Gandalf and the January KitNip Box

I recently won a KitNipBox from Quiet Whiskers on a Facebook contest they were having. Since I knew Gandalf had to go into the shelter for a checkup I thought he would appreciate being able to open the box and check out the goodies inside.

Now, FDA disclosures here, I won the box, no promotional goodies were given in exchange for this review, and they are not responsible for the content of this post in any way shape or form... neither is Quiet Whiskers.

But before we get into this, I wanted to tell you about Gandalf's check up.  He has gained some weight and seems to be doing better, but they are still seeing lungworm in his stool so he is here for two more weeks on Panacur to kill them off. They already scheduled him to be neutered after the two weeks have elapsed, so unless something goes wrong he'll be here for a couple of weeks. His new people are awesome and are willing to wait for him. I'll take a stool sample into the shelter in a week and a half and see if things have cleared up.

Now, on to the goodies.

I have to say this box is perfectly kitten sized; well Gandalf thought so.  I adore that they didn't use an over-abundance of tape either.. the label was easily removed and did not damage the box, all huge plusses if you ask me.

This month's theme was 'wellness' hence the cute art on the front side of the information card.  On the back, there was a description of each item included in the 'standard' box. If you opt for the no treats box it would have been slightly different according to the card. I was impressed they offer a 'no treat' box since I am so incredibly picky with what I allow Jack to eat.

I wasn't sure what that light brown thing was, but I knew it was a handmade cat toy.  In this picture you can really tell I was playing around with my new macro lens, which is freakin awesome, but has such a narrow focal length, so some of this is out of focus. I would so totally retake this photo if I were being paid for this post.. but at this point I really can't because..

Yes, he got a little excited over this. The card said this toy was a band-aid, which made me smile because I imagine him like a little kid who wants a band-aid to cover a non-existent booboo to make him feel better..  And by the smug look on his face, I am guessing he feels better after getting it.

Gandalf the Great

I'm sorry I was so quiet last week, I don't do well with the changing of the year so I generally just avoid it. I also didn't have much to report. Gandalf made baby steps each day, well probably more accurately kitten waddles. He went from being able to eat four bites before resting to five; he didn't cough as hard as he had when I would medicate him; he seemed more interested in play. He still breathes rather hard, but I imagine that is the worms in his lungs causing the problems.

He seems to be eating better, and I've started reintroducing canned food, and hopefully he'll start eating it. Despite putting on six ounces, he's still rather thin. I am just glad that I can no longer feel his spiky backbone. Sunday he was much more active and wanted to play more and more despite ending up huffing and puffing rather quickly. We just took it slowly and let him relax when he seemed to need a break.

He goes in for a recheck on Wednesday and we'll know more then. I'm not sure what their plan is, nor how long after treatment they think it is safe to sedate him, so we'll play it by ear... I would say he is going to be here at least through the end of the week, but probably longer.

Two kittens and one Happy Bear

shortly after coming back

The shelter did not get into the details with me what was done, but they did send me home with some panacur for them to give for the next seven days, oh what fun. They did get a bath as the flea dirt was gone, but they still have the stench of garbage and diarrhea and death on them. It is going to be a while before that goes away and they get that new kitten smell that I love so much

I went back to work and watched them on the dropcam (link the bar above) and they pretty quickly climbed up on Happy Bear and took a good long nap.

Post by Tails from the Foster Kittens.

They went back to the food several times through out the rest of the afternoon as well, which is nice. The raw will help soothe their poor little intestines, and it appears that the meds and the food is working. What you want to see the poop? click here. I know the food is helping because when I went and picked them up they were still dealing with diarrhea and caked on poop on their behinds.

I went down to hang out with them once I got home to try to get some good photos of them. They were immediately scared and ran away. I just sat down on the couch and waited. They came out and explored the room waiting for me to go after them but when they realized I wasn't going to do that they started playing with a piece of a feather that was on the floor and each other. There is something killer adorable when kittens who have more fluff than bone try to pounce.. I swear my heart skipped a beat. I got up when they weren't looking and did my best to ignore them and went and got a toy. They were fearful, but they allowed me to do it, and when I showed them the toy one was interested the other freaked. I went very slowly and eventually got them both interested, but I moved it a little too oddly at one point and the less interested kitten tried to run, but on this floor it wasn't easy.

Post by Tails from the Foster Kittens.

Well I was able to entice them a bit more..

Seriously...these kittens have too much fluff for their own good.

Another day with out them but we have a diagnosis

Or if not a complete diagnosis something has been seen and they are now being treated for it.  I got word late this afternoon that the vet found whipworm/lungworm in the stool. Apparently they tested them twice while they have been there and the vet was able to find it.  I do not know if they are using those terms interchangeably or if they have both whip and lung.  the wiki for Lung does not refer to whip, but the one for whip does refer to lung.

I am not sure when I am going to get them back.  I had called after lunch for an update and was told they were doing better and were eating better but they wanted to continue to keep them. I heard the news about the worms about 20 minutes before they closed (they emailed about an hour before they closed) so I'm sure I'll get more information when they open and we'll go from there.

now this is interesting

I just got a call from the shelter.  Simon's stool had lungworm in it.

she said this could explain all of Dorian's symptoms too.

so bizzare, because A) I cleaned the living daylights out of that room before bringing Simon and Schu in there B) they've been stuck in the cage a majority of the time while in that room and the cage wasn't even in the room with the last set of kittens.

So we are going to put them all on Panacure and hopefully this will 'fix' everything..

*fingers crossed*

and I'm going to have to figure something out once these kittens go back to make sure no other kittens are infected after this.

Three little kittens

Three little kittens who very badly need names.  At this point I'm calling them Apple, Cherry and Pumpkin and grouping them as the "pies" simply because I was being silly and "pumpkin" is one of those terms of endearment I use a lot (along with pudding).

I'm sure you know who Pumpkin is.. he is the only boy.  Cherry is a girl and is the tri-colored tiger and Apple is.. well she's just stunning.  She's also freaked out of her gourd.

the staff gave them their deworming and vaccines and trimmed nails before they left.  I felt a little silly "letting them" since I do all of that on a regular basis, but Jen insisted, and well frankly it was probably a good thing since Apple drew blood more then once.  Did I mention she is freaked out of her gourd?

I brought them home and left them in the carrier while I cleaned up the room. They were perfectly happy sitting in there while I watched a little TV and did some major cleaning.  I felt a little bad till I realized they fell asleep.  When I was done, I attempted to do a little socalizing to see exactly what was going on.  Cherry and Pumpkin were mostly OK, but Apple was freaking out and freaking them out in the process.  So I took her out for a while, wrapping her in a towel for her safety and mine.  Being a bit older she could do some damage with her claws and teeth (even a week earlier I might not have used the towel.  She calmed a bit, but then freaked out again when my husband showed up so I put her back in the carrier with her siblings.

Cherry was the first to leave the carrier.  Pumpkin came next much to Apple's dismay.  Eventually she came out, and I ended up realizing that it isn't humans that freak her out, it is hands.  If she couldn't see my hands or if they weren't coming at her she was OK.  I can work with this.

These three were actually transported up from LA.  The shelter I work with routinely transports up dogs from high risk shelters.  The license laws are such that we don't have an over abundance of stray dogs, so mostly the dogs up for adoption are surrenders which aren't that many, so they are able to save many from other areas.  Fortunately the shelter, which is open admission, has such a high success rate (90% which rivals most "no-kill" shelters) that lately they have been "running low" on cats as well.  I heard from someone that they had contacted several other rescues in the area but none of them wanted to send cats to it because they weren't "no-kill"  Regardless of the stats, regardless of what they have accomplished and regardless of the fact that the shelter has spots to house cats and these rescues have a waiting list.    *sigh*  so the shelter where they get dogs sent up a number of cats.  These kittens came with a mom, but she was done with nursing and the kittens are old enough, so they came with out her while she stays at the shelter and gets the care she needs to put on some weight and will go up for adoption.  Unfortunately she was diagnosed with "lungworm" which I had never heard of before.  Since the kittens had some diarrhea the shelter gave me some panacur to give them for a few days to take care of any that infected them.  Apparently lungworm is a parasite that can get into the lungs and cause respiratory problems.  They look a lot like snakes too - kinda bizarre.  So hopefully with three days of panacur their parasites will be taken care of, and they'll start putting on weight, because right now they look like absolute waifs!  Pumpkin in particular looks very "kate moss"ish..

oozing attitude

you clean, we sleep, then we make mess

no hands please

I said, no hands!!!

I'm free!

What did you do with my sister??

What is my brother playing with??

I'm free!

Hey! Where did you go??

I come too

Don't you just love the tip of her tail?