Recent Content by Caroline Stephens

Pet stores selling animals does not equal breeder. I am sure this isn’t true 100% of the time, but pets for sale in pet shops tend to come from the “bad” breeders, think puppy mill type places. I can’t imagine ever shipping off a litter of my kittens to an unknown fate, without the ability to...

Okay, one more update post -and hopefully, mystery of my surviving kitten‘s illness has been solved! Going to break this up into 3 updates. Update #1: My surviving kitten went to Ohio State University eight days ago. Everything looked good. They said not a chicken allergy as another vet...

I had the fecal PCR a test on the sick kitten recently. Negative for tritrichomonas, as well as all parasites. I may other cats tested as a precaution but I don’t think this is the problem. They’ve been blood typed - no incompatibilities. I think you’re on to something maybe, with looking...

Update: my remaining kitten is still perfectly healthy - no diarrhea or other symptoms. I really think that tiny bit of diarrhea was just due to dietary changes. Test results came back. No parasites again - he’d already been tested for those twice. Negative for almost everything. Positive for...

Thank you for this information - I probably would never have thought of that and I really feel like this could be the problem. Now that I think about it, the same few catteries appear a lot on my cats’ 5 generation pedigrees. No obvious inbreeding but like you said, it might not be so obvious...

I’ve got a positive update! My kitten pooped normal today, no diarrhea! Never thought I’d be so glad for solid poop. Still keeping a close eye on him, of course, but tentatively hopeful his previous diarrhea was just a fluke and everything will turn out all right with him. Still waiting on...

My vet doesn’t think it was FIP but hasn’t ruled it out. She didn’t want to start antibiotics on kitten 1 because she said it can worsen diarrhea and make intestinal problems more severe, but maybe now with kitten 2 the benefits would outweigh the risks? I’m not sure but will discuss it with...

The vet said the symptoms don’t quite match, but that it could be a possibility. The pending test will show if the coronavirus that can cause FIP was present in the kitten… but even if it was present, that doesn’t mean the illness was FIP. Luckily I have a great vet, and she says if it came back...

Still waiting for some tests to come back, and hoping they will reveal what happened - especially since his brother now has some diarrhea too so I am worried.

He didn’t make it. He was hospitalized for about a week. Worst part is, no answer on what went wrong.

The veterinarians are all baffled by this, and so am I. If anyone has any ideas on what this could be, please let me know. I will make a timeline including symptoms below. Kittens were 7 weeks at first symptom onset in kitten 1. Monday (March 27th): One of my two kittens had some diarrhea...

First signs of illness started 2 days ago, when his appetite decreased and he lost about 20 grams as of that morning. He showed less interest in the wet food and his mother is not allowing the kittens to nurse much. Yesterday, the diarrhea started - liquid. Later on, he vomited and we took him...

I can’t just believe it’s all coincidence anymore… I’m convinced there’s some mystery illness within my cats. I am new to breeding bengals (and cats in general), and thought maybe someone here with more experience might lead me to some answers. My first litter was two stillborn and undersized...

I have heard many different opinions on this, and was wondering what you all do and why. Personally, I handle from day one as my bengal Trinity permits. She has a litter of four right now (born on the 21st), and I handle them briefly for weighing and gentle touching while they nurse. I am...