can of food, he was not amused. I offered him some goat milk and probiotics, he was not amused. I tried to give him a bottle to nurse on, he was not amused. I'm pretty sure he said some unkind thoughts in his head about me, along with 'why on earth won't she just stop!'

He is also peeing on a sheet that is in the room, so I know he is really not feeling well. I am giving it the night for the marquis paste and the penicillin to do some serious work on his not feeling well and if he is not eating in the morning he will be force fed and there will be more communication with the shelter, because he has almost nothing left in his gas tank (if you will) and if he goes on like this much longer it is going to be very hard for him to come back from it.

And just so you know, five minutes after I ticked him off with all that shoving stuff in him, he was back on my chest snuggling and nursing on my clothes again, so I'm pretty sure I'm forgiven.

Changing the sheets with kitties is universal

My new couch is not built well to hold a sheet covering - not like the futon - but I still think it is a good idea to keep it covered with one if we can If you look at the arm you'll understand why. Trying to replace the sheet was a great adventure for the kittens. Sherlock LOVED it.. he played with the "new" sheet for almost a half an hour.

Catching up with the kittens

The kittens are scheduled to go back to the shelter for a check in at the end of the week. I highly doubt they will be making weight and staying because they are still so very thin. We had some pretty smelly diarrhea right up to Sunday and then started getting formed stool, so I think that things are on the right track.

They are still frightened of us when we first walk in, but given time, and if we are able to put hands on them we become good things again. Sherlock is less likely to do that on his own, but when Watson starts purring and nuzzling (and nursing) on me, Sherlock is quick to forget all about being afraid. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go from "Miz Grabby Hands" to "OH YAY SHE'S HERE" pretty quickly. At least I hope so.

kittens

I know I know, sharing that I have new kittens on a Wordless Wednesday post and not saying a word was pretty mean. Sorry. The thing is, I had no information to share. I received an email late in the afternoon asking if I wanted kittens (ha ha ha ha) and I had my husband run up and get them so I didn't have to leave work early. I work right up until the time they close and they are half an hour away from me if I speed. Since he was in the area, it is just easier to have him grab them.

He said he was told their names were Sherlock and Watson, but he doesn't know which one is which. My friend Laurie tells me that Sherlock was a redhead, so will let the tuxie be Watson. Yes, they are both boys, I checked.  I was told they were about six weeks old. They are just over a pound and a half, Watson is smaller than Sherlock.

He also mentioned that Watson was known as being friendly, but they were both unsure that they want anything to do with humans right now.

Watson also has a bit of white at the end of his tail.

When I got home from work, I went right down to the kitten room to meet them. I searched everywhere for them and couldn't find them. Turns out they were back in their carrier - which is where I took that first photo. I pulled them out and they weren't happy about it. There might have been a hiss out of Sherlock. Once I had them in my hands for a forced snuggle they just accepted it. I put them down before they asked to so as to not overly stress them out, and they pretty quickly got to exploring the room.

They feel a little light for their size so they will be going on the "pack on the pound" program at Casa de Gato. They are due back at the shelter in two weeks for a booster shot and then depending on how much they gain we'll go from there.