Elephants Blog

Someone told me today my blog was depressing. Perhaps it is. Tonight it got a little more depressing. Robyn took a nose dive. She really went south fast, and I knew it was time. We took her to the shelter and they put her to sleep there. I know we did all we could for her. She mustered up one last purr for Bentley as we were leaving. She really loved that dog.

The 3 we still have here seem to be fine. I spent about an hour with them, playing with their favorite toy, the cat charmer. First though, I let them out to run up and down the hall. They love to run from the bedroom to the bathroom, as fast as they can. When one surprises the other, there is a straight up leap, and both head back in different directions. Sully is really good at "catching air." These photos are a little blurry...the camera focused on the dresser unfortunately, but you get the idea. They love to be out of the kitty room.

Some good signs, some not so good.

Good sign? No vomit this morning. Not so good sign? Didn't eat much this morning. Good sign? No bloody stool. Not so good sign? 3 drips of liquid poop. Good sign? Said stool was more brown than red. You get the picture. Robyn is holding her own, but she is lonesome for her foster siblings. I am keeping her separate from them, so she doesn't pass on to them what she has. She misses them. When she hears them mewing , she looks for them. I let Bentley fill in for them. She adores him. Rubs all over him. When I am here, I try to keep her close to me, but she really wants to be with her animal family more.

I wonder if I am doing the right thing. I keep hoping I will know the time when I should make that decision no one wants to make. Right now I think we are doing the right thing. Robyn is a fighter, and she loves attention. I will be giving it to her as long as possible.

Not outta the woods yet...

When I got home this afternoon, there was a huge wet vomit spot on my sweat jacket that Robyn had decided to claim as her favorite place to sleep. Mostly water, but she was drinking water when I left this morning, and perhaps she over loaded on it. She ate a lot for breakfast, the only real solid food she has had since Sunday afternoon. She is still lethargic, but still manages to get excited when she sees Bentley. I got 10mls of fluid in her this afternoon without much of a struggle.Gonna give some more tonight. As long as she is trying, I will try.

Still have not seen a BM, so I think that might be good news. Hopefully she will be feeling better tomorrow morning.

I am feeling guilty that the others have not gotten as much attention as they should be getting since Robyn is taking up so much of my time. I will take the bottle of Metro back downstairs, and come back up and play with them for a while before I hit the hay.

A Miracle?

Let's face it. Yesterday Robyn pretty much got a death sentence. Panleukopenia is a diagnosis that strikes fear in the hearts of shelter's and catteries everywhere. It is highly contagious, and it can live a long time on surfaces. It's hard to kill, only bleach or trifectant can kill it.

Last night, Robyn was still lethargic, and hadn't really eaten since Sunday afternoon. I force fed her KMR, which is the formula for bottle babies. I figured it was full of nutrition, and maybe she could keep it down. I gave her canned food, mixed with water and added some nutri-cal for good measure. Metro for the diarrhea, along with the kaopectate for good measure. I was going to do anything I could to save her.

Just before I went to bed, I gave her the last dose of Metro for the night, thinking I had done all I could do. She proceeded to projectile vomit everything I had given her up on me, and anything else in sight. It was pretty much liquid, the KMR I had forced in her. Needless to say, I was not feeling very hopeful when I finally went to bed.

When I got up this morning, I went in to feed the other 3 first. I moved Robyn into my office to isolate her from the others, since they were not showing signs of Panleukopenia, and I want to keep it that way. They all 3 tried to crash the gate when I opened the door. I caught them all and pushed them back in the room,and put a can of food down. They all rushed the bowl of food, and I had a much easier time getting out of there than I did getting in.

Before I even opened my office door, I heard crying. I opened the door, and there was Robyn, crying, trying to get out! This was not the same kitten I left in there last night. She was frantic, and purring, and still crying when I picked her up. I went out and got a can of food, but she had food in her bowl from last night, so I wasn't sure what she wanted. Well, she must not have realized the food was there, because I opened the can, and she couldn't even wait for me to get it in the bowl. I chunked it up a bit, and she jumped on me and started to eat it out of the can! She ate quite a bit this morning, and she ate with gusto.

She is now sitting on my desk in her little bed, purring away, belly full. I will give her another dose of Metro before I go to work, and see if I can get some fluids in her, but I am amazed at the difference. Her belly was hard last night, and you could almost see her intestines under the skin. This morning, the belly is soft, normal looking. She seems like she feels a lot better. She ate! No bloody stools over night. No stool at all yet.

Yeah, I am thinking it's a miracle.

More bad news

Well, the vet came to see Robyn today, and she didn't have much good news. They think there is a possibility she has Feline panleukopenia. It's not good, and has a high mortality rate. She is lethargic, and dehydrated, not eating and has bloody stool. (Sorry for all the poop talk, but welcome to my life!)

I am keeping her at least for the night, and we will see how she does before we make any decisions. I am going to really pump her with medication, fluids and basically force feed her to see if we can beat this thing. She seems to feel a bit better after some meds earlier today, and a huge dose of subQ fluids. She has been in my office with me this afternoon, and has been rubbing all over me, climbing up on on my shoulder, purring her head off.

She might not feel good, but she can't get enough of Bentley. Here is how she greeted him this afternoon.

The clean up...and more Robyn issues

Well, I just scrubbed the floor in the kitty room. What a mess. All clean now, drying. I have the itty bitties in my office, while the floor is drying, and they are having a grand time, knocking stuff off my desk, and wreaking havoc. All except Robyn. She is pretty lethargic. Not eating. I am concerned. Couldn't get an appointment today, so I am trying for tomorrow. She doesn't seem dehydrated, but she is not the active little kitty she was on Thursday. Hoping for the best...

I can hear her poor little stomach growling. Hopefully the kaopectate I gave her will help. She did eat a little this evening, and managed to play a little tug-o-war with the others. They got a new kitty condo. Not brand new, but new to them. I chucked the old one. It was falling apart, and smelled a little funky. They love the new one. I found Natalie in the basket, Reuben on top of the "box" and Robyn in the teepee when I came back in to check on Robyn.

Back to the grind.

Well, I am back from my little trip. I had multiple updates while I was gone, and all went well for the itty bitties under Susan's watch. Unfortunately, I fed them 2 cans of food when I got home, and left the room. When I went back in at 8:00, there was liquid poop everywhere, and I think some vomit too. I cleaned it up, and checked out all the "guests." Everyone was their usual crazy selves...except Robyn. I guess she just totally overloaded. Huge mistake on my part. She didn't eat last night, and didn't eat breakfast either. Now it's back to the vet for her. She is about ready to go back and go on view for adoption too. I will try some chicken and rice for her this afternoon, and see if she will eat anything. If not, I will wisk her off to the vet. I will probably be spending a couple of hours cleaning up the kitty room. Time for a scrub down and mopping.