Remember Peachy Keen, my gorgeous dilute tortie longhaired diva kitty??? Her bloodwork the end of Sept was GREAT for an AIDS kitty, but very late one Sunday evening, two weeks ago, she started having seizures and I rushed her to the emergency vet...she was seizing there too and I had to make the decision to have her humanely euthanized....I stayed with her of course...she's at peace now....hard to take as my beloved papillon (a pound rescue), Mickey Mouse, had to be euthanized on Sept 28th due to inoperable cancer and his asthma was worsening alot....
Then the following started happening four days after Peachy's death...read on....
My three six months old foster kittens began to act sick....high fevers and dehydrated...all cats are indoors, may I add....I'd named them Graham, Marshmallow, and Hershey Bar....had had them for maybe two months without a single sneeze....
They got subcutaneous fluids and meds at the vet and were seemingly normal in 24 hrs..the vet thought they were just coming down with a respiratory infection....
Two of my adult cats began sneezing....
Hershey Bar crashed again on me on Tuesday evening..another trip to the vet ER.....fluids, etc...he took a turn even worse the next a.m. and had to be euthanized.....
I brainstormed with multiple vets...friends, and anyone and everyone on the situation and what to do for the remaining kittens...
My precious, two remaining foster kittens, Graham and Marshmallow, were humanely euthanized yesterday evening....their virus, some type of feline distemper, had gone farther in damaging them..they were vomitting alot and had just begun to pass blood...drooling alot...so pathetic....I couldn't let the monster devouring their little bodies torment them further.....I'd been giving them subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics....but their conditions took a rapid downturn by yesterday evening...they were absorbing 100ml of subcutaneous fluids at an alarming rate...
I've NEVER dealt with something so awful as the virus they had...looking back in chronological time, it had to be that something rode back with me from the emergency vet, maybe on the carrier I'd carried Peachy Keen in, the night she had to be euthanzied..the incubation time would've been correct....
So, I had to dig a double grave and bury two more little friends...I was with them at the end of their lives...these kittens LOVED to put their whole faces into my hand...odd trait, so I made sure this was the last sensation they had and they could smell my scent....
They were so precious and had come so far in their socializing....were feral four month olds when I got them....especially Graham who had been the wildest by far and ended up the most tame....he'd pass up canned cat food, begging me to pick him up and carry him around...absolutely enchanting personality...and Marshmallow was so gentle and sweet....Hershey Bar was put down on Wednesday morning...he and I were still making friends....he was a lovely kitten also...a spotted brown tabby....
I worked with FOUR vet clinics, trying everything possible to save them....the vets were very surprised at the strength of this virus....there were NO new kitties brought into my place...something rode in....and got to my kittens...
So please, let this be a lesson to you....please booster your kitties vaccines if they are overdue....or what happened to my little friends could devastate your life too...my vaccines had expired and I STUPIDLY kept forgetting to buy new ones....STUPID!!!!!
I've never, in all my decades of animal handling, had to deal with something this hideous....
Today, I bought booster vaccines and will be vaccinating the remaining kitties tomorrow...per vet's instructions....hope the monster virus doesn't kill more of them....burying five friends since Sept 28 is beyond description...my dog, Mickey Mouse had inoperable cancer and asthma, my gorgeous kitty, Peachy Keen had a brain tumor related to her FIV disease that she came here with, then the kittens who got the enteritis virus from my taking Peach to be put to sleep....my brain is numb right now....
Please pray for my kitties and for me,
Ellen
Then the following started happening four days after Peachy's death...read on....
My three six months old foster kittens began to act sick....high fevers and dehydrated...all cats are indoors, may I add....I'd named them Graham, Marshmallow, and Hershey Bar....had had them for maybe two months without a single sneeze....
They got subcutaneous fluids and meds at the vet and were seemingly normal in 24 hrs..the vet thought they were just coming down with a respiratory infection....
Two of my adult cats began sneezing....
Hershey Bar crashed again on me on Tuesday evening..another trip to the vet ER.....fluids, etc...he took a turn even worse the next a.m. and had to be euthanized.....
I brainstormed with multiple vets...friends, and anyone and everyone on the situation and what to do for the remaining kittens...
My precious, two remaining foster kittens, Graham and Marshmallow, were humanely euthanized yesterday evening....their virus, some type of feline distemper, had gone farther in damaging them..they were vomitting alot and had just begun to pass blood...drooling alot...so pathetic....I couldn't let the monster devouring their little bodies torment them further.....I'd been giving them subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics....but their conditions took a rapid downturn by yesterday evening...they were absorbing 100ml of subcutaneous fluids at an alarming rate...
I've NEVER dealt with something so awful as the virus they had...looking back in chronological time, it had to be that something rode back with me from the emergency vet, maybe on the carrier I'd carried Peachy Keen in, the night she had to be euthanzied..the incubation time would've been correct....
So, I had to dig a double grave and bury two more little friends...I was with them at the end of their lives...these kittens LOVED to put their whole faces into my hand...odd trait, so I made sure this was the last sensation they had and they could smell my scent....
They were so precious and had come so far in their socializing....were feral four month olds when I got them....especially Graham who had been the wildest by far and ended up the most tame....he'd pass up canned cat food, begging me to pick him up and carry him around...absolutely enchanting personality...and Marshmallow was so gentle and sweet....Hershey Bar was put down on Wednesday morning...he and I were still making friends....he was a lovely kitten also...a spotted brown tabby....
I worked with FOUR vet clinics, trying everything possible to save them....the vets were very surprised at the strength of this virus....there were NO new kitties brought into my place...something rode in....and got to my kittens...
So please, let this be a lesson to you....please booster your kitties vaccines if they are overdue....or what happened to my little friends could devastate your life too...my vaccines had expired and I STUPIDLY kept forgetting to buy new ones....STUPID!!!!!
I've never, in all my decades of animal handling, had to deal with something this hideous....
Today, I bought booster vaccines and will be vaccinating the remaining kitties tomorrow...per vet's instructions....hope the monster virus doesn't kill more of them....burying five friends since Sept 28 is beyond description...my dog, Mickey Mouse had inoperable cancer and asthma, my gorgeous kitty, Peachy Keen had a brain tumor related to her FIV disease that she came here with, then the kittens who got the enteritis virus from my taking Peach to be put to sleep....my brain is numb right now....
Please pray for my kitties and for me,
Ellen
