At the 8:00 feeding last night, I picked up Schroder from the kitty pile only to discover to my dismay that he was dead! No warning- three hours prior, this orange boy was full of life and then he wasn’t. He had just passed because he was still warm and it is a mystery now if the other three will survive. Perhaps this is more than just the feline herpesvirus. Only time will tell. We are doing all we can for the remaining litter which consists of the female tortie: Star, and two orange boys, the runt Linus and the older, stronger Lionel. I thought if we would have lost any more of them it would have been Linus. Mike was really upset and wanting me to supply answers as to why Schroeder left us- I have no clue- that is why they call this fading kitten syndrome.

At 3:15 a.m. Murdoch temporarily stopped breathing. We brought him back with warming fluids, coffee shots and prayer. Between the two of us- we cuddled with him all night as he struggled to breathe. He could not or would not eat anything except after the warming fluids were administered, he did manage 2 ml of formula. But then he collapsed again. His breathing was labor intensive and I sat with him in the bathroom periodically with the shower running full heat. Not even the vaporizer gave him any relief.

At 8:00 this morning, we were at the vet’s office where it was determined his lungs were full of liquid and his days were numbered unless we could come up with the funds to transfer him to OSU Vet School where they would put him in an oxygen tank and administer fluids, antibiotics and pain killers for the duration of the viruses run. We are unfortunately not set up to have the funds available to go to these measures and because he was clearly suffering- we put him to sleep. On a flood of tears, this little black kitten who should have never been born was taken out of his torment. At least now, he can breathe, he can see and he can have the best that heaven has to offer him.

The other littermates are showing signs of being infected. My hope is the clavamox and other measures will stop this virus from also taking either their life, or their eyes.

This is Murdoch and he is one of the litter of bottle babies here. Since arriving here, his eye has been swollen and no amount of antibiotics or eye compresses was allowing the eye to open so the pus could drain. We were thinking it was conjuctivitess but normally that entails both eyes. He has been extremely lethargic for the last few days and yesterday his temperature plummeted to 93.4! I rushed him to the vet this morning where they examined him and told me that he is in pretty poor shape and his eye needs to be removed! The cornea has dissolved and the pupil has imploded and no pus was inside the socket just what the vet termed “A gruesome mess.”

He is only 7 weeks old and they want him on antibotics until Friday the day of the surgery. 🙁 The cost of this surgery will be around $700.00 on such a small kitten they have to be so careful on so many levels. CATS Inc., currently has in the Kitty-$304.63 if you can help us by sending us anything- we would welcome the gift with open arms. I am having deja vu here and wondering if One-Eyed Jack had a paw in this arrival here?

Here is Murdoch after the vet put numbing drops in his eye.

My initial thought when I saw the apple box on our front porch was “Oh wow! Who sent us some apples?” But when Quincy raced up to the box and started whining- I knew it just wasn’t apples. Instead, two new black kittens have now been taken to the vet, tested, dewormed and deflead. Because I am bottle feeding 8 right now, when I got back and settled down with the first wave of kittens, I asked my husband: “tell me again why I do this?” He replied: “Because your heart has a tail and it purrs.” That made me smile and I am still smiling. The new arrivals presented with slight fevers but suspect it is stress-induced from being stuffed into an apple box. They are on amoxy anyway and there is one boy and one girl about 2 months old.

And here are the bottle babies: Lionel, Linus, Schroeder, Treasure and Embers all from one litter-

And here is the second litter-

Her seizures were not only increasing in frequency since seeing the vet, but also in intensity. Instead of just lying helpless and shaking on the rug or floor, the seizures were now capitulating her airborne! When she landed, she would hit the wall, the floor, a table, whatever happened to be in her way. Quincy was alerting us to her seizures before they happened. It took a few minutes for me to figure out why Quincy was trying to grab my attention because sometimes, Quivers was clear in another room- but once I figured it out, I was able to just gather Quiv enfolded in my arms and all she would hit was the bottom of my chin and neck. 🙁  I just now took her in and asked Steve to release her from her torment. I am not a fan watching a kitten suffer and she was suffering. She would foam at the mouth like a Lawrence Welk bubble machine. It was unfair to ask her to remain in this world just because she was born into this world. Farewell sweet girl and run seizure free over the Bridge and into the arms of my son. He is waiting for you,

It has been determined that Quiver has toxoplasmosis and she has been put on mega doses of antibiotic and rest to see if the seizures and high fevers will resolve. I am glad to know that we didn’t have to let her pass from this world and I hope she starts feeling better soon. Linus the runt of the litter of the bottle babies has a really bad URI and conjunctivitis. Ointment and antibiotics for all the bottle babies=-

These babies lost their mom the other night when mom got hit on the road. According to the woman, the mom made it back to her babies and died that night while the babies were nursing. I got the call on them this morning and went to pick them up. Not shown in the photo are two black kitties and you can see the tortie but she was so hungry she thought the camera was food and kept biting my fingers!  They were of course crawling with fleas so they have been bathed and flea treated. Get the coffee going- every four hour feedings will now commence!

Although she has not had a seizure since the other night, it is clear that she hasn’t returned all the way back to us. She has been circling the living room, meowing incessantly. Feeding her doesn’t stop the meowing and she looks confused as if she doesn’t know exactly where or who she is at the moment. We have an appointment on Monday at 3:00 for her to be seen. She is going to need to be on phenobarbital her entire life and I did find out through our feline specialist that the frantic activity after her seizure was just a continuation of the seizure itself. They call it the post-ictal phase of the seizure. It doesn’t last, but it can vary in the symptoms every time it does occur.

One of my fosters has expressed an interest in taking her but the foster woman is elderly so I want to wait until the vet can see Quivers and give us a direction to go before deciding the next step. The woman has two previous fosters (which she ended up adopting). She is partially deaf and a bit reclusive staying at home most of the day. It might just be what Quivers needs because she’s getting the treatment from the other cats here which breaks my heart. Those of you who might remember the arrival of the 12 senior kitties from that hoarder a few years ago, Iris has one of those seniors and he looks so good after living with her. His eyes are almost all the way cleared up, he is plump but not fat (he has no teeth) and his coat is no longer oily and greasy. She boils him one chicken every week and feeds him by hand. 🙂

It’s 3 a.m. and Quivs just had a grand mal seizure. She was spent afterward and now is running like a crazy person all over the front room eating kitten kibble and spilling it everywhere. I cannot get her to calm down- her eyes are almost spinning and I jumped online to try and figure out if there is something I can give her to calm her. Holding her doesn’t work- she is all over the map.

I keep immaculate records anytime a kitten is sick. Here is the sequence of this morning’s events:

9/11/2015- woke to Quivers having a grand mal seizure under my bed. Grabbed a flashlight and watched as she lay on her back- legs straight out ahead of her (caught in the guard rails of the hospital bed) and shook and trembled- loss of urine and poop (solid) during episode. Seizure time less than a minute. Tongue out of the mouth- rapid breathing, eyes wide open, pupils fixed and dilated. Because of where she was located, all I could do was lie on my stomach and stroke her gently and talk her through it. Afterward, she shook herself and then shot out from under the bed and started running circles in the room. Almost as if she was chasing her tail . She was slapping at the air with her front paws and I was unable to hold her without her becoming extremely aggressive- which she is not. She ran to the food tray leaped into the middle of the tray and started gobbling food as if she were starving. She seemed to not know me or where she was- her pupils were still dilated, she was hot to the touch but taking her temperature not even an option. She was jerking in slow motion as she tried to eat. She would race away from the food bowl only to return a few seconds later to continue eating.

Took her about 20 minutes to calm herself down and the only way I could hold her was to wrap her in a towel and walk around the room. I could feel her jerking in my arms and the minute I stopped walking, she became agitated and aggressive to me. She only let me hold her about 5 minutes before jumping down and then she went off chasing invisible bugs (no other way to describe it) in the air. This continued for a few minutes until she crashed into a heap and slept. She is still sleeping where she collapsed. Total time of seizure activity 38 minutes. Will give her a bath later and clean her up and take her to the vet first thing in the morning.

Quivers arrived here on: Sept. 1, 2015  the woman said the kitten had been having 3 seizures a day and they didn’t know what to do. Eradicating all the damn fleas on this poor baby safely would have been a good start! My feline specialist said it best. It should be criminal for people not to kill fleas where there are so many methods to how they could do this safely. Unfortunately for Quivers, her last owners did not use their heads when it came to her care.

We owe a tremendous amount of monies to the vet right now- tremendous. But despite that, I will do all I can to get her help however this plays out in the end.

Yesterday, I put Quivers in with the other kittens and instead of ignoring her this time, ALL of them within an hour became extremely aggressive with her. I was in the room cleaning and keeping an eye out so she did not get hurt, but it was disturbing to say the least to watch 9 kittens including sweet Medora become aggressive toward this girl. Medora doesn’t even get aggressive with the catnip toys.

So Quivers is once again roaming the main house and at night, she will sleep in her cage in the living room. But based on the two visits with the other kittens, I suspect that there is something major going on with her. Perhaps her seizures will now be sporadic instead of daily as reported to me before. I don’t know but cats and kittens know when another is in trouble and they will avoid or attack the sickly one.

I can’t do bloodwork on her so all I can do is sit back and watch and wait and love her while she is here. One thing is for sure- she has courage and heart and a wonderful purrsonality.