Thursday, June 10, 2010

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!

26 comments:

  1. Hope Brighton will start improving more for you. I know how worried you must be for him.

    Great job on catching the kittens and getting them checked out. They are all so cute!

    Even more exiciting is getting mom spayed!! She may not be a snuggly cat, but I'll bet she knows how much you care for her. She's lucky for sure.

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  2. We are still sending lots of purrs and prayers for Brighton, and we hope that everything goes well with the rescue's too - so much going on there right now!

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  3. PunkyB the mama cat, looks very sweet and orange. Well, maybe the owners will notice that she has had surgery.... or not :-P

    I have been bonking for Brighton this week. I hope he improves more this week-end having you home to dote on him. good luck happy trails to Bosco and Hiro. I sure hope to hear about them in the days and years to come.
    bonks to all of you. Yay tomorrow is Friday and it is going to be a good week-end
    The girls and dad decided mom gets the new computer (because she is the queen) and Christina gets Lizzie's computer and Lizzie gets mom's computer. --- wheeeee
    then dad will be ready to help you decide what you want/need and find you the best deal on the planet. He is quite the hunter, and fine print reader.
    Happy snappy week-end to you CurlieSwirlie Teri

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  4. WE are sending lots of prayers too for Brighton. I hope he starts to get better soon. It is so hard to have sick ones. And we hope the little feral cats find some homes. Good for you to get the Momma kitty spayed. I will never forget catching the Momma kitty here, It only took 2 years and 3 litter of kittens later.
    Glad you have some time off to spend with Brighton.

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  5. Still sending super turbo healing purrayers to Brighton! Those little kittens are PURRecious and YAY that the mama kittie is all "fixed".

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  6. We hope Brighton continues to improve. Love those little ginger whippersnappers ;) Bless your heart for carrying for them and their momma.

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  7. My neighbors had an outdoor cat have kittens in their junk pile. About two weeks ago she moved them over to my garden shed where my junk isn't so bad. Anyway I am trying to tame them, mother and all so they can be taken back to the neighbor who says she wants them for house cats. It is a challenge but they are growing and I did pick one kitten up yesterday.
    I love your yellow kittens, they are pretty.

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  8. Glad Brighton is hanging in there but hope he enjoys a full recovery soon...Glad you caught Punky and the kittens, they are all beautiful cats...I did the same thing a few weeks ago with a stray cat hanging around my house; I got him fixed but feel he belongs to someone since he only shows up 1-2 times a week to eat...Good luck with Brighton's recovery and hope you can enjoy your time off.

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  9. We really hope Brighton continues to improve. We is purring for him!

    Nice job catching the mom and kittens! You are amazing.

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  10. We are keeping all our paws crossed for sweet Brighton. Sometimes, these things are just long to kick.

    Paws crossed also for the stray family. May they all know nothing but love and kindness from now on.

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  11. We are still praying hard for Brighton. It must be so uncomfortable for him to be in the box so long. Get well soon, sweetheart.

    Lovely mum cat. You know, she just might make you her human after all.
    The kitties are beautiful. Something about the baby kitty blue eyes. We well pray for them and hope all is well for them


    One of my previous cats was a nightmare at the vets. They swore he was a feral. He'd hiss, bite, snarl and attack as soon as anyone approached him. They had the devil of a time gaining adequate anesthesia on him and post-op he attacked everyone he saw and bit anything in his sight. He was a dear at home, though.

    What a lovely person you are to see that this sweet family is well cared for and will have good homes. God bless you.

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  12. Brighton we are purring hard for you but obviously we must turn our motors to extra high!

    Such adorable kits too! My there is a lot doing on over there!

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  13. Wow! It sure has been busy at your house!

    Many purrs for Brighton. Poor boy, my Grayce had two stones...so I know what you are going thru with all the worry and monitoring.

    Good job with the feral Mama cat and kittens! They are adorable, and I hope they find good homes. And now Mama won't have any more kittens...did she get her ear clipped?
    MomKat Trish

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  14. I hope Brighton keeps getting better. Glad you have time to spend with him. I keep checking on him.

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  15. We are still purring for Brighton! Dobby says he thinks the SubQ stuff really helped him - hope it works for Brighton as well! We like the "porpoising" term (we call it "bucking bronco" here!)

    And thanks so, so, much for all you are doing for mama and the kittens. Tasha is blind in one eye because of herpes (she was a feral kitten) so she thinks the ophthalmologist's offer was pawsome! We are hoping it was just a birth defect, and that all the other kittens are OK too.

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  16. Poor Brighton, he's had a rough time of it. I hope he continues to improve and will be all better in no time.

    Hooray for getting the mamacat spayed! The bebbehs are so cute.

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  17. I will be purring for Brighton.Good job with Mama cat and babies your a true angel.

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  18. We hope that Brighton will start to recover soon - we are sending more purrayers and kisses for a good recovery.

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  19. I don't think that bunch of orangey goodness kittens will stay in need of homes for long, they are glorious. Hope the eye anomaly turns out to be harmless.

    Well done for catching PunkyB, her life got 100% better the minute she walked in that trap. Our ape (and our vets) always notice how ferals have better teeth, a natural diet has to be somewhere behind it (or maybe the fact that many ferals are young? harsh but short lives, so apes rarely get to see the state of older feral's teeth as there aren't many old ferals?)

    Now Brighton fella, we are still purring for you to pee a monsoon's worth of pee please. Really, we hope that whatever is causing this clears off and lets you get on with feeling great again.

    Best of luck to all the kittens off on their new adventures!

    W. Wuudler

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  20. I would love to donate the collars.Please send me your address.

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  21. Our best wishes for the new kitties and Brighton too.

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  22. Bless you Teri for saving those kittens and taking care of mama kitty so she does not make any more!
    Give Bosco a kiss goddbye for me!
    I am saying prayers for brighton, and hope he improves fast.
    Hugs.
    xoxo

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  23. well dang... I can't believe it's Friday and I'm just posting my well wishes for Mr. B. All our loves & purrs & anycattreats he wants too!

    Great news about those tiny ginger loves!

    Bon Voyage to the my beloved (sniff) I shall await patiently any scrap of news of his whereabouts on this big blue marble.

    xoxo to all the mad catters at your house & xoxo for you too! Best of all Momcat loves.

    Ms. Stella

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  24. We are purrring and praying for Brighton to get all healed up!! He is such a cutie!!

    That is so cool about your Feral family, too!!

    You are a wonderful cat person!!
    Your TX furiends,

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  25. Oh you and your entire family of professionals and these people here are angels. (((HUGS)))

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  26. I loved reading all about the cats of Furrydance today. Terry.
    How is Brighton?

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