wow so it's been a long time since the last time I posted but things have been a little crazy this summer. I've been having a great time. Joined a soccer league, got another cat, work, play and well house stuff. where do I start with the update... well here goes.
THE CATS!!!
so I have been fostering cats for the Friends Of The Manchester Animal Shelter and let me tell you... it's HARD
!!! I first had 3 super cute little kittens which were just unfortunate souls of horrid owners so they were underweight as was momma kitty so she went off to one foster home and the kittens came to mine so that they could all recover and gain weight. they did well after being taught to eat and fed good food and quickly were eating on their own and gaining weight. They were a breeze... a little cold when they came to me but no problems that a little good food, a warm bed and some simple antibiotics couldn't handle. They were ready to go back to the shelter with only 8 oz left to gain when I had them get their distemper at the shelter. When I walked in the door I saw this poor SUPER HUGE PREGNANT Mother Cat named Dixie.
She looked so horridly uncomfortable being so HUGE but she was beautiful and a cuddler. SHe was about ready to deliver and well, they couldn't find a foster home for her so lucky me... I was given the opportunity??? to take her home with me. I knew nothing about birthing cats... Humans yes... cats... NO CLUE!! but I chose to take them home with the reassurance from Ken the shelter manager that the mom does it all by herself and takes care of the kittens. All I have to do is make sure she has a quiet room, clean bed, litter pan and plenty of food and water and she'll do the rest. SEEMED EASY.... BOY WAS I WRONG!!! Well Mom got an upper respiratory infection day 2 at my house and started sneezing and drooling... I not knowing, thought....Hmmm this must be labor her drooling... this is how they explained it to me... but when she started sneezing and having a snotty nose I knew and she was started on antibiotics... problem number ONE!. So 3 days after getting her settled she had her babies all EIGHT of them!!! they were cute but one was already dead when I got home. PROBLEM #2. but the rest seemed to be doing ok. suckling all but one but I just plugged him in on a nipple and he seemed to be ok... well I was wrong... he stopped suckling... and the next day he unfortunately was gone too. Problem #3. well over hte next couple days they did well. she was getting better and the kittens seemed to be doing ok. but one didn't seem so good... got the upper respiratory infection and with little notice or signs also went to kitty heaven. Problem #4. over the next couple weeks the last 5 kittens just weren't gaining weight. they couldn't breathe and eat so they chose one over the other. so I started bottle feeding as it was quicker and they got more in with less work. Of course... there are risks... and the orange one which I was planning on keeping got aspiration pneumonia and died. that was a hard one for me Problem #5. So the vet taught me how to tube feed the last 4 kittens that were no longer eating at all off of mom. they did great with it. hated it but tolerated it. they were all on antibiotics now and also occasional albuterol to open their lungs which I had to administer to them via plastic ziplock bag. then all of a sudden 2 of the kittens started to have bloating in their bellies... they died one at a time despite the efforts of the vet... problems #6 and #7. There were only 2 cats left but one had an eye infection due to the upper respiratory infection so she was getting eye ointment... I finally names them... chaos and cruiser. girl and boy respectively. chaos had the bad eye which I later found out may be permanantly scarred Problem #8. well in tube feeding the babies one evening my neighbor knocked on the window so I went to open the door not thinking about the fact that I was still holding a kitten and well Dixie didnt' like that and flew out of the room at my cats and in my grasping of her rear end turned on me and bit my hand... luckily she was up to date on shots and didn't get to my cats but it bought me 10 days of diarrhea on antibiotics for myself. Problem #9. Well the kittens continued to be tube fed until they were 4 weeks and I was able to convince them to slurp from a bowl... they didn't know how to lap... just slurp but they got it up fine... on to second stage formula... equivalent to rice cereal for kits. this is a bit thicker. they did ok but now had diarrhea pretty often on my FLOORS!!! problem #10. no potty training from mom... she didn't know how to show them and they didn't get it!!! I had to do it so every feeding they would eat and I would put them in the litter box... but they chose to pee and poop after I left the room and preferred the floor. well they did gain weight and finally got to using the litter box and went back to the shelter to be adopted. Mom and the babies all got fixed and were put up for adoption. Chaos still has some problems with her eye but the vet thinks that it may work itself out and they are just cute as heck. I have to fumigate the room and bleach a bunch of areas but despite the problems I don't regret it however....... I'm taking a break for now from fostering!!! for some reason I can't seem to add those pics so I will add them to the next post.
