Sickly Caturday...

Oh, how much can change in 48 hours when you have kittens around...

About a month ago, you might remember when Spot and Dot were about 8 weeks old, they had a tummy upset that had them vomiting curdled milk and having the 'squitters'. With sub q fluids, anti-nausea meds and antibiotics, they responded quickly and were back to normal within a few days.


Being sick did delay them getting their first vaccination, but 10 days later they were able to be vaccinated and they passed their exams with flying colors and in another week, they will get the next vaccine in their kitten series, along with a physical exam, too.

Well...the sickly one now is Fifi, with almost the same symptoms. So on my day off yesterday, I took her into work and her exam showed no tummy sensitivity, no diarrhea, no fever and her labwork (cbc, fecal smear) were normal. She had just had a negative fecal test run for all parasites and that was negative, too.


But she was a little dehydrated, and as she had vomited twice in 24 hours, she got fluids under the skin (ouch), an anti-nausea injection (really stings!) and she started on Amoxicillin. She is feeling better today, although she did vomit overnight so she got another injection today and while I can't give subq fluids to a kitten by myself, she is eating and I am also syringe feeding her a bland rx diet (a/d, Recovery) mixed with Pedialyte and she has kept that down today. If she has no more vomiting, she shouldn't need any more fluids under the skin...

I don't separate my momcats and kittens and just let them self-wean themselves (momcats usually tell them when they are tired of them nursing) but with this vomiting curdled milk thing and usually at night maybe while they are nursing more instead of playing...I am thinking I may separate them at night to hopefully prevent this from happeniing at this age.

This was the first time the vet had seen Fifi, as she isn't due for her first vaccination for another couple of weeks. And on her physical exam, she did hear a Grade II murmur on Fifi. It may be something she outgrows, or it could be something more serious. We will monitor her over the weeks ahead and if it gets doesn't go away, I will have her ultrasounded to see what is the cause for the murmur.

I heart scan all my breeding cats, and most murmurs are 'innocent' and nothing serious. But you can't tell by sound alone. When Brighton was a kitten, he had the same grade murmur and at 4 months I ultrasounded him and he had 3 leaky heart valves, but as he has grown, his murmur has disappeared and I haven't had him rescanned since he was a kitten, as he isn't a breeding cat and he has no symptoms of heart disease now.

But the family that he was promised to as a kitten were afraid to adopt him (they adopted his mother after I spayed her when I knew she had produced a kitty with this issue) and I am so glad he is in my life now and that he didn't 'leave home' as plannned way back then...

Here's some Saturday Caturday pix...we are all enjoying playing, napping with the windows open, feeling the breezes blowing and our Teri puttering around in the garden...