Thankful Thursday

I am thankful...I really am. Thankful that Brighton, although still having difficulty urinating and so stuffy that he is breathing with his mouth open a little (If you biggify the photo, you can see his mouth open slightly)...that I still have him with me, that there is hope he will improve and get back to his sweet, porpoising self (I call it porpoising when he does this sweet greeting where he raises up on his hind legs and arches his back like a porpoise jumping out of the water...he then 'body slams' into my leg and I ruffle his ears as he passes by).

I took him in to work with me on Monday for a progress exam, but his bladder was empty (a good sign) so we couldn't run another urinalysis. He was finishing up his meds from the emergency visit, so Dr Lamb gave him an injection of Convenia--a 7 day antibiotic that is good for both the urinary tract infection and the respiratory infection. And we changed his 'relaxant' to diazepam to see how that worked for his urethral spasms.

So far, he is about the same I'd say...sits in the litterbox for 10 minutes, leaving maybe a teaspoon sized clump of urine. Not normal yet. Not sure why. His stuffiness has affected his appetite some, but then the diazepam stimulates it, and I wonder if he wasn't on that if he would be completely off food. That's a worry.

I am still giving him 100cc sub q fluids every day, and he is so good about that, which is a blessing. And he loves his Vetri-Lysine SoftChews, his freezed dried chick-hen treats, his Zuke's HipAction Glucosamine and Chondroitin treats. Not so much the Duralactin Omegas but they are good for inflammation of any kind...so takes your medicine like a good cat, Bright One!

I am glad I will have the next 3 days off to spend with him (oh, and Disco, Kiki, Coco, Sammy, Hiro and Bosco, too). I am keeping Brighton confined still, both to monitor his urinations and to not expose Hiro and Bosco to his URI, as they are getting ready to leave their birth home here and I'd hate for the stress of moving bring on a cold in them, too.


That's always a risk and well, I am being careful-disinfecting myself after handling Brightie, but the all live together anyway so it's kind of like shutting the barn door after the horse escapes...

Hiro's new family comes on Sunday to pick him up and Bosco's person is coming down from NYC on Friday to get him...so the house will be kitten-less until July 15th, when Coco's kittens are due to arrive. It will be just enough of a break for both her and I :-)


AND NOW FOR THE STRAY CAT STRUT...UPDATE

So much has happened since my last post on Sunday! My vet said to bring in the kittens on Tuesday as we weren't booked full with appointments. So each one got a full exam, found a few live fleas so more stuff to make the fleas flee and more deworming and on the good side...lots of petting and cooing from all the staff.

Of course, with feral cats and kittens, one always has to be aware of contagious diseases that may be incubating, AND of the possibility of Rabies if we get bitten. So we handle them accordingly, of course!

Already they are not hissing at us and are purring for us, too! One rescue group contacted me (out of the 5 emails I sent out)and put word of them out on their network...but so far no foster homes have contacted me. One of our techs said her mom would foster them if the rescue team would pay for their 'maintenance' needs (she's home all the time so that would be great for the kittens).

But if each of our staff pitched in something (I brought food in, someone else could get a bag of World's Best Litter, another person could buy some toys...and so on). I think it will all work out and when they are old enough to go to new homes, they will be healthy and well-socialized!

For the most part, their exams were great--no URI'S, no oral ulcers, no ear mites. One kitten (actually the first one I caught--that sweet one looking up with blue kitten eyes from the storage box bed) was breathing a bit hard--could be roundworm migration or early pneumonia or a URI starting. We did a HCT/TP to check for anemia or first signs of FIP, but those results were normal.

By the next day, he had lost an ounce so we xrayed him and all looked normal, so we gave him a baby kitten dose of azithromycin antibiotic. He gained a bit overnight but still looks a bit rough today, Thursday.

Then another kitten has some kind of strange lesion on it's eye--not the typical herpes ulcer though. My vet said it looked like something he might have been born with, so she took a picture and emailed it to an ophthalmologist at The Hope Center and she emailed back that she'd take a look at him for FREE--cool, huh?!


So one of our staff came in on her day off yesterday and took him over there and well, the vet said she hadn't ever seen anything quite like it before but thought it was something he was born with...but she took a bunch of pictures with her fancy camera and will post it for other eye vets to comment on...

They are all eating great and using the litterbox like good little kittens, even though they are so young! Here's a photo of them in their hospital cage:


and MamaCat? I trapped her last night and she came in with me to work today and had her LadyGardenectomy, after testing her for FELV/FIV and deworming/defleaing her with Advantage Multi. She was quiet, surprisingly, for the 45 minute car ride in to work with me, and not frantic in the trap...but wowza, she didn't get too sedate after her pre-anesthetic injection (given through the wire of the cage--she IS feral) but often even when they don't look hyper-excited, they are and the sedation doesn't work as well.

The techs got her in the induction chamber, wearing protective gloves of course, and while they were prepping her for surgery, I combed and combed out fleas...nuking them with Ovitrol--die, die! She is in good shape, about a year old, no wounds or skin issues and NO gingivitis! What is it about outdoor wild cats...oftentimes their teeth are in great shape...no spoiled pampered dietary lifestyle of the rich and famous cats maybe?

I will take her home and put her in the cage on my porch and as long as she is calm in there, probably keep her confined til Sunday...then I guess I have my first 'outdoor' kitty ever! Oh, I am sure she goes someplace during the day and some irresponsible pet owner just got a free spay at our wonderful cat only practice...but I sure feel good that I did the responsible thing!

Here she is (I'm calling her Punky Brewster) in recovery...in the Hav-a-Hart trap, of course, cuz there would be no handling her once she woke up!