Bear with me, please. This is long, and I am anxious/panicking a little.
A friend who's moving found kittens living on her property, but the mother was deceased. They tried to raise the kittens and lost two and asked me to take care of the other two kittens for them. I took them in, having no idea what I was getting myself into but being an animal lover. They were about 3-4 weeks old but weighed 7.3 and 6.5 lbs. I took them to a vet who said they'd be fine and told me how to get their weights up.
One kitten had an eye infection. Both kittens fell over very, very easily and would fall while trying to walk. They were both very weak, and they didn't do much walking or exploring. They meowed when hungry but wouldn't take food from a dish or my finger and had to be syringe fed. So, obviously, this was a lot of work. My whole family got involved, as we have 5 very young kids who also need a ton of attention.
3 days after the kittens joined our family (today), the larger, healthier kitten took a sudden turn and became extremely lethargic. I could sit her up, but she would lay herself back down. We rushed both to a different vet where we were told that they're extremely sick and have neurological issues, possibly a virus, were half the weight they should be, and that since they were so sick and in so much pain, euthanasia was the kindest option.
I assumed it was something like distemper, as we had two distemper survivors decades ago, and one fell over frequently. I was devastated, of course I didn't think much into it. We didn't do any tests or anything, just listened to the vet and followed through, not wanting them to suffer. When my wife told my sister in law (a former vet tech), she said it could be rabies. Is that true?! I'm already so upset to lose these kittens, but my five kids were all over them, feeding them, holding them, handling their food, etc. My baby even stuck the syringe in her mouth once while I was cleaning the kittens after a feeding. Ugh. I just couldn't get to her in time to stop her. What do you think the next step should be? I don't want to run out and start getting my whole family vaccinated if that's unnecessary!
A friend who's moving found kittens living on her property, but the mother was deceased. They tried to raise the kittens and lost two and asked me to take care of the other two kittens for them. I took them in, having no idea what I was getting myself into but being an animal lover. They were about 3-4 weeks old but weighed 7.3 and 6.5 lbs. I took them to a vet who said they'd be fine and told me how to get their weights up.
One kitten had an eye infection. Both kittens fell over very, very easily and would fall while trying to walk. They were both very weak, and they didn't do much walking or exploring. They meowed when hungry but wouldn't take food from a dish or my finger and had to be syringe fed. So, obviously, this was a lot of work. My whole family got involved, as we have 5 very young kids who also need a ton of attention.
3 days after the kittens joined our family (today), the larger, healthier kitten took a sudden turn and became extremely lethargic. I could sit her up, but she would lay herself back down. We rushed both to a different vet where we were told that they're extremely sick and have neurological issues, possibly a virus, were half the weight they should be, and that since they were so sick and in so much pain, euthanasia was the kindest option.
I assumed it was something like distemper, as we had two distemper survivors decades ago, and one fell over frequently. I was devastated, of course I didn't think much into it. We didn't do any tests or anything, just listened to the vet and followed through, not wanting them to suffer. When my wife told my sister in law (a former vet tech), she said it could be rabies. Is that true?! I'm already so upset to lose these kittens, but my five kids were all over them, feeding them, holding them, handling their food, etc. My baby even stuck the syringe in her mouth once while I was cleaning the kittens after a feeding. Ugh. I just couldn't get to her in time to stop her. What do you think the next step should be? I don't want to run out and start getting my whole family vaccinated if that's unnecessary!
