these 5 kitties were found by Kassie Hagen at the barn where she rides horse, so she and her mom delivered them to me on Saturday night, April 25th. It appears they are from 2 different litters. The 2 orange tabbies and the brown tabby are about 5 weeks old. The two tiny black striped kittens are only 2-3 weeks old
Tue, 5 May 2009 18:19
Hi there friends and supporters,
It is with great sadness that I must report that for the first time in 3 years and 201 rescued cats, we have a confirmed case of distemper (panleukopenia) in a kitten. Tongo was outwardly healthy for the first 8 days he was here, but on Sunday morning, he suddenly fell quite ill. We treated him and kept him as comfortable as possible, but by Monday afternoon, he was too far gone to hold out any hope for survival, so I helped him make a trip up to Heaven, by humanely euthanizing him at the vet.
His littermates, Elegance and Unicef, are living in separate cages, so I can monitor how much each of them is eating, drinking, peeing or pooping. The other 3 kittens (Gemma, Hallie and Woofer) are doing fine, still sharing a cage. For those who have visited the rescue workshop in the past week and seen the kittens: Thanks for all your help with them in the last week,and I wish I could still let volunteers come over, but it is shut for now. Quarantine is required to diminsh risk of contamintaion. We don't want the sickness to spread, but the volunteers shouldn't have to worry about bringing it home to their cats, as long as those cats are up to date on vaccines
It is with great sadness that I must report that for the first time in 3 years and 201 rescued cats, we have a confirmed case of distemper (panleukopenia) in a kitten. Tongo was outwardly healthy for the first 8 days he was here, but on Sunday morning, he suddenly fell quite ill. We treated him and kept him as comfortable as possible, but by Monday afternoon, he was too far gone to hold out any hope for survival, so I helped him make a trip up to Heaven, by humanely euthanizing him at the vet.
His littermates, Elegance and Unicef, are living in separate cages, so I can monitor how much each of them is eating, drinking, peeing or pooping. The other 3 kittens (Gemma, Hallie and Woofer) are doing fine, still sharing a cage. For those who have visited the rescue workshop in the past week and seen the kittens: Thanks for all your help with them in the last week,and I wish I could still let volunteers come over, but it is shut for now. Quarantine is required to diminsh risk of contamintaion. We don't want the sickness to spread, but the volunteers shouldn't have to worry about bringing it home to their cats, as long as those cats are up to date on vaccines
Friday, May 8th
Unicef has joined his brother Tongo at the Rainbow Bridge. I will miss him so much! Unicef was doing farily well when he went to the vet yesterday afternoon, but upon arriving home he suddenly took a turn for the worse. He wouldn't eat anymore, got very tired and lethargic, then started vomiting bile. Over 24 hours he lost a lot of weight, could not even keep waer or Pedialite down, and had constant mucous coming from his poor sore little bum. Last night his fever skyrocketed to 40.3 degrees Celsius, so this morning I decided to bring him to the vet for IV fluids, instead of giving subcutaneous fluids every few hours. As soon as the kind doctor saw him, she shook her head and said, "No, Sonya" She knew he couldn't handle the trauma of having an IV needle stuck in his leg, the veins are too tiny , dehydrated and collapsed. I took a few moments to say goodbye to him, kiss him goodbye, and then I held Unicef while the vet gave the needle to end his pain and suffering.
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