A New Realm of Fostering- Bottle Baby?!?

Hello blog readers, and greetings from Summersnowpocaylpse 2015.  Here in Rapid City tonight we are expecting over a foot of snow, and are under a blizzard warning.  Now would be a good time to appreciate your mosquitoes or deck or the shorts you are wearing.

Lots has happened here in Foster Land.  First, a few days after the Fairy Sisters, Ryan and I welcomed Dexter the Deployment Cat.

 Dexter's mom is in the Air Force and her plans for her big boy during a deployment fell through at the last minute (less than 2 days before her scheduled leave date!).  Ryan volunteered and Dexter joined us for a while here. 

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go and volunteer at one of the free spay and neuter clinics that is offered by OPP for Reservation residents.  It was a LONG few days (12 hours each!).  The vet that volunteers her time is amazing, and her family joins her to help with all other aspects.  We had a small team working intakes, surgery recovery, discharge, and wellness.  I learned how to vaccinate and de-worm cats and dogs, and we offered lots and lots of Frontline treatments.  Total counts for the two days:  64 spay and neuters (seriously, vet is a rock star), 55 wellness treatments, and 12 intakes for adoption.  I've always heard rumors about how when you volunteer at these clinics, you should really bring a kennel.  I laughed along with the others when one of the volunteers was sent home with four dogs the first day (they went to foster care shortly thereafter!).  What I wasn't prepared for was this:

Our director was standing outside helping load some animals, and someone drove up.  They handed her this kitten, said "We found this in a ditch", and drove away.  The day before, we had a really sad case of a little kitty that I helped care for that ended up not making it.  This baby was handed to me, someone said to find some milk for it, and there I was, a kitten surrogate. 

(Ryan doesn't always read this blog, right?)... there was an opportunity to send the kitten to someone else.  One of the volunteers was leaving to return home to Colorado and had offered transport, but she already had a handful of puppies (read: HUGE PUPPIES) in her car, as well as a very, very sick puppy.  Kitten was sort of stable (she was breathing), and before I knew it, I heard myself saying "I've got this one.  You can go ahead home."

And so began, the bottle kitten experience.  I was given all kinds of milk and syringes and warm things for her, and the director and I basically said "We'll see if she survives these next few weeks and then we'll reassess what to do with her."  With this baby, we were up to 7 cats and Pepper the Corgi at our house.  Oops.  Crazy cat lady status?  Check.

Pepper loves cats, so she was excited.





We estimated that the kitten was about 2-3 weeks old.  She weighed less than a half pound.  And I had no idea what I was doing.  I started reading everything I could, but, like the ringworm, there wasn't a whole lot of information that was informal or that reallllly helped.  The first few days I was scared I was doing everything wrong!!

We followed the directions on the milk replacement, picked up a bottle, and kept the baby clean and warm as much as possible.  I used warm water and soft clothes and helped her go to the bathroom before each feeding.  We weighed her a few times each day to make sure she was gaining.

My boss was very supportive.  I took her to work with me and fed her at all my breaks.  My coworkers were/are in love, and noticed how much she yelled when she was hungry.  Someone said "Feed me Seymour!!!!!", and I realized that Audrey, like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors, would make a GREAT name for her.

So everyone, a week later, meet Audrey.

Full disclosure, this was after I gave her a good wash-down and she spent some time under the heat lamp, so she's very fluffy looking.  She's gained 75 grams since Monday, and has started to play.  Her eyes, which were crusted over when we got her, look better and better each day.   Here's some more pictures of our lives since Audrey entered them.

In other news, Merriweather was adopted yesterday!!  Her sisters were on the news yesterday as Pets of the Week, so we are hoping someone is moved to want a kitten or two in their lives.  I'll try to get more pictures of them for the Facebook page (and for up here).  We'll keep on feeding and cleaning Audrey, hopefully helping her learn how to "cat" as time goes on.

So I'm off to start a warm dinner and to button down the hatches for the storm.  Cheers!

3 - 1 + 3 = 5

It was an interesting day in kitten fostering land today.  Lots of good news!  Egon went to his furever home this morning.  He was chosen to be an important mouser for his new dad, and I have no doubt that he will be a great one.  As before, it is bittersweet to see the cats go to a new house.  Egon was with us for three months, and changed so much!!  We will miss him and his crazy antics, and hope to have many updates.

A few hours later, we got the call for pickup for three adorable sister kittens!  These guys were found when they were only a few days old, very small, and very weak.  The great OPP bottle feeding family worked very hard, and now some weeks later, these girls are ready for the next steps!  This is the title for today's blog:  We started with 3 cats, went down to 2 with Egon's departure, then added 3, so we're up to 5!

Here are the Fairy Sisters arriving to their new (temporary) home!  I call them the Fairy Sisters because I was able to help name them, and chose the trio of fairies from Sleeping Beauty:  Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather.

As with other young kittens, it didn't take long for the girls to look around and start playing.  We have some good photos, snuggled them a bit, got them some food, and let them get to know their room for the night!  We will start them there, then introduce them to the resident pets in the next few weeks.  They will also have some vet visits here for shots, microchipping, and spaying.   I think they will be very cute guests for the next little while.

Introducing:

 Flora

Merriweather

Fauna

Skeptical kitten is skeptical.

I'll hope to update this as time goes on, but let's hope there's some good interest in these little ladies!!

Six weeks in- he's a new kitten!

Hello kitten lovers.  We've had a longer term guest with us for a while.  Six weeks to be exact!  We'll start from the beginning with him.

Egon was a kitten surrender.  We guess he was about five months old when we received him, so he should be about 6.5 months now.  He was tiny, and in okay physical shape.  There was a puppy and a grown dog also surrendered with him that were in terrible condition- they needed lots of medication for skin conditions and were very malnourished.

Egon was just terrified.  Of everything!  Noises, his food bowl, us, you name it.  He would just meow really loudly.  For the first two weeks, he spent most of his time like this:  
 

That's a padded box that Ryan made him to make him feel safe.  The good news was that even at the beginning, there was hope!  He didn't LIKE the human interaction, but we would have him sit in our laps, and he would end up purring.  Eventually, he started hanging out with both us and the older cats.  He began to look more like this:

That's him, sitting on my lap in the living room.  He was hyper aware of everything.  At this point he still didn't know how to play, but was better about receiving the human interaction and began to seek out the other cats on his on.

Move to about a month after (meaning, Egon today), and he's amazing!!

He's a beautiful cat with lots of personality.  He loves to be picked up and cuddled, and LOVES to antagonize the older cats.  He plays with whatever he can get his paws on, like all young cats should.  He sleeps with us every night.  He still has the cutest small paws!

We recently added a dog to our family, and Egon is the bravest cat out of the bunch so far. 

 
We will be really sad when he ends up being adopted because he has really turned in to the sweetest, affectionate cat.  We rarely hear his loud meow anymore, mostly because he's content with whatever he's doing.  He can stay as long as he likes, but we know he will make some very happy cat owners one day. 

The One in Which We Discuss Ringworm

Hello blog fans.  We've had some quiet times here on Foster Kitten Shenannigans, and that's because there has been a huge shenannigan to deal with!  I will document it here, in the hopes that someone may stumble across the blog needing advice and tips.

Here's the low-down.  In the beginning of November, I developed a small spot on my neck.  It was super itchy, but didn't seem THAT bad, and it never occurred to me that I could have ringworm.  In 2005, I was a teacher in Ethiopia, and actually had ringworm from my students a few times.  It manifested a bit differently, so didn't cross my mind that a kitten could have brought the scourge about the household.

Eddie showed no real signs that he had ringworm.  He was being quarantined because of ear mites and possible fleas, but we were not good at making sure he and the others were 100% separated.  They would play back and forth under the door, and towels meant to be a barrier did not stay there.  I did wash my hands after each time playing with Eddie, but he was SO lovey and reallllllly liked to snuggle right under your chin. 

Here's a cat picture to break up these block of texts.

November 14, I realized that Cedric had some strange spots, and after googling way too many things, decided to let OPP know that I had a strong suspicion that we had a ringworm outbreak in our midst.  By this time, I had developed more spots on my arms and under my own chin.

Eddie was tested the next day at the vet's office, and was positive for ringworm.  They gave us some Micanzole 2% cream to put on his nose.  Cedric was "clear" at that time.  We continued to keep them separate but in hindsight, should have made a more airtight quarantine space. I started treatment with lamisil (over the counter anti-fungal), twice a day. 

We continued with the cream treatment with Eddie, but in less than a week, all cats and humans began showing signs.  Poor Cedric.  He got it EVERYWHERE.  Tom, the big orange cat, lost all hair on his ears.  The cats were all banished together to the basement, where it was easier to clean.

I started the process upstairs.  For those with a possible outbreak- this was as bad as treating the cats- cleaning the house!  First, I cleaned the two rooms and used our extra vacuum.  Then, everything was scrubbed or sprayed with a bleach solution.  It was hard work, but I think stopped the initial spread.  Next, I changed my clothes every time I saw the cats, and every day wore different pants.  I used a different sheet each day.  Everything was washed with the hottest water cycle possible.  We also purchased a black light from Walmart, a long one.  For the most part, ringworm will show up neon green under a black light.  This was super helpful to see the progression.

I attempted to put cream on the cats' spots twice a day.  It didn't go so well, for any of us. Cats hated it, I hated it, and it didn't seem to be working!! Finally, I contacted the vet and convinced them to give us oral medication.  They got wet food with the medication once a day, and cream as well.  For anyone going through this, I highly recommend getting this as soon as possible.  The oral medication doesn't kill everything, though, and after almost two weeks on the medication and we didn't see any changes in the ringworm actually looking better on the cats.  I ordered Malaseb medicated shampoo, and we began washing the cats!  It was a two person process, as the cats had to be wetted and shampooed, and then they had to sit for ten minutes while the medication worked.  Here are some great pictures for you to enjoy, so you all can share the joy that the cats had.  Ryan and  I survived with all fingers.  The red lights were heat lamps that the kittens especially enjoyed.

Even though they were obviously not fans, the medicated shampoo and oral medication is what worked for us.  Ryan and I ended up with pretty severe spots ourselves, which took about a month of twice a day cream to start looking better.  The cats ended up with six weeks of medication and four total baths.

And now the good news:  Cedric had an adopter in November, and we were in the process of scheduling his transport when the outbreak happened.  Not only did this amazing lady wait for her sweet tuxedoed dude, she decided to take Eddie as well!!  The boys left today for their new life.  Even after all we've been through, I am thrilled that they were healthy enough to go to a new home and hope to keep in touch.  These two will be beautiful cats!!

So, as a recap for those that are just scrolling and couldn't make it all the way through:

-Ringworm can present itself in different ways.  (I think we'll be screening all intakes now :) ) Eddie's looked like a scuffed nose!  No itching.  He passed it to me and then everyone/every cat in the house.  It is highly contagious!
-Although it is a lot of work, a ringworm outbreak is not the end of the world.  Invest in bleach, laundry detergent, anti-fungal cream for humans, and oral medication for cats.  Medicated shampoo helped to turn the corner with us!!
-Wash everything all the time, in hot water.  Anything the cats touch should be disinfected with bleach daily.
-Use a vacuum you can also empty and use bleach on.
-Get ready for the long haul.  It takes time.

Finally, here are a few more snuggle pictures of the crew.  Our house will be quiet for a little bit now, although we hear that some other OPP fosters may need a change of scenery and join our crazy crew.  I'll keep you updated!

Different kittens, different personalities

Cedric (and big kitties) and Eddie are still separated, due to those pesky ear mites.  So far, it's interesting to see their personalities coming out!  One thing is for sure, they are both VERY social cats (for other cats and for people).

But, Cedric is snuggler.  Wants to be with you and near you at all times.  Note these two pictures, which basically happens every night at our house.  It's good he's going somewhere right before winter, because he's a little heater!!

And then there's spitfire Eddie.  He is SO vocal.  Just noisy!  Purrs and grunts and meows all the time!  And he goes, goes goes.  In the week that he's been with us, I'm not sure I've ever seen him sit, or be tired, or stop moving.  He climbs on EVERYTHING.  One of his favorite things to do is to climb up your leg/arm/torso, sit on your shoulder, and bite your ear.  And he's just scruffy!! His fur sticks up in all directions, and he is still very crazy about all things food.  Here are some of the few pictures we've gotten so far.

 Look at his tiny feet!!

This is very Eddie.  In your business, all the time.

Eddie took a trip to the vet, so Ryan had him in the carrier.  The boys had fun "seeing" each other, albeit briefly.

We're still working on getting better photos of Eddie.  This weekend is supposed to be beautiful weather, so hopefully an outside photoshoot will be in order!

New inmate- Eddie the kitten!

We are back up to two kittens!  Andrea at OPP got a call about another kitten at the dump a few days ago.  Eddie is full of spunk!

His loves:  Wet food. Climbing. Purring. 
Doesn't like:  Moving fingers.  Staying still.  Not too fond of round toys yet!

He's about eight weeks old, and due to having ear mites and rumors of a single flea, he's being quarantined in the third bedroom until he's healthy.  He will also get a bath. That doesn't stop Cedric (and the bigger cats at times) from talking to him through the door!  I'll try to get more photos, but like it says above, Eddie is a mover and shaker.  I need my photographer's sidekick (Ryan) to help.

 Cedric has done a LOT of this today!

Marie needs a bigger costume next year...

Cedric Fall Photo Shoot

It's been a while since I've posted.  Not because Cedric is boring, but life got in the way!  We had a few good pictures of him recently, but no real bites for adoption.  He is getting along SO well with the "Big Kitties" now (especially Tom).