Boo is Pretty Darn Sick! Another foster looks bad.

vik61

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So just as I post my "Happy Tale" of my two new feral/foster kittens slideshow in the foster forum here. I hit "Submit" and before I can be too pleased I look down and Boo is throwing up so hard it's throwing him backward two body-lengths.

Twice today he pooed, and has the runs, then jumps out of his box and throws up violently. After the first time I made an appointment with a new vet (I am not on speaking terms with the vet's office I work with for the fosters but I found someone good and with reasonable rates~)

Okay so he's been having the runs off and on since the 11th. On the 11th he stopped eating his wet food and will only nosh on dry food. He's been sitting around looking cold, all tucked in, and in general more baby like than usual. Wanting to be snuggled all the time, with me all the time.

It turns out he is pretty sick. He was dehydrated and given SQ Fluids. This really upsets me because I feel I should've noticed this. I really don't know how to tell but I should've read about it in here--I'm sure the information is there. So, duh. Of course if he has the runs he would be susceptible to dehydration but of all the kittens, Boo at least drinks from the new fountain I got my little trio. I should've noticed this sooner.


I am so mad at myself.

Boo also had a LOW temp.

He had a fecal done and the vet found "bacteria." So Boo is now on Albon Liquid twice a day. If anyone can tell me anything to watch out for with this, please do. I can always call the vet--they are very good but experience of other cat lovers is what I crave.

He also got Rebound food supplement. He doesn't seem to like it. It's fish flavored. So I am making him some Pedialyte.

Peek is fine. His temp and fecal is fine and he got his first distemper shot today. I need to keep them separate.

Now, I'm going back to the vet to pick up more Rebound and hopefully Albon, because here is the kicker.


There are two other siblings, feral, from this same litter as my own little love doves. I've been feeding these two in my lap and they are coming along well behaviorally but the one feral is dying, I can see it just now as I looked in on him. It's the second time today he is just laying on his side, and he's still very thin, though his brother is not as thin at all.

They are not part of the program I work for yet--I took them in and am trying to get them adoptable before their surgery and adoption. Time is running out, I fear. I may just put him in the carrier and take him up to the clinic. I am going to be broke.
 
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vik61

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Even though no replies I will say Boo looks "fuller" after the fluids injected into his skin. He was leaking a little today back there.

The vet is treating all three sick kittens with the Albon and liquid food. The two fosters didn't get sub q fluids but tomorrow if I don't see a dramatic change I am taking them both in for that.

Everyone is hunkering down getting better tonight, not happy about the medicine and Peeka is tired from his distemper shot.

At least the two foster kittens are happy and playful!


I would love to know how to tell if a kitten is dehydrated. It is something about pinching the skin at the back of the neck, right?
 

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Poor babies, I hope they get better soon! A friend was fostering 3 brothers who were about 5-6 weeks when she got them, and one of them was just always sickly. He got put on Albon and Gerber baby food on its own as well as mixed in with wet food to encourage him to eat and get more fluids in him.

He also got SQ fluids regularly, and he also leaked afterwards. I would drive my friend to the vet with him since she didn't have a car, and they always gave us tissues to wipe away the fluid that leaked out


He had some mystery bacterial type problem, and after lots of fluids, Albon and love he picked up and improved out of sight.

To see if he's dehydrated, it's better to pull up the skin on his back I think. I was doing the back of the neck thing with Lily when we first got her as she had been dehydrated, and it was slow to go down, but the vet pulled up skin on her back and said it ws fine.

So if you can get 2 kittens side by side for a second (I know it's hard to keep them still... maybe when they're eating?), and pull the skin up on 2 of them, then compare how fast the skin goes back down again. If they're well dehydrated, it will go down straight away, if it takes a few seconds, he's dehydrated still.

Best of luck!
 

sarahp

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And I'm really sorry to hear about the guy you think is dying
Sometimes you just can't save them all, and natural selection takes care of the sickly ones. It may be the best for him.

Hugs to you!
 

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Wow, it sounds like you have your hands full! Right after I took Garfield and his brother Odie in, at about 8-10 weeks, Odie died of distemper. It is so very hard to watch a kitten fade!

I hope they all rally and improve. I don't really have any good health advice, just wanted to say keep up the good work!
 
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vik61

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I'm having a very hard time keeping him from his sibling, Peek. Peek is crying up a storm too. It's one in the morning and since I myself am on steroids we are all up burning the midnight oil.

Thank you Beckiboo and thanks sarah--I will keep an eye on them all now with that trick to see how hydrated or not they are. I had it backwards.

I am keeping a log on them as best I can. He is peeing about a teaspoon every once in awhile and still has the runs... I thought to pick up some baby food for him tonight--all they had was chicken or turkey, very low on baby food at walmart...But thanks sarah for the idea to mix the baby food with the wet food~ At first he wouldn't eat it what I put out for him tonight. Then he was eating up a storm and still didn't finish but maybe 3/4 a tablespoon.

I mixed the baby food with the liquid diet because he just wont eat the expensive liquid stuff and I'm afraid he will starve. I also picked up some of that wiskas packaged wet food, chicken in broth, not gravy....we'll try anything at this point.

I can't Boo from running around tonight. He got hold of a freezer bag I brought home for them from the ice cream section of walmart...
He's got these big irresistable eyes and I spent the entire day with him wrapped in an old tshirt on my neck. He seemed cold. I'd never heard of the low temp being bad for a feline but the vet explained it to me that he is just not making enough heat due to lack of fluid and food!

This vet was awesome to treat all four cats for ONE office visit fee. What worries me is how upset the vet looked as he was examining Boo. There seemed to be concern and urgency and he took Boo away to do the fecals and SubQ. I didn't like that but I think he was trying to keep him away from Peeka. He wouldn't put Boo back in the cage with him....I'm thinking this is something very contagious???

So it's an animal hospital here tonight. I really need to adopt the two foster kittens out before they get sick too. Then what I will be left with is the original four who came to me through people trapping them nearby where I live. They probably all have the same thing.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Peeka is going to get this too. Boo had a particiular smell to him and now Peek has it. It's his guts making the scent and it's pretty pungent. Damn. I need to pick up another dose of the medicine for Peeka tomorrow, just in case, making a note...Also, Pixel. Can she, at 7 years old, get this thing too?


It really is rather all-encompassing when they get sick. In thinking and reading in here about some of the bad things they can get, I find myself getting more upset than I imagined...having become totally in love with all of them.

Thanks for listening. Back to nursing now. 'Nite.
 
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vik61

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Originally Posted by Beckiboo

Wow, it sounds like you have your hands full! Right after I took Garfield and his brother Odie in, at about 8-10 weeks, Odie died of distemper. It is so very hard to watch a kitten fade!

I hope they all rally and improve. I don't really have any good health advice, just wanted to say keep up the good work!
Beckiboo I'm wondering about this. The vet was also pretty urgent about giving Peeka his distemper shot today. He didn't discuss it just gave it. Do these symptoms sound anything like distemper? Could that be what we are dealing with?

The whole litter was in awful conditions prior to trapping, living under a horrid old trailer that needs to be hauled to the landfill, eating milk, tuna, with food and poo all over them when I got them....They were all pretty bad but I think Boo was the worst. He was pretty fragile when I got him.
 

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I'm so sorry to hear all this - I'm afraid I don't have any advice, but it does sound like you and your vet are on top of things.

I will keep you all in my prayers.
 
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vik61

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Thanks satai, thanks everyone for being here for me. I was pretty scared and I don't think we're out of the woods quite yet.

One good thing is we now have another volunteer foster to hopefully pick up the seven kittens we just took in this weekend. I hope I don't get anymore kittens until these are all well!

Boo still has the runs. The vet is going to call me today and I'm making a list of questions to ask him, not a long list but for instance when can I give Boo the dry food he is craving. He found some pellets I had laying on the table top and was furiously munching away on them and it felt like a crime to take it away. And he won't eat the liquid diet.
The ferals are eating it though...
 
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vik61

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I might start up another post in relation to this one...Let me explain.

Since Boo hasn't thrown up since yesterday's vet visit, and since he will not eat the liquid diet, the vet said to feed him whatever he will eat.

I got an idea from thread title in this forum and last night I picked up some chicken tenders for my felines. I was thinking of making food toys for the ferals.

I got them the white meat tenders which are very thin, like they are sliced for finger food and dipping? They are nice and fresh. I boiled two of these in a half a can of chicken broth in a pan. I cooked them completely. I am thinking of raw food diets for these guys but I am not even close to comfortable with feeding raw (the bacteria issue freaks me out still and I have much to learn).

Well, they were still a little warm when I diced these up and thought to give Boo a taste of a little piece, AND:

The little guy just went psycho on us. He wanted it all, was growling and even bit me (by accident) he was so frantic with hunger. Munch munch munch he looked like a squirrel eating!

I'm thinking now that if he was that hungry he would've eaten something else, something he wasn't crazy about like the wet food I have been trying to feed him, right? Or, does he just love the taste of the warm chicken in broth?

Anyway I would say he ate an entire 3/4 of a chicken tender, which is about a tablespoon and a half all diced up and then he went foraging around for more as if he hasn't eaten in days (and he hasn't, really).

He even went right up to Pixel's bowl and chased her away from it!

I'm so glad he ate something. I now have to wonder if this could become a regular meal for him, and my other two.

I am watching him closely now, to see if he throws up.
Here he is dreaming of having some more.
 
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vik61

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Boo still has the runs but he hasn't thrown up. He slept with me nice and warm all night but he is still tired. This morning he ate a couple tablespoons of whiskas wet in the packets. I hope this works...

New development, he is drinking a lot more than the others. When I pour water he runs over to get some. Spending a lot of time at the new CatIT fountain--yay.

I think I may be in for a bit of a haul though. The receptionist said if he doesn't improve bring him in again and they will give me another medicine to try.
 
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vik61

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Please see below, a new symptom has shown.

Just saying hello to this thread tonight. I was strongly urged to evacuate my home about an hour and a half ago. I'm in El Paso, TX and it has been raining like the tropics here in the desert for about a month now. We've had very bad flooding over the past week or so and it's a steady rain here for over three hours now. There is a shelter up the road if I need to grab them all and go. I am trying to get a "get bag" together for the kittens. I won't leave without them. I doubt it will come to that; someone mentioned high winds and there have been NO winds for the past few hours here.

At least the thunder has stopped for now since it has all the kittens freaked out. Pixel too.

Boo is very clingy tonight. It looks like he wants to eat but he just can't. Unless it's that plain chicken so I am saving the rest for him.

We'll sneak it later when the others aren't looking.

I made him some pedialyte which is cooling because he looks slightly dehydrated again. Of course his runs haven't stopped, so of course.

One additional symptom is his nose is wet. The wetness is reaching up into the fur of his nose so that it looks like he has a dark spot on his nose. I looked at his pictures and he doesn't have that, and it's wet, so it's pretty wet. Weird? Anyone ever heard of this?

He runs around a little bit but mostly all he is doing is sitting all curled up like in the picture up there; like he is cold. So I just keep him on my neck wrapped in an old T shirt.

Earlier I had to wipe him down; he had poo on his paws.

I'm worried about him pretty bad. Trying to cheer him up though, gently.
 

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Poor Boo- such a sweet little guy.
I hope you stay safe from the weather and that he gets well soon.
 

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Poor Boo!! It's good he ate some food though and enjoyed it!

I can't offer any advice, but good luck both with him and the storms!
 
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vik61

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Now I have similar symptoms. This is harsh.

No evacuation, of my house, necessary. The wind just died down.

I wonder if it's poo on his nose. Tried wiping it off with water. The little guy is pooing more than he's eating/drinking. I am using a syringe and giving him about 1.5 Ml of pedialyte at a time. But it's going right thru him.

Earlier today I had him on my bathroom sink, on a towel, wiped him down with a warm washcloth, all over his paws and legs, neck even. Poo everywhere.

I'm following him around pretty well but he surprised me a little while ago and left a huge mess in the litter box. Then I found him sitting quietly on the sink where he was earlier, doing the best he could to clean up. Freaking cute, even tho it's poo-related.

He allowed me to wipe him down again, and was licking the washcloth as I cleaned him up.

He is drinking a lot still.

I'm trying to locate an emergency vet now.
 

pami

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You have just been through it. Thank God you didnt have to pack everyone up and evacuate. I hope all goes well with him. Hes just as cute as he can be. Let us know what the vet says.
 

natalie_ca

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Does the vet have any idea of what is wrong with him?!!! I feel so bad for the poor little kitty, and for you too having to look after the poor sick baby
It's heart breaking
 
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vik61

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I wanted to take him in to emergency tonight and if the cost just to walk thru the door wasn't ten bucks more than I have in the bank right now I would've. But I'll be on the vet's phone in the morning and have him in in the afternoon when they open if he's still not showing signs of improvement.

I figure keep him drinking and warm is all I can do right now. That's all he wants to do anyway so that should work.

I don't know what I will do when he does decide he's had enough of being planted on my neck and shoulder. I'm starting to get very used to it, he makes it easy and I can do pretty much anything with him on me.

And yes, I was thinking I ought to have a "get bag" packed for the kittens and Pixel. And me! Though we are fine now it could happen, an emergency. The ground is more than overly saturated right now and the rain is still coming.

There is probably a thread on this topic in here somewhere, eh?
 
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vik61

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He may be doing a little better by this morning. He ate like a wild tiger this morning, Friskies sliced chicken in gravy and even ate the chunks. He still has the runs and I am watching his brother for signs of this now too. Haven't seen him go, that kitten, in awhile....

Boo is still drinking up a lot of water...and with the wet nose...
 

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I know you have been trying everything for little Boo...but could the Whiskas and Friskies be causing the "runs"? I've had to buy those brands in the past,when I couldn't find our usual brand,and everytime my girls ate it,they would have a severe case of the runs! It was bad enough that I never bought those brands again. Have you tried mixing dry food with it?? Maybe to add a little bulk?
 
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