Seeking information and advice

Hello, I made an account on here specifically for what I am about to talk about. It has a sad ending. I am currently living in a place that has feral cats, and kinda a bunch of them. They would come around but would run away when you walk toward them. One cat (that has kittens here now and stays inside and outside now) started coming around and we would feed her leftovers for a while. Then one more kitty came around, but there was something wrong with one of its eyes, and it looked sick. We didn't see that kitty for a few days after that. After that one more kitty came around. So, there were 3 kittys, and we began putting food outside, which also brought more of the ferals that we couldn't catch. We realized the first cat was pregnant so we didn't see much of her for a while. The other 2 began staying and coming inside also. A fourth cat did come and stay around for a while, he would knead blankets and he seemed sad or lethargic. But would get mad and take food in an instant. He was the first cat to leave. One day we came back from being out all day and we never saw him again. So for a few weeks we had a routine of the feeding and letting the other 2 cats in. We wanted to care for them and do what we could, So we got the 2nd kitty(who was very small)  spayed and she stayed inside nights and days for that week or so and then a week or so after her we got the 3rd neutered along with a respitory vaccine. These two cats also had always had a sort of cough and sneeze and would move their noses up when doing so. Well, we began letting these 2 stay inside for the nights. One day the little kitty seemed very tired and lethargic. She began to not want to move, eat, drink or play. We had given them sentry ear miticide on Saturday. She and the 3rd kitty died yesterday morning, over night (which would be Wednesday). The 3rd kitty was bigger, and had a swollen belly most of the time. We tried to give them food and water by putting it in their mouth and with an ear dropper. The 3rd kitty didn't show symptoms until Monday or Tuesday. We left them outside Tuesday night because we thought they might die and that it would be worse to prolong it. It was just a sudden surprise. We had also give the last 3 a dewormer 3 or so days before the 4th kitty disapperared. Does anyone have any thoughts on what happened? If I left out anything I will post it under here. Thank you.

Having them fixed and vet-checked was the right thing to do but it sounds like they may have already been sick.  They may have had upper respiratory infections - were their eyes gummy?  An antibiotic will help clear this up.

When cats have to live on their own, they often fight illnesses like these.   This is why we urge people to spay and neuter.  It keeps many problems away - some diseases are spread by mating and fighting.  Two of these are FELV and FIV.

If you decide to bring another cat in, please have them checked for FELV and FIV first.  The vet can use a SNAP test - the results come back pretty quickly.  Talk to the vet about the results and you can make a decision about keeping the cat.

I am so sorry you and the kitties had to go through this.  Thank you so much for helping them.  They died knowing someone cared about them.

That is just horrible! It sounds like they all contracted some kind of deadly virus, or maybe one of the medicines? Did you give the same to all the cats that died or did they receive different ones? My heart goes out to you, you tried to help and then this happened. Bless you for trying to help. I hope someone can help you figure it out so it doesn't happen again. You might want to start by talking to a vet, they have helped me in the past figure out what killed a cat, they see a lot! My thoughts and prayers are with you, I hope you have a better future.

The little kitties eye did have something wrong with it when we first saw her and also the few days before she died. She looked healthy in between those times. It was her left eye those last few days. It would have something in it every now and then. It would be gooey and crust. When I got her spayed I could have given her those vaccines. The FELV and FIV and also an upper respiratory distemper. I didn't get her any of those because she was so small. The boy cat when I got him neutered I got him the upper respiratory vaccine along with it.  Thank you for you words. It was a hard week to go through.

To Di and Bob

Thank you. I am thinking of taking the momma cat to a vet. All we had given them was a sentry dewormer (once) and sentry ear miticide (twice). We also thought they had ear mites. Because of the crusty coffee ground like stuff in their ears. I bought an ear cleaner which is what time using for the momma cat now. We read that olive oil can be used as a cleaner also so we put that in her ears yesterday to clean it. Also in her kittens ears. They are shaking their heads and scratching at their ears also. We have ordered something called Yellow Dock Root Extract for a home remedy. Also almond oil and vitamin e. For a second home remedy.

That does sound like they may have had an upper respiratory infection. Like a cold in humans, it can weaken your system. Going through the surgeries may have been too much for them. Before you try home remedies for now, make sure the vet sees mama and the kits, at least once. Ear mites are a pain but with a good treatment, they are pretty easy to dispatch. I can't speak to the usefulness of treatments you mentioned; maybe someone else can.

If the cats are already weak, home remedies may not be enough to help

Be careful with the OTC dewormers, for some reason the OTC ones for cats seem to have more bad reactions. Also vets tend to have pretty cheap deworming options (not as cheap as OTC, but its not too expensive either).

Their deaths were likely a combination of everything going on, not blaming the dewormer, but I have heard of some bad reactions to them in the past. 

Also, vaccines only work if the cat is not already infected... feral kitties can come in with all kinds of fun issues.

Ive been battling URI's in the community cats at work all summer... the elderly kitty started off with it, got him an antibiotic shot, a week later he's great but the newest feral has a URI, elderly kitty gets it from him again because I can't catch feral quickly enough, neighbors cat gets URI. And they all pass it back and forth from one to another. Total nightmare. X-( Im going to try a new way to sneak them lysine supplements soon because few of them eat the lysine treats.

To Ondine

I guess we were looking at the home remedies because she was still weening. And also for different options. And price.

I did make an appointment for this afternoon for the momma. Her ears do need to be looked at and so they can look and see how she is.

The cough/sneeze the two had wasn't too bad it seemed. The bigger of the two had it more, but it still didn't seem that bad. I had got him the upper respiratory vaccine because I thought he could handle it along with the neuter because of his weight.

I understand.  But until you know for sure what the problem is, home remedies may not help.  The shot you got for the kitty may not have worked on what he had - or it may have already been too late.  We'll probably never know.

I do want to say I am not blaming you in any way.  You did your best with this kitty!  But I do like to get a professional's input before I try anything.

I will say that adding L-lysine to their wet food does help boost their own immune systems, so I might try that, along with whatever the vet recommends.  An upper respiratory infection can easily be cleared up with antibiotics.  If your kitty has anything else, it may take something else to fix him up.

The vet can take a culture to help determine exactly what bacteria you are dealing with and thus target the antibiotic.

We did get an antibiotic. and an otibiotic ointment for the ears. I hope it helps. He couldn't definitely find ear mites, maybe I cleaned her ears better than I thought. But they were red and inflamed.

The bigger kitty didn't start showing symptoms until a day or so before he died. And my boyfriend was the one that was saying something about it. I couldn't tell. I didn't start noticing until the night it happened when they were still inside. The little kitty was sick for about 4 or 5 days. And she was a really small kitty.

Well, it sounds like you are doing all you can.  Honestly, sometimes that is what can be so discouraging.

Please keep up the good work.  My prayers are with your efforts with Mama Cat.

Thank you. She seems more active.

We miss the others.