Orphan Kitten Diaries

So! Long time since I’ve updated. Boo is healthy and happy in his new home with Trina (Tabby) and Tora (Tiger), and all of the other kittens except Matilda (Callie) have been adopted as well. She won’t have to wait very long; she’s too cute to pass up. Sunshine and Marigold got to go home together. I’ve seen Ariel (Whitey) twice so far for nail trims and she’s doing great. She was adopted with a new big brother named Kolby, and they love each other very much.

It’s weird with them gone. The house is too quiet. Sometimes my heart aches from missing them, but at the same time I am so, so happy that they got this chance to live. To be happy and safe and loved. And that makes it easier.

There’s nothing much to do right now. The winter has been pretty quiet (though unseasonably warm - kitten season might come early). So I’m just sitting around, snuggling my own cats, and waiting for the next round of babies to arrive.

Good news about Boo! I brought him to work with me this morning so our vet tech could look at him (she wasn’t there yesterday) before we called the vet. She thinks that all of the dewormers and antibiotics we’ve given him have pretty much wiped out his GI tract, and THAT’S why he’s still got diarrhea and he’s so skinny. Maybe he had worms before, but now that’s taken care of and his tummy needs to recover from those meds. So in addition to the MaxCal I just started giving him, he’s also going to get some Science Diet i/d 3-4 times a day with the Forti-Flora mixed in twice a day. And instead of Clavamox for his URI, we switched him to Amoxi drops, which is a bit gentler.

I REALLY REALLY hope this takes care of it. I want him to be okay so badly.

Still worried about Boo. Not just that he only weighs a pound at 12 weeks old (I would be fine if he was just a very small kitten), but also that he’s so damn SKINNY. He feels so fragile to me, just a bag of bones. Something isn’t right with him. So I took him back to work today and we ran a few more tests.

Giardia test, negative.

Second FeLV test, negative.

Poop sample under the microscope, nothing. Again.

His appetite is good and even though he doesn’t like to wrestle with the other kittens, he still plays with toys on his own sometimes. He’s not lethargic. He’s just as talkative as he ever was. He doesn’t seem to be in distress.

On the other hand, he’s been maintaining a low level of dehydration for the last several weeks (when it hasn’t spiked to severe dehydration) and he’s still got diarrhea - though that’s not as bad now that he’s done with the Clavamox. He mostly just wants to snuggle and eat. His fur is dry and coarse. And his gums seem just a little too pale to me.

We don’t really know what else we can do with him… Shelter resources are kind of limited. He’s already been on every dewormer we have that he weighs enough to take. I’ve got him eating Iams Maximum Calorie wet food (with a little Forti-Flora mixed in) at least once every day. He gets subq fluids whenever he needs them. We’ve done every test that we’ve got. Nothing seems to have helped at all and I’m afraid there might be something seriously wrong with him.

So tomorrow morning, when our vet tech gets in, we call the vet. I’m praying so hard that it’s something we can fix. I don’t know what I’ll do if they say we should euthanize him.

Woohoo! Just when I thought we were done with meds, five of the kittens get upper. Time for another round of Clavamox.

Also, Sunshine’s discharge hasn’t cleared up despite 10 days of antibiotics (it’s better, but not gone), and now Whitey has the same thing. So now we’re thinking it’s not a UTI at all and we’ve got to call the vet.

And Boo is still skinnier than he should be.

*sigh*

So much going on with these guys.