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- Aug 4, 2016
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Hi everyone.
I'm at a loss on what to do, so I've turned to the Internet for help. Two weeks ago, on a Thursday, I took in a month-old kitten who had been abandoned by his mother. I took him to the vet immediately to get him checked out; he was so tiny and sleepy. What we first discover: kitten, now named Nox, had at some point suffered a head injury causing a dime size wound in between his ears on the top of his head. It had healed into what looked like a very hard matted piece of fur. The vet checks for ringworm - negative - and opens the wound again so it can heal properly. We put him on amoxicillin (.1 ml 2x a day), and I take him home and begin feeding him Perki-Lac milk replacer mixed with canned kitten food. The vet originally told me to attempt to get 25-30 mls a day in Nox. At 12.5 oz, she had done the math and told me that's what he needed, and I blindly listen.
Saturday comes around. Nox has been walking around and moving a lot, though it's obvious he is unstable on his feet because he constantly falls over and is very shaky while walking. I take him back to the vet because I cannot get him to pee or poop in litter or with stimulation. The vet shows me how to do it, and begins to assume Nox has Panleukopenia, but conducts no tests to determine so. At this point, Nox has lost a half oz, but is still pretty much able to move around and willing to eat for me out of a syringe.
Monday night arrives, and Nox will barely sit up for me. He refuses to walk and is beginning to not eat. I walk in the room where I keep him to find him laying on his side with explosive, light brown and watery diarrhea all over the carpet and still coming out of him. I clean him up when he's done, and plan to call the vet in the morning.
Tuesday: we get Nox to the vet in the afternoon. At this point he can't even hold his own head up. He still weighs 12 oz, but his temp is 93 and is blood pressure is extremely low. The vet gives him a shot of 24 hour nutrients and continues to suggest Panleukopenia with no tests conducted. We test his poop for parasites that may be in his system, which comes back negative. The vet tells me to knock his feedings down to 22 mls a day, and to keep him warm on a heating pad at all times unless he's overheated. I take him home and begin the heating, and Nox begins to throw up violently. At this point, I'm a wreck because it's obvious my baby is in pain and I have no idea how to help. I honestly thought I was going to lose him that night. In the morning, he has another bought of diarrhea, so I decide to take him off the soft kitten food and stick with just milk replacer for a while. He seems to improve a little, as in no longer having diarrhea or vomitting, but he is still very weak and cannot hold his head up, let alone walk. He doesn't want to eat for me anymore, so I force feed him the 22 mls a day.
Friday comes around and he's skin and bones. I've called the vet multiple times to ask for advice on how to help him, and all she can say is that it sounds like Panleukopenia, and that all his symptoms are "not good." I turn to an animal rescuer I follow on Facebook for answers because the vet is useless. At this point, I'm worried Nox is becoming anemic. He had fleas from the moment I got him, and every three days I would treat him with a spray on a washcloth and pull the *******s off of him. I got around 40 off of him in the three treatments I had done to that point, and had even given him a dawn bath. The rescuer brings to my attention that I was severely under feeding Nox, because at 12 oz, he was supposed to be getting around 90 mls a day, rather than 22, as my vet had told me. I panic and feel horrible because that would explain why he had become so skinny, and immediately make a plan to slowly increase his intake of food.
Saturday morning: Nox hadn't pooped since his last diarrhea episode on Wednesday morning, so I spend 20 minutes stimulating him and he finally poops for me. It's about 5 inches long, but solid looking and healthy. I rejoice! But he still won't walk or will barely hold his head up for me.
Tuesday arrives and Nox has been stable since his poop on Saturday. Not much improvement as far as moving, but he pees like a racehorse and has had little bouts of softer dark brown poop (not solid but not quite diarrhea). I decide that I want to get a second opinion, so I take him to a different vet that night. We had been feeding him on average 65-70 mls a day, slowly increased since the previous Friday, and he weighed 14 oz! His temp was about 98 degrees, and the new vet ran two blood tests to see about the other vets prognosis. The blood tests came back negative for both Panleukopenia, and Feline Leukemia, because his white blood cell count was high rather than low, which is an indicator of either of those diseases. New vet gives me a new medicine to administer now (Doxycycline) on top of the Amoxicillin, and FortiFlora to add into his food one time a day. She suggests I begin the weaning process, and so I start to add the soft food back in with a different milk replacer that he likes better and wants to eat, though still only out of a syringe. I also begin to give him a serving of GMC high calorie nutrical a day.
Wednesday: Nox has diarrhea again, though it is not as watery and is darker brown than before. I take him back to the vet, and we decide to take him back off the soft food, and add gerber baby food as a substitute, which he likes. At this point he weighs 14.9 oz.
Thursday: we finish the amoxicillin treatment.
Today: Nox weighs 15 oz, is averaging about 80 mls a day of food. Still on FortiFlora 1x a day, and Doxycycline 1x a day. No more fleas. Still willingly eats milk replacer and baby food out of syringe. But has yet to walk again or even sit up on his own without much help. His temp is almost up to 100, and everything seems to be stable, but he won't walk, eat, or potty on his own. He's about 6 weeks at this point, so it worries me that he's so dependent still. We have begun physical therapy to get him to work his muscles (10 reps each leg joint 3x a day), but he doesn't have any desire to use them. He can hold his head up now on his own though.
At this point, I have no idea what to do. I can't find answers anywhere as to what is wrong with him. A head injury is likely, but he walked when we got him, so I don't see how that could be the cause. The new vet thinks it may be feline Herpes, though that doesn't seem as bad as what he's going through. She wants to wait a little bit before we test him for that though because he's been through so much lately.
Please help. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I am all ears. This is my baby, and I'm just so worried that something is very wrong. I can barely sleep anymore because I'm constantly checking on him, and I've spent hundreds of dollars on vet bills and supplies for Nox. I just want him to feel better and be happy.
I know this is a long read, but thank you anyone who reads it all and can help in any way.
I'm at a loss on what to do, so I've turned to the Internet for help. Two weeks ago, on a Thursday, I took in a month-old kitten who had been abandoned by his mother. I took him to the vet immediately to get him checked out; he was so tiny and sleepy. What we first discover: kitten, now named Nox, had at some point suffered a head injury causing a dime size wound in between his ears on the top of his head. It had healed into what looked like a very hard matted piece of fur. The vet checks for ringworm - negative - and opens the wound again so it can heal properly. We put him on amoxicillin (.1 ml 2x a day), and I take him home and begin feeding him Perki-Lac milk replacer mixed with canned kitten food. The vet originally told me to attempt to get 25-30 mls a day in Nox. At 12.5 oz, she had done the math and told me that's what he needed, and I blindly listen.
Saturday comes around. Nox has been walking around and moving a lot, though it's obvious he is unstable on his feet because he constantly falls over and is very shaky while walking. I take him back to the vet because I cannot get him to pee or poop in litter or with stimulation. The vet shows me how to do it, and begins to assume Nox has Panleukopenia, but conducts no tests to determine so. At this point, Nox has lost a half oz, but is still pretty much able to move around and willing to eat for me out of a syringe.
Monday night arrives, and Nox will barely sit up for me. He refuses to walk and is beginning to not eat. I walk in the room where I keep him to find him laying on his side with explosive, light brown and watery diarrhea all over the carpet and still coming out of him. I clean him up when he's done, and plan to call the vet in the morning.
Tuesday: we get Nox to the vet in the afternoon. At this point he can't even hold his own head up. He still weighs 12 oz, but his temp is 93 and is blood pressure is extremely low. The vet gives him a shot of 24 hour nutrients and continues to suggest Panleukopenia with no tests conducted. We test his poop for parasites that may be in his system, which comes back negative. The vet tells me to knock his feedings down to 22 mls a day, and to keep him warm on a heating pad at all times unless he's overheated. I take him home and begin the heating, and Nox begins to throw up violently. At this point, I'm a wreck because it's obvious my baby is in pain and I have no idea how to help. I honestly thought I was going to lose him that night. In the morning, he has another bought of diarrhea, so I decide to take him off the soft kitten food and stick with just milk replacer for a while. He seems to improve a little, as in no longer having diarrhea or vomitting, but he is still very weak and cannot hold his head up, let alone walk. He doesn't want to eat for me anymore, so I force feed him the 22 mls a day.
Friday comes around and he's skin and bones. I've called the vet multiple times to ask for advice on how to help him, and all she can say is that it sounds like Panleukopenia, and that all his symptoms are "not good." I turn to an animal rescuer I follow on Facebook for answers because the vet is useless. At this point, I'm worried Nox is becoming anemic. He had fleas from the moment I got him, and every three days I would treat him with a spray on a washcloth and pull the *******s off of him. I got around 40 off of him in the three treatments I had done to that point, and had even given him a dawn bath. The rescuer brings to my attention that I was severely under feeding Nox, because at 12 oz, he was supposed to be getting around 90 mls a day, rather than 22, as my vet had told me. I panic and feel horrible because that would explain why he had become so skinny, and immediately make a plan to slowly increase his intake of food.
Saturday morning: Nox hadn't pooped since his last diarrhea episode on Wednesday morning, so I spend 20 minutes stimulating him and he finally poops for me. It's about 5 inches long, but solid looking and healthy. I rejoice! But he still won't walk or will barely hold his head up for me.
Tuesday arrives and Nox has been stable since his poop on Saturday. Not much improvement as far as moving, but he pees like a racehorse and has had little bouts of softer dark brown poop (not solid but not quite diarrhea). I decide that I want to get a second opinion, so I take him to a different vet that night. We had been feeding him on average 65-70 mls a day, slowly increased since the previous Friday, and he weighed 14 oz! His temp was about 98 degrees, and the new vet ran two blood tests to see about the other vets prognosis. The blood tests came back negative for both Panleukopenia, and Feline Leukemia, because his white blood cell count was high rather than low, which is an indicator of either of those diseases. New vet gives me a new medicine to administer now (Doxycycline) on top of the Amoxicillin, and FortiFlora to add into his food one time a day. She suggests I begin the weaning process, and so I start to add the soft food back in with a different milk replacer that he likes better and wants to eat, though still only out of a syringe. I also begin to give him a serving of GMC high calorie nutrical a day.
Wednesday: Nox has diarrhea again, though it is not as watery and is darker brown than before. I take him back to the vet, and we decide to take him back off the soft food, and add gerber baby food as a substitute, which he likes. At this point he weighs 14.9 oz.
Thursday: we finish the amoxicillin treatment.
Today: Nox weighs 15 oz, is averaging about 80 mls a day of food. Still on FortiFlora 1x a day, and Doxycycline 1x a day. No more fleas. Still willingly eats milk replacer and baby food out of syringe. But has yet to walk again or even sit up on his own without much help. His temp is almost up to 100, and everything seems to be stable, but he won't walk, eat, or potty on his own. He's about 6 weeks at this point, so it worries me that he's so dependent still. We have begun physical therapy to get him to work his muscles (10 reps each leg joint 3x a day), but he doesn't have any desire to use them. He can hold his head up now on his own though.
At this point, I have no idea what to do. I can't find answers anywhere as to what is wrong with him. A head injury is likely, but he walked when we got him, so I don't see how that could be the cause. The new vet thinks it may be feline Herpes, though that doesn't seem as bad as what he's going through. She wants to wait a little bit before we test him for that though because he's been through so much lately.
Please help. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I am all ears. This is my baby, and I'm just so worried that something is very wrong. I can barely sleep anymore because I'm constantly checking on him, and I've spent hundreds of dollars on vet bills and supplies for Nox. I just want him to feel better and be happy.
I know this is a long read, but thank you anyone who reads it all and can help in any way.
