So many problems I dont even know what to do anymore.

hardtopvette

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
20
Purraise
1
Location
Lake Zurich, IL
When I adopted my kitten a few weeks back I never knew things were going to be like this. I want to do everything I can to keep her healthy but if its not one thing its another. She is now just over 3 months old. I noticed she will never want to play with her toys mainly just sleep or sit on my lap.

The first problem was her intermittent use of the litterbox. Sometimes she would use it and sometimes she would find a place on the wall or carpeting for both #1 and #2. The main problem was peeing but every once in a while she will poo outside the box.
The second problem I noticed and had no clue was that she had fleas. I took her right to the vet only to find out she has tapeworms as well (which is obviously common if the cat has or had fleas).
Now starting a couple days ago she has developed a weird congestion. Sometimes I can hear her breathe, her eyes now appear to be watery, her third eyelid has been visible.
I also noticed she has not been eating. I have tried everything to make her food appealing but all I see her do is eat small amounts of food and drink a lot of water. It appears she is trying to smell the food but cant? It seems she eats more of her litter than anything else :-(

I had her at the vet the other day and he gave her a shot for the tapeworms, and he also applied Advantage for the fleas. It appears the fleas are gone as there are no signs of flea dirt anymore. As for the worms I have no clue if they are gone or not. The Humane Society that I got her from gave me some medicine for her for the cold or whatever but does not seem that it has done anything.

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with her?
She will be going to the vet again tomorrow when I get home from work. Any input is appreciated and I will update when I get them.


JT

Here is a picture I just took of her. Cute as a button but you can clearly see her eyes arent how they should be.
 

yosemite

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Messages
23,313
Purraise
81
Location
Ingersoll, ON
It sounds as though she also has an upper respiratory infection. A vet visit is definitely in order and I hope you can get her all healthy.
 

ollyextra05

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
2,520
Purraise
3
Location
The Windy City
Originally Posted by Yosemite

It sounds as though she also has an upper respiratory infection. A vet visit is definitely in order and I hope you can get her all healthy.
I agree. Please get her to the vet as soon as possible. Also, where did you adopt kitty from? Most shelters will reimburse part of the vet bills if you have had such serious and constant problems since adopting her. I would give them a call to see what their policy is.

I hope kitty is feeling better soon!
 

jaycee

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
926
Purraise
5
Location
Washington state
the humane society where i live will not reimburse any vet bills but they have 15 day "return policy" if you have serious health problems within that time you can get a voucher for another pet, you hafta use it within 6 months and you hafta return the original pet.
 

spiritedstef

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
136
Purraise
1
Location
Southern Indiana
Originally Posted by jaycee

the humane society where i live will not reimburse any vet bills but they have 15 day "return policy" if you have serious health problems within that time you can get a voucher for another pet, you hafta use it within 6 months and you hafta return the original pet.
We adopted a kitten from an animal control agency a couple of years ago, and they said he had been checked out thoroughly. We spent about $500 trying to save his life 3 days after we adopted him, and the agency wouldn't do anything but refund our original purchase amount. Obviously ours was a worst case scenerio, but I wanted to let you know that your humane society isn't the only one with a rather unhelpful policy.

You posted yesterday - how did the vet's visit go?
 

andelawhi

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
May 10, 2006
Messages
217
Purraise
3
Location
Missouri
Poor baby! She looks so sweet. I don't have any advice, but I hope everything goes ok at the vets.
 

jen

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 27, 2001
Messages
8,501
Purraise
3,009
Location
Hudson, OH
Originally Posted by spiritedstef

We adopted a kitten from an animal control agency a couple of years ago, and they said he had been checked out thoroughly. We spent about $500 trying to save his life 3 days after we adopted him, and the agency wouldn't do anything but refund our original purchase amount. Obviously ours was a worst case scenerio, but I wanted to let you know that your humane society isn't the only one with a rather unhelpful policy.

You posted yesterday - how did the vet's visit go?
I always want to say something when I see posts like this. The Humane Society has very little money and does all they can as far as basic treatment goes. Unless there is a problems they are not going to do all sorts of blood work to find out if there is anything wrong. They would have to shut down in a week becuase they could never afford that. Their policies are the best they can do even if it is minimal. They can take the animal back usually and that is it. You take a chance when you adopt that one will come along with serious problems that are never found during their short stay at the shelters. When you adopt you sign a contract saying the cat is now your responsiblity. That is great that you adopted and I am sorry you had to go through that with you poor cat. Humane societies and rescue shelters are nothing like breeders. They cannot do health screenings on all the cats. It is rare to find one that would help you pay for vets costs after adoption.

Also it is very much possible that he was fine at the shelter and the problems that started when you adopted him weren't going on before that. Most cats going through shelters have a URI at some point in their stay at the shelter. Some cats just have reoccurring symptoms and some have a lot more. And some are perfectly fine. You never know. It is even possible for a cat to test negative for FeLV or FIV at the shelter and then test positive when the new owner decides to take him to the vet and he is tested. Many shelters test immediately after the cat comes in. But if the cat was just infected with one of the two or both, it won't show up positive for a month and no one would ever know unless he was retested.
 

rang_27

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 28, 2002
Messages
4,304
Purraise
5
Location
Milwaukee, WI
I'm with Jen shelters do the best they can, but considering the environment URI's happen & stress brings them out. A new home is a good thing, but still causes stress.
I agree with a vet vist & my tips are make sure kitty is eating & drinking. If not you may have to force feed. I volutneer at a shelter & have adopted all of my kitties from there & I promise it does get better. It's been over a year since I've had to make additional vet trips (other than check-ups) and it's been just over a year since I adopted a kitten. So hang in there, the years of joy will be well worth this difficult time. BTY your baby is adorable
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #11

hardtopvette

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
20
Purraise
1
Location
Lake Zurich, IL
I ended up first taking her to the Humane Society where I adopted her from to see what they say. She wanted to keep her until tomorrow to see if she can get her to eat and have their vet check her tomorrow morning first thing. I said sure so thats where she is now and will find out whats going on tomorrow when they call. We both noticed that she seems more boney now. Hopefully they can get some food in her. I will post tomorrow and keep you updated.
 

stephanietx

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
14,768
Purraise
3,489
Location
Texas
Poor baby! Sounds like an upper respiratory infection. My kitty had an URI when I got her back in November and we spent I don't know how much money on getting her well! But I knew that once I held her purring in my arms that I'd do whatever it took to get her well. She's now healthy and ruling the roost!!
There were days when I wondered if she'd get better, though. It took us 6 weeks to really get her well, and lots of trips to the vets plus a 3 day all expense stay to be hydrated, medicated, and watched round the clock.

Here's the deal. First of all, get that cat to the vet! She needs to be on an antibiotic. Secondly, if kitties can't smell, they won't eat. Try heating up some yummy and stinky canned kitty food and see if she'll eat that. If that doesn't work, you can always try chicken baby food, stage 2 no ONIONS or GARLIC. Also, you need to keep her hydrated, so you may need to force some water down her or Pedialyte, plain (clear) not the grape stuff.

To help kitty breathe better, confine her in a room and run a vaporizer all the time. If you don't have a vaporizer, put her in her carrier and take her into the bathroom and run the water hot and let the bathroom steam up. (Sound like taking care of a sick baby??) Also, if you can get to a health food store and get your hands on some eucalyptus oil, put a couple of drops on an old washcloth and put near where the kitty sleeps. Be sure to keep it out of the reach of the kitty because it's toxic if ingested. (I put Hannah's under her bed or up on the shelf near her bed.)

If her eyes are runny or her nose has dried snot on it, use a warm wash cloth to remove any crusty stuff. Also, you can give your kitty some L-Lysine, or ask your vet for some Enisyl (it's a pastey L-Lysine supplement).

Stephanie
 

spiritedstef

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
136
Purraise
1
Location
Southern Indiana
Originally Posted by Jen

I always want to say something when I see posts like this. The Humane Society has very little money and does all they can as far as basic treatment goes. Unless there is a problems they are not going to do all sorts of blood work to find out if there is anything wrong. They would have to shut down in a week becuase they could never afford that. Their policies are the best they can do even if it is minimal. They can take the animal back usually and that is it. You take a chance when you adopt that one will come along with serious problems that are never found during their short stay at the shelters. When you adopt you sign a contract saying the cat is now your responsiblity. That is great that you adopted and I am sorry you had to go through that with you poor cat. Humane societies and rescue shelters are nothing like breeders. They cannot do health screenings on all the cats. It is rare to find one that would help you pay for vets costs after adoption.

Also it is very much possible that he was fine at the shelter and the problems that started when you adopted him weren't going on before that. Most cats going through shelters have a URI at some point in their stay at the shelter. Some cats just have reoccurring symptoms and some have a lot more. And some are perfectly fine. You never know. It is even possible for a cat to test negative for FeLV or FIV at the shelter and then test positive when the new owner decides to take him to the vet and he is tested. Many shelters test immediately after the cat comes in. But if the cat was just infected with one of the two or both, it won't show up positive for a month and no one would ever know unless he was retested.
I understand, and I appreciate your post. Ours was a case where it wasn't a humane society, it was an animal control, so I shouldn't have used humane society in my last line. Ours was also a case where a simple fecal exam would have caught the problem in plenty of time, so there was no question of a negative test result. They outright lied about the kittens being vet-checked. The humane society reported the animal control center for having poor living conditions and ended up having to euthanize over 100 animals due to the same sickness that took our little Gizmo's life. Plus the person running animal control was fired, and the entire organization was restructured. We were on the news over the whole ordeal, so it was a long story. But you're right, the humane societies do the best they can and rely on people like us to donate whatever we possibly can to help them continue their good work. So thank you for emphasizing that point.
 

esrgirl

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 10, 2004
Messages
2,163
Purraise
2
Location
Indiana
I just wanted to say that when we first adopted our cat Abby she had worms (the kind you get from fleas that you actually see squirming out!), fleas, and an upper respiratory infection with symptoms exactly like what you are describing. We got her on Advantage and worm pills from the vet and she was given a medicine for her upper respiratory infection- which cleared up pretty quickly. I'd just take her back to the vet. This wasn't horribly expensive. I'd say I spent less than $100 total and I don't even think it was that much- but this was over three years ago, so my memory might not be great!

This sort of thing is really common when you adopt an animal or when you take in a stray. Upper resp. infections, fleas, and worms are super common in kittens at humane shelters.
 

jaycee

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
926
Purraise
5
Location
Washington state
Originally Posted by spiritedstef

I understand, and I appreciate your post. Ours was a case where it wasn't a humane society, it was an animal control, so I shouldn't have used humane society in my last line. Ours was also a case where a simple fecal exam would have caught the problem in plenty of time, so there was no question of a negative test result. They outright lied about the kittens being vet-checked. The humane society reported the animal control center for having poor living conditions and ended up having to euthanize over 100 animals due to the same sickness that took our little Gizmo's life. Plus the person running animal control was fired, and the entire organization was restructured. We were on the news over the whole ordeal, so it was a long story. But you're right, the humane societies do the best they can and rely on people like us to donate whatever we possibly can to help them continue their good work. So thank you for emphasizing that point.
in my case, the humane society and animal control is basically the same thing, they run out of the same building and everything, they go hand in hand.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #16

hardtopvette

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
20
Purraise
1
Location
Lake Zurich, IL
I just got off the phone with the lady from the Humane Society where she just got the blood test results back from the vet. Im still a bit shocked now because what she told me was certainly not what I expected. My little kitten has a fatal disease called FIP virus and she is dying
She doesnt know for for sure but since my kitten is already in the stages of not eating she says maybe another week left. I dont know what to do now :-(

Here is a picture of my little girl...
 

Moz

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2006
Messages
3,244
Purraise
708
Location
Canada
Originally Posted by Hardtopvette

I just got off the phone with the lady from the Humane Society where she just got the blood test results back from the vet. Im still a bit shocked now because what she told me was certainly not what I expected. My little kitten has a fatal disease called FIP virus and she is dying
She doesnt know for for sure but since my kitten is already in the stages of not eating she says maybe another week left. I dont know what to do now :-(

Here is a picture of my little girl...
That is horrible!
 

spiritedstef

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
136
Purraise
1
Location
Southern Indiana
Originally Posted by Hardtopvette

I just got off the phone with the lady from the Humane Society where she just got the blood test results back from the vet. Im still a bit shocked now because what she told me was certainly not what I expected. My little kitten has a fatal disease called FIP virus and she is dying
She doesnt know for for sure but since my kitten is already in the stages of not eating she says maybe another week left. I dont know what to do now :-(

Here is a picture of my little girl...
I'm so sorry. We lost my 2 year old Morgan Wednesday to what looks like FIP. We have 12 others that have been exposed, and there's no cure, so we're terrified right now. I know what you are going through. It's horrible.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20

hardtopvette

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
20
Purraise
1
Location
Lake Zurich, IL
Wow very sorry to hear about that spritedstef. I hope the rest of your cats will be ok.

I ended up going to the Humane Society one last time to see her just a bit ago. When I got there she was already having seizures :-( wasnt the prettiest site so we both knew it was time for her. Atleast now she is in a better place. It still blows my mind how fast this all happened. Just the other day she was walking around my house and now she is gone


5/16/06 - 8/26/06 rip Jaxi
 
Top