Young Kitten With Several Issues - Possible Felv

[Antonio65]

This morning the white kitten was sneezing a lot, don't know if this is because last night I wiped her with three or four wet wipes because she still has a bad smell on her coat. She peed two or three times in her bed on the first day.
She sleeps and live in the corridor with all door closed, so it is unlikely that she got a cold from outside cold air. She has a radiator next to where she sleeps, the corridor is warm.

An hour ago I went home during my lunch break and she was alert and plyaful, but her nose was dirty with a yellow discharge, so it seems to me that she has a cold going on. Despite this she eats a lot, she can still smell her food.
Or this could be a second stage of her initial eyes/nose infection?

I'll send the photo to the last vet who visited her. Meanwhile any suggestion is welcome. Thanks a million!

 

[tabbytom]

Oh, poor gal, I hope whatever it is is treated early and well. I do t have any suggestions but all I can give her is lots of and hope she

 

[Antonio65]

The vet replied my emails and said that the swollen belly is likely due to parasites not yet killed by the Drontal pill. And they are also the reason for her hunger and appetite.
The nose discharge should be the result of the nebulizer that is beginning to make the mucus run.
In her opinion even her eye is much better than a week ago.

I'm torn between keep loving her because she'll be my cat to keep, or not get too attached to her becasue I'm going to give her away to someone who will give her the best she deserves

 

[Antonio65]

This morning it happened a very strange thing.
When I woke up the kitten was very loving and friendly, and would purr so loud that she could be heard from the next room. She wanted to be cuddled and wanted to play while waiting for her breakfast. She would knead on the floor and in the air, she was clearly happy and relaxed.

Like every morning at 7 am it was time for the nebulizer, so I put her into her carrier as usual (we did it 10 times so far), she stayed in there for the usual 20 minutes. When the session was over I opened up the sack and the carrier door, but unlike other times, she didn't walk out on her own. As a matter of fact she was rather silent and still during the nebulizing. I looked inside the carrier and she was wedged in the far end of the carrier, I tried to pull her out, but she was like glued to the plastic, didn't move. I tried again, she came out, but she was totally scared, I'd say she was terrified, and hissed at me several times, with her ears flat on her head, crouched on the floor and with very bristled tail. She also attacked me with teeth and claws. Any attempt to touch her was like a suicide!
I tried to make friend with her with her favorite food, but she ran away from her dish and didn't want to eat or smell it.
It was like having the wildest of the wild cats in my home. She started jumping against the walls and bumping all over.

Something in the relationship broke over a very short period of time, and I coudn't understand why.

I tried to show calm and friendly and took her up in my arms, she was nearly trembling and her only eye was staring at me in terror. I was waitng for her to purr at me, but it didn't happen. After a few minutes I put her down next to her dishes and she ate all her food while making sure I wouldn't get too close. She was clearly not at ease.
Eventually she was friendly again and would purr, but not as her usual.

I cannot understand what's happened. She was terrified and terrifying!

In the previous 10 hours she had pooped three times! Her poop is soft, light in color and terribly smelly.
I think that the antibiotics are having some effects on her bowels. Last night I started a supplement of probiotics.

 

[Antonio65]

Kitten is getting better and stronger. She eats a lot, way over what I thought a kitten could eat. Is it possible that intestinal parasites are eating most of what she eats?

She gained 400 grams in 7 days. She's visibly bigger than on last Sunday.
Her bad eye is a bit more swollen than two days ago, the eyelids of that eye do not shut completely and the third eyelid is swollen and red and slightly protruding.

She is energetic, plays for hours, she likes to chase her mice and rubber balls. She doesn't sleeps much, meows loudly.
Her belly is still bloated. I'm giving her two different probiotics and Mylicon twice daily since Friday, but it seems they aren't working. Her poop is getting firmer, but the smell is still terrible. She pees several times a day, at least 5-6 times.

How long could it take for probiotics and Mylicon to take effect? I fear she'll be round forever. It seems she ate a ball!
I think this situation is bothering her, she's often nervous.

In the last two nights she slept for a while curled on my lap when I was watching the TV. She's sweet and trustful. She sleeps belly up and allows me to scratch her belly and play with her paw pads. It is like she's been living with me since her birth. She was a feral kitten from a feral mom until two weeks ago.

What I have noticed is her breathing rate. Even when she's relaxed and sleeping it's never lower than 90 bpm, and up to 110 bpm. Her breathing is fast, shallow and not regular.
Could it be a signal for something?

Since this morning she'd rather rest on the cold and hard tiled floor instead of the soft and cosy warm bed I prepared for her. As if she's not comfortable in her bed.

Tomorrow I will update the vets, but meanwhile I will welcome any idea or suggestion.
Thanks a lot.

P.S.: Kitten and Pallina do not get along at all. Pallina met her and hissed at her furiosly. Pallina also hisses through the door. There's absolutely no chance they will ever liver in the same house. I am in love with her already, and she loves me a lot, but I am forced to part from her as soon as she's better and the therapies are over.
The hardest part will be to find a family where her special needs will be looked after, where they will have the willing to spend lots of money right after the adoption, because the surgeries for the eye removal and the spaying a few weeks later will be a factor to take into account. It is also possible that her health will never be strong, she could be often sick. It will be costing and time consuming.

 

[Shar371]

Bianca is gorgeous, and a fighter! It's no wonder she's taken a shine to you, with how you stick up for cats. You're an example to her!

I'm no expert, but I'd bet that the parasites in her belly are making her uncomfortable. Everything that you are doing is helping both her and them right now. That next dose of Drontal (counting the days!) will hopefully wipe them out, give her a few miserable hours of discomfort as they die and pass out of her system, and make her right as rain. Is the nasal discharge clear? It looks a little yellow in the photo (colored or cloudy mucus usually indicates an infection, in humans, but if it's running freely, happens after her nebulizer, and she smells her food, then I think you're in the clear). I hope the vet has good news for you tomorrow (today). Hearing that her eyelids are starting to swell is worrying.

I'm sorry to hear that Pallina isn't interested in Bianca... but if it comes to it, the right family will step up for Bianca

 

[Antonio65]

I'm no expert, but I'd bet that the parasites in her belly are making her uncomfortable. Everything that you are doing is helping both her and them right now. That next dose of Drontal (counting the days!) will hopefully wipe them out, give her a few miserable hours of discomfort as they die and pass out of her system, and make her right as rain.

The vet said that I could repeat the Drontal after 15 days from the first dose, which was on 4th, so next will be on 19th, this next Friday.

Is the nasal discharge clear? It looks a little yellow in the photo (colored or cloudy mucus usually indicates an infection, in humans, but if it's running freely, happens after her nebulizer, and she smells her food, then I think you're in the clear). I hope the vet has good news for you tomorrow (today).

Weirdly enough, the nasal discharge wasn't there on Thursday morning, I saw it during the lunch break of that day, and never saw it again. Don't know why it was that way...
She's breathing much better, she's improved a lot over the weekend, she isn't even sneezing any more.
But she gets very nervoud when she feels she's going to poop, and when she's hungry, that is quite often

Hearing that her eyelids are starting to swell is worrying.

Here is like she was yesterday

She is not pawing at or scratching it, so I guess it isn't bothering her...

I'm sorry to hear that Pallina isn't interested in Bianca... but if it comes to it, the right family will step up for Bianca

Hopefully they will!
Thanks!

 

[Antonio65]

Something happened today.
While I was at work, my wife called me to say that the kitten had sneaked in the bathroom and hid behind the washing machine. An hour later she was still there, despite the fact that the machine was in function.
In my lunch break I came home. The kitten wasn't behind the machine anymore, she had gone behind the toilet bowl. There's a cavity behind it, in the base. She was in there. She didn't want to come out, there was no way to entice her. My hand couldn't reach her, but at last I felt one of her front paws, I grabbed it and pulled her out.
She was scared and in pain and she bit and scratched me, and despite the pain and the blood I didn't let go.

Once free I expected her to be angry and wild, I was surprised to see that she clung on me, she was staring at me straight in the eyes and was purring.
It was like she was saying "thank you for saving me from that nightmare, I'll be forever grateful".
So far so good.

The weird thing is that since this episode she changed her temperament and habits. She's much quieter, is playing less (she was very noisy and would never stop chasing her balls and mice) and is eating less (she would eat like two adult cats until this morning). She is in a separate room, stays with us only after dinner, when Pallina sleeps and does not see her. When in that room, she meows loud and constantly to receive attention and cuddles. After this experience she has barely made a sound.
From a certain point of view this is a better condition, for us all. But it's clear that she's not herself anymore.

Do bad experiences leave this kind of consequences in a kitten? Are they temporary?

 

[Furballsmom]

I'm late coming here, how are things now?

 

[Antonio65]

Hi Furballsmom , thanks for asking!
Bianca, the kitten, has been visited by an ophtalmologist yesterday.
At a previous follow-up visit on last Saturday, the vet said that in her opinion that "bad eye" wasn't lost, was only covered by a membrane that could have been surgically removed. So we took an appointment with this specialist that saw Bianca yesterday at noon.
Unfortunately this doctor dashed our hopes. Yes, the eye is still alive and good under that membrane, but removing the membrane could trigger a new and more rapid formation of another membrane.
The ophtalmologist said that the first vets who took care of her on the day I found her, did the wrong thing, and gave her meds that weren't the right ones for her needs, they gave her antibiotics rather than antiviral.

Now I have been given a prescription for antivirals and artificial tear drops, and this is a new therapy that has to be followed for 28 more days.
I was so happy that I would have suspended the antibiotics on next Friday...

I'm not so sure that someone wants to adopt a kitty with a series of issues and with a long course of therapy ahead.
The ophtalmologist wants to see her again at the end of this therapy.
Bianca is so sweet and loving. Wants to stay with me always, she loves playing with her mice and balls, and as soon as I kneel next to her, she jumps on my legs, gives headbutts and kisses all over. Sometimes she also paws at my face, as to cuddle me

Pallina, my other cat, is being very stressed now, she is very jealous of her home and does not allow any other cat in. So it's a bad situation...

 

[Furballsmom]

You have your hands full with everything my goodness! What a dollbaby Bianca is! Not to add to it, but if there's the smallest chance Pallina could be re-introduced to Bianca and become a little bit more accepting, would you keep Bianca? I'm also wondering, what is the specialist's opinion that the membrane, if removed, might not grow back?

 

[Antonio65]

You have your hands full with everything my goodness! What a dollbaby Bianca is! Not to add to it, but if there's the smallest chance Pallina could be re-introduced to Bianca and become a little bit more accepting, would you keep Bianca? I'm also wondering, what is the specialist's opinion that the membrane, if removed, might not grow back?

When I first saw this feral kitten in last November, with her two siblings and her mother, under a bush, I thought I would have liked to hold and kiss her! I told my wife that I was going to take home an incredibly cute kitten. It was a joke, of course, I knew it wasn't possible, it was just to pick on my wife. Her reply was always the same "Don't you dare!"
Well, the incredibly cute kitten is in my home and wasn't my intention to.

For all that time I managed to make friends with the feral kitties family and they started trusting more and more. Then, on a morning I saw her in this condition and did my best to get closer to them and catch them all.
Bianca was a little lion. She scratched and bit my hand, I had blood all over. I thought that she wasn't as docile as she looked like.
Now she is

I think that introducing Bianca to Pallina is very close to sci-fi!
Pallina is almost 17 years old, needs a quiet place, with her routine and her own environment.
Bianca is always running, all over, and eats a lot and she would eat all Pallina's food. I had another cat until 10 months ago, Lola. She was there before Pallina entered my home, and despite this, Pallina never accepted her and they both lived as bad friends for 15 years.

The ophtalmologist said that it is safe to say that the membrane will grow back, tougher than before. The doctor says that it might be likely that the membrane will tear apart as the eye is growing a bit.
She told me "There are vets who will tell you that they can do the surgery. They will do that for easy money. This is not my purpose. My purpose is the well-being of the kitten". And true to her words she only charged me 70 euro for a complete visit and prescription.

 

[Furballsmom]

The doctor says that it might be likely that the membrane will tear apart as the eye is growing a bit.

I will hope for this with you!

And true to her words she only charged me 70 euro for a complete visit and prescription.

That is marvelous.

Well, as time goes on, I hope for all of you that either Pallina calms to Bianca and/or you could perhaps feed them separately, or that you find someone who will love Bianca as much as you do.

 

[Antonio65]

Well, as time goes on, I hope for all of you that either Pallina calms to Bianca and/or you could perhaps feed them separately, or that you find someone who will love Bianca as much as you do.

They already live in two separate rooms and this is no good for any of us.
The ideal situation would be a family who will very diligent with her needs and medications in order not to make all my efforts (and expenses) void.

 

[Furballsmom]

I understand. Hang in there!!

 

[Antonio65]

Bianca is doing better and better and now she weighs 2.1 kg (4.6 lbs)!
She plays a lot and looks for continuous attention and cuddles. She also stopped meowing at night, she's much quieter, it seems she's got used to our home routine.

On last Saturday I took some new photos of her and made some posts on the web, and printed some posters for shops and vet practices.
So far only one person called me, yesterday.
I made it clear in my posters that time-wasters are not welcome and I'd like to be called only by seriously interested persons. I wrote down every detail about Bianca, so that people shouldn't have to ask me for anything but "when can I have her?".
Well, the person who called me yesterday apparently didn't read my poster properly and, mainly, she also stated that she wouldn't be able to take care of a sick cat, due to time and money issues.
So, why did you call me?

Anyway, I'm posting some photos of Bianca, taken during this past weekend, I hope you like her, I know you'll like her

She's a beauty, but people look for the perfect cat

 

[Shar371]

She IS a beauty! And you've already got her leash trained, that's remarkable! I know quite a few of the volunteers at the shelter would be falling over themselves to get her to purr for them. The right person will come along for her. Someone will (or maybe has) read that flyer and will give it the proper consideration before leaping in headfirst.

 

[Antonio65]

She IS a beauty! And you've already got her leash trained, that's remarkable!

Well, she's not exactly leash trained. She was wearing the harness and leash because it was her first time out and I didn't want to lose her
Anyway, she didn't act like many other cats that wear the harness for the first time, she was quiet and tried to follow me, but not always

 

[Antonio65]

Good news!
Bianca, the kitten, has been adopted on last Thursday. She moved to her new home, which is about 5 miles from me, with all her toys.
The new owner is sending me several photos and keeps me updated daily.
Bianca got adapted to her new life and house in a few hours, clear sign of her wonderful attitude. I was sure she would have done great.
The new family agreed to go on with the current therapy and to have her visited by the ophtalmologist next week. They asked me to go along with them to the vet.
I think I will

 

[pushylady]

That's wonderful!