I wish I had normal kittens sometimes!

Well, I took the Pacmans back to the shelter early to make room for more needy critters.  Yesterday I brought home one kitten, Olive Oyl, as she was faring poorly at work.  Found her pretty much crashed in the morning when I went in.  Worked on her all day and got her... well not really stable, but responsive and no longer declining anyway.  Later that day another skinny, dehydrated, very sick kitten came in.  Brought them both home for the night.  When I got up for the 5 am feeding/check I found Olive dead.  The new girl, Sonic, is holding up surprisingly well.  She's a very homely little thing for sure.  She has a very weasle-y head shape, which I'm hoping is just due to lots of Siamese blood.  She also is a strange mish-mash of short and long hair.  The fur in front of her ears is as long as the ears are tall, and she has a very long haired mohawk all down her back.  But is otherwise a shorthaired kitten.  I think.  She actually reminds me of my friend's dog Henry, who is hairless except where he's got long hair.  Except his face is smashed, not elongated.  Still, this is not a happy resemblance!  Anyway, Sonic's respiratory infection makes it impossible for her to nurse properly, so I'm stuck doing the dribble-feeding with a syringe method.  I'm hoping the Clavamox kicks it soon and maybe she'll learn to take a bottle.

The Zelda litter is still in the Hello Kitty room, where they'll likely stay until they're ready.  They're out of the way back there, and doing well.  The one tortie is still the runt, half the size of the rest.  But all are feisty and plump, so I've kinda quit worrying about them. 

Romeo and Juliet bounced back great.  I think it was a pretty close call for them.  And I think it was due to depression, or something like it.  Not handling being away from their mom.  With them at my house and me being able to cuddle them more, I think that's what turned them around.  However, after going for so long without eating, then eating a ton of really rich food.... yeah... I'm sure I don't have to describe the "end results."  They get bathed a lot.  Juliet seems to be recovering faster than Romeo, but that's not surprising since he was in worse shape from the start.  I just hope they don't backslide now that I'm paying so much more attention to Sonic (thus less attention to them.)

More kittens

The Zelda litter is doing really well, although they are still not terribly reliable about using a litter box.  Not sure if it's all one kitten (I vote for Fi) or if several are the culprits.  Fi is still the runtiest little thing, she's hardly growing at all.  The Pacman kittens have caught and passed the Zelda kittens in growth.  Pacman isn't limping at all any more, and he and his sister could be ready for adoption as early as late next week.  They just need a little more weight.

A couple kittens we got in last weekend are doing poorly.  "Failure to thrive" for lack of a better term.  I brought them home tonight, but without anything obviously wrong with them I can't do anything more than supportive therapy in the form of fluids and force feeding.  Here's hoping Romeo and Juliet pull through.

Hello Kitty Room Re-purposing

Fi, the tortie runt in the Zelda litter has finally figured out what dry food is.  Oddly, she still will not eat canned out of a bowl and screams for it to be syringe fed to her.  I'm doing it twice a day, the rest of the time she has to feed herself one way or another!  I have gotten rid of the organ and bench in the Hello Kitty room, and moved the two-story kitten cage in there.  The Zelda kittens are in it, but limited to the top half only until they A) get better about the litter box and B) Fi can be trusted to find the food if she's not tripping over it.
 

Yesterday another one of Pacman's sisters was found as a stray.  She's in pretty good shape, just a little dehydrated and hungry.  Still, I brought her home to join her brother.  He is still being treated for pneumonia, but I think he's improving a little.  The two of them keep each other company, so they're warm and happy.  He's still eating well, even having to compete for food.  Actually, I think it makes him eat more, like he's scared she'll eat it all and he'll have to go hungry.  All his meds have had the opposite effect on his poop I expected to see.  Poor guy is constipated and I sometimes have to help massage it out.  It's not bad enough that I want to risk giving him yet another medication though.  The two of them got upgraded to the larger cage when the Zelda relocated to the Hello Kitty room.  They are still in my bedroom for the time being for nighttime checks and my peace of mind, but I hope to be able to move them to the HK room soon.

The Good News/Bad News Game

The Zelda kittens are all doing well, I have 3 of the 4 fully weaned.  The little calico runt is only eating out of a syringe.  I load it, begin feeding her, slowly begin moving the syringe into the bowl of food, slowly, it gets to the level of food.... and she looks up at me and starts screaming.

Pacman went to the vet again today.  The good news is he's much stronger and more active than before, he's gained a significant amount of weight (from .77 to .89 lbs) and he's weight-bearing on his bad leg.  The bad news is he had to go to the vet again today.  His breathing was rapid, and getting heavier as the day went on.  We discussed x-rays, and how so many times nothing shows up... but then again something may.  I was just about to decline, but in the end decided to do it.  I knew I wouldn't be able to rest without at least trying to see what was wrong.  The verdict?  Pneumonia.  So he got a shot of Baytril and a shot of Durapen tonight, he begins oral Baytril tomorrow, as well as continuing his oral Clavamox.  Poor kitten can't catch a break.  And he's still a bit dehydrated, so I need to continue his subcutaneous fluids, which I was kinda hoping we were about done with.

At the shelter, we have a very pregnant cat.  She looks like she swallowed a watermelon.  Poor cat has GOT to pop soon!  She was stretched out on her side today, really showing off the baby belly.  But when I tried to get a picture she hopped up in hopes of getting attention.

Anyway, Pacman still has a good appetite.  I gave him a bit of turkey lunchmeat a bit ago which he devoured, and of course he's eating his canned food well.  So we'll keep up the good fight for this little guy, but he's on shaky ground.