kandas-adventures

Life and Death with Panleukopenia

 In the midst of my starting school bus driver training, the Humane Society called.  A mother cat and her 1 week old kittens needed a quiet home to grow and gain weight in until they were ready for adoption.

There were 6 kittens, and I had the fun of watching them open their eyes over a period of days.  All was well until one little kitten started wandering from the nest.  The mother cat would retrieve him, and almost instantly he would struggle to leave again, and after awhile the mother cat stopped going after him.  He'd end up in a corner, alone.  He was far too young to be wandering.  Something wasn't right.

I got a high-walled box that the kittens couldn't crawl out of, but the mother cat didn't like it and started relocating the kittens herself, leaving some on the windowsill, others on the counter.  About this time I started noticing little puddles of diarrhea and vomit.  Then the blood.

In the parking lot of the Humane Society the tests were administered.  It's done in the car so that the clinic is not contaminated.

Panleukopenia.  

Last fall I had two kittens with Panleuk that I nursed through it, and they survived.   I didn't write about it on this blog, but an article was written on them in the Seattle Humane Society Magazine.  Click on the photo to enlarge it if you want to read the story.

Panleukopenia is fatal to 95% of the kittens under two months old who get it.  It used to be that any kitten diagnosed with it at a shelter was immediately euthanized.  A new vet at the Humane Society had changed protocols last year thanks to volunteers like me who were willing to take on the 24 hour intensive care needed to save the 5% who might recover.

Sadly this little one went downhill fast.  The wandering from the nest was his first sign, likely an inflammation of the brain causing erratic behavior.

Despite frequent administration of sub-q fluids (pictured above), there was no return from the precipice for this one.  He died early in the morning as I waited for the Humane Society on-call vet to call me back.  I was livid that he had not been euthanized the night before when I took him in and asked them to.  His eyes were already sunken in their sockets at that point.  Watching him suffer in the end was very difficult.

His 5 sisters all had milder cases and grew and thrived.  Their mother cat, named "Skinny-mum" because she was just bones and fur, started gaining weight.  I would have had them another few weeks, but then a worse case came along, so off they went to another foster home and I took in the next batch....

TWO mother cats and EIGHT kittens, Panleukopenia positive.  Had I not taken them the kittens would have been euthanized.  7 of these kittens were older (3 weeks instead of 1 week), so they had a little more weight on them.  A single kitten was about 10 days old, possibly the survivor of another litter.  The Humane Society knew that if there was any chance for them, I was it.

I got them late on a Saturday night.  I checked on them throughout the night.  At 6am I discovered one of the kittens dead.  From 9am to Noon I volunteered at a nearby nature center, came home for "lunch" but instead took 2 more kittens directly to the Humane Society where I demanded they be euthanized immediately.  I wasn't going to be sent away this time, I knew the signs of impending death, and these two were suffering.  The clinic was busy and short staffed, so got to assist with the fatal injections.  I had no time to grieve, I went straight back to the nature center and put on a happy face and fulfilled my volunteer commitment, assisting the park ranger in leading a hike through the woods for a raucous group of 6 year olds and their parents.

Monday I was giving fluids and supplementary syringe feeds to the remaining kittens through the night and between lessons at bus driving school.  One mother cat was very attentive, while the other was more content to hang out on the windowsill where the kittens wouldn't bother her.

Tuesday, after bus driving school, I took another kitten in for euthanasia.  It was a different vet on duty that day and we had an argument over my my opinion versus their professional expertise.  I get it that the shelter wants to keep their numbers in a certain range to remain classified as a "no kill" shelter, and that every animal deserves a chance, but I was not going to watch another kitten suffer when there was no hope of recovery.  I was ready to hold the kitten as it was injected, as I had two days ago with the others, but they sent me out.  The tech who was to do the deed seemed hesitant, and I had to wonder if they just hooked the kitten up to fluids and put it in a kennel instead of putting it down right then and there, since they questioned "my opinion."  Either way, death was coming.  

The next week was touch and go (and lots of laundry with all the diarrhea, and sleepless nights), but in the end 4 of the 8 kittens survived.

Before I knew it they were big and active and ready to go.  They were adopted quickly, as were their mothers with the magical orange eyes.

One of them was even featured on a promotional flier!

We're now in quarantine for 6 months, as panleukopenia can persist in the environment for months.  How I would love to have an industrial style stainless steel bathroom that I could hose down and deeply disinfect, but for now all I can do is bleach the floors, walls, and cat bedding, and wait.

I should come out of quarantine just in time for kitten season next spring.

 

 

Kittens grow up and go bye-bye

In the 5 years I've been fostering kittens the same cycle has repeated itself.  Kittens arrive, sometimes newly born, other times already a few weeks along in life.  I pour my love into them, get up in the night with them, bathe them and litter train them, feed them and medicate them, and continually clean up after them.  

Hours are spent cuddling and nuzzling them.  My heart melts as they kiss each other, and their entire bodies vibrate as they purr with happiness.  They are such sensual little creatures, so full of affection.

Time passes and the warm little blobs that slept all the time open their eyes and start exploring.  Their eyes open gradually over a 24 hour period, and it is such fun to witness them squinting and trying to comprehend this new world.

The day they leave the nest, trouble begins.  I have to "babyproof" well, because they will chew/eat/choke on just about anything, even before they have teeth.

This time I was lucky to have a mother cat, so she did all the work of feeding and bottom cleaning for me.  As if she wasn't exhausted enough with these four, the Humane Society called to tell me that they had 2 motherless kittens to add in to the litter...

As is often the case with older kittens I receive, these were infested with parasites and had eyes full of puss and discharge.  I kept them separate and bottle fed them for 48 hours until the antibiotics and eye drops had knocked back some of the infection, then introduced them to the mama cat.

Being the good mother cat that she is, the new kittens were accepted immediately, although she spent hours grooming them so that they would "smell right," and not like the baby shampoo I'd been using to clean the diarrhea out of their fur. 

Then there were 6 kittens at the milk bar.

About once a week I would put them outside on the back deck in an enclosure while I deep cleaned the bathroom where they usually lived.  

All of a sudden the kittens were 9 weeks old, 2 pounds a piece, and full of energy.

The kittens were climbing the walls, literally.  Nothing is safe from their exploration, and needle sharp teeth chew on anything they can get their mouths around.  They are great fun to watch as they leap and pounce, fuzz their tails, and spring sideways with their backs arched.

Poor mama cat was getting tired of this.  She went off to be spayed, then I tried to keep her separate from her kittens so they wouldn't disturb her incision.  I managed to keep them apart for 3 days, until mama cat's swollen mammary glands had her howling to be reunited with the little suckers.  I tried to limit their time at the milk bar for a gradual weaning, but wasn't very successful.

A few days before I was to leave for my 15 day trip to the midwest all 6 kittens were transferred to another foster home.  Within days they'd have their surgeries and go out for adoption.  Mama cat was given more freedom in our home, and after a few hours sniffing around trying to find her kittens, she spent the night on the bed with us, where she gratefully cuddled and purred.  As the days passed, poor mama cat's mammary glands swelled again and became rock hard.  So much for weaning the kittens.

Two hours before leaving for the airport I dropped her off at the Humane Society.  I was almost afraid they'd take one look at those giant teats of hers and hold her in the back room for the next set of motherless kittens to come in the door, but they promised she would go out for adoption that day.  It was heartbreaking to leave her, even more so than parting with kittens, because I didn't know how long she'd wait in the shelter for a home.  Some cats wait months, especially during kitten season.

As I traveled through the midwest I watched the website obsessively, and nearly cried when I saw the photos of her.  She looked so sad in that cage, wondering where I was and when I was coming back for her.  Four days later I was delighted to see the update to her page, announcing her adoption.

 

 

As sad as it is to love and let go, I know it is important to return the kittens and cats to the shelter for adoption, so that I can be available for the next ones in need.  Soon enough the cycle will begin again.

I'm a Feline Doula

On Easter Sunday we got an email that the shelter had a pregnant cat in need of a foster home in which to give birth.  That very afternoon we retrieved her, and the wait began.

She was a very petite little kitty with a belly full of kittens.  Because she was such a tiny thing, we named her "Mini-mum."  It was hard to know how long it would be before she gave birth, and every night I got up multiple times to "check."  Every time I had to leave the house for more than an hour at a time, I wondered, "will there be kittens when I return home?"

She got wider and wider as the days passed.  About a week after she came to live with us she began coughing.  She developed a full-blown URI and her coughing fits were quite violent, as if she'd just smoked a pack of cigarettes.  She started weeping fluid out her back end, which is a normal sign of impending birth, but then after a few days it changed color, which was not a good sign.  I took her to the clinic and they sent us home with antibiotics and said if she didn't give birth within 36 hours they'd get her in to surgery.  I think they may have done it sooner, but they were slammed with surgical cases and couldn't get to her right away.

When we got back from the clinic it was past the dinner hour, so I left Mini-mum alone and made dinner.  Just before 9pm I went back to our bathroom, where we kept her separated from our other cats, and found her pacing.  I sat down on the floor and she immediately curled up in my lap and started kneading, purring, and contracting.  She kept looking up at me with her green eyes and was so content that I didn't dare move her, even though my legs were falling asleep.

Her contractions soon became earnest pushing, and I lifted up her back end to take a look and saw a tiny triangle nose and whisker pads bulging out.  I was relieved when she hopped out of my lap and made a beeline toward the assortment of cardboard boxes I had laid out for her to choose from.   I ran downstairs and put the heat pad in the microwave and boiled some water.  

Four minutes later I arrived back in the bathroom just in time to watch "Little Buff" slide out.  Mini-mum had chosen the smallest box, the one I had planned to use as the "warming box" where I'd place the kittens temporarily while she attended to the next kitten born.  "Little Buff" was born at 10:40pm on Friday, April 12th, and Mini-mum had barely licked the sac from his face and gulped down the placenta when she began pushing and popped out "Ginger" at 10:50pm.  Above is 11 minute old "Little Buff" on the warming pad while Mini-mum is busy licking newborn "Ginger."

Mini-mum had obviously gone through the birth process before and knew just what to do, and those kittens slid out almost effortlessly.  She never cried out or even panted.  So different from the birth of my two daughters!

Speaking of daughters, I called the girls in shortly after 11pm and asked if they wanted to hang around to watch the next kitten born.  Just then kitten #2's placenta slid out and Mini-mum immediately began chewing it.  Both of my daughters backed out of the bathroom retching and gagging, saying they'd seen enough and had no interest in seeing anymore.  I'd warned them ahead of time about the placenta-eating, but must admit it was pretty jarring to witness.

At 11:50pm a dark gray tabby was born with a tail that turned back on itself, so I named her "U-Turn."  By 12:50pm when "Big Buff" was born weighing 15 grams more than his siblings, poor Mini-mum was exhausted.  She barely lifted her head to look at him.  I took the other 3 kittens away quickly and pushed "Big Buff" toward her head, hoping she'd start licking him dry.  She gave a few licks and I finished the job, rubbing him with a towel.  The placenta came but she made no effort to deal with it, so after awhile I cut the cord and picked up the bloody glob and flushed it down the toilet.  Above you can see Mini-mum just before I picked her up to replace the bedding with fresh, dry padding.  Her mouth is open and she is struggling to breathe, since she is still congested with the URI.  At 3am I headed to bed, wondering if there would be any more kittens coming.

The next morning there were still only four kittens and I was pretty sure that Mini-mum was finished.  In the photo above, L to R: Little Buff, U-Turn, Ginger, and Big Buff.  This was my first litter of newborn foster kittens WITH a mama cat, so it was a relief for me not to have to be bottle feeding every 2 hours.  All I'd have to do was weigh them every 12 hours and make sure they were gaining weight, and change the bedding frequently.  As it turned out, Mini-mum didn't groom them for almost a week because she couldn't breathe well, so for the first week I had to clean the poop off of them every few hours.

Mini-mum continued to have violent coughing episodes, and every time she coughed she's expel post-natal blood out the back end, which was particularly icky when she was sitting in my lap.  I quickly learned to grab a towel before sitting down.  Every time I went into the bathroom to check on things I'd find splatters of blood all over the floor, which was alarming until I remembered why.

More kitten pictures in the weeks ahead for you to look forward to!

 

Happy Halloween!

We always like to "trick" the trick or treaters (and their parents) by giving out kittens instead of candy. Being a Humane Society Foster Parent, I always seem to have a litter of kittens on hand for this little trick each Halloween.  Some of the parents look truly horror-stricken, until we take the kitten back and offer the candy.

May Kittens!

When I dropped Kangaroo and Bently off at the shelter to begin their journey to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah, there were 3 new kittens waiting for me.  I had a busy day planned and wasn't ready to jump back on the "every 3 hours" feeding schedule, so I asked to come back the next day to get them.  The kittens went home with someone else for the night, and when I arrived the next day a new litter of 4 kittens had just come in.

So here they are: Luke, Pipsqueak, Sam, and Kodia.

They have been growing fast.  I have been busy weaning them, potty-training, bathing them, and doing lots of laundry. 

They have been busy playing, purring, wrestling, eating, pooping, and napping.

Bentley and Kangaroo go to Utah

The Humane Society asked me to make a video and shoot some photos of the kittens to send to rescue groups and animal sanctuaries, hoping the kittens would receive a placement at one of them.  The kittens may need costly medical care as they grow, and therefore they are considered unadoptable.  It is unrealistic to assume a potential adopter would be amenable to paying for such care, which could include specialized surgeries costing thousands of dollars.  The chances that an adopter would abandon them or euthanize them were too high.

Here's the video I made:

 

Within a few days of posting the video on Youtube and having the Humane Society share the link, I got a call from the Humane Society that Best Friends, a sanctuary in Kenab, Utah, had accepted them!  The only problem, finding a volunteer to transport them.  After a few more weeks time, another volunteer offered to drive them the 1100 miles to Utah in conjunction with her vacation to the Grand Canyon.  I said good-bye to Bentley and Kangaroo last Friday, and within 24 hours I was given 4 bottle-feeding baby kittens.  I miss Bently and Roo even though I am so busy with the new kittens.  

Kangaroo is much smaller than her brother Bentley.

Kangaroo watches deer grazing in our neighbor's yard.

Kangaroo mid-meow while sitting on the perch in our outdoor cat enclosure.

Bentley suns himself on our back deck (secure in the new cat enclosure so the kitties can get some fresh air and sunshine).

Goodbye sweet kitties.  I'm so happy you are going to be together in life.  Enjoy that sunshine in Utah!

Here's a link to the Facebook album about their journey to Utah, made by the volunteer who delivered them to the sanctuary.

Deformed Kittens

Our first odd-eyed kitten!  One green eye, one blue eye!  And some other special features as well.... 
I've received 2 new foster kittens, about 7 weeks old. Both kittens have front legs with bone and joint deformities. The larger boy kitten is able to stand on his bent front legs, but his tiny sister has almost no control of her front legs, and is learning to hop along on her hind legs. They haven't had any kind of diagnostic screening (the Humane Society clinic has no ultrasound or X-ray equipment). In petting them I can feel what is missing or deformed: bones, a shoulder blade, ligaments, muscles. I don't know what the future holds for them.  Despite their deformities, they are typical rolly-polly kittens -- scooting along after toys, cuddling together, and purring loudly when you pick them up.  SO much love from them!  As loving as they are, the Humane Society will be challenged to find the right home for these two, who may have big vet bills as they get older.  As they increase in weight, walking on their bent joints instead of their feet may cause sores and skin infections.

The mother cat didn't reject them, despite their obvious flaws.  And whoever "owned" them didn't kill them when they were first born, as is often done with deformed kittens.  I'll admit it, when I first received them I wondered if keeping the little girl alive was the most humane thing to do.  She struggles with everything, from eating to relieving herself.  She has no control over her front paws, and thus can't wash her face the way cats do, or sharpen her claws.   She can flap her front legs like chicken wings, but they don't go the way her brain tells them to, and certainly don't function like real legs.  The paws dangle lifelessly at odd angles off the end of the elbow joint, and the one leg is often twisted backwards behind her back.  It wasn't long, though, before her loud purr convinced me that she needed to be given a chance at life.

The boy kitten has less deformity and better mobility.  He'll be fine, although he also struggles with grooming.  He has a very thick "double coat," which will need constant human attention.

The staff vets see no point in splinting to try to correct their deformities.  It may not be the same issue, but this story that my husband found online about a similar case, and it's resolution through splinting, looked promising.  They are growing so fast right now, that it seems a shame to miss a possible "window of opportunity" for therapeutic intervention, if it is an option.  Human babies with club feet can have their joints corrected, if done early enough.  

Sometimes it's hard for me not to be an armchair veterinarian as far as the Humane Society's vet department is concerned, especially given some of the cases I've had where the vets made mistakes.  I know that the Humane Soceity has a very limited budget, no diagnostic equipment, and is overwhelmed with a full spay/nueter surgery schedule as well as dealing with horrific abuse cases.  It is often easiest for them to take a "wait and see" approach.  Another complicating factor is that there have been multiple vets, and the treatment can be totally different (and completely opposite) depending on which vet is there that day.  

We'll see what happens with these two.  For now all I can do is pour my love into them, as well as massage their little joints, and wash their faces for them.

 

Stellar and JoJo Kitten Update

We have two foster kittens now, and after almost a week of hissing and fighting, they have bonded.  You may remember that Stellar (the white & black one) came to us as the most traumatized kitten I've ever encountered.  From day one I'd asked the Humane Society for another kitten to help socialize her.  As the weeks went on and Stellar continued to hide and cower, I grew increasingly concerned.  She wasn't agressive, instead running to hide, and then going limp when picked up.  I spent hours a day petting her, holding her, and gently brushing that thick fur, but she was always tense.

JoJo joined us recently and is full of affection, loves to be held, and purrs loudly while kneading with his large paws.  Now that the initial animosity between them is passed, I'm hoping Stellar takes some cues from him on how to purr and relish human touch.

Unfortunately JoJo came down with a nasty case of calicivirus, which meant he and his little friend Stellar had to be quarantined in our bathroom. His nose and mouth became horribly ulcerated with weeping, bloody sores. I'm doing lots of laundry, cleaning, and medicating. I have never seen a kitten sneeze out so much mucus! I'm scraping it off the walls, washing it off the floors, and changing my clothes every time I hold him, because he'd splatter me with so much snot. Then of course the medication gave them diarrhea, which is another fun experience.

But aren't they just adorable little balls of fluff?

First Foster Kitten of 2012

The call came on Saturday.  Someone had found a kitten in the snow by their garage.  It was feral and scared of people.  It's mother was likey in the process of relocating the litter and got spooked and dropped it.

Like so many of the kittens I receive, it was filthy, so first up was a warm bath.  The vet had had trouble determining the gender given all the fur, and first marked the chart as "male," but it's obvious now that this is a little girl.  This kitten has the longest fur of any kitten I've seen, so it was especially difficult to get clean, and had lots of knotty mats in the fur.  I had to cut some of it off from around her backside, which was caked with dried tapeworms.  She is a "high-maintenance" kitty, the kind that needs daily grooming from her person.

She is probably 5 or 6 weeks old.  She has enromous round eyes and is terrified of everything.  Instead of purring, she hisses and hides.  When I pick her up she either goes stiff, or limp, and her heart races.  I'm giving her a couple of high-calorie kitten milk bottles a day, because believe it or not beneath all that fur she is terribly emaciated.  The foster-care coordinator at the shelter named her "Stellar."  I hope she grows into the name.

It's OK, little girl.  You're going to come to like it here, and one day before you know it, you'll be purring.

Kittens Again

I am happy to report that we have kittens again!  Last Sunday, 9/11, the Humane Society called, desperate for someone to take these 3 week old feral kittens.  The black and white one is a runt.  All 3 came complete with fleas, eye infections, and disdended abdomens full of parasites.  Luckily there hasn't been any diarrhea yet, but I'm sure once the worming medicine kicks in, the fun will really begin.  Flea bath -- and look at that poor swollen belly!   She was terribly constipated.  The kittens are still at the age where they depend on mama cat to help them pass their stool, and without her stimulation, they can't go on their own.  I'm not sure how long they'd been without their mama, and who may have fed them without realizing that they needed help on the other end as well.  It had obviously been some time.  Over the next few days they all passed HUGE amounts of poop, with my help, of course.  Sorry, no photos of that fun process.  Just rest assured that it did not involve my tongue like a real mama cat uses!

They go perfectly with my early fall decor!  This is when I first got them, before I even brought them into the house, and they were still covered with canned food from the shelter and dirt from their life in the wild.  This is their official "before" photo from the day I got them.

And here's our little runt 4 days later, all clean and healthy (mostly).  How fun it is to have babies again!