Because I'm nervous about Rupert's weight I brought down some more baby food to syringe feed him. First thing I did was weigh him. In the morning he was 1lb 4oz last night he was 1lb 5oz! Since I was having a hard time telling exactly how much he was weighing (the scale would vacillate between half ounces) I've decided to start weighing him in Kilograms (my scale does either lbs/oz or KG) and he weighed .60 KG.
*knock wood*
He had eaten some dry food and some of the can of mixed grill pate food I had put down for him but I still wanted to make sure that he got more calories in him since I was there to assist it. He is so not a fan of it. The food coma he goes into after being fed bothers me. Fortunately he was once again interested in playing with my necklace - but still not with any of the toys.
So, not a whole heck of a lot 'new' to report.. just a holding pattern... but he is still awfully cute.
When last I spoke about the scale Rupert was weighing 1 lb 6.5 oz. He had just had a lot to eat (with a little help) and I was encouraged.
We had spent a fair amount of time cuddling and I spent some time rubbing his belly. It made a lot of not quite normal belly sounds, sounds I'm used to in kittens with diarrhea. I know rubbing his belly helps blood flow to the area and stimulates digestion, so I was happy to do it.
He's also a pretty regular pooper, about once every 36 hours.. they are normally very well formed but a little dry and segmented (like a bunch of little balls stuck together to form a log). The first two were proportional to his body, but the last one from Sunday night was huge. Almost two to three times the size he has been producing.
Which accounted for his weight drop. He was 1lb 4 oz this morning. I had a moment of panic, but I saw he was bright eyed and he had eaten over night (not enough obviously, but he is still taking in calories). I left him with the admonition that if he did not eat during the day I was going to force feed him when I got home.
He had a little, but not much. So I mixed some digestive enzymes/probiotics into a jar of baby food and set out to see how much I could get in him over the next couple of hours. At first he was all "this is great!" but after five or six cc's of food he was like "this is more than enough, thank you" and then it was "Lady, you are crazy!!" and finally "if you don't stop this I'm going to vomit it all back up on you!" which is when I reluctantly stopped. I got maybe a half a jar in him. But at least he was back up to 1lb 6.
He became so tired afterwards that all he wanted to do was sleep... think post turkey dinner. I left him to rest and hopefully consume a little more food over night and we'll reassess in the morning. If he isn't bright eyed and attention seeking or if he has vomited up the food or has a dramatic drop in weight I'll contact the shelter and see what they want to do next.
Despite all of this, I am encouraged as he does weigh more now than he did when he got here.. I just hope it is enough. (I just wish he'd hang out on Happy Bear)
Rupert is still with us, being as cute as ever. He is still not eating nearly enough to make me happy, but he is eating on a pretty consistent basis, so there is that. I am still concerned that his whiskers were inhibiting his ability to eat. When I feed him, he would often look like he was covering his food, but when you really watch him he seems to be 'digging' at the side of the bowl. Food bowls that had higher sides usually meant more food left behind, so I attempted to feed him on a paper plate.
The first meal went okay, but he still dug at the edges of the plate and moved it around quite a bit. I thought I'd try an upside-down plate. He 'dug' quite a bit less when eating this so I am considering taking down a ceramic plate and using that upside down to see if the pattern holds.
I've also noticed something very odd with Rupert's front feet. I mentioned before that they felt like they were missing a lot of muscle, but I was finally able to capture a photo of what is going on in addition to that..
Rupert was not a fan of my attempting to get photos of his feet.
This is generally how his feet look. It almost looks like a 'hang ten' hand gesture with the three middle fingers curled in and the pinky and thumb extended. If I massage his toes, which fortunately he does not mind at all, they relax and look more 'normal' but the next time he walks they curl up or contract again. It is really quite fascinating. I am assuming once he starts rebuilding muscle it will correct itself. At this point it does not seem to bother him, nor does it hinder him in any way. (a few extra toe photos because who doesn't love kitten feet)
My husband thinks he is looking better and he is slowly gaining weight. Every time he poops he loses a little ground, but that is to be expected. He could use another bath but I'm going to hold off another day or two for that. He doesn't realize yet that he needs to sit with his legs apart when he pees. I hope he figures that one out soon.
We did have a moment last night that made me very happy. I hope it makes you smile as well
I have been threatening to give this boy a bath since he showed up here, and last night was the night. My husband didn't understand why I was so insistent that Rupert need a bath because I hadn't let him get too close. Today he spent some time with him and he got a first-hand sniff of what that boy needed one and he agreed.
Not really sure what his issue is. I believe it is mostly urine and a complete lack of grooming. So far all this boy has done is eat, sleep and a little snuggling. He hasn't played with toys, he has licked his paw a couple of times, but he just doesn't seem to have it in him to do a full groom. That's okay, you save your energy for rebuilding your muscles, We'll take care of the smell.
He did really well. He didn't want to be there and that was pretty obvious, but there was no bloodshed - either mine or his - so I'm going to call it a success.
My husband is getting a little better at taking photos.. or at least keeping me out of them as much as possible ☺ I did soap him up a little on his belly where it was the worst; I tried to get the gunk off his toes too. I was feeling bad that the bath was taking 'so long' (it wasn't, I'm just concerned about him) so I didn't get everything off that I wanted, but at least now he isn't as offensive. After the bath, but before the drying I held him in my hand and he just laid there. The bath must have exhausted him.
I felt so bad. I wanted to just wave a magic wand and make him all better.
I used very little soap, that's 99% him. We went back down to the kitten room and snuggled him while he was drying.
I was getting very concerned about him Wednesday night. When I went to feed him on Thursday morning and he hadn't eaten any of his food, but had consumed most of the water and peed five times throughout the night, I wrote to the shelter to let them know. They were concerned enough to ask me to bring him back in to be observed closer to where the vet is in case they felt another visit was in order. When I checked on him on Thursday afternoon I was surprised to see my husband home (he got home a little early from work) and in the kitten room. Rupert was happy he was there but was confused as to why he was not getting all the love and attention he's used to when people show up. He went back and forth between the food bowls having a bite or two and then to my husband to ask for attention. I was so tickled to see him eating that I had hoped that things were getting better.
When I got home he weighed more than he did when I went to work, so I texted the foster coordinator to report and see if she still wanted him back. She said if I was comfortable keeping him then so was she. So, he is still with me, thankfully.
Then this happened.
He is still nibbling his food, having just a bite or two and wandering off, but he will go back several times. He's still drinking a little too much water in my opinion and he is peeing far more often than any cat I've seen in a while, but I'm hoping with the more regular consumption of food that abates.
He's such a cheeky little boy. His whiskers are still ridiculous. I hated, hated, trimming his 'bangs' but I'm glad I did it for his sake. Hopefully, by the time they grow back he'll be eating on a more consistent basis. I also trimmed his claws. He is so underweight that his feet really lack that muscular feeling and have more the consistency of Muffin's arthritic feet. Nothing a good number of calories won't fix I'm sure.
I am not willing to say we are out of the woods. I'm not even sure I'm ready to say we see a light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm crossing my fingers that we are 'on the path out of the woods' and it gives me hope.
Last year I attempted to fix Raffe's neck which had a seriously hard time standing upright. It did not help that kittens really enjoyed climbing up his neck. Even after 'surgery', it fell over again pretty quickly.
I attempted to fix him by simply pulling his head up, but the support structure started poking out through him
I figured that thin wire was not going to be enough to support the weight of kittens who love climbing up Raffe's neck. I went to the home improvement store to get some PVC pipe. My husband picked up a piece but it was a bit curved so he asked if I wanted a different piece and I looked up and saw a piece that "spoke to me" and asked him to get that one instead. We joked around a bit and I said he told me his name was Jim (when he spoke to me) and then we had a fun time sticking Jim in the truck because the piece was longer than the truck bed.
Apparently, The Crew thought I said gym because they had fun knocking it on the couch and then playing limbo.
I could have gotten a smaller piece, but I wasn't sure how far down I would be able to get into Raffe's leg, so having the full length would give me multiple options. I cut open a larger section this time and pulled out the original wire support. I as hoping to be able to manipulate the inner structure for his legs to get him standing with all four feet on the ground, but I couldn't seem to be able to do that. I wasn't sure how good he would look if I had one straight line from his head to his toe, so I decided to start with a smaller piece that went from his head to the bottom of his chest cavity. It took some manipulating to get it in there, so I'm hopeful that it will do what I want it to. If this doesn't work, I have more of Jim so that I can attempt to rework the whole thing again.
Sewing it back up was a bit more work this time, but with more dental floss and some persistence I as able to get it together.
Looks like Raffe will be with us for another kitten season, and hopefully many more.
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Mittens has become "Rupert". I was contacted by a local woman who wants to adopt him when he becomes healthy enough, and that was the name she picked out for him. I will admit I was becoming quite partial to Mozart and Einstein, but Rupert is a lovely name.
When he showed up I offered him a small bit of raw food which he inhaled and asked for more. I went and got him some more and he ate very little of it. I gave him a can of food that they sent home with him, and he took two bites of that and stopped. He left the shelter at 1lb 4 oz. When I went to bed he was 1lb 6. I was very optimistic.
In the morning he was 1lb 5. I opened more food, brought down more raw and he nibbled at it but didn't eat much. I hoped that he was just distracted with my being there and he'd eat during the day. He had some, but not a lot and was still 1lb 5 when I got home.
He is drinking a considerable amount of water for his size, and he peed several times during the day. He pooped once, right after he showed up and the stool was well formed. I had hoped that his whiskers were causing him stress since they were getting in his food and thus in his mouth when he ate. I trimmed them last night and that did not seem to help. I wasn't comfortable giving him a bath in that condition. I'm hoping tomorrow is better. That photo is prewhisker trim when I was trying to just smooth them back in hopes that they would stay and I wouldn't have to trim them. He looks adorable with 'regular' eyebrow whiskers now and I know that they will grow back again.
