And now it's a bottle baby kitten... [12/21 And again...]

[wodesorel]

Baby sounds more chesty today, but it's like it's loosening up. We picked up a compounded antibiotic to try. Gah I hate compounding pharmacies. Arm and a leg to crush a tablet and stick it in karo syrup. Really.

Black kitten gained 20 grams (3/4 ounce) overnight. So fat!

[wodesorel]

Updates!

Sumo's tumor is a polyp! They are so rare our vet has never seen one before. The pathologist report was one of the most thorough I've seen (I'm betting our vet gave a lot of details and the photo along with it knowing her), and it said they are benign, usually caused by trauma, and that by removing all of the polyp, the ulcers in the area will heal on their own and he has a good prognosis. He has diarrhea at the moment, probably a side effect of the anesthesia, but he is in great spirits.

Picture of old man Merlin (grey cat) down below. He's the one that bent his tail in half and is in kidney failure. Looks like heck but is still kicking around.

White baby is still improving. He sounds really congested still but is now sitting up and moving more! His eyes have also opened. Black baby is a potato with hair. She's so heavy she's having trouble moving around, 260 grams and climbing. She's a week ahead of average by weight!

Fran surprised the heck out of me tonight, for the first time in a month she's wanted out of her (left open) two-story cage. I moved a chair over and out she hopped! She wandered the dining room, followed me to the kitchen, and even ate in the back room before deciding she wanted to rest and hopped back up on the chair by herself. I had wrapped her tail earlier today (trick I learned last time she was hospitalized) to keep her clean as she seems to have a stomach bug (or the cancer has progressed that far, vet visit tomorrow) and it seemed like it helped act as a rudder to keep her stable as the lymphoma has been in her spine for about two months now. Really hoping this isn't the last hurrah before she tanks. I hadn't thought originally she'd make it to her 10th birthday on Sunday but she still seems so good!

[wodesorel]

13 days old! First two are from yesterday. The difference 24 hours makes at this age!

[wodesorel]

Oh! And Franny is doing great after we changed her meds around. Looks like it is an opportunistic infection. Everything is back to solid and she's been eating well today. I always thought that if I had to medicate a cat this severely that I'd go straight to humane euthanasia, and if it was any other cat I very well may have have. She is a peach when it comes to meds. Never gets frightened or goosey afterwards. Never once has tried to bite or scratch or do anything but make funny faces over the taste. In two moments she's right back to normal. Small blessings.

She was not amused by the vet visit. I actually took these pictures when the vet was out of the room to prove to her that Franny was okay. The moment they opened the door she was in the fetal position and looked miserable. If I had seen a cat in only that shape I'd be very worried!

[GotButterflies]

Love most of your updates...the positive ones!

Your pictures have sooo much PURRsonality to them!! I enjoy them so much! Thank you for taking us on your rescue journey!! I love it! I'm so glad that everyone is doing so well!!

[wodesorel]

Thank you. I could talk about my furbabies all day. This is my happy place!

White kitten still sounds awful when he moves. Will be checking in with the vet as it's been a week on meds. He was up and walking a few steps tonight and unless something drastically changes soon I think he also has Cerebellar Hypoplasia. We'll have to wait another week or so to know for sure. He was totally enjoying belly tickles tonight. I have this thing for belly tickles y'all, no joke. I could do it to a kitten for hours. The little feets and the kicking and the rolling and the play bites. OMG I'm a kitten addict when it comes to that, and he finally did it for me!! He also looked right at me and I was squealing like an idiot.

(CH is a birth defect in cats caused by an underdeveloped cerebellum, usually caused by mom having an infection or fever while pregnant. In his case it was probably when mom was vaccinated. I'm sick of it. We thought she was much much farther along and the vet said there was pretty much no risk from her having been vaccinated when she was because of that. Had we a better estimate of conception we would have known there was a higher risk. CH causes severe difficulties with balance, and intention tremors. (Severe shakes with purposeful movement.) It does not hurt the cat or cause them to be sick like inner ear damage does, they're just special needs because they have trouble controlling their movements. He doesn't seem super bad, he rarely rolls and mostly just shakes. It doesn't normally get worse either, and rarely will improve with age. It could be some other form of brain damage, but given the vaccine and how he moves and how young it's showing up, CH is most likely. )

Black kitten is a full week ahead on weight! I wear a size 9 shoe. She is HUGE. Still not moving much.

[fandt94]

I love these posts! I am a furr baby lover myself so this thread has been awesome even with all the ups and downs....you obviously love them all and it shows. And the different personalities you have !!

[wodesorel]

Thank you! It is never a dull day around here.

And with that:

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
Tripp has a rodent ulcer.
One week without a vet visit. Just one!!!

[GotButterflies]

I'm sorry I have missed these posts! My my...you are busy!! Your hands are super full!! One week...heck...I think you mean just a couple of days without a vet visit would be nice!! Love the pictures!! Sending positive thoughts your way!!

[wodesorel]

Thank you!

It is a rodent ulcer, 3 weeks of pred and we'll reassess then. She's hoping it may just be fleas that triggered it. (Usually it's an allergic reaction, but he's 13 and it's his first so we aren't grasping at straws yet.)

Babies are holding in there. Not sure but momma may be drying up. Going to kick Runtskies out of one of the towers (she's fine, just gets stuck in a routine) and clean it up to bring the babies here and will start supplementing. At least I won't have to poop them!

[GotButterflies]

Oh my goodness!! Too cute...but they will never be as cute as Bug is

Love the first one - it's almost as though the white one has this look on his face like not again mom, already had a bath today...

[wodesorel]

Sorry for sort of being a ghost around here lately. My dad passed away last month, we were estranged but it's still been a rollercoaster, especially since I don't really know his side of the family.

Then a few weeks ago we lost Merlin, who was my first cat. I normally do okay when it happens because it happens, but the relief vet talked us into thinking he was okay and stable and that he didn't need immediate care, but by the next morning it was clear we were in big trouble and rushed him to the ER. When the send-out labwork from the day before came back we found out he was in severely critical condition then and had needed immediate critical care. By the time he got proper treatment it was just too late and he died in the middle of the night in the ER. We didn't even have time to get there. If that wasn't bad enough, our regular vet ghosted us for weeks about what happened and then decided to dump us as clients yesterday out of the blue. I've been alternating between crying and being raging mad for a while now.

Kittens are still doing great though. We got the white one into our other vet (back to four hour vet visits, weee) who was able to determine that whatever it is, it's in his upper airway and it's likely a growth or restriction of some sort. That's better news as he's not likely to just drop over dead. She has to wait until he's bigger for xrays and scoping to figure out where it's at and what it is because right now it's all just too tiny. She did say even once she diagnoses what it is she likely won't be the one capable of fixing it. We're going to look into going to the vet who took over when my favorite vet retired as he considered her the golden surgery wonder child. Otherwise we may hit up the exotics vet in Akron (he works on tiny things and zoo animals so he should have the skills) or maybe the larger vet hospitals if we need to, though none of the vets we have liked actually liked sending patients there.

Tripp ended up clearing the rodent ulcer and then broke with some sort of infection because his lower lymph nodes are swollen. Otherwise he checks out okay and the vet (mostly) ruled out cancer which was a relief.

It's hard to stay in a bad mood though when you have these little monsters waiting to attack whenever you walk into the bathroom. Although you should see my poor legs!! All they want to do is climb up and play in our laps, but they have horrible balance so it looks like cats threw themselves on me. It's been 11 years since I've had a lap kittens, and it's been divine having two fuzzies at once!

[Hermiesguardian]

I'm so sorry for all your losses. Especially at the same time. The kitties are so cute.

[curlysister]

I am sorry to hear of your bad news.

And oh my lord those kittens!! The little white paws on the Tuxedo kitten, and the black pirate patch over the other one's right eye!! I can't handle the cuteness!!

[JoeHermits]

Stay strong and stay positive! Things’ll get better soon.

Good luck.


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