Adoption and Fostering...What a mess...

I thought I would reach out for some encouragement or wisdom... trying to keep my head up. 

This past January I had to put down my baby girl. Chessie was 15 and her kidneys had enough. I had her since she was 4 weeks old and the last year with her was pretty rough.

When we felt ready to start looking for another cat we decided to foster and maybe keep a baby and mom if we fell in love. As I was shopping for foster supplies we ran into a cat and decided to adopt her. So we adopted April 10th and picked up a momma and 5 babies on April 14th. 

Fast forward to today- One of the babies died soon after(it was an malnourished orphan) and all 5 fosters have aggressive ringworm (sob). I'm cleaning and bathing and pilling and rubbing. I am doing my best to get rid of it and not send them back to the shelter for them to deal with it. I'll never forget my first foster haha...ha... 

But what has me even more stressed is the cat I adopted. We took her to the vet the very next day because she had fleas and since then she has been on medicine for Giardia and now medicine for finding an egg in her second stool sample. The vet bills are adding up(not to mention all the extra stuff for the fosters) and now I have to bring her in tomorrow because she's not breathing right and her eye was watering today! I hope she doesn't have herpes! I really wanted.. Needed! a loving cat and the first couple days she seemed to fit that but now she's more distant. Maybe it's because she doesn't feel well but my last cat wasn't a love bug either plus she was sick for so long. I can't return her but I can't get another cat either if she is going to cost me vet bills all the time.

I'm actually pretty crushed right now and exhausted from dealing with ringworm. 

Anyway... thanks for reading. 

Forgot to add pictures of the fur babies. Black ones are the fosters and my adopted cat is named Ripley

Our humane society gave us a shampoo called pure oxygen to help clear the ringworm on our fosters. I also suggest perhaps some of that colloidal silver stuff? Idk if that worked or not when we used it but it may have. They had ringworm very bad for a few months, and it was a lot of work, but in the end it was rewarding to learn they all went to good homes.  

Many cats have herpes, and it often only flares up in times of stress. Your new kitty is probably just still getting used to you. Has she been SNAP tested? 

As for the fosters, our humane society provided us with all the food and the litter, and even beds and blankets. 

Are you keeping the fosters separated from your resident cat? Have they been vaccinated?

It's terribly exhausting to deal with all that stuff at once, and you're obviously already tired, but you still seem to be doing a great job.

I used the pure oxygen for two weeks but it kept getting worse. I am doing the full works now, sulfur baths, pills, and ointment. And I have been washing bedding and scrubs daily since it popped up. Too bad I put them on carpet although I don't regret giving her a more comfortable room. I am sure with all that we will see improvements soon.   I'll have to remember Colloidal silver but wouldn't dare add anything else. I'm already worried about their poor little bodies. 

Definitely keeping them apart. The foster has had some vaccinations and will get more next week. 

My adopted cat's shelter papers said she had been tested for FIV and FeLV  and it was negative but that she needed to be retested in 6 months for FeLV.. I'll ask the vet about the SNAP test tomorrow.

Ripley is actually regressing in affection which makes me think it's because she doesn't feel well. I hope she turns into a lap cat or at least wants a good rub down... even if it takes months to get there.

Thanks

Ripley looks like she  happy.  Giardia takes a long time to cure. One of my adopted cats came with that. Ripley could be simply be dealing with that. If she doesn't sound better, just call the vet and see what they say. 

Yeah... That's what I'll do.Thanks again!
I feel a little better today. Had someone I know die of cancer Saturday so I think I just freaked out thinking No more sickness! Plus my son and I catch everything so the ringworm stress wore me down.
Ripley is actually a little better today mood wise so that's a plus.

Hopefully I'll be a foster (ringworm pro) in no time and can offer support to others on here[emoji]128077[/emoji]

Sounds to me like Ripley's just gonna take some time. Good luck with those babies. They're always a handful. 

When the ringworm got bad I ripped the carpet out of my room and kept them in there. Washed the bedding daily, wiped everything down, gave pills. That's why if  you see any of my more recent photo's the floors look really bad. Don't really know if it helped, but it's been easier to clean. Not a solution for everyone though. My carpets were already trashy when we moved in.

The SNAP test is just the felv and fiv test. They probably did it at the shelter. It's likely the one they'll use again when they retest her for felv.

To be honest, it took us four months to get rid of the ringworm, but we learned we could also spray pure oxygen (diluted) onto the floors and beds and blankets. We also used it to mop the floor for a few weeks.

They have to go back to the shelter by the end of June no matter what because we are going out of town and have a busy summer. The one that got it first has hair growing back so maybe.. just maybe.. we will get a handle on it before then. I have kept the carpet covered the whole time. I covered it with a painters drop cloth just for the sake of accidents and the carpet is only a couple years old so hopefully it will not come to that. I'll steam clean either when their symptoms are all gone or when they go. I have towels and blankets over the drop cloth that I wash daily... I will start to wipe everything down daily after a few more days of oral medicine. I also bought a little room purifier with a hepa filter.. helps with the air/smell even if it's not collecting spores. And I'll change the A/C filter in a week.

I'll have to make the carpet room work if I am going to keep fostering because I'm not keeping fosters in a small windowless bathroom and the laundry room would be too stressful for both parties. 

I have some of the pure oxygen shampoo left so I'll use that - thanks for the tip because I hate bleach and I think using it has cause a rash on my arms(no, it's def. not ringworm)

Any tricks for giving kittens a pill? I try to drop it in the back of their mouth but they constantly push it out. It takes many tries (with lots of bites and scratches)

I just go back from the vet with Ripley and she has a fever and an upper respiratory infection plus the start of an infection in her eyes. Poor thing.. I hope the shot they gave her works otherwise we start yet another antibiotic on Friday. They recommended not fostering again until she becomes socialized with us. I am sure she will come around(I really hope!) The first day I got her she came into my lap... it was probably too much for her to smell the mom and babies plus have 4 people wanting to give her a ton of love. Sorry Ripley haha... life isn't perfect... 

Generally I try to give pills while a cat's on their stomach or feet, but with the kittens I had I needed to hold them straight up or even leaned slightly back and just shove my finger and the pill all the way down so it touched the back of the esophagus. You really have to push it way back there so they can't spit it out. I usually put the canned food down right after.

You could try a pet piller of you haven't already; the humane society may offer them, or a veterinarian can sell you one for a few dollars. Pet stores might have them too.

Does the pill you give start with a t? Terbinifine or something? I can't really remember.

Oh gosh.. what a nightmare... a kitten got his head stuck (thank goodness I was home.. and my husband warned me but I didn't listen) behind the bed and mom was attacking me while I was trying to free him. 

He seems okay now.. poor little guy. 

Thanks for the advice. Mom was easy this morning and I held them upright and scruffed them a little too. Pill time was much easier! The medicine is Fluconazol. 

Oh and with this organization I provide everything pretty much. They provide cats and medicine. They did give me cat litter but that was because I got lucky I think -  she had me raid their stash of donations. Probably because she wanted to make sure I used the right kind since there are my first kittens.

How's everything going? I hope you're feeling better about everything.

Thanks for asking! I missed your post. I had some trouble with the mom cat last week(hissing and spitting and even bit my shirt and swatted me out of the room) but things are pretty settled now and much better! Momma is back to wanting me to pet her. No eye contact was the trick. And I definitely feel better!

Since the medicine kicked in Ripley has been the sweet cat we adopted. Poor girl must have not felt well for over a week and I didn't know.

I moved the foster cats to the bathroom and it has been so much easier to clean. Plus they gave me this cleaner called accel and it's supposed to kill the spores really well. I wish they would have told me about it before I broke down and bought bleach but oh well.

My only hang up now is that my husband keeps breaking down and chasing Ripley! I am going to start a thread so he can read everyone telling him to stop! He wants her love haha.... this from a guy who didn't like any pets at all! Really he's got to stop! :doh3:

Men!!