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- Feb 19, 2001
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Posting for informational purposes only. Got a call last night from a friend of mine that also does bottle babies. She has a new litter in and they are 5 weeks old. A potential adoptive family was by yesterday and they had a little girl. The girl was playing with the kitten, quite gently and carefully. My friend has one of those Alpine Cat Scratcher, it is a cardboard ramp that has a scratching pad and catnip on it. There is a hole in the side of the ramp where there is a toy the cat's can bat at.
The little girl put the kitten into the opening and left it there. Later, when my friend went to feed, she couldn't find the kitten. When she finally located her (still inside the cardboard scratcher) and pulled her out, the kitten was stumbling, shaking, cold and had diarrhea.
I thought it sounded like a catnip overdose, but had heard that catnip doesn't affect kittens until they reach sexual maturity, so just to be safe I called my vet. He agreed with me, the kitten was kept at home, kept on a warming pad, given Karo syrup in small drops over a period of an hour. My friend was told to over-hydrate the kitty to stop her kidneys from shutting down, so subcu's were pushed. She was told to only bring the kitten to her vet if the kitten appeared to be constipated.
This morning I received the joyous news that Amaretto is going to be just fine after her unexpected catnip binge.
She has been named Amaretto because of the immense hang-over she suffered as a result of a little girl trying to keep a kitty "safe."
As I said, only putting this here for informational purposes in case someone runs into the same scenario.
The little girl put the kitten into the opening and left it there. Later, when my friend went to feed, she couldn't find the kitten. When she finally located her (still inside the cardboard scratcher) and pulled her out, the kitten was stumbling, shaking, cold and had diarrhea.
I thought it sounded like a catnip overdose, but had heard that catnip doesn't affect kittens until they reach sexual maturity, so just to be safe I called my vet. He agreed with me, the kitten was kept at home, kept on a warming pad, given Karo syrup in small drops over a period of an hour. My friend was told to over-hydrate the kitty to stop her kidneys from shutting down, so subcu's were pushed. She was told to only bring the kitten to her vet if the kitten appeared to be constipated.
This morning I received the joyous news that Amaretto is going to be just fine after her unexpected catnip binge.
As I said, only putting this here for informational purposes in case someone runs into the same scenario.
