Anyway... the story thus far - *warning - you might want to go make yourself a coffee and find a relaxing place to read - this is sure to be a long one!*.
So, I got a call from the RSPCA on Tuesday 25th October. At the time of the call, I was putting my two youngest cats, Addy and Candy (find their stories here and here) in the car to have their F3 vaccinations. It was the first time with their new vet here in Canberra and I must say I was very impressed. She made them feed very comfortable and gave them big cuddles before the poking and prodding began. It was the most caring vet experience they have had.
Anyway, I let it go to voicemail and checked things out after I left the vets. They had 4 kittens, 3 weeks old that had come in with no mother cat. They also had a lactating female that had come in with no kittens so they had put them all together.
So on Wednesday 26th October, I picked up Josie and her 4 Kittens - Cali, Tash, Jessica and Mister Beefy (we named them ourselves).
Josie and her Pussy Cats - Tash (front), Cali, Jessica and Mr Beefy
Josie was very good with the kittens, considering she wasn't their birth mother. She would clean them and deal with their toileting (which is really gross to deal with so very happy she did that!). Unfortunately, she wasn't interested enough in them to really feed them properly. They were not able to gain weight on what they were getting when Josie was willing to feed. Josie really wanted to get away from them sometimes so we were told to give them a bottle feed once a day as a boost and go from there.
Josie was a little sneezy when we got her home - I thought maybe from the kitten fluff getting up her nose all the time - that stuff even makes me sneeze! So we didn't worry about that too much. We gave the kittens one extra feed on the first day, but they didn't gain weight. We gave them two feeds the next day, and they did gain weight which was wonderful. We realised fairly quickly that they were still very hungry though. They cried constantly and wouldn't settle. So on the third day (Friday), I gave them feeds every 4 hours. Finally, they were able to settle between feeds and gain some weight. It calmed Josie too as she would get very upset at her little ones being hungry. Thankfully, Josie seemed most chilled out at night - and would happily lay down for the bubs to suckle during the night which saved us the graveyard shift. The bubs were happily gaining weight - though it was always a little up and down.
Josie continued to become more sniffly, and I mentioned this the following Tuesday when I brought them in for a little checkup and to get more supplies. By this stage I was able to report the bubs being fully litter trained, which was great! Unfortunately, not weaned though. They all got checked out and it was obvious Josie was quite sniffly, and the little ones had some eye discharge but nothing concerning enough to treat. I had to observe them for any signs of worsening over the next 2 days. It was also at this checkup it became obvious just how ravenous the little ones still were between feeds. It is very difficult to feed 4 kittens when they are rioting over their food. They will happily bite the face of their sibling if it gets them off the bottle so they can have it - ferrals! So I decided that I would go to 3 hourly feeds instead.
Feeding the ravenous little Tash
The night after their visit back to the RSPCA the flueyness seemed to be in control, but that night I spotted blood in the stool of Josie (don't worry that's the only mention of "stool"). After a very late night (or should I say, early morning) looking on the internet at what could be the cause, I called the RSPCA the next morning. I had to take the "sample" for testing - which having as many cats as we have - I knew to keep! I was up to my neck in deadlines, and the work was just rolling in with 3 hourly feeds in amongst everything. I was a teensy bit stressy pants by this stage. Thankfully, my partner in crime came to the rescue. He had, unfortunately, come down with viral Tonsilitis (his 5th time since moving to Canberra - but always previously bacterial) and been ordered home for 2 days. So he was able to drop off the sample for me. While he was at it, he took some photos of the cats up for adoption for their website which I'm sure he'll blog about at some stage. It was found that poor Josie had parasites and had to be medicated. We've had this situation before with my little Addy, so we knew the drill. We also knew how horrible the medication is to give - as it makes them foam at the mouth. It's a perfectly normal response for them but very distressing, both for the cat and medicator. Thankfully hubby was able to pick up the medication the next day.
That night (Thursday), we noticed one of the little ones - Cali - had become more sniffly than normal with a lot of discharge from her nose. She seemed perfectly fine otherwise though, so we kept a close eye on her at each feed, and cleaned her face with a tissue run under warm water. Very suddenly, on Friday evening, little Cali went from a bubbly little playful kitten to a kitten with very blocked airways, unable to breathe properly, not able to feed properly because of the blockage and very lethargic. We were worried we might not have her gorgeous little personality around by morning. The only thing I could think of to do that would be safe for one so small, was something that always helps me when I've got a dreaded sinus infection - steam inhalation. I usually do it with a peppermint, lemon and eucalyptus oil mix in with the steam, but these are toxic to cats as little kitten livers (and in fact grown cats livers too) can't cope with filtering these out. So I boiled up some water, cuddled Cali up to my chest, put a blanket over the both of us and breathed in the steam with her. It did help to clear things a little, and I could give her a tiny bit of milk, but she quickly became blocked up again. I wasn't prepared to leave this one to chance. I had been up past 4am the two previous nights, so a third round wasn't going to kill me - not doing may have proven otherwise for her, however. After very little sleep during the week it was difficult to keep my eyes open, I did drift off a couple of times, but Cali was safe in my arms - wrapped up in a blanket. By 1am and 3 inhalation sessions she seemed to be more lively, and breathing better. I put her back in with mum and siblings, and waited 2 hours to check on her. At 3am she was sleeping happily, in a little kitten pile with her siblings, so I called it a night and went to bed.
Cali - Our little fighter.
Next morning we were thankfully able to get the on-call vet in at the RSPCA to see to Cali and her siblings. She was much more lively than the night before, and had some milk in the morning but still very blocked up and wheezy. The vet gave her some fluids and started her on antibiotics - and Tash as well as she was a little worse than before. Thankfully mum had come good on that same morning but we got some meds just in case she got worse again (cat flu is viral so the meds don't actually kill the virus but they can help with any secondary infections)
So now were are doing 3 hourly feeds, meds twice a day for Cali and Tash, and meds once a day for Josie - possibly 2 lots of meds if she gets sniffly again. Ahhh the joys of fostering!! It's a good thing they are so gorgeous and cuddly.
Meanwhile, our landlord has been brilliant. She is not only fine with us fostering here, but she has brought food for all the cats (including ours), and a brilliant little climbing and scratching structure for the kittens and Josie (we had to throw ours out when we moved as it was broken). We put this in the bathroom with them yesterday, and can't wait to see them playing and clambering all over it. Oh and she also thinks we should keep them! But with 9 cats we would never be able to leave the ACT... maybe that's her cunning plan.
Oh and just to top all the craziness off.. Josie started showing the first tiny signs of going on heat last night (nothing you would notice unless you had experienced it!). We will both need straightjackets come Christmas!
Until next time... xx
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