Unexpected Heartache

Well I went in yesterday to see Sara and Sampson.. but they had been adopted (and no, I had not been told)

They went to different homes. The manager could only find the paperwork for Sara. She went into a home with three cats and a dog.

I should be thrilled, but I am heartbroken over this. Actually cried while leaving the clinic. I have NO idea why.

A victory and a defeat

Well, I was so worried about the little gray kittens, and today when I went to see them, one of them actually made it into the litter box and left a deposit!! It is so fun to watch them run around.. they are still getting used to their feet, so their front feet and back feet don't always match up.

The littlest boy with the bad legs is still behind, but he was walking so much better yesterday. I am hopeful.

The defeat? Emerald. She vomited this afternoon. She won't eat her dinner. Her bg was almost 400.. she vomited again this evening. I had stopped giving her zantac thinking the thyroid meds were working. Apparently, the zantac was helping. Why on earth is that?!?!?!

I just noticed I didn't give you an update on the vet visit. $300 later, and there is 'nothing' wrong with her. Blood work is fine, fructosamine is fine, xrays were fine. Dr thought maybe just possibly her thyroid needed help, so she's been on thyroid meds for a week now, and she seemed to be holding her own.. but I think it was the zantac I was giving with it that was doing the most good.

The older set was neutered on Thursday, came home Friday morning. Friday night they were into cuddling. Sat morning a little, and tonight they had so much energy they had NO idea what to do with it. There was wrestling, and surprise attacks, and running full tilt around the room. They are going to be soo lonely if they are separated tomorrow. I was thinking I could convince people to take pairs, but that still leaves an odd kitten out since I have five. I KNOW I can't keep them, but I do NOT want to let them go.

Pictures

Sara

Sebastian

Sampson

Susie Q

Sasha

Okay then

Popular title line I see :)

Back to Em. Frustrating how this is the KITTEN blog, and all I can do is talk about the oldest "kitten" in the house ;)

So I contemplated the next steps I should take with her. The blood test I was sure wasn't going to show what it needed to show. It shows an average of the BG's for two weeks. Previously I have thought that I might be overdosing her on insulin. But I test her every couple of days and her starting BGs are pretty good. Well, I started testing her every time before giving a shot. one PS (pre-shot) was in the 90s. The next was over 300. So yes.. I was still overdosing her. I was going to cut it from 1.5 units BID (twice a day) to 1 unit BID. Well her next PS was so low that I decided to do .5 instead. Well, tonight her PS was 171. Yup. .5 SEEMS to be the magic number.

In case you don't know.. Rebound happens when you over does insulin. there is a major release of stored glucose to help combat the excess insulin. This keeps her BG from going too low and keeps her from dying. However what seemed to be happening was I was overdosing her, then the next shot helped get rid of the excess, then I was testing.

Amazing that she went over 5 years without ANY testing of her sugars.. now I apparently can't go 12 hours without testing.

Hopefully, this will be the cause of the weight loss and she'll start plumping back up (but I am not holding my breath)

As for the kittens, they are so amazingly LOUD when it comes to purring now. They like to sit on your shoulders and purr in stereo. They are up to two pounds now. Amazingly Suzie Q (the runt) is only 2 oz behind the others. She looks like she's 1/2 a pound behind them. She also eats till I swear she is going to explode. Makes her tummy almost twice the size of her head!

Sara's Trip to the Store, and Em's Trip to the Vet

So I had to go out and get Emmy food (She's the only one left on commercial food) so I thought I would bring Sara with me. She is the only foster still easily freaked out. She wasn't bad during the trip. Even got her to purr. At the pet food store, I introduced her to a dog, and two kids. She hissed at the dog, she was fine with the kids. She cuddled with me the whole ride home (I know I know.. she should have been in a carrier!)

I'm trying to decide what type of home she'll be happiest in. Adult only? Or maybe a nice busy household to keep her interacting with other beings so they are no longer scary. Whenever I pick her up, she's fine, she just doesn't like being picked up. Who knows. Just would have to insist she never go out (probably not a good idea for any of them - my feelings on the matter aside) because she's so freaked by stuff she hasn't seen for an hour or two, she'd probably never make it home.


As you may or may not be aware, my Em has had me concerned since Jan. Her weight loss was getting even more pronounced, and I couldn't wait for Dr. B to open anymore, so I made an appointment with Dr. Ken at another vet hospital. He said he didn't feel anything odd in her stomach area, but could feel her thyroid, so he recommend a thyroid test. I was sure it was either a mass in her stomach or her thyroid. Well her thyroid tests just came back and she's fine (possibly a little on the low side). PUCK! She's losing weight, she's constantly hungry, there IS something wrong. Next round of tests includes a test to see where her sugar levels are on a constant basis for the past two weeks (I can't spell the name of the test) and x-rays of her to see if there is anything out of the norm. If her blood sugars are out of control, it would explain the weight loss.. but I monitor them regularly (not excessively though) and I can't fathom those are out of control. So now we are back to a mass of some sort in her.

I can't face that.

I can't face any of this!!

Em is thrilled, cause it means she keeps getting food - her all-time favorite activity. You should see her RUN down the hall when I break out the treats (which she doesn't get that often because they make her sugars run a little high.)

I forgot how hard having a sick cat is on the soul. I don't know how I'm going to handle this.

more names

I was thinking along the s theme.. so Sasha for the long haired black and white, and Sampson for the darker tiger. This just leaves the short haired black and white.

more on OT and then back to the kittens

Ok, I suppose I was ranting yesterday, so most of that needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

I can't imagine that anyone I was referring to reads this blog, so if you were wondering then the answer is NO! (unless you are one of those friends with a busy life then yes... but in a good way :D)

So anyway.. ignore the outburst. I guess I'm just sick of people on boards feeling that either no one can have an opinion, or that everyone has to have the group opinion (then what is the point of getting together to discuss things??) There are a few places that are pretty open about the whole thing, and I have learned so much from them.

Moving on. The kittens are OBNOXIOUS!! I have names for the twins, Sebastian and Samantha. So that leaves the dark tiger boy, and the two black and white females, the runt with short hair and the beefy long haired one. I was thinking how much piss and vinegar the little one has (short haired b&w) She is one determined little kitten. She's cute but full of it. So I was thinking of naming her PV.. or maybe Peevee.. pevey? peavey? Not a very girly name, though.

Sebastian has taken to rubbing himself around my ankles. He cries and cries. So I pick him up, and he cries and cries, so I put him down in front of food, and he cries and cries. That boy has no idea what he wants, but he wants to be with me when he is doing it. When I try to leave the room I have a trail of kitties following me now, with Sebastian right there at my feet. He got out of the kitten room and was so proud of himself till he saw Jack walking down the hall. He stopped in his tracks as if to say "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!!" even though he's seen Jack before. Samantha has taken a turn for the antisocial. She's the teen in the black clothing with the spiky hair and the piercings that wants nothing to do with people (cause there are teens like that that do like people). I tried to put her back in the cage this morning, and she hissed and gave me the meanest look.. Guess I'll have to carry her around for a while.

Oh yes, one more personal thing. I have to take a road trip tomorrow. Somehow I agreed to go pick up my boss from Logan airport. It's about a 2 hour drive. I met him once (okay technically 3 times) then he promptly left for Europe. He rescued another dog while there, so now he needs some help getting home. arrrgh. I do not travel well, I travel worse in big cities, and what on earth am I supposed to talk about for the two hours!! *sigh* I guess the oddest part is the dog he rescued is a hunting dog, so he wanted me to find birds for him to train with. That just didn't sit well with me. But being honest with myself, I eat meat, and I feed it to my cats... so how much further different is that? (well, the horrible end as you are seeing a dog come running at you? But I'm sure it is short) He did ask me if I had a problem with it, and I said I was uncomfortable, and he tried to justify it - with the whole eating meat thing. You know what, when I think about that I'm uncomfortable with that too. But not so much as to not do it. (what a horribly worded sentence) I just hope they don't make me resign my membership from the animal welfare societies I belong to :)

kitten energy and mayhem!

Oh my goodness.. I so need to move the kittens downstairs.. really I do. They are sick and tired of staying in the cage all the time, so I let them out in my computer room. They climb the chairs, they surf the net, they taste the wires, they knock things to the ground.. arrgh

But I'd miss them so much if they were down there. Here I get to see them when I check in on the computer and when I give them time..

I should make it a point not to foster fluffy tiger kittens. I fall in love WAY too easily.

one parasite is not the same as the other!!

Last Sunday I took the kits to the shelter and had a fecal done because their stools were so loose. The result - I was told - was round worm. So they went on dewormer. I did a double normal dose to start (it's safe according to the vet) and then was supposed to do it for three days. Well, it didn't make a bit of difference, so I kept doing it. Still no chance. after two days I put them back on Albon (which they had been on at least a week prior to the fecal). Saturday I took the kittens back in with another stool sample (on a plastic spoon since it was so loose and everyone laughed at me thinking I was going to feed it to someone)

The head medical tech / co-manager looked at it and immediately said it was coccidia. Since they had been on albon, and it was still wall to wall (she was amazed/stunned at how many there were) I asked if there was anything else I could give them since they had been on albon, and their gums were getting pale and this just wasn't working. She said yes there was but that the shelter didn't have it. The dr that the shelter works with (the one I used to work for and who is a JERK) has no experience with this particular drug so he said they couldn't have it. Since they order their meds through him, they have to keep their relationship a positive one. I offered to try to buy it elsewhere since it is a horse dewormer. Yup. A horse dewormer - Marquis Paste. She warned me it would be expensive, around $200 - $300. Which I don't mind if it is going to work. I suppose I would mind if it was $200 for a single dose, but it isn't. (not that $200 would stop me - would be worth it not to lose the kittens) But unfortunately, I couldn't find it anywhere local. I asked her a bit more about it, and apparently, the other local shelter uses it with good success. I asked if maybe I might be able to buy a few doses from them - which the manager thought was a good idea, so she called them up. They gave it to us. I gave it to the kittens yesterday, and it looks like it is the miracle that the other shelter said it was.

I'm pretty amazed at the turnaround! They dilute the paste quite a bit, but it still has the consistency of toothpaste. after 24 hours their stools look normal, and they are doing much better. They are on a supplement to help them regain their coloring.. but at this point, I would say not only are they out of the woods, they are out in the field hunting mice :D

awww

I took a stool sample to the shelter on Sunday. They were LOADED with roundworm, so they have been on meds for that. Most are doing better. The girl twin is still not 100% but is doing much better.

I have all of them purring now. They are still a little more skittish and wary than non-feral kittens would be at this point, but they have made HUGE strides. The boy twin SCREAMS to be held and patted..

I've noticed that they aren't 100% in using the litter box (understandable seeing how uncomfortable they must be) so at this point, there is nothing in their cage but a small piece of bedding. I feel horrible about it, but if I give them anything bigger they are just going to throw it in the litter box and poop on it. In a couple of days, I'm sure I can fix that... but right now they are all piled up on the small bed. Talk about your kitten pile :)



and on a side note; Happy Birthday to me :)

Picts

I can sleep harder than you!


No you can't!


You can't see us, we are hiding!



PAT ME!!

Sleepy kittens

not good

The kittens are doing much better socially. Only getting hissed at when I do something really odd now.

However, the girl twin is not doing well at all. They all have loose stools, and I've been concerned about that enough to start them on albon. Most have responded nicely - although their stools are still a little loose.. but the girl twin is still very grumpy, sleeping way too much, and not all that interested in food. She ate a little chicken baby food but mostly ignored it on my finger. Everyone else is playing and being obnoxious, she's just sleeping on the top level out of the mayhem... oh wait.. it looks like she might be interested... hum..

Still think I'm going to KMR her tomorrow.. and take a stool sample in to the shelter to make sure there isn't anything else going on parasite-wise.. Maybe she just needs a little extra iron..

more activity

The kittens finished off their dinner mash from yesterday, and were interested in breakfast, and are playing, climbing the walls, and are now grooming. I'm glad.

Stools aren't perfect, but I couldn't expect them to be. Hopefully, they'll continue to firm up and I can move them downstairs soon.

KITTENS!!

I have kittens finally. They are a little on the feral side.

I'm getting concerned about them though. They eat, but not much. And currently they are sleeping all the time, and they have very loose stools. *sigh* They got a force feeding of kmr A/D and pumpkin around 6, and they have been sleeping ever since.