Hello,
I recently began volunteering to take care of some shelter cats in my area. They come from other shelters and so I'd imagine they could have all kinds of things happening with them but most commonly (as in, almost always) the kittens we get are sick - sneezing, coughing, sneezing blood, sneezing phlegm and blood, runny eyes, diarrhea, and then the whole kennel gets it from people coming in and going from cage to cage, cleaning improperly, or not having enough of the proper supplies to clean properly.
I want to do more for them as when I see this my only recourse is to call the rescue group that sponsors them (which have been great but are sooooo busy) or tell the retail store that promotes their adoptions, whose staffing ranges from excellent to poor, running the gamut of manager to people who are "just there and don't care". As a result, they are often unreliable unless you have the good fortune of accessing a (real) manager.
My concern is, being as overwhelmed as everyone is, that a cat or kitten will pass because information got dropped somewhere along the way.
Does anyone know what these symptoms usually mean and what to do about them? I am not allowed to administer anything to the cats but I really want to know if there's something I can do for them while I am there.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
I recently began volunteering to take care of some shelter cats in my area. They come from other shelters and so I'd imagine they could have all kinds of things happening with them but most commonly (as in, almost always) the kittens we get are sick - sneezing, coughing, sneezing blood, sneezing phlegm and blood, runny eyes, diarrhea, and then the whole kennel gets it from people coming in and going from cage to cage, cleaning improperly, or not having enough of the proper supplies to clean properly.
I want to do more for them as when I see this my only recourse is to call the rescue group that sponsors them (which have been great but are sooooo busy) or tell the retail store that promotes their adoptions, whose staffing ranges from excellent to poor, running the gamut of manager to people who are "just there and don't care". As a result, they are often unreliable unless you have the good fortune of accessing a (real) manager.
My concern is, being as overwhelmed as everyone is, that a cat or kitten will pass because information got dropped somewhere along the way.
Does anyone know what these symptoms usually mean and what to do about them? I am not allowed to administer anything to the cats but I really want to know if there's something I can do for them while I am there.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!