Room to Grow

From Susan’s Best Friends Network Blog, The Cat Garden.

Big trip to the vet last night. In the morning, I noticed a little bubbling at the mouth of one of the new kittens from the park, now named after the Stooges, Larry, Curly (he has a curly tail!), and Moe. I suspected Calici virus, so we took all three to the vet, and he confirmed. They’re eating well, and playing actively, but the vet showed me their ulcerated tongues. The vet is recommending a course of antibiotics, but Interferon for three days is the preferred treatment. As it costs $120 per kitten, we’re looking around to see if we can find a better price. Next on the vet visit were Hinata and Naruto, who had their poop tested to see if we’ve cleared up the coccidium. No evidence remaining, so we vaccinated and they are ready to go to the Cat Cafe on Sunday. Elroy went to have his blood and poop tested. Negative on FIV/FELV, but positive on coccidium, so we’ll start his course of treatment on that. His potential new owner has a cat that is quite old, and it has suddenly become ill, so he’d like to wait a bit anyway. Brought poop from the other kittens to be tested to see how their various treatments are going, so I’ll have to wade through the long mail that the vet sent, regarding results, and decide who needs what after that. Davy’s infected area looks pretty bad this morning, although he seems completely unfazed by it. At least his diarrhea is cleared up, so we don’t have to worry about that making the issue worse. The vet is closed today, so we’ll put some isojine (not sure what that is in English!) on it and try to get him back in tomorrow. Peter (Davy’s brother) has diarrhea this morning, so he had a bath and heated towel dry. We moved Judy and Mimi (new name of little black kitten) to a big cage, and they cannot stop racing around. They’re the smallest of the bunch so had to make due with a small cage, but Takako’s mom donated a new cage, and we rearranged the room to fit it in. There go the shelves, but honestly which is better, shelf space or happy kittens? Ritsuko called with another abandonment at the park–4 kittens, 1 month old–so David is on his way out now to pick them up. I think that Maggie and the herbs will be going out to foster care on Friday, so we should be able to make it through the next couple of days in cramped quarters.