Kitten Update

Well the little guys have names now:
Batman - The dark tabby boy
Luke - The normal tabby boy
Leia - The normal tabby girl

Ta-da!

Batman's health went up for awhile, and yesterday he even started sitting up and attempting to walk around (instead of crawling).  This is actually stunning to me, because he opened his eyes before the other tabbies too, and now he's showing better motor abilities despite being noticeably behind in growth.  They were 14 days old Tuesday (since now it's technically Wednesday), and until today Batman was actively nursing (means he's in less pain) and momma was frequently grooming his genitals (means she doesn't think he's going to die).

Unfortunately, he's had a rough day today.  It's been tough to get him to eat and requires several minutes of stroking first.  He sleeps with the others but his tummy isn't as round and his chest feels flattened, almost.  He's even been making cries that aren't as pained as that one scary day, but definitely not normal "I'm hungry, where's momma" cries.  It takes several tries of placing him on mom's nipple before he'll eat, and it seems like he's easily distracted from it, turning his head to wander and cry.  At least he takes kmr better, even if it's only a few drops at a time.  Usually kmr will at least get his tummy going and he'll be better about nursing.

We're looking into increasing the humidity as well as the temperature, which we've noticed is far better for him at around 80-82 F than the 77 it sometimes falls to.  We have a space heater with a thermostat pointed away from the cage and a temperature gauge inside of it.  When stores open in the morning we'll pick up a little humidifier and see if we can help those lungs out a little bit.  Cross your fingers!

As far as Penny - we finally have the money for her surgery!!  She's getting her leg fixed up next Tuesday, the 15th.  It's going to be frustrating, and I anticipate a lot of "surprise" costs, but at least it won't hurt her anymore.  Here's hoping they can do a repair!  :)

And now...a comic.

Sharing the bed.

-Miss Mouse
<:3 )~~


P.S. -  Kitten Valentine's Day cards are up on my Etsy here.

Kitten Drama

Well, four beautiful, seemingly healthy kittens were all born Tuesday afternoon, one week ago:

Nursing

My all-time favorite kitten picture

Kissin'

Nursing...the wrong side of mum

As you can see, we had two tabbies, one very dark tabby (he looks black, with stripes), and one black kitten who might have had a little bit of striping on her front legs.

Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon I went in to check on them and found the black kitten upside down and passed away.  It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch mom looking around for it when I took it out, but I had to remove it immediately.  Without any concept of what sort of health background these guys or mom had, all I could do was guess.  I recalled that the black kitten had been mewing more than usual and crawling all around the kennel that morning, and took the kitten and my phone to go call to price a necropsy.

A necropsy is a good idea whenever other animals might be in jeopardy.  Yes, sometimes kittens "just die," but if there are three others at stake and such an unknown health status, it's important to know what caused it if possible.  If you think you may need to get a pet necropsied, be sure and refrigerate (not freeze!) it immediately and try to get the procedure arranged within 24 hours so there is minimal tissue decay.

In this case, we called the woman for whom I am fostering these cats, particularly concerned about the mewing and howling the dark striped kitten was making that worried me he had the same condition.  She gave us the number of a vet out of town that had seen the other hoarded cats, and we hopped in the car and made the 30 minute drive out to the sticks.  We brought the dead kitten in a plastic bag, in case it could be of use.  Twice on the drive alone, the dark kitten had to be held and stroked to convince it to stop screaming.

We finally arrived and brought in the kittens, where the vet first thought the dark kitten was only crying because it was hungry or needed to urinate (something mom isn't quite as good about doing for them as nursing).  However, it soon started screaming again and she had a look at it.  It calmed down after being peed and put back with mom, so she decided to take a look at the dead kitten for clues.  The intestines showed it had been being fed regularly and didn't have any problems there, but further investigation showed massively damaged lungs.  They were the same color as the liver...which should definitely not happen.  The kitten had died of pneumonia.

It was difficult to impossible to tell if the dark striped kitten had the same problem and if so, if it would recover.  The dead kitten also showed signs of being pigeon-chested, a genetic deformity that happens in people as well and can make it just that much more difficult for the sick kitten.  So, with fingers and toes crossed, our only options for treatment are two shots of penicillin (one that day and the other tomorrow) and supportive care - frequent attempts at feeding, manually stimulating urination, and keeping the room they were in at a balmy 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

So far it's been about 24 hours and dark kitten has only screamed once, and that was when I tried to feed it two hours after coming home.  Actually, I haven't been supplementing because I can convince it to nurse about once every 30-45 minutes on its own.  I supplement momma with KMR and if I can find it, L-lysine, a medication that is great for helping breakouts of herpesvirus, or rhinotracheitis in cats.  It's better if I can get the kitten to eat naturally, because I don't want to risk aspiration of the KMR into the lungs, which might compound a lung infection into a lethal problem in a very, very short time.  Since we're by no means out of the woods, though, I have the KMR on hand for in case it isn't eating enough.

Herpesvirus, which displays as a recurrent respiratory infection in cats, is most active at temperatures just below normal body heat.  So, by keeping the room at that 80 degrees like I mentioned, we can keep the air going into the kitten lungs warmer than usual.  This may seem like it's bad for pneumonia, but actually, it's going to help the little kitten immune system fight its best battle.  Speaking of, interesting fact - apparently the first kitten or two to be born obtain more colostrum, so naturally have more robust immune systems.  This is why the last two kittens in this case seem to be having a harder time fighting off something that hasn't manifested clinically in the other two.  Voila.  I learned something.

Here are the three little survivors, the black one being my biggest concern (but fighting a great fight!):

I'll keep you guys posted.

Oh, by the way!  I just found out that Penny is going to be receiving at least $300 from a GLC fundraiser!!!  It's not official yet, so I haven't added it into the total, but wouldn't $670 be an amazing number to see?  We are almost there!  :)

See you guys soon,
-Miss Mouse
<:3 )~~

It's Barely Humor

Sassy has been renamed for the time being.  I learned some more about her situation, and after staring at those miserable eyes for a certain amount of time, you realize Ghost is the only appropriate name.  In time, I hope it's a joke about the past.

The Home
I should really say house.  No place like that could be called a home.  It was so much worse than we were told, and I consider myself blessed that I did not have to be there.

It took them a long time just to shovel enough crap (I don't mean junk, I mean crap) out of the way of the door so they could enter.  It turns out 65 cats, a few dogs, and several birds were only what was left after many animals and several pounds of feces had already been removed.  The house was a one-bedroom.  There was no place in the entire house in which the feces came below your knees.  The cats were in horrible condition, several of them not able to make it through the night if they weren't removed immediately.  One had to be put down.

According to the woman heading the operation, several of the cats had such severe disease or deformity that she could not even name some of the illnesses.  She says these are things she has never seen before, outside of horror or science fiction films.  She spent all day there.

The landlord apparently has no clue, and that's why the woman came to the rescue in the first place asking for the cats to be rehomed by Wednesday.  There is no way for him not to know now.  The place is probably going to have to be burned and rebuilt if you ask me.

The woman had no clue there was a problem.  She asked the rescue head, "Is it really that bad?"

Hoarders have mental addictions to hoarding.  It's a disorder.  It's included in the DSM as symptoms of a variety of problems.  She can't SEE that she doesn't love them, that if she did, she wouldn't treat them that way.  She can't SEE that it isn't normal.

Having a lot of pets is one thing.  If you had fifty pets and they all had fresh food, water, and habitat and all saw a vet when they needed, you'd still be fine in my book.  But if you have so many pets that you have knee-high crap in your home?  If 20-something of them have been fixed, but no one else has seen a vet even when it means death?  If you can't live without 8 of your 65 remaining cats, and all it took to START this was 8 unfixed cats?

You have a problem.

So in any case, today an investigation starts.  Rescue-lady has a collection of photos from yesterday and several of the cats into a vet (with before-documentation).  She spends today and tomorrow building the case and intends to crack the whip all at once, in one fell swoop, right before the hoarder woman leaves the state.  With luck and a bit of law, she won't be able to take the cats, dogs, birds, and others with her to TN.  I'm sure that seems unfair, to take away all her pets, but with only one of the cats she's taking being fixed, we would not be doing them ANY favors by letting them leave with her.  Normally I disagree with a lot of pet laws, and the humane society is NO friend of mine.  But this time - for the cats, we need every ounce of help we can get to keep them alive and rehabilitate them.

Ghost Last Night
Ghost was...well...a ghost last night.  No, she isn't dead.  Watching her was spooky, though.  She was so depressed she wouldn't move.  Wouldn't twitch an ear when you snapped, wouldn't look when you spoke or walked in.  I put water in front of her and tapped the surface to get her to see it was there and fresh - her glazed eyes floated slowly up and stared into mine, then drifted slowly off like she was in another world.  I could make no connection with her - the only thing I could do was feel her mammaries for milk and dab a little water on her lips for her to lick off.  She looked like she'd already died.  It broke my heart.

At first I thought she was tense - waiting to strike out if bothered.  She wasn't.  She was in a literal state of catatonia, unable to respond to anything.



I left her alone, hoping she would start to come to terms with her new environment over the course of the night without unneeded prodding by me.

Ghost Now
I'm happy to say she is doing WAY better this morning.  First, she now responds to things, even if not overwhelmingly so.  I covered the side of her kennel that faces the door so she would feel like she had a little privacy, so when I enter the room I talk to her so she's not surprised.  Ghost does not need anymore surprises.  Now - she actually turns to face you when you come in or talk to her.  When you offer a hand or food, she leans forward to sniff it.  HUGE improvement!  The food and water have been touched, even if not ingested, and the blankets are rearranged - nesting, perhaps?

And this is the BEST part - GHOST USED THE LITTERBOX!

This poor cat, out of a home where dirt was the litter and filth was piled knee-high, was a very good girl and used the box the first time she had to go.  I could not be more proud of her.  She is such a trooper.  I hope her and her kittens get to live out a normal fostering here, and don't need to be yanked away for medical or legal reasons.  She may need to be, depending on how the case goes, and I know they'll do the right thing - but right now I am so hopeful I could cry.

She and her room are under a strict quarantine right now.  My own cat is in a different room, so there can be no under-the-door sniffing.  Nothing goes in or out of the room except me, not even the trash (but there's a window...so if I need to throw out litter that's how it'll reach the dumpster).  Anything that has to, like my hands for instance, faces either a bleach solution, betadine, or 91% alcohol and a wash with hot soapy water, depending on what it is.

One last thing - there MIGHT be a little bit of discharge on the blanket.  Her face is totally clean - no facial discharge, sneezing, or other signs of URI or rhino or anything.  Could babies be on the way?  I'll have to watch her closely today.  At least now I know that her mind is a little more present, and she may even be able to handle having them.  And if not, I have a good shot at her getting close enough to me to be able to assist if she needs it.




Fingers crossed!!
-Miss Mouse
<:3 )~~

Rabies - Why Bats?

I recently began working on my 2 year vet tech degree, so I've been learning quite a bit of interesting stuff!  Don't worry - it's not going to become a totally medical blog, heh.  At least, not right now!  :p

Something I found particularly interesting, though, (and that's Halloween-appropriate!) was the answer to a question that's bugged me since I was a kid:

Why BATS?

I always liked bats.  They don't seem like the villains people make them out to be, but I've never been bold enough to test that theory.  I can personally vouch that their presence near one's dwelling seriously decreases the number of mosquitoes on one's porch.  They work better than citronella candles, and they don't smell anywhere near as bad.

So why are we so often warned to reduce the bat population, to keep them away from our homes, yada yada yada?  Why is it that the first animal that comes to mind as associated with rabies is the furry little bat?

It's simple, really.  The reason I think we're most afraid of bats as rabies carriers is that a bite from a bat can very easily go unnoticed.  Most of the time, when a bat lands on a person and bites, they aren't even aware they were bitten at all.  If there are bats in your house, it's possible to be bitten in your sleep, or when intoxicated, without even noticing.  For this reason, we're a bit more careful around bats.

There are of course other reasons we make the association.  Although cats are the most likely domestic animal to become infected with rabies, bats have been involved in most transmission to humans.  I think what really spooks people the most, though, is that little bit about not being aware you've been nommed.  They're just so small - it's easy to miss.

Nifty facts about rabies:

• Any mammal can get rabies, but small rodents such as mice have never been observed with the infection.
• Birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and other non-mammalian animals can NOT carry, transmit, or become infected with rabies.
• The virus is shed in the saliva, but only intermittently.  Because of this, the brain must be tested, because the saliva may not be excreting virus when tested even if it was when a bite was delivered.
• Different animals have different periods of time before they show symptoms, and exhibit different behaviors as a response to the virus as well.  Since not all animals are documented as thoroughly as domestic animals, some must be euthanized and tested rather than quarantined to determine if they were rabid (to figure out if a bitten person requires a postexposure treatment).
• Risks are different in different countries - if you're traveling with your pet, make sure they have been vaccinated well beforehand.
• If your pet has been bitten by another animal that might be rabid and is up to date on their shots, they still need to be revaccinated immediately and watched closely.  Go straight to your vet and let them know, as this knowledge helps determine local risks, and they can help you observe your furry friend and treat the bite.  If they are not up to date on shots, ask your vet to counsel you on what to do to ensure risks are kept minimal.
• Here's an interesting link to the CDC's page on how Rabies can be transmitted.

Poor bats.  They're just doin' their batty thing, eating bugs, flyin' around.  They need the love.

Just NOT the close-up, touchy kind.  ;)

See you 'round!
-Miss Mouse
<:3 )~~