Hi All
Just joined up here as I really need some advice! It's a long one!
We've had our female kittens for 3 weeks now and got them thru a private seller - pretty sure we did them a favour as the house was a mess and stank! The poor girls really stank of cat wee! Anyway, the seller said they were 8 and a half weeks old altho we (and our vet) thinks they were a little younger, more along the lines of 7 weeks. We named them Misty (grey and white) and Mittens (black and white)
Sooooo, we brought them home and kept a litter box in our living room, along with their food dishes on the opposite side of the room - all the right things for settling in a kitten to a new home. The seller we bought them from gave me a tin of the food they'd been eating and it was ADULT cat food! Hence we changed that straight away to kitten food. With hindsight, I should have done that gradually but I was keen to get them on the correct food for their ages. They seemed fine with this change and devoured their food at regular intervals. We always made sure there was a bowl of food, kitten biscuits and also fresh water so they could eat whenever they wanted. After about 4 or 5 days, Misty started to develop soft stools which rapidly changed to diarrhea. By the time we had them a week, Misty was very quiet and lethargic. Not herself at all. It was the weekend (bank holiday as well!) but she got so bad that we took her to an emergency vet on the Bank Holiday Monday. He gave her an antibiotic injection as well as 40ml of saline solution and also gave us some Synulox (sp?) to give her for the next 5 days which we did religiously.
We had an appointment at our regular vet the day after bank holiday as the kittens were scheduled to get their vaccinations (which the vet decided to put off for now) so took them both down and asked what we could do to help with the diarrhea. We were advised chicken and rice rather than their wet food. We were also given a worming tablet to share between them as they were too light for the stuff that goes on the back of the neck.
We started doing this and still there was no change. After 3 days on the antibiotics, we rang the vet and said that there was no change with Misty's diarrhea and Mittens had started getting soft stools, even tho she was also eating the chicken and rice! They gave us a binding pro biotic paste to try which we did with Misty as she was the worst. This didnt really help either and in the mean time, Mitten's had developed diarrhea, so we tried giving her the paste as well. She spent the following day very quiet, no appetite and very listless. A week had gone by since their last vet visit and they were due to go back to see if they were well enough for their vaccinations, but because MIttens had gotten unwell, the jabs were put off again for the following week. The vet decided that Mittens was ok and was probably just fighting off a viral thing and would more than likely get better on her own. During the course of that day, she got worse, and hadnt eaten for 24 hours and we were at our witsend with the whole situation. We rang the vet again in the morning and it was a different one who said to bring her down straight away, which we did. She was given a long acting antibiotic shot, 7ml of saline and a vitamin b12 injection. He said she should start feeling better within 24 hours. The same evening she was almost back to her usual self. Still with runny poo but much more active and actually eating!
*phew*! Sooooo here we are to this weekend - today .... Misty still has VERY soft poo, almost diarrhe-like, and Mittens does too and actually seems lethargic again with a reduced appetite. Both were fine in themselves till this morning. Misty is still bouncing around like your average kitten but Mittens just seems like she cant be bothered. Food wise, they're still on the chicken and rice, atlho once both kittens started firming up, I started mashing a few small chunks of their kitten food into the chicken and rice.
It almost seems like they could both do with another round of antibiotics as they're obviously still fighting something, especially Mittens.
Both kittens have their vaccinations appointment on Tuesday and they'll be seen by the vet who told us that Mittens would be fine and was probably fighting something viral, so I know for sure she'll probably say the same thing, even with the events of last week!
Do we insist on a second opinion if she says the kittens are fine? Is it the re-introduction of the kitten food (even tho it's such a small amount) Could they do with another round of anti biotics?
We really dont know what to do and these multiple vet appointments are costing an absolute fortune! The bank holiday emergency appointment pretty much wiped us out, the costs were horrendous!
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Just joined up here as I really need some advice! It's a long one!
We've had our female kittens for 3 weeks now and got them thru a private seller - pretty sure we did them a favour as the house was a mess and stank! The poor girls really stank of cat wee! Anyway, the seller said they were 8 and a half weeks old altho we (and our vet) thinks they were a little younger, more along the lines of 7 weeks. We named them Misty (grey and white) and Mittens (black and white)
Sooooo, we brought them home and kept a litter box in our living room, along with their food dishes on the opposite side of the room - all the right things for settling in a kitten to a new home. The seller we bought them from gave me a tin of the food they'd been eating and it was ADULT cat food! Hence we changed that straight away to kitten food. With hindsight, I should have done that gradually but I was keen to get them on the correct food for their ages. They seemed fine with this change and devoured their food at regular intervals. We always made sure there was a bowl of food, kitten biscuits and also fresh water so they could eat whenever they wanted. After about 4 or 5 days, Misty started to develop soft stools which rapidly changed to diarrhea. By the time we had them a week, Misty was very quiet and lethargic. Not herself at all. It was the weekend (bank holiday as well!) but she got so bad that we took her to an emergency vet on the Bank Holiday Monday. He gave her an antibiotic injection as well as 40ml of saline solution and also gave us some Synulox (sp?) to give her for the next 5 days which we did religiously.
We had an appointment at our regular vet the day after bank holiday as the kittens were scheduled to get their vaccinations (which the vet decided to put off for now) so took them both down and asked what we could do to help with the diarrhea. We were advised chicken and rice rather than their wet food. We were also given a worming tablet to share between them as they were too light for the stuff that goes on the back of the neck.
We started doing this and still there was no change. After 3 days on the antibiotics, we rang the vet and said that there was no change with Misty's diarrhea and Mittens had started getting soft stools, even tho she was also eating the chicken and rice! They gave us a binding pro biotic paste to try which we did with Misty as she was the worst. This didnt really help either and in the mean time, Mitten's had developed diarrhea, so we tried giving her the paste as well. She spent the following day very quiet, no appetite and very listless. A week had gone by since their last vet visit and they were due to go back to see if they were well enough for their vaccinations, but because MIttens had gotten unwell, the jabs were put off again for the following week. The vet decided that Mittens was ok and was probably just fighting off a viral thing and would more than likely get better on her own. During the course of that day, she got worse, and hadnt eaten for 24 hours and we were at our witsend with the whole situation. We rang the vet again in the morning and it was a different one who said to bring her down straight away, which we did. She was given a long acting antibiotic shot, 7ml of saline and a vitamin b12 injection. He said she should start feeling better within 24 hours. The same evening she was almost back to her usual self. Still with runny poo but much more active and actually eating!
*phew*! Sooooo here we are to this weekend - today .... Misty still has VERY soft poo, almost diarrhe-like, and Mittens does too and actually seems lethargic again with a reduced appetite. Both were fine in themselves till this morning. Misty is still bouncing around like your average kitten but Mittens just seems like she cant be bothered. Food wise, they're still on the chicken and rice, atlho once both kittens started firming up, I started mashing a few small chunks of their kitten food into the chicken and rice.
It almost seems like they could both do with another round of antibiotics as they're obviously still fighting something, especially Mittens.
Both kittens have their vaccinations appointment on Tuesday and they'll be seen by the vet who told us that Mittens would be fine and was probably fighting something viral, so I know for sure she'll probably say the same thing, even with the events of last week!
Do we insist on a second opinion if she says the kittens are fine? Is it the re-introduction of the kitten food (even tho it's such a small amount) Could they do with another round of anti biotics?
We really dont know what to do and these multiple vet appointments are costing an absolute fortune! The bank holiday emergency appointment pretty much wiped us out, the costs were horrendous!
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
x
