Sunday Scare

So the kittens have been home since Thursday. There has been some watery diarrhea so I went to the shelter and got some Albon on Saturday. Other then that they were doing pretty well. I named the long haired kitten Zander as it just popped into my head when looking at him, and that meant the girl was to be Buffy and the short haired boy became Oz. There is only minute differences in the look of the boy and girl. Oz is a little bit bigger, and darker. Buffy has some ticking on the end of her fur. So I can tell them apart, but it takes me a minute.

So Sunday I went down to give them breakfast, and all three were huddled in the corner. Buffy and Oz are much more outgoing and have been since day one. Zander has been more reserved and unsure of things, and does not like to be held at all. When I sat down in front of the cage, Buffy and Oz walked slowly towards me, waiting for breakfast and attention. Zander sat in the back of the cage as was his normal routine.

I tried to spur him forward, but he wasn't moving, so finally I went in and picked him up. I noticed immediately that his chin was all wet. I had washed his chin and foot yesterday night, but it seemed very unlikely that he would still be wet from that, so I looked him over. His cheeks showed he was drooling. Not a good sign, because kittens are prone to Calcivirus, which causes blisters in their mouths. I pried open his mouth and took a look and saw nothing but a healthy all be it very wet mouth. I gave him his dose of albon and put him back in the cage. He sat there, head down purring - which scared me immediately. I knew he wasn't purring because he was happy - not after being 'manhandled' and medicated. He had to be absolutely miserable so I ran and got dressed and rushed him off to the shelter.

Once there, he balked pretty strongly at being held. The tech wasn't sure what to do for him since he was so active. I asked that they take his temperature and the thermometer wasn't working so we didn't get an accurate reading on that. I wondered if maybe his temp was that low, and the tech didn't think he would be struggling so hard if it was. I asked that he get fluids, but he balked at that too, so he didn't get much. It was suggested I just take him home and watch him, but when I put him back in the carrier he did his head down purr thing that scared me, and it scared them and they suggested I leave him there to be watched. The reasoning that won me over was if he crashed they could get him to a vet faster.

Well after a couple of hours, they called me and said he was feeling much better and could go home. It was suggested I isolate him for a while and watch him but I had no where to put him immediately so I put him in with his siblings, and he immediately pounced on them and started wrestling.

We ate dinner, then proceeded to let them run around for a couple of hours while we watched a movie in the kitten room. Zander showed no signs that he was so sick earlier and they all enjoyed their free time. They are locked up when we aren't watching them because a) they are too small to not need litter boxes all over the room if they were free b) because they have liquid diarrhea and I don't want that all over the room and c) I didn't want to overwhelm them with the whole room right away. If they didn't have diarrhea at this point, I might consider letting them out. Maybe next week.