US Ex-pat w. new stray needs help - kitty won't eat! :-(

Originally Posted by xocats

Oh poor Slooty...
Has your vet seen her recently?
Did she have a diagnosis other than ring worm?
Is the brown color blood from them scratching?
Did you ask about an infection that would require antibiotics?

Here is an image I found of a kitty with ring worm....
Does it look similar to Slooty's infection?
http://www.herbal-treatments.com.au/...ian_before.jpg

Click to expand...

Good gracious that poor kitten looks horrible. Slooty doesn't look anything like that, her skin isn't swollen in the least - she's just got rapidly expanding bald spots and we spotted some new ones on her feet when we were wiping her down with the antifungals tonight.

As far as we know, the brown color is not from blood. We can't find any open sores on her, the change in her eye stain color is a mystery to us.

Besides the balding, she is a perfectly healthy kitten.

She also has a dark patch under her chin - it looked like dirt originally but nothing comes off when we wipe at it. An extremely close-up picture follows:



This is our last post for today. I pray that someone more knowledgeable than I comes along whilst we sleep. Thank you everyone, we do the best we can and your help is invaluable!!!

EDITED

Having visited the first link you provided, this picture of an adult cat with localised ringworm is identical to what Slooty is experiencing in 5 or 8 places on her face and paws right now:

Originally Posted by Shad

Tuesday Evening Update

First of all, thank you for the wonderful suggestion jcat, I'll begin working on it as soon as this post goes up.

The health status of the two kittens hasn't changed. Luna is still a bedbug with a small appetite and Slooty is still a fungus-faced tornado.

As promised, I have some pictures for you all to examine. They're not particularly cute though, this is more for you to see their faces up close and possibly offer us advice or tips on how we should be treating this.

First is Luna, she's got some dark reddish/brownish stuff around her eyes and nose. Additionally, the skin on her nose is a little strange looking. What do you think? More ringworm?

And here are four pictures of Slooty the Funguskat from different angles. Please pay particular attention to her eyebrow and ear areas, as those are where she's having the worst trouble.

and



and



and



What do you all think?

Thank you so much!

Click to expand...

I'm wondering if she may be having an allergic reaction to the eye meds, or maybe rubbing her paws across her face, excessively grooming. I have seen kittens with bad colds rub bald patches from cleaning their eyes so much. What exactly was it you are treating their eyes with? Human eye antibiotics? The rims of her eyes look very inflamed and droopy to me...like they have been rubbed too much. Poor babies. I wish they could get over this and enjoy their new life even more!

Is the dark stuff under her chin acne i wonder?

I wish we could all fly our own vets over to let them have a closer look

Originally Posted by Rosiemac

Is the dark stuff under her chin acne i wonder?

Click to expand...

Susan...I think that you are on to something....
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...en-US%26sa%3DX

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...en-US%26sa%3DX

If you can get stainless steel bowls...
that would be a good start I think.
I would not use plastic nor would I use glass, unless you are sure it is lead free.

Originally Posted by Rosiemac

Is the dark stuff under her chin acne i wonder?

I wish we could all fly our own vets over to let them have a closer look

Click to expand...

Acne was the first thing I thought of as well.

If you can change from plastic bowls and/or placemats and wash the bowls well after each feeding (use glass or stainless steel), that should help. To help it heal you can dilute some hydrogen peroxide and clean her chin with that every day.

I know that if it is ringworm, it will take several weeks to get rid of, and it will likely get worse before it gets better, but I think they should see the vet in case it is some kind of acne or infection that may be more serious than ringworm.

Metal bowls for their food and water will help if it is acne on the chin. Please keep us posted. You and doing wonderfully with these kittens! They never would have made it through the last weeks without your hard work and care

Under their chin it's acne certainly. They should only eat from metal, glass or ceramic bowls or plates. But it will take time to clear up. My vet advised me to "scratch" with my nails the little black acne crusts then wash daily with a dilution of Chlorexidine ( I don't know exactly what's that in english, remember... I am in Portugal).

Do the bald spots have little white flecks as if it was dandruff? When one of my cats had ring worm she had some white flecks.

I think it's most likely that the baldspot are a form of ringworm. What is the treatment prescribed by the vet? My vet advised 2 treatments for ringworm. I f the area is small, treat locally aplying fungal ointment, cream etc ( be careful no to put in their eyes). But if the area is big, he recommended taking oral antifungic because applying ointment and cream in large areas might be toxic.

The yellowish areas seems to me as fur which is dirty ( white cats gets dirty very easy around the eyes). The persian breaders might help you there as they take extra care in cleaning their persians eyes and fur. I know they have special products for that or at least tips...

The brownish stuff might still be a bit of conjunctivitis?

The nose of Luna either is still dirty or.. it's the beginning of ringworm.

Are you still giving eyedrops? That could cause the brownish and/or yellowish stuff around the eyes. Not necessarily a bad reaction to the eyedrops... it's just that some of the medication will leak back out of the eye, and as it dries may show pigment.

The eyes do look a bit swollen and irritated.

The black stuff under the chin gets my vote for feline acne too. Spooky, Cleo, Maggie and Lola have all suffered from it at different times, and their chins looked almost identical (Spooky and Lola both suffered from abcesses, along with the black gunk, which required systemic antibiotics.) All four of mine have turned out to be caused by food allergies, which cleared up when their diets were changed. Spooky was allergic to red dyes (this was years ago when red dyes were commonly used in dry foods.) Cleo & Lola were allergic to Purina One dry food, and their acne cleared up after it was eliminated from their diet (Maggie's also improved, but didn't disappear completely.) Maggie still occasionally has flare-ups, but she does better if I wash the Corelle plates in super hot water with a small amount of bleach, and rinse well. I sometimes slack off on it, and she'll inevitably have a flare up. I clean her chin with an extremely dilute Chlorhexidine Gluconate (Hibiclens) surgical scrub, which has a residual antimicrobial action (cleared with, and approved by my vet.)

Wednesday Night Update

Luna
Luna is still lazing about the house and not eating. We put wet tuna kitten food in front of her, the best food we have, and she'll begin purring loudly but not eat it. If I take a little tiny bit on my finger and wipe her mouth with it she'll lick her chops and then nibble at the food, but never takes more than 1 or 2 mouthfuls at most. We've been giving her goat's milk so at least *something* is going down.

Nothing's coming out either - we've watched her slowly walk to the litterbox several times and hump up, only to fart a few times and then walk away. She is peeing though.

Yesterday she was noticeably congested, not sneezing or coughing but her deep breaths were a bit wheezy. We "steamed" them both before bed and she seems a little better today.

Slooty
Slooty is still frisky and playing all over the house, which is good, but of course her ringworm continues. Her eyes are a bit puffy and watery as you all noticed. Truth be told, her eyes are better now than they ever were before. She is no longer on the antibiotic eyedrops, and doesn't have the gooey discharge she did when we got her. Those reddish stains are also gone today, back to the usual light yellow - no idea what that was all about.

You all were spot-on with the feline acne call, the picture I provided might have come from a Veterinary course - literally a "textbook case."

We're sad she has ringworm, and are treating her as best we can, but are pleased that other than that she's a healthy, active kitten with a large appetite. Slooty has also noticeably grown since we took her in ~2 weeks ago - Luna is virtually the same size but Slooty is much larger, so that's good.

Vet Visit
We called the Vet this afternoon for advice about Luna's continued lack of appetite, and also that she seemed to have an URI. The Vet asked us to go ahead and bring them both in - she also wanted to see the state of Slooty's ringworm.

Luna at the Vet
Luna got a cocktail of shots for her URI, and the Vet carefully felt her intestinal tract to make sure she didn't have any blockage or constipation that might explain her gas. All clear on that. After her shots poor little Luna began throwing up white foamy liquid - the same thing she did after her last round of shots. She's resting angrily but comfortably on the bed right now.

I helped hold Luna during the shots and she managed to latch on to my thumb pretty hard during one of them. One of her incisors broke the skin in a pinhole sized cut and the Vet treated me with Betadine and antiseptic. My fiancee is quite concerned that I may have contracted something serious and has insisted I post a picture of the spot, so here you go:



Slooty at the Vet
Slooty received 2 shots for her ringworm, but the Vet was otherwise very pleased with her recent growth. She noted her watery eyes and pink lids but didn't recommend we do anything.

Final Thoughts for this Evening
I'll be honest, we're not the least bit confident in our Vet anymore. Her standard response the past few days was that Luna had "eaten too much." It was only upon her developing a slight wheeze yesterday evening that she decided to have us bring Luna in, at which point poor Luna was assaulted with a battery of shots.

I cannot overemphasize the poor quality of animal care in this country. Luna isn't fading away on us, but her continued poor health and our impotence to do much about it is extremely frustrating for us both. If I didn't have this forum as an outlet for my concerns I'd probably have pulled all my hair out by now.

I browse through the other threads pondering the myriad other maladies you kind folks are experiencing with your pets, and it's really hard not to become both jealous and depressed. 90% of the medical problems being discussed on this site & successfully treated by western Vets would be terminal for pets here in China. Please never concern yourselves with the cost of medical care for your little ones, there are many of us who would readily pay any price for such luxuries.

I'm sorry this post is a little on the sad / depressed side, we're just really frustrated right now...

Andrew, believe me and i think i can speak for the others also. If i could fly my vet out there today to have a look at Luna i really would, because you and your fiance are both life savers to these little ones when so many would have given up

I can imagine how depressing this must be for you both, but i know both you won't give up on them because they've latched onto your heart strings already

Is there no other vets around by you at all?

Looking at your hand the wounds seem clean and closed up so it looks ok, but if theres any swelling or pain i would go to the doctor, but it looks fine from what i can see?.

And don't be jealous, because when those two angels get better we'll be jealous of you!

Andrew have you seen this link?

http://www.scaashanghai.org/veterinarian_services.shtml

Originally Posted by Rosiemac

Andrew have you seen this link?

http://www.scaashanghai.org/veterinarian_services.shtml

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Susan....that is a great site.
That organization is an oasis in a very dry desert.

I hope that you can call their vet services for a telephone consult Andrew.
Maybe you can have them take a look at this thead...
it would give them a good background about Slooty and Luna.

Those are great suggestions. I've written the director briefly explaining our situation and asking if they have any contacts in our city. We're a prefectural capital and the hub of NE China... so if any city besides Shanghai and Beijing has such a place, it should be us.

Here's hopin'...

We're off to bed, see you all tomorrow.

Exellent!. Fingers are crossed at this end for you all

Here is hoping they will contact you right away.
Good night.
Luna and Slooty

I really hope they are able to help you, at least over the phone with advice and instruction if nothing else.

You are doing a wonderful job, so please don't get discouraged. Those little kittens have been through hell, but they have done nothing but get better since you found them. One of these days you will look and see nothing but two beautiful healthy cats and it will be hard to believe they had so many issues!

Ok, this is the last post for tonight, I swear it.

We were cleaning Luna's butt just now and became concerned with the - for lack of a better word - "pointiness" of her anus.

It protudes, not too far, but it's noticeable. She's the one who hasn't had anything but gas or very tiny BM's lately.

Should we be directly concerned with the status of our kitten's butt? Or this is a residual symptom of greater matters - namely her URI and lack of appetite?

Do not click this link if you don't want to see a very high-detail close-up of a cat's butt.

On the left you have the "butt-on" (head-on) view, on the right from the side showing how it is protruding a little.

Her butt is very sensitive and she does not like us cleaning it in the least, although with her being sick it needs to be done and of course we try to be as gentle as possible.

Ok, bedtime, for real, promise.

G'night all you guardian angels out there...

I am wondering if she had an infection in her anal area or scent sacs.
Do you have a way to trim back all the fur?
It's really difficult to tell what is going on from the pictures.
Are the dark dots her scent sac openings?

Does the China Agricultural University branch in your city have a vet school?
There has to be a way to get your kitties get the care they need.

Lei you could be right there?.

This is going to sound awful but can you smell anything nasty around that area Andrew?, because from what i've read here in the past about this situation that's one of the signs?.