Hi,
I care for a feral colony of cats in my neighborhood. I have TNR'd 25 + cats, taken care of a few litters of abandoned bottle babies, and rehomed quite a few in the past few years of living in my neighborhood.
I noticed a new cat coming to eat on my front porch, and initially I thought she was pregnant. Her belly was swollen, nipples pink, and she was very friendly and hungry. After a few days of following her, I realized she had already given birth. She looked a lot smaller than she did a few days prior. I found her nest of three kittens and took them all into my bathroom. The mama cat had stopped lactating and she just seemed so frail compared to a few days earlier. She wouldn't eat or drink, and the kittens kept trying to nurse but weren't getting anything from her.
A fellow cat caregiver took the mom cat to her home and I kept the kittens. I was feeding them KMR and noticed one kitten wasn't really responding to being fed. He seemed lethargic and disinterested. I basically was force feeding him and trying to feed him as much as his siblings were eating. The veternarians I took them to did a fecal and suspected coccidia, and though they didn't see anything in office, they insisted on sending out a sample to a lab and starting prophylactic albon treatment.
A day later, the lethargic boy had watery, bloody diarrhea. I had to work that day, so the caregiver friend took them to a vet she knew who immediately put the sick boy on fluids. Another vet eventually diagnosed him with Parvo and, due to his condition, suggested euthanasia. I couldn't be there to be a part of that decision and I hate that we had to let him go.
The other two kittens are not that energetic, but they were lethargic from the start. They're eating A/D now, diluted with plain pedialyte, with probiotics and a bit of goats milk added. They're also receiving Clavamox every 12 hours. I'm trying to feed them every 2-3 hours, even if they only take a small amount.
I am totally heart broken at this situation. The kittens have only been in one room of my house, but since I already have 4 cats in my home and, though they are UTD on all of their vaccines, I'm paranoid about transmission. Everything I can think of has been bleached cleaned, the kittens are quarantined inside a large dog crate inside of a closed spare bedroom, with zero contact with any of my cats. I've now been changing my clothes when entering/exiting the room, but I wasn't doing that last week when I was told they had coccidia. I washed all of my clothes and linens in DuPont Virkon antiviral tablet wash. I've thrown away all towels involved with the kittens and plan to throw away any others they're currently in contact with. I'm bleaching door handles, the bottoms of all the shoes I may have worn last week, the floor outside the room, etc etc... I've been waking up every 2-3 hours throughout the nights so I feel like I'm going insane.
I know the chances are slim for the kittens to survive, but I can't let them go when they're eating and walking around and sort of playing a bit. I have to give them a chance. The vets I've seen have been so blasé about the whole thing... I mean, they're feral kittens found outside in Baltimore City now diagnosed with Parvo, so of course the vets all think they're just going to die. To be honest I'm pretty upset that out of the three vet clinics they've been to, not one of them suggested testing for Parvo until a kitten was on the brink of death. I didn't even know Parvo was something a cat could get... I've only heard about dog Parvo.
I'm just trying to give these little guys a fighting chance regardless of the statistics. Anyway, I guess I'm writing here for any insight, advice, experience anyone might have with this.
Thank you in advance for reading all of this!
I care for a feral colony of cats in my neighborhood. I have TNR'd 25 + cats, taken care of a few litters of abandoned bottle babies, and rehomed quite a few in the past few years of living in my neighborhood.
I noticed a new cat coming to eat on my front porch, and initially I thought she was pregnant. Her belly was swollen, nipples pink, and she was very friendly and hungry. After a few days of following her, I realized she had already given birth. She looked a lot smaller than she did a few days prior. I found her nest of three kittens and took them all into my bathroom. The mama cat had stopped lactating and she just seemed so frail compared to a few days earlier. She wouldn't eat or drink, and the kittens kept trying to nurse but weren't getting anything from her.
A fellow cat caregiver took the mom cat to her home and I kept the kittens. I was feeding them KMR and noticed one kitten wasn't really responding to being fed. He seemed lethargic and disinterested. I basically was force feeding him and trying to feed him as much as his siblings were eating. The veternarians I took them to did a fecal and suspected coccidia, and though they didn't see anything in office, they insisted on sending out a sample to a lab and starting prophylactic albon treatment.
A day later, the lethargic boy had watery, bloody diarrhea. I had to work that day, so the caregiver friend took them to a vet she knew who immediately put the sick boy on fluids. Another vet eventually diagnosed him with Parvo and, due to his condition, suggested euthanasia. I couldn't be there to be a part of that decision and I hate that we had to let him go.
The other two kittens are not that energetic, but they were lethargic from the start. They're eating A/D now, diluted with plain pedialyte, with probiotics and a bit of goats milk added. They're also receiving Clavamox every 12 hours. I'm trying to feed them every 2-3 hours, even if they only take a small amount.
I am totally heart broken at this situation. The kittens have only been in one room of my house, but since I already have 4 cats in my home and, though they are UTD on all of their vaccines, I'm paranoid about transmission. Everything I can think of has been bleached cleaned, the kittens are quarantined inside a large dog crate inside of a closed spare bedroom, with zero contact with any of my cats. I've now been changing my clothes when entering/exiting the room, but I wasn't doing that last week when I was told they had coccidia. I washed all of my clothes and linens in DuPont Virkon antiviral tablet wash. I've thrown away all towels involved with the kittens and plan to throw away any others they're currently in contact with. I'm bleaching door handles, the bottoms of all the shoes I may have worn last week, the floor outside the room, etc etc... I've been waking up every 2-3 hours throughout the nights so I feel like I'm going insane.
I know the chances are slim for the kittens to survive, but I can't let them go when they're eating and walking around and sort of playing a bit. I have to give them a chance. The vets I've seen have been so blasé about the whole thing... I mean, they're feral kittens found outside in Baltimore City now diagnosed with Parvo, so of course the vets all think they're just going to die. To be honest I'm pretty upset that out of the three vet clinics they've been to, not one of them suggested testing for Parvo until a kitten was on the brink of death. I didn't even know Parvo was something a cat could get... I've only heard about dog Parvo.
I'm just trying to give these little guys a fighting chance regardless of the statistics. Anyway, I guess I'm writing here for any insight, advice, experience anyone might have with this.
Thank you in advance for reading all of this!