I’m sorry it’s so late in the morning before I’m getting this posted – I meant to get something up much sooner, but it’s been a busy morning.
So, the news: the vet was only able to do one kitten yesterday (the surgery took longer than she expected), and that kitten was Sam, who came through with flying colors! I’ll show you pictures of him at the bottom of this entry. Be warned: he looks rough, but he also looks SO good. I was very afraid that his eyes would be swollen shut, but they’re not. The eyelids are definitely swollen, but he has no problem seeing and he’s getting around just fine.
Hoyt and Bill (and possibly Lafayette, if he’s over 2 pounds) will go back to the vet on Wednesday and she’ll work in whoever she can.
I was worried that Sam would be groggy and confused, but when I got him (and Bill and Hoyt) home and opened the carrier, he walked out of the carrier, flopped onto the floor of the kitten room, rolled around for a moment, and then ran over and jumped on a toy!
At the vet they told me to keep him apart from the other kittens (you know how rough kittens can be), so first I put him in a cage with a small litter box, food and water, a bed and toys. First he walked through his water and then he tromped through his litter box, and then he shook his back paws so that wet litter went flying everywhere.
He was clearly still loopy from the surgery and pain medication, but he wanted to be OUT of that cage. Finally, we decided to put him in the bathroom. There’s a litter box in there, and a cat water fountain. I put a bowl of food in there, and some toys, and he was okay for a little while (it was kind of funny to see how hard he was playing!), then I think he got lonely because he started howling.
I went in and spent time with him, and then finally I herded his siblings into the foster room and shut the door, then brought Sam into my room with me, and tried to snuggle with him. He was NOT up for the snuggling, though. He wanted to play, play, PLAY. He’d come and snuffle his face in my hair, then run to the end of the bed and bite the cat bed. Then he’d play with a toy, jump down off the bed, and run under the bed. On and on and on. This boy was NOT wanting to sleep!
I thought for sure I’d have to keep him in my room with me overnight, but at bedtime Fred suggested that we put the cage in the kitten room, put him in the cage, and see what happened. At least he wouldn’t be alone, and maybe he’d calm down and go to sleep. If he started getting agitated or howling, we could just bring him into the room with me.
To my surprise, it worked like a charm! Having his brothers and sister near him seemed to be all Sam needed. I think he probably played like a demon most of the night (and I saw him smack at any of his siblings who came near through the bars of the cage), but he was quiet, and in the middle of the night I peeked in on my way to the bathroom, and he was curled up asleep.
This morning his eyelids are more swollen than they were last night – that’s to be expected, I think – but he’s still playful and getting around just fine. I’ve let him out of the cage several times, as long as I’m there to keep an eye on him, and he’s more interested in playing with toys than fighting with his siblings. When I’m not in there, he goes back into the cage. He doesn’t love it, but he seems to be handling it pretty well.
Right now he’s on an antibiotic, pain medication (we’ve got enough for three days, which I think will get him through the worst of it. I don’t know what’s in that pain medication, but it must be some GOOD stuff. I expected it to knock him out, but I think it’s doing the opposite!), and he gets ointment in both eyes three times a day.
So far, this is going really well. I don’t mind telling you that I was worried that he’d be difficult to handle, or confused or in pain, but he seems to be doing just fine. I’ve been giving him lots of extra love and snuggles, and he’s mostly just impatiently waiting for me to be done with him before he goes racing off to jump on a toy.
Again, I know I thanked you all for donating, but really – thank you SO much. I can’t believe we were able to raise so much in such a short amount of time. It will make all the difference in these kittens’ lives!
Now, for the pictures. Like I said, he’s looking rough, but he really looks good. I can look at him and see how he’ll look when he’s all healed up. He was a gorgeous monkey to start with, he’s going to be even better looking now!
(My only regret is that I didn’t get a really good “before” picture of how his eyes looked. I’ll definitely remedy that with the remaining five before they have their surgery!)
This picture shows what his eyes looked like before:
If you look closely, you can see that there’s definitely a piece missing from the middle of his right upper eyelid.
And here he is now:
You can see that they took a bit from each side of his mouth. It’s not bothering him at all – I’ve seen him drink plenty of water, and he’s eating like a champ.
So that’s how he’s doing. If he wasn’t so doped up on pain medication so that the only thought he can form is “Oooh, look! TOY! Must kill!”, I’m sure he’d have the following to say:
“Thank you, internets, for my new eyelids!”
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Previously
2008: Sometimes she growls at him.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: So Rambo had his belly shaved, too, and he and Jodie are awfully funny looking, laying around with their little shaved bellies.