Sick kitten..seen a vet but it seems they're worse

Hi All,

So on the 8th of this month my mother and I welcomed two new kittens into our family after grieving the tragic loss of our 2 year old cat last July (Atlas.). My mom is a little misinformed about cats and thinks that they can heal themselves and never need vet care. I on the otherside know when it's a minor issue and when it's a medical emergency. We got the two cats within 20 minutes of me returning from college after 4 months. I was unable to go to the persons house and see how they were cared for. All I knew about them was that they were apparently "pure bred" ragdoll kittens and that they lived in a barn. There was a few red flags at this point. One being the fact that they said they would have their shots and be dewormed when we got them, yet they couldn't give us papers. I hounded her and asked her if they were actually purebreds. She kept telling me all this stuff saying that the mom was a pure bred and the dad was half. I asked her how old they were and she told us 8 weeks. Which was contradictory since she messaged my mom on facebook on the night of April 4th saying that the mom was in labor.

So with that being said, I figured they were JUST over 4 weeks. I was NOT impressed. I went out and bought them soft food and KMR. I had originally gave them just hard food to see how they did. Luna, the female calico, choked and vomited about 20 minutes later. The white/gray male, Dean, was okay. I then just gave them a slurry mix of canned food and KMR. That friday I brought the cats to the vet since I realized they were sick. Dean was sneezing, coughing and wheezing. He would wake up with his eye crusted shut and I would have to press a warm cotton bud to his eye and clean it about 3 times a day. Luna was fine, other than the fact that she felt very skinny.  

When I brought them to the vet, I was told that Dean and Luna both had a mild case of Upper Respiratory Infections that could have been caused from being in a cold barn and from being around sick cats. He then did a physical and said based on their weight and size they were at LEAST 8 weeks old. So that raised another red flag against that woman. He gave them their distemper shots and dewormed them and sent me home with two cans of A/D medical emergency high calorie food and told me to feed them a tablespoon each three times a day so they can gain weight. He had me bring in a stool sample and sent it out to be checked and on Monday they both came back Positive for worms. I scheduled another vet visit for the 2nd of June for their boosters and to see how they were doing.

A week after I got them, I got called into work for three months since someone quit. I am now living in a different town about an hour away and my mom is taking care of the kittens. She sends me pictures and updates when she can and lets me know how his eye is doing. Today she messaged me because he, Dean, came out of my room and had both his eyes crusted and mewing until she cleaned them. She said his eyes were dripping yellow material and that the whites of his eyes were irritated. I told her to put him in the bathroom and steam the bathroom. She put his sister Luna in there with him and when she checked in on them about 20 minutes later, Luna was cleaning his face and licking around his eyes cleaning them.

I plan on calling the vet when I get a chance tomorrow but I need peace of mind. The vet said he wasn't prescribing meds because the infection seemed to be under control with my constant care (cleaning eyes, nose, dripping water in his mouth.)

Luna also sneezes but is VERY active. Dean is active but likes to go back to my room and sleep after a little bit. They both have normal stools right now and are transitioning (slowly.) to hard food. They don't drink from the water bowl so my mom mixes the wet food with extra water. They both eat very well.. if anything they just dont stop eating lol

Should I schedule an appointment for tomorrow and have them checked out or just wait until the already scheduled one?

Also if this matters:

Dean weighed 1lb 11 ounces

Luna weighed 1lb 06 ounces

They need to see the vet right away. June is too long to wait. They are both sick. It sounds like they both have eye infections and URI's. They will need an antibiotic for the URIs, and terramycin ointment for their eyes. They will not get better without meds.

Also, they need as much wet food as they can eat about 4 times a day. All growing kittens do. The dry kitten chow should be available 24/7 for between meals. Is there any way the kittens can live with you for now?

Okay, so I'll set up an appointment tomorrow and have my brother bring them in. I know that they have URI's but the vet didn't give me anything for it, just food.

My mom puts down half a can of wet food in the morning, half a can around noon, and so on about every 3-4 hours until about midnight. She then leaves out hard food for them along with water. They cannot stay with me since I'm living in a college dormitory and Campus Safety would have a fit. I had already thought about smuggling them in but I work 8+ hours a day and they're better off with my mom since she's home 24/7. 

Okay, that sounds good. Tell your brother to request clavamox and terramycin to clear this up once and for all. I'm glad they'll see a vet tomorrow!

Let us know how it goes! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Hi,

So my brothers work schedule was too wonky to set up an appointment. So I called the vet and talked to one of the doctors.  The doctor I had was kind enough to drop the medication off at a local drug store for my brother to pick up, I just had to give her my Care Credit number to run it through and pay for it. They said they didn't want to prescribe him any antibiotics yet because his sneezing isn't bad. It's just his eyes. So they gave him terramycin for ten days (Dean did NOT like that in his eye!). But my mom said it looks like the swelling has gone down. Yesterday his eye had gotten pretty swollen, tender and red. She also said it wasn't running any yellow gunk anymore, but it is still watery and tender. He won't let her near his eyes anymore so I told her to burrito him up gently with one of my baby blankets. He had scratched her up pretty bad.

They also came back round worm positive so we were also given some more dewormer. My mom didn't realize it wasn't meant to be used until the 22nd and gave it to them. I called the vet and they said they should be okay. I just have to bring in a stool sample on the 2nd of June to see if the worms are still there. But yeah, that's all covered anyway so I'm not too upset. Since I had two kittens I was given a Kitten Care Package. It also brought the spay/neuter charge down from 280/220 to 180/120. So that's cool.

I'll keep this updated as the days go on. I'm requesting daily pictures so I can see progress and once day 10 hits I'll post them so I can get opinions.

This is all really good to hear. You sound like you've got a great vet! I hope the worms go away, and the URI's don't get worse. Hope the eyes get better soon too. They should with the terramycin. You've got this though. Thank you for your vigilance! [emoji]128522[/emoji]