Hey everyone! I'm here with my 2 little ones

Hi all!  I'm a stay at home dog- and cat-mom! I have 2 cats and 2 dogs. I just posted over in the Cat Health forum about my new kitten. I'm surprised that it's my first time to actually join a cat website!

My SHD orange tabby is actually a female (surprise!) and she is almost 3 yrs old.  Her name is Sophie.  She only has a few toys that interest her, but she never really gets overly excited about anything. She was born as a feral kitten, but grown up around people, so I wouldn't consider her feral. She's cool around people, but she hates being picked up or cuddled. Once in a blue moon, she will jump in my lap to be petted and it makes my day!

My new kitten's name is Louie. He is a medium hair domestic tuxedo. He is 3 months old and so adorable!  I posted in the Cat Health forum about the issues that I'm having with him.  He has an odd behavior of lethargy or laziness at such a young age.  He's on medication for an infection, but we aren't seeing much of a change in his behavior.  He is actually sleeping under my blanket right now (it's the first time I've ever seen a cat that loves to sleep under the blankets!).  I hope we can get him back to feeling great and his normal self.  It's been 2 weeks of no kitten play at all.

Happy to be here!

Welcome to TCS...glad you joined [emoji]128522[/emoji] This is a great place with all kinds of knowledge and supportive people.

Sophie and Louie are just adorable!! I sure hope little Louie starts to get back to feeling like himself soon.

Again, welcome!! And we love photos here so keep 'em coming [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Both of my boys like to sleep under the blanket with me.  They're spoiled rotten, by the way.

Sometimes antibiotics can make people sleepy.  The same is probably true for kittens.  I think it would also depend on the specific antibiotic, but what do I know?  I always wanted to be a vet growing up.  Got straight A's all through school and had a full scholarship to the University of Missouri - Columbia.  It covered tuition, room & board, books, and extra money to use for whatever I wished.  I went for a semester and then I decided to get married.  I'm not going into all that hell.  I have some pretty major depression and anxiety issues over it.  So now, I'm doing school online and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  I've been thinking a lot about going into wildlife rescue and this forum seems to be pushing me even more in that direction.

Anyway, maybe you should wait and see if his energy improves after the antibiotics.

And sorry for the rambling.  I'm getting tired so my mind wanders and I tend to type as I think.

Update on Louie, which I posted about in Cat Health -

Tuesday, he really took a huge drop in health and by Tuesday night, he hadn't eaten in 24 hours, even with the most stinkiest tuna or even anchovies. He would barely even lift his head, so we rushed him to the animal hospital. The clavamox did nothing for the 10 days that he took it. He was missing a massive amount of red blood cells, white blood cells were through the roof, and now he had developed jaundice with elevated bilirubin. His platelets were not clumping. He was running a 103.4 fever and dehydrated, so he got his 3rd round of SubQ fluids.  The vet said that there was no telling what he had that was causing this, but that all of his guesses were terminal diseases.  Instead of putting him to sleep, we decided to take him home and find another 2nd opinion.

We force fed him liquidy food for another day, which was stressful, and then we were able to see another vet this morning. She informed us that the only way to give him a chance was to put in a feeding tube and that would give us some time to send off some blood samples to test for FIP. I was crying so much this morning because I didn't want to put in a feeding tube. I felt like he was way too weak to go under anesthesia. He was already woozy and almost vegetable-like.  Thank God, he woke up after!

Today has been very difficult learning how to do this feeding tube.  I think we did okay for the most part of the day, but tonight, Louie looks like he's in a coma, but his eyes are open. It's been so hard to watch his little frail body go through this. He's only 3lbs!

So during our last feeding, we added in one of his liquid medications at the end of it, then then followed it with some water to flush through.  But it's blocked.  We've pinched the tube up and down to try and move whatever was blocking it.  We've tried warm ginger ale (twice).  We have tried to suck it back out with the syringe, but that's when Louie started crying, so I fear we are hurting him by sucking with the syringe.  It's still blocked after an hour of feeding, and the liquid meds are in the tube, too.  I'm so frustrated and emotionally drained.

Oh poor Louie! I'm keeping him in my prayers [emoji]10084[/emoji]️[emoji]128591[/emoji][emoji]127995[/emoji]

It seemed like fluid has filled up his abdomen and stretched it into a bowling ball just over a 24 hour period. Today, the vet did an ultrasound and found the fluid pockets. She did an aspiration and it came up to be the sticky yellow fluid, which is very characteristic of FIP.  We are waiting for the test results to come back sometime next week to confirm it's FIP, but honestly, he's so miserable and weak, that I don't think he'll last that long.  Now he can barely hold up his head, and he falls over anytime he tries to get up.  He drools in puddles.  You can tell it's gotten to his brain. I really want to end his misery and put him to sleep, but my husband is holding on to some hope that he's going to come through and it's not FIP, but the vet is pretty positive now that he has the fluid.  It blows my mind how fast all of this happened. I'm posting in New Cats on The Block, but he'll be gone soon.  I'm heartbroken and can't stop crying. It pains me to watch him like this and he has to hang in there until Tuesday!

I'm so sorry about your Louie. 

Love and comfort to you and Louie. I know this kind of stuff is just gut wrenching. All you can do is love him and try to make him comfortable. 

~Peace~

Thank you for your kind words.  Louie passed away at noon today.  It got to be too much.  Late last night, he started loosing control of his limps and was drooling a lot.  He wouldn't get up to pee, but would just pee and lay in it.   It's been so hard to watch him like this.  So this morning, we were able to find a vet that would come by our house on a Sunday morning to put him to sleep. I'm so heartbroken.

sharper43,

My heart is with you and Louie. I'm saddened by this news. He's such a adorable kitten. Words just could no replace him.

Yes, it's really heartbreaking even he is not my kitten. I hope you are coping well and please take care.
If you need to chat, please come in and we'll keep you company.

On the morning I was taking my kitty to be spayed she hid. I said to a friend "how do they know?"  My friend replied "they are very intuitive." 

I hope that means they are just as intuitive about the love we have for them.  

Rest in peace, handsome little fellow.