Here's their sad story......I rescused two sickly 6 week old siblings from a well meaning but basically incompetent and disgusting family about 3 months ago. The mother cat (who is also sick) had a litter of 4 and only two survived, but just barely. When I rescused them, one kitten had no eyes because they were infected, bleeding, pulpy meat and he had no body hair due to severe ringworm. His brother's eyes were infected ahd he also had ringworm. Their conditions were so severe that I expected to find dead kittens the next day. I brought them home and cared for them through 6 weeks of ringworm treatments (3x a week baths, daily medicine, weekly lyme dip). For those of you familar with this fungus, it's a nightmare to treat because it's so infectious (I have a dog and a toddler at home). Of course, they had every other kinds of worms -- tape, hook, round, and scabies.
After an intensive care by me (thank goodness I was taking a work sabbitical), which took the form of eye removal for the first cat (Norbu), very costly middle of the night emergency room visit for his brother(Yama) for respitory infection, and various vet visits, which all tallied over $3,500, I feel like I now have healthy, adorable almost 5 month old kittens.
BUT.....here's where I despair and need experienced cat owner's advice. They can't seem to poop without stepping on it. First the blind cat Norbu. He poops and tries to cover it but in the process of turning around to cover, he steps in it. His brother Yama is better about it (maybe because he's not blind?) but always has poop stuck to his bottom and his fur. I cut the fur around his bottom but it doesn't help. I found him yesterday with poop stuck to his head. Every day is poop clean up or baths. I feel like my house is contaminated, even though I keep them in the kitchen when I can't be with them. No one is allowed in the kitchen because they track poop all over the floor. Today, Yama used the litter and was running around and rolling on my couch with huge poop stuck all over his bottom. The blind cat Norbu stepped in his poop right before my dinner and I had to wash him. Needlessly to say, I was not hungry.
Expert cat owners....what do I do? I can't keep up this pace. They each poop 2x/day, which is 4 clean ups or baths. I'll be going back to work soon and I need to get this resolved. Obviously, they can't be let out when I'm not home. My job will be demanding and the last thing I want is to come home to a poopy house or kitchen, especially with a toddler. I feel like I invested so much time, energy and money, it'll be a complete waste to give them up. Even if I did, who would want kittens that is covered with s*** all the time. I adore them but this situation needs to get better asap because I can't handle this problem anymore, it's been too time consuming.
I look forward to your kind advise.
After an intensive care by me (thank goodness I was taking a work sabbitical), which took the form of eye removal for the first cat (Norbu), very costly middle of the night emergency room visit for his brother(Yama) for respitory infection, and various vet visits, which all tallied over $3,500, I feel like I now have healthy, adorable almost 5 month old kittens.
BUT.....here's where I despair and need experienced cat owner's advice. They can't seem to poop without stepping on it. First the blind cat Norbu. He poops and tries to cover it but in the process of turning around to cover, he steps in it. His brother Yama is better about it (maybe because he's not blind?) but always has poop stuck to his bottom and his fur. I cut the fur around his bottom but it doesn't help. I found him yesterday with poop stuck to his head. Every day is poop clean up or baths. I feel like my house is contaminated, even though I keep them in the kitchen when I can't be with them. No one is allowed in the kitchen because they track poop all over the floor. Today, Yama used the litter and was running around and rolling on my couch with huge poop stuck all over his bottom. The blind cat Norbu stepped in his poop right before my dinner and I had to wash him. Needlessly to say, I was not hungry.
Expert cat owners....what do I do? I can't keep up this pace. They each poop 2x/day, which is 4 clean ups or baths. I'll be going back to work soon and I need to get this resolved. Obviously, they can't be let out when I'm not home. My job will be demanding and the last thing I want is to come home to a poopy house or kitchen, especially with a toddler. I feel like I invested so much time, energy and money, it'll be a complete waste to give them up. Even if I did, who would want kittens that is covered with s*** all the time. I adore them but this situation needs to get better asap because I can't handle this problem anymore, it's been too time consuming.
I look forward to your kind advise.