On 9 May, 11:19, "weavergirl" u34042@uwe wrote:
Let me just start out my story on how I aquired my foster kitten named
Roxanne. I work at a hotel and we have stray cats from the area and then
seem to breed and birth on our property. There is one female cat named
Patches(by a co-worker) that is the alpha female that has all the kittens,
that I know of. Last year at this time she had 7 kittens and were all healthy
and I fostered them for about 2 weeks and found homes for all of them, I kept
one. This year she had kittens again, however, she let one behind, Roxanne.
A guest and her family found the kitten. She was about 24-36 hours old
(umbilicord was still attached but almost dried up) and she was cold and not
moving. I told the couple that I would try to save her and resured them that
I know what I was doing because I have fostered small kittens before, as
young as 6 hours old. I am also a certified vet assistance and have worked in
the animal field for 4 years and voluentered for a total of 10 years. They
were fine with the idea and wanted Roxanne when she was old enough. I got
food into her and she improved. Things were going good till 2 days later,
what happen next I like to it an episode because I do not know what happened.
I was at my grandmothers and I went to get Roxanne out of the box to feed her,
because at this point I was force feeding her, and she had defacated all over
herself and was having convolsion. I figured that she was to weak and that
was why Patches left her. Roxanne was displaying all signs of dying. Labored,
shallow, decreasing breathing and she was screaming out. It got to a point
where she had stopped breathing, for at least 3 min maybe longer, I said my
goodbyes and put her in her carrier and put her in the car. 2 hours later
when I got home I went to bury her and when I took off the lid she was moving.
I picked her up and held her. I did not know what to think she stopped
breathing and was lifeless in my hand 2 hours ago. Since that day she has
been a different kitten she eats like a pig. I took her to the vets a week
later just make sure everything was ok with Roxanne plus I thought she had a
unbilicord hernia. Vet could not tell me anything about her episode, what it
was or what it could have been, and said she was healthy and I had nothing to
worry about. Less then 3 days later I had to take her to the vets because
she had a hole at her unbilicord site and it was infected. Vet gave me
amoxicilin to give to her for 10 day and said the problem she is having was
related to a hernia and that I needed to keep an eye on it. I am on day 5 and
the infection has cleared up.

The reason I am writing this thread is because I hope someone can help me out.
I need to know first if anyone has witnessed an episode like this before and
can enlighten me as to what happened(I am thinking a siezure), second how can
you tell if a kitten is blind.

First off, well done!

You should be proud of yourself, hand rearing a very young kitten is
an extremely hard thing to accomplish & the fact that you have got
this far is testament to your dedication & hard work. I would assume
that you are giving kitty milk formula via kitty teat or syringe until
your kitten is at least 4 weeks old every 2 hourly, by which time you
can start supplement feeding with solid food? It is no easy feat & I
admire your dedication;o)

I am so pleased that you had the foresight to get straight to the vet
with her, instead of posting her and asking us what you should do. You
would be amazed @ how many do;o(

It's great to hear that your vet has looked @ her & given you some
amoxicillin for her. I wonder if you might be able to get your hands
on something like some STERZAC POWDER, which we humans use for baby's
umbilical cord? I have had one kitten in a similar condition to that
which you describe, & I found this powder to be immensely helpful in
drying the cord area up. The vet dealt with the hernia later. Ralf
didn't make the noises that you describe, only the shallow breathing,
& eventually I thought stopped breathing. There was only a very small
convulsion just before this happened, but now that he is nearly a year
old, we can see that there was no damage at all. Our vet put it down
to a febrile convulsion

I also thought that it was the end, only to look back half an hour
later & find him still whimpering in his little shoe box under the
lamp. The moment I realised that he was still going, I called the vet
& she told me to rub a tiny amount of honey into his gums, & sure as
eggs are eggs, about 20 Min's later he was back to normal. ( he too
had a oral suspension of amoxicilline.). I will try & post a photo of
him a bit later. He was ever such an unusual looking cat, but
wonderful in character Ralf didn't make the noises that you describe,
only the shallow breathing, & eventually I thought stopped breathing
completely. I find the easiest way to get a kitten to empty bowel and
bladder, is to soak a baby-wipe in some lukewarm water, then wipe
around the area to encourage the kitten to empty both bladder & bowel
@ the same time like their mother would naturally.......


Mary is our resident Blind cat advisor. no one I know, knows more than
she does about blind cats because of Duffy, her wonderful cat. Any
advice that she gives you will be correct & very good too...

I think what you are doing is a wonderful act of generosity, all too
rare these days in our disposable world. I wish you all the best, &
look forward to some future instalments as to how things progress with
her as well.

I am only too aware what a precarious a feat tiny kitten feeding is &
how vulnerable they are, so I realise how hard it is to find the time
to do anything, especially posting all of the time- perhaps now and
again if you wouldn't mind?
I really do wish you all the best,

Good Luck,
S;o)