Unexpected trip to the vet.

So my cat Spoookie, love of my life, is sick. She started throwing up Thursday morning, just a clear liquid, no food or anything. I watched her all day and assumed that she just had an upset tummy. She didn't eat all day and threw up every couple hours. She has not been herself. She sleeps all the time off by herself and hides under tables and in the cat tree. We took her to the vet today and they really didn't help at all. I mean, it wasn't the vet's fault but they could not find anything wrong with her. Her temp was normal, 100.7, her hydration was good, and the vet said she checked out great. The vet drew blood and we will have blood results tomorrow. They gave her an injection of reglan for the vomiting and a prescription of liquid reglan for me to give her for the next five days. She threw up again about an hour after we got home and now she is sleeping in the kitchen. I don't know what to do for her, I am very worried because she isn't eating.

Spoookie's birthday is tomorrow. She will officially be a senior citizen, which for cats is seven years old. I am worried about things like renal and pancreatic failure. I guess its because I see too much of that kind of stuff at work. Last week we put down a 2 year old cat at work because he was dying of cancer. That kind of stuff rides with you. I just hope that she has an upset stomach and it will all go away within a few days. If I could get her to eat I would feel so much better.

I'll update as I get information.

Kitten Dance

So as a special treat this week I took some video footage of the kittens! They're just bumbling around the bathroom, doing what they do best which is be cute and fall over. Please excuse all the clicking noise, the lens cap is attached to the camera and I didn't realize how loud it would be. I'll make sure to remove it for the next video. Anyway, here they are being adorable!

Oh god, the bathroom tile looks extra gross. Its not my fault! I just rent!

Anywho, things with the new kittens are progressing. One of the little white males, whose shelter name is Pigeon, is showing more signs of being sick than the others. I can hear him breathing and sneezing more and he had a lot of discharge from his nose. He lost an ounce over the course of two days so I am watching him extra carefully and bottle feeding when I can. The daily weigh ins and recording of weight are really helpful in showing me who needs the special attention. The little buff tabby who I call Hamster is having some issues with her eye and it is crusted shut. I have been wiping it clean and I have some eye drops for her but if I need to take her in to the vets at work that is no problem either.Everyone else seems to be doing well, still sneezing but they are gaining weight or staying steady. I am so glad I have a pet scale here!

The biggest problem we have had this week is poop, and that is why there is video and no pictures. This is going to sound gross to a lot of people but one thing you have to be ready to deal with when taking care of baby anythings is poop. This week the kittens are learning how to go on their own. In the first weeks of life the mother cat would stimulate the babies to go, but eventually they have to learn to go on their own. Well that does not mean they are exactly litter box trained. Yes, my bathroom was a mess when I came home the other day. Its alright though, that is why they are in the bathroom, its easy to clean! I am going to try a tiny shallow litter box for the babies and hope that they get the idea. I think that part of the problem is that Mama Bones is a little overwhelmed with so many butts to clean, so they kind of had to figure it out for themselves. The other problem is that when they go they later walk through it, and now they all need baths. And let me tell you, even with a bath a white kitten is going to look messy. Good thing today is my day off and I can start this poopy project...

I changed the name of the blog this week because I realized that I really don't use this too much as a personal blog. That is not to say that I won't occasionally post something personal or something other than kitten news, but I felt that I should be more specific with the title. Any non-kitten related things will be posted between kitten updates, and I have some fun ideas for things that I want to cover in between the weekly kitten update. So primarily, this will be your weekly update of cuteness, but I'll try to mix it up. I mean, people have to get sick of hearing about kittens sometime, right?

Too Many Kittens

I have so many cats in my house!

Well, its only been half a week since we got the new babies but so far so good. Wednesday I noticed some of them sneezing and by Thursday morning there was a choir of tiny sneezing kittens. Luckily, it wasn't anything the vets could not take care of! Since mom and the babies had been there only two days before, the vets were able to just make up some medicine and I went and picked it up. Everyone is getting doxycycline once a day as well as steam treatments whenever Mike or I shower. The nice part about having the kittens in the bathroom is that we can use the steam from the shower to break up their congestion, just like you would if you were sick, with a vaporizer in the room or even a hot shower for yourself. The down side is that with a radiator in the bathroom (yes, my building's radiators are STILL on) and a hot shower the room gets REALLY warm. Since you are really supposed to keep kittens out of a chill breeze, and it is definitely chilly the last few days, I have had to keep the bathroom window almost entirely closed. The bathroom is a sauna. Good for kittens, not so great when I want to do my makeup or brush my teeth!

Mom is starting to open up to me more. The first couple days she was very quiet but now she meows or coos at me when I enter the room. She has learned what the can of food looks like and the sound it makes when it opens and she has a great appetite. She is extremely skinny so we are feeding her as much as we can to try and put some meat on her bones, and also so that she will be able to continue producing milk for the babies. I have started calling her "mama bones" because she is just skin and bones. The other kittens have not really earned nicknames except for the orange one who we call "Guinea Pig" and the buff tabby who we call "Hampster" because that is what they look like. The others are going by their shelter names for now, but their personalities will be developing every day so I look forward to watching that.

Mama bones

Snurfle went in for her last check-up on Wednesday. The vets finally cleared her, saying that she was healthy enough to be adopted and that her eye and nose issues are just something that is going to need on-going care. I was really worried that people would look at her condition as a negative. Being that she is only six months old, and is going to need more frequent vet care than other cats at the shelter, I was worried that she would not get adopted as quickly as other kittens. I was so wrong. She went up to the adoption center on Thursday and a co-worker texted me Thursday night to say that she had been adopted! I am the happiest foster mom ever, and my little Snurfle has a new home and a new adventure. I miss her but I am very happy for her.

Guinea Pig

Tomorrow I bring Navi and Zora in to get surgery and then they will go to the adoption center also. When that happens all of the fosters in the house will be in one place - the bathroom. Its been nice having Snurfle, Zora, and Navi out playing with my cats. Its good for the kittens to experience more of the house and the other cats, and I think my cats enjoy the kittens at least sometimes. Godzilla loves the kittens for sure, he has really been missing Snurfle lately and I feel bad for him.

Well, that is it for this week. Everyone is gaining weight or staying steady, but since they are sick we are not out of the woods completely with these guys. By Tuesday if everyone is still doing good I will feel a lot better because that will be our one week mark. Usually anything that is going to go wrong will happen within the first week. I just have to keep up with them for now!

New Kittens!

We got new kittens today. The vet at work conned me into getting another litter. I was told that I would be getting a mom and "three to four" kittens. "Four to five maybe".

We got eight. EIGHT.

But they are beautiful and I would not trade them for the world! I don't know that much about them. Mom is white with green eyes, there are six white kittens, a buff (tan/sandy color) tabby, and an orange tabby. We have never fostered a kitten that was white or orange so this is exciting on two fronts for me! The babies seem healthy and mom is a little skinny but she has a good appetite, she ate three cans of food before I even got her home today!

Mom's shelter name is "Olga". Gross. Olga is a fat girl's name. Olga is a sausage-toting foreign exchange student. Olga is like the sound a tuba makes. If her name has to be "Mama" its better than "Olga". The kittens were all given shelter names too but I will just give them nicknames so most of them don't matter anyway. Octavia is the only one that matters and that is because last year I had a marigold named Octavius that I took to DEMF and left in Detroit. Octavius was reborn in the form of a tiny white female kitten. Awesome.

These are cats that were (once again) in danger of being put down, so I am really happy to have them. The vet didn't even mean to trick me, or if she did I don't care because I know I am doing the right thing. She said she may have "slightly downplayed" the amount of kittens but I know she only did it because she knew I would not be mad. It actually makes me feel good to know that she trusts me.

Anyway, Snurfle goes in tomorrow for another check-up, which could be the last time I bring her in (who knows at this point!) and Zora and Navi go for surgery Sunday. Its a little crowded around here right now but we manage. I would rather have them here than at the city pound. I could sure use some good vibes from anyone reading though, because I want to keep these babies happy and healthy, which can be hard given their age. Alright, without further ado, the real reason you are reading... kitten pics.

Kitten Update

It looks like I won't be getting new kittens after all. The intake team got to Animal Care and Control today and three of the kittens from the litter that I was supposed to get had already died. The mom cat looked awful and the other kittens looked like they weren't going to last. If we had the ok for me to foster a few days earlier we might have saved them, but at the same time maybe not. The vet did not test them so we don't know for sure, but it is possible that the kittens died of Panleukopenia. I don't want to bring Panleuk into my house and the vet was going to test the mom for that before they brought her to me, but at this point it looks like a losing battle.

The bad guys may have won this round but I will be back to try again. Zora and Navi are still not up to weight for surgery so I will enjoy a few weeks with just the two of them before I try for another foster. I told the vet to keep me in mind if they see any other moms with babies scheduled for euthanasia, because I want to stop them from being put down if I can, but this time it just wasn't worth intervening. It sucks to think about it that way, but its true. We have to be realistic, and with kittens that are only a week old it is really hard to fight off anything serious.

Days like these make me appreciate the cats that I have and all the wonderful fosters that have come through my house and been adopted.

Its not "goodbye"...

I was putting off making a "goodbye" blog about Zelda and the babies, and that is why I did not post last week. So I suppose I should update everyone. There is kind of a lot going on right now.

Sunday I took Zelda and the kittens in for their big vet visit. Zelda was an angel, the kittens... not so much. The vet asked me what kind of spices I feed them because they were just nasty little devils. They screamed for their exams, blood draws, and microchips (granted the microchips come out of a really big needle) and were pretty surly in general. Two of the boys, Goron and Gerudo, weighed in at about 2lbs 5oz. Zora weighed 1lb 13oz and Navi weighed 1lb 10oz. The kittens have to be 2lbs for surgery so Navi and Zora didn't make it. I was sure that Navi would not, she is way smaller than her brothers, but Zora surprised me. I was sure the little bugger would make 2lbs!

My little man

 Well, Zora and Navi came home with me and I will take them back next Sunday to try again. In the meantime they are enjoying freedom from the bathroom. They try to get along with my cats and my cats do their best to ignore the kittens. I heard that Snurfle was trying to play with them a little bit, but I think she is getting jealous because she is used to being the baby. All I have seen her do is hiss at them.

Bye-bye sweet boy

Zelda, Goron, and Gerudo all got surgery Sunday and everything went well. I felt so bad because the kittens were all really scared to be in cages in a strange place. Remember, they had never even left my house at this point, so this was all really freaky for them. Zelda handled it well, she was just sweet as pie to anyone who came near her. One of the vets told me that when they were putting Goron under anesthesia he started screaming and Zelda started calling to him, telling him that he was going to be okay. She was such a great mom! It was hard to leave Zelda and the boys at the shelter overnight, but on Monday morning all three of them went to the adoption center in hopes of being adopted. Yeah, I cried.

From the first week...

Goron and Gerudo were adopted Monday afternoon... together! It makes me SO happy to know that my baby boys were adopted together because they will never have to be lonely or scared. They will always have each other and so I feel like they will be more comfortable figuring out their new lives. Of course I have convinced myself that the family who adopted them is rich as hell and that they will have all the best kitty toys and snacks. Zelda has not been adopted yet, but it is a lot easier to adopt out 8 week old kittens than it is year old cats. I actually saw her at the adoption center today when I was doing a transport for work. She isn't doing great in the cat room (our adoption center has free roam rooms, not cages) because she is not used to being around a lot of other cats. I gave her some love and a pep talk and the cat manager assured me that she would take extra special care of my baby and try to help her get acclimated to her new temporary home. I am waiting patiently with my fingers crossed, someone will realize how awesome she is and take her home. She will make someone as happy for the rest of her life as she made me happy during our time together.

Such a pretty girl

 So what is next? Well. We were going to take a break from fostering. Were.

Tomorrow I am getting a mother and her five kittens. One of the vets at work asked me if I was looking for a new foster, because there is a mom and her week old kittens at ACC (Animal Care and Control) who is slated for euthanasia this week. The vets put her on hold hoping to get her into the cat study that they are doing but she didn't qualify, and unless we intervene she and her babies will be put down. The vet didn't pressure me, nor would she have had to, I just knew that this was the right decision to make. The mom cat is sick which means the kittens will probably get sick, so this could be a really difficult foster. I am afraid of losing the kittens because they are so young, but I am also not going to sit around knowing that I could have tried and didn't. If we lose every kitten... well that will suck really bad. But at least I will know that I gave them the best that I could. I might need some prayers on this one guys.