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Old November 6th, 2010, 08:15 PM
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Being paranoid- new foster kitty

So someone dropped a kitten off at my house the other day, it's a super long story that i'll having to explain tomorrow when I'm not half asleep

She's about 7-8 weeks old, no older than that. She looks really healthy and everything, but obviously from past events with my fosters like my one having you know, a 1 in billion heart defect... yeahh I'm a bit paranoid.

1. She's not eating now. The first full day I had her I tried to find her food at the shelter when I brought her to work with me, but we were all out.. so I gave her a can of A/D and she ate the entire can in a matter of 20 minutes which I totally wasn't expecting. Now she is slowly eating less and less. Wednesday is when she ate the full can, ate throughout the night and was doing great. Thursday- ehh was eating some more A/D until I got to the store to get kitten food, had some dry food and was fine. That night she started getting weird. Yesterday she didn't really want to eat at all no matter what I did. Today the only thing I could convince her to eat was some Tiki Cat which isn't even for kittens but the smelliest food I had on hand. Now she won't even touch it. I gave her some nutrical to hold her over.


2. She smells really bad... I gave her a bath earlier but she just doesn't smell like a "kitten".. she stinks and it's not like a gassy smell or something but she just is stinky. And her poo smells really bad compared to normal smelly poop.

3. She keeps going to the bathroom like a maniac.. both pooping and peeing. She was drinking a good (but normal) amount of water before as well but peed a puddle and is still peeing puddles. She's pooping alot too. It's not really diarrhea or any weird colors though.


The only thing medically I've done for her was on Wednesday I gave her the first FVRCP vaccine (by Schering-Plough), initial test for FIV/FeLV on the Idexx snap test (negative), gave her some pyrantel and put some Advantage Multi Kitten on her because she had really bad fleas and mites.


Am I overreacting? I was planning to bring her to work with me monday and have her looked at, but the vet that is in is basically a student and doesn't even have his license yet so I imagine his guess will be as good as mine? I think maybe have someone help me do a fecal test on her?
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Old November 7th, 2010, 01:56 AM
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Absolutely anything you can do to get this baby eating - do it. Top it with bit of parmesan cheese or teensy-tiny pinch of catnip, tiny bit of melted butter, warm the food, add warm water, add cooked meat, KMR or cat treats.

The smellyness could be whatever she was eating from before, could be her digestive system trying to cope w/changes, could be parasites. Anything odd on her skin / in her fur that you can see other than fleas/mites? Scratching/biting/hairloss? Is her fur greasy?

Is there not a senior vet in to oversee the student vet?

It's possible she is also reacting now against the vaccine/worming meds, they're an awful lot to handle for such tiny bodies. Hopefully this is all it is & she's raring to go tomorrow



oh and pics please
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Old November 7th, 2010, 08:34 AM
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Yeah it wasn't really a planned thing and it was sort of "take her or she's going back out into the cold".. and my computer was out for repairs at the time so I had alot going on at once and couldn't get on here.

She's awake now, but keeps falling back to sleep, but maybe she is just a sleepy baby?? She wasn't like how most kittens cry and cry and try to break out of their cages, she wasn't really like that except the first night.

Her fur wasn't greasy.. yesterday I gave her an oatmeal bath with dye-free natural shampoo and dried her off really good. I've been adding warm water to the food then heating it up to try and make it extra stinky.

The senior vet that is in tomorrow is only there for a limited amount of time and already has an exam booked from someone else and he's actually an equine vet but just helps the shelter out on the side... So the other vet just graduated recently and has his temp. license. I mean he's not bad or anything, but just hasn't had that much hands on experience.


Here she is when I had her at the shelter. I'll get better pics later lol. I actually ended up getting in a fight with the shelter over this.. because you guys know how I do fostering and everything.. well the new girl in charge didn't want to hear it. I brought kitty in and what I normally do is "surrender" the kitty(s) to the shelter under my name and put them out to foster under my name as well. So that way I can use all the services at the shelter for free like get the shots and fix and stuff and not have to pay out of pocket, and when kitty is ready for a new home I adopt him/her out under our contracts (to cover my own butt) and return the adoption fee to the shelter to reimburse them. Never had an issue with this! The new girl decides I "don't get special treatment just because I work there". So needless to say I got a bit upset
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Old November 7th, 2010, 06:48 PM
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Sooo no change since last night She just drank a tiny bit of KMR, wouldn't touch any food. I tried Avoderm crab and shrimp or something like that since it's so fancy and all but nope.. doesn't want anything to do with anything.

Also, she still SMELLS really bad!
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Old November 7th, 2010, 10:47 PM
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Kathryn maybe its just the stree of everything?? She looks older than 7 weeks to me? but its hard to tell. Poor thing. What was her environment before she came to you? was she with a litter outside? inside? maybe it was the bedding she was in? maybe a couple of baths and it will improve.

I imagine you have checked her ears and stuff?

My those are big looking paws? is she polydactal?

Thanks for being her kitty angel!!
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Old November 8th, 2010, 12:54 AM
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An adorable creature!
She's so so lovely <3

Once I found a really young kitten on a side walk at night. Not so far away there was a dog tracking the little guy so he started walking towards me and well I just picked him up and took him home.

For a couple of weeks or more even he smelled really bad. We cleaned him but then again the smell. One Sunday (weekend as usual) he wouldn't eat and vomited about 4 times so I started giving him water, next morning he was fine and he had his first foodie again but for a while he still was smelly now he's all grown up and not smelly at all.
His mom gave birth in an abandoned house semi finished so my guess is maybe what he ate or the place but it faded.

How about some baby food? Like plain chicken with chicken broth no vegetables at all...
Also in the pharmacy you can get those food dispensers that look like a syringe but without the needle and give her some baby food.

Blessings to you and that adorable baby.


Keep us updated please
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Old November 8th, 2010, 03:31 AM
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Oh my goodness!! look at that face She's adorable

Quote:
Originally Posted by kathryn View Post
She's awake now, but keeps falling back to sleep, but maybe she is just a sleepy baby?? She wasn't like how most kittens cry and cry and try to break out of their cages, she wasn't really like that except the first night.
Is she showing any other signs that might point to hypoglycemia? weakness, muscle twitching, dilated pupils

Or is the sleepiness just since the vaccine?

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Originally Posted by kathryn View Post
The new girl decides I "don't get special treatment just because I work there". So needless to say I got a bit upset
If the shelter gets the adoption fee what's the issue?
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Old November 8th, 2010, 06:35 AM
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Hey guys, I'm just about to leave for work now and am bringing her in to have the other girls look at her. She is not showing any other signs of "sickness". She is bright, alert, pink gums, keeping warm on the heating pad, eyes, ears nose look great... no more bugs on her since I gave her Advantage.. I gave her nutrical yesterday to make sure she didn't get hypoglycemic.. she seems fine otherwise.

She still isn't eating, drank a TINY bit more of KMR last night.. She still keeps going in the litter box!! Last night I heard her in there a couple times and she cried a bit. Is it possible to have a UTI this young? I think I'm going to see about putting her on a light dose of antibiotics and see maybe she has a bladder infection or something? She and her potty still REEAKKK. It woke me up last night when she pooed! I don't even know how she is still going when she hasn't eaten.

I'll either give you an update tonight or if I can hop on the shelter computer real quick today I'll let ya know!


Oh and no polydactyl, just big feet :P
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Old November 8th, 2010, 08:22 AM
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Sounds to me like she may have a really bad case of giardia or other worm infestation. But the only one who will be able to tell you for sure is your vet. Maybe take her to a "real" vet if you are uncomfortable with the newbie one at your low cost clinic.
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Old November 8th, 2010, 06:24 PM
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So the fecal was negative.. she's still bright, alert and her gums are nice and pink. We put her on Albon and Metronidazole. She's not really that dehydrated either and her temp is 100.0... what the heck is going on? I guess she just has a stomach bug?

Her poop was black in some spots and brighter yellow in some spots, but otherwise normal but SMELLY!! Yuck! I've never smelled anything so gross come from a kitten.

Still not eating though. Tried KMR again, A/D again... oh I did make the mistake of leaving the A/D can opened on my counter and turned around and my cats ate it all so I guess we aren't trying that again tonight.


She's back in the litter box AGAIN! I put a brand new clean one in there. She's meowing and seems uncomfortable. I don't think she went. Otherwise normal?? Will probably just bring her back with me again on Wednesday to bug the vet that will be in then because he's really nice.
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Old November 8th, 2010, 07:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kathryn View Post
She's back in the litter box AGAIN! I put a brand new clean one in there. She's meowing and seems uncomfortable. I don't think she went.
Any possibility of an intestinal blockage or an issue with something she ingested? I wonder if an x-ray would show anything.
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Old November 8th, 2010, 08:20 PM
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Originally Posted by sugarcatmom View Post
Any possibility of an intestinal blockage or an issue with something she ingested? I wonder if an x-ray would show anything.
Unless she got into something prior to coming to me she's been either in my sigh 100% of the time or has been in her crate.. I really don't have anything around that she could have eaten to get blocked because I'm pretty careful as you know with my other cats they aren't all too bright

I had the student vet palpitate her abdomen and everything was fine. It's not that I think he's not a good vet or anything, but he is new so of course you have to get used to them. I don't feel any sort of blockage either. The vet that is in Wednesday works in private practice and I'm going to get a second opinion from him.... if he wants to do an x-ray I'll be willing to do that.


I'm thinking of giving her some lactulose (that's our new favourite medicine at the shelter lol)... maybe to flush her system out. We've had very good luck with it on kitties with potty problems. Maybe she has a chunk of poo "stuck" and without giving her horrible diarrhea I can flush her out a bit?


I got her to eat a TINY TINY TINY bit of canned salmon just now... she mostly at the gravy though. Now she went back to sleep.
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Old November 9th, 2010, 12:01 PM
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As I was reading over your posts, I too thought "Giardia", but maybe she has "Coccidia"...was the fecal checked for that? Can certainly cause stinky feces, diarrhea and occasionally blood in stool.

Certainly sounds like some sort of digestive upset if it's not parasites. Maybe probiotics would help? Hope you can find out sort what's causing this.
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Old November 9th, 2010, 01:16 PM
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We only ran an inhouse fecal flotation because those are free but the vet didn't see anything.


Good news though, the food I left her in cage this morning was mostly eaten when I just got home.. so I just nuked a plate of A/D, high quality kitten canned food and some leftover tuna (people food) in the microwave, added some water and she's loving it. I think she had a bad stomach bug and I loaded her up on meds and she's doing fabulous now. I gave her some warm SubQ fluids (lactated ringers) to make up for the time she hasn't eaten.

I'll try giving her nutrical later as well. I gave her a ton of karosyrup yesterday and it seems like everything kicked in and she is up and about now

I'll let you guys know what's going on. I have Geneflora at my house if anyone thinks that will help.
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Old November 9th, 2010, 01:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kathryn View Post
We only ran an inhouse fecal flotation because those are free but the vet didn't see anything.
You should know with all the fecals you've done that not everything shows up all the time. They can hide quite well. They can not show up one day and show up the next in spades. I think to be on the safe side you should send a sample away to have it tested. JMO It isn't that expensive to have a fecal sent out.
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Old November 9th, 2010, 05:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 14+kitties View Post
You should know with all the fecals you've done that not everything shows up all the time. They can hide quite well. They can not show up one day and show up the next in spades. I think to be on the safe side you should send a sample away to have it tested. JMO It isn't that expensive to have a fecal sent out.
Yeah, I agree. I'm trying to be conservative with $$ because I just recently lost my health insurance and need to put money aside for my medications and whatnot. If her stomach problems don't clear up I'm going to put forth the $20 to send it out to Antech. She is going really good right now! She's eating slowly but a fair amount and right now she is sitting on the sofa with me playing with a toy mouse.

I'll get pictures here ASAP... I have to reinstall all the software on my computer so I don't have anyway to get pictures from my camera on here right now I promise she is super cute!
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Old November 14th, 2010, 12:35 AM
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How's the cutie pie doing?

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Her poop was black in some spots and brighter yellow in some spots, but otherwise normal but SMELLY!! Yuck! I've never smelled anything so gross come from a kitten.

From The Scoop on Poop -Black tarry poop is usually a sign of partially digested blood (ulcers etc). Yellow poop can be caused by Giardia, or red blood cells breaking down in the liver.

A Giardia bacterial infection would also cause the major stinkies.
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Old November 14th, 2010, 01:44 PM
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lovely lady

Both you and the little cutie, lovely that is! I'm sort of in the middle of something similar, though my boy is 8 months. Sounds like you're on the right track and hopefully she continues to rebound! It's a horrible feeling even knowing you're doing the best you can those litter box cries are heart wrenching. You are an angel, keep your spirits high, Cosby (my pudding pooper) and I are sending good thoughts!
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Old November 15th, 2010, 02:24 AM
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Both you and the little cutie, lovely that is! I'm sort of in the middle of something similar, though my boy is 8 months. Sounds like you're on the right track and hopefully she continues to rebound! It's a horrible feeling even knowing you're doing the best you can those litter box cries are heart wrenching. You are an angel, keep your spirits high, Cosby (my pudding pooper) and I are sending good thoughts!
Best luck to you and your cutie as well and to Kat's cats <3
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