...+ 3 - 1 = 8

[petiteoiseau]

As I mentioned before, I feed feral cats courtesy of my husband who feels sorry for them. We have been trying to catch them and get them fixed but Trey (yes, I name them), one of the kittens, apparently ended up pregnant herself. I had seen her with a bit of a belly which suddenly disappeared but I wasn't sure (she is not one to come close to me and my eyesight is not what it used to be). About a week ago, I noticed her coming out of a cat house we had set up under the stairs to the backyard and, when I looked in, I saw very small kittens in there so I put up boards all around the stairs to prevent the dogs from bothering/scaring her or the kittens. A few days later, she moved them to another location and we couldn't find their new location. But, the day before yesterday, I heard kittens meowing in there again and, yesterday afternoon, I moved one of the boards so I could crawl under and look inside and, as soon as I move the board, I see a dead kitten in front of the cat house. It was cold and had flies on him so I picked him up to bury him when he moved! I ran inside, clean him up as best as I could (he had fly eggs all over, inside his eyes, his mouth, etc) and dried/warmed him with a blow drier. He looked mighty sick and very dehydrated so I gave him some subq fluids and fed him some cat milk to which I added extra water (I had just gotten back from buying the indoor cats dry food and had gotten a can of a special milk for old cats I give to my 19 year old). I set him up in a soft towel inside a plastic bucket I put on top of a space heater in the canary room and went to look at the other ones. They were in better shape but their eyes were all infected, too, so they also came inside with me. I cleaned their eyes with drops of artificial human tears and Qtips, put ophthalmic antibiotic ointment in them, gave all of them subq fluids, Clavamox, mixed Lysine with their milk and fed everybody twice doing a little bit at a time because they would not suck the kitten bottle so I had to use a syringe. But, when I fed them at 11 pm, the little one that had been left out to die was not really responsive, would not eat at all and, when I wiped his booty to make him 'go', there was blood so I knew he was not going to make it. When I came downstairs at 3 am to feed them, he was dead, the poor, poor little thing!

So, now, thanks to my idiot husband who doesn't learn from his mistakes (this is the third time we end up with sick feral kittens and guess who has to do all the work, all the worrying, the medicating, the getting up in the middle of the night and who ends up doing all the crying when they don't make it? I don't have to give you more than one guess, do I?), I now have 8 cats and my work cut out for me for the next three weeks or so until they start eating on their own - and this if they actually make it!

I already have an apt for them with my vet for tomorrow (he has surgery today but I would have insisted on today if the sicker one would have made it). The bigger one is a brown tabby that looks as if it's going to have long hair when grown, the one that died was the mid-size one, black with white mittens, and the other one is the smallest and all black (one of its eyes is worse than the other but there wasn't any pus in it this morning and they are eating and peeing, and they went number two yesterday -diarrhea). If they have leukemia, I'll put them down because nobody wants a leukemia positive cat and I can't keep them. I would have to isolate them so they would not infect my cats and I don't have an extra room I can use for them (one guest room is the parrots room, the other is the cat room, then there is my husband's study and even the mud room is been used by the canaries). But, if they are only FIV positive, I'll keep them myself. Ay, ay, ay....

 

[Birdbabe]

Oh how sad, your doing what you can for them, Bless you.

 

[Anne & Gang]

poor little tykeys...thanks for trying to help them.

 

[lupe]

thanks for being such an animal lover Bibi...

 

[petiteoiseau]

We are leaving for the vet right now and I'll let you know what he says but both have been eating regularly and their eyes are looking 100 times better. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for them.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

You old softy. You complain, yet you know you can't resist helping them. Thank you for caring.

 

[petiteoiseau]

I know I am a softy, Lois, and that's why I rather not find out! Once you start feeding them, you get attached to them and worry and fret all the time. At least, I do and I really do not need any extra worries when it comes to animals! I am now adding L Lysine to all the canned food so the mother of these kittens gets it for her herpes but what you can do for them is so limited when they are ferals.

Anyway, the vet checked them out as much as he could because they are very young (maybe 10 days old, he says). He listened to their hearts (good), their lungs (clear - a good sign they don't have FeL), palpated their bellies (good) and observe their movements (normal). No blood work because they are way too small for it (have to come back in 2 - 3 weeks). But he says they are looking just fine, that their eyes are not looking bad at all (there was no more pus in them) and that I am already doing everything he would have recommended.

They continue to eat well and they are now using the bottle (got another one with a smaller nipple) which I start with but, when they let it go, I massage their bellies, rub their booties so they pee (vet said not to worry about poop that they only pee when they are so young because they absorb all the nutrients and leave hardly any solids left) and, after I let them crawl around a bit, give them a bit more with the syringe.

I am thinking of naming the little black girl Sheba (I wanted to call her Jurguilla -means a very small animal or girl who moves a lot- and didn't because my husband said that's a stupid name -this from a man who called a female kitten 'Kitty' - sheesh! I might still do it just to 'give it' to him -LOL), and the bigger brown tabby boy, Woody or Flicker (he has the most endearing habit of flicking his little ears constantly when he suckles -LOL)

 

[petiteoiseau]

Update:

They are eating three times as much as when I first found them on Sunday afternoon.
Woody pooped this morning (if Sheeba doesn't this pm, I will do the Vaseline/qtip).
Suckling much better.
Eyes are now wide open.
They started purring.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Don't you love kitten purrs. I used to put purring kittens on my shoulder and lightly rest my ear on them as a kid. Purrs are my favorite sound... Keep up the good work.

 

[petiteoiseau]

I purr for them and 'lick' their bodies (not really licking, I just grab their fur with my lips and pull a bit) and they start purring right back

But, despite my efforts (qtip/Vaseline massage, more water in the formula, some vegetable oil and, yesterday, some lactulose) one of them hasn't pooped yet. One of them did (night before last) and it was a nice size poop but there was only one and I don't know which one did it. Today, they are going to get oil, lactulose and cow's milk mixed with their watered down formula and, if there is still no 'good' poop from both of them, they will have to go to the vet for a enema. Their bellies don't feel bloated and they still have a good appetite and activity level but I still worry... I have to ask my daughter to come over and take a couple of pictures of them because they are the cutest little things! My husband is literally gaga over them. He is there for almost every feeding and holds one while I do the other one, chuckling to himself and making baby talk for them while he caresses them and massages their bellies. He has always been a cat man and kittens absolutely demolish all his manly ways

 

[Caza66]

What a star you are. Wish them best if luck.

 

[petiteoiseau]

Thank you, Carol. My children don't agree though When my grandchildren saw them, they were: "Are they for us, Nana?!" but the children were: "Aayyyy, maaaaa, more cats?"

 

[petiteoiseau]

YAAAYYYYYY SUCCESS!!!!! Wonderful poops this morning!!

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

I knew there was a reason why I thought Robert was so attractive! Never can resist a true cat man! And one that will babble baby talk to kittens is a gem of great price! He is a prize, Bibi!

And congrats on the poops!

 

[petiteoiseau]

I knew there was a reason why I thought Robert was so attractive! Never can resist a true cat man! And one that will babble baby talk to kittens is a gem of great price! He is a prize, Bibi!

And congrats on the poops!

Yeah, well, the 'prize' hasn't been killed, thrown out or exchanged yet so there must be some good in there -LOL.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Like I said, "great price"! (grumble, grumble, growl, growl!)

 

[petiteoiseau]

Kittens doing well. They are now beginning to play with each other and, this morning, the little girl (her name is Sheeba but I am always calling her Pipistrella -female bat in Italian- because her little face looks like the face of a bat) played with a toy for the first time. My daughter is coming this weekend for a 'refresher course' on my animals (she will be taking care of them when we go to the Niagara Falls and Toronto on Jul/3 and, although she has done them many times in the past, I always insist she comes for a morning and an evening session to make sure she remembers everything correctly) and I'll ask her to take pictures of them so you can see them.

On a sad note, Morena, their mother, died last night. When I opened the door to the backyard to let the dogs out, she was laying on the top step, did not move when the dogs jumped over her and was looking real bad so I brought her in wrapped in a towel, fixed a large cage for her, cleaned her eyes, put antibiotic drops in them, gave her two doses of Clavamox and two syringes of kitten milk but I actually had to hold her head up and massage her throat for her to swallow so I knew she was in a real bad way. I put her in a large carrier with a doggie bed inside and placed the carrier inside the cage (it's a dog crate in its largest size) but, by then, she started breathing like when they are going to die and, by the time my husband had gotten the SUV out (was behind the car so he had to move it and park it before he could move the SUV), she was dead. I don't know what happened to her, she couldn't have been more than two and seemed in good health... I don't think it was FIV or FeL because she was in good weight and fur and did not look sick prior this so I am thinking poison. And this made me so paranoid I was sitting on the steps for 2 hours waiting for all 'my' ferals to come and eat so I could make sure they were all there - they were, and only one looked a bit sick but she has had eye discharge for a while now so I don't think it's the same thing.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Sorry to hear about Morena. She could have been injured, anything could have happened.

Glad to hear the kittens are doing great, though.

 

[Marlene]