Never fear about 11 fosters, you’ve done it before: When the 5 Cookies moved in, you still had the 4 Wonkas, and Terry/Sookie left over from the True Blood 6…. that’s 11 right there. Easy Peasy, right? …………Kiddin!
I think you’re right! (Dear Universe: this is NOT me asking for another kitten so I can break my own record!)
Awww, Tony looks like a bat in the first picture!
That is exactly what I said – and he totally does!
Awwww — love little Tony RH Pickle!!! Still not getting the Rocky Horror reference, but he’s a cutie!
Tony Rocky Horror is a character in Pulp Fiction who is referred to, but never seen. He got thrown out of a window for giving Marsellus Wallace’s wife a foot massage. Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) talk about it – and Tony Rocky Horror – at length.
Fred’s been wanting to name a kitten Tony Rocky Horror for years now – at one point we talked about naming a whole litter of kittens after characters in TV and movies who are referred to but never seen – and after we got the four Pickles on Monday, I told him that next time we had a single male kitten, we’d use that name. I don’t REALLY think that our little black kitten counts as a single male since he DOES have a litter, but rather than fight it, I gave in.
I wondered if you ever got kittens with diarrhea and how you treat them. I have only been reading your blog for a few months. It seems at least 50% of my foster kittens get here then two days later they erupt with the big D. Do they think he has parasites and how are you treating him? any meds? specific food? It is so much work to clean, crates, floors, bedding & kittens when this happens. Sometimes it goes on for a while and with worming of various meds some still don’t work. Just curious as how you treat. Looking for tips.
I listed all the remedies I use in this post (scroll down past Zombie Alice), and Connie left a great comment yesterday, which you can see right here.
I have news about TonyRocky Horror Pickle and his diarrhea, which I’ll cover down in the Pickle section.
I can tell you that I know of exactly ONE kitten I’ve fostered who never had diarrhea, and that would be Cindy Brady. All her siblings had terrible diarrhea, but even though she was tiny, little Cindy Brady never gave me a single moment of worry. Her intestinal tract must have been made of Teflon.
Every litter of kitten I’ve gotten has either arrived already having diarrhea or developed it exactly three days later. (Oh, look. Yesterday marked three days since I got the Pickles, didn’t it? RIGHT ON SCHEDULE.) Though the bigger Pickles had a fecal done while they were being Combo tested – and the fecal showed nothing – I started them on dewormer because I knew there was NO way those kittens didn’t have worms, and now I can tell you definitively that they had worms ’cause I’ve seen them myself.
If you’re ever tempted to utter the words “Maybe this litter won’t have diarrhea!” out loud (or even think it), please be aware that the universe takes that as a challenge.
So ANYway, to answer the question – what I do is start dewormer as soon as I get them, I add Forti-Flora to their canned food snack, and I take them back for a second (at least) fecal if the dewormer and Forti-Flora don’t do anything.
I have a question for you – my almost 4 month old kitten is OBSESSED with people food. She’s turned into a huge food thief, sneaking up and grabbing stuff off my preschooler’s plate when his back is turned, snagging bites from my husband’s plate when he gets up to get a drink, running to the fridge and HOWLING when I open it.
I am not encouraging this behavior! And she has PLENTY to eat at all times AND gets morning and evening snacks. I have never had a cat act like this before – my dog, sure, but a kitten??
Is this normal? Will she outgrow it? Will I be guarding my plate forever? She out eats my 22 pound tabby, and is HUGE for her age, btw, so maybe she’s just hungry?
You know, I think you might add a mid-day snack to her feeding schedule and see if that helps. The one thing I would REALLY strongly recommend is to put a stop to the stealing of people food, no matter what it takes. If spraying compressed air or squirting water or shaking a can of coins at her doesn’t stop her from stealing food from your plates, then put her in the bathroom with the door closed while you’re eating. I think it’s really important to stop that behavior, as soon as possible, because otherwise it’s going to turn into a lifelong issue.
The cats in this house know that I DO NOT share my food with them. Permanent residents know that, and don’t even try. Fosters always give it the ol’ college try, but my handy can of compressed air puts a stop to that quickly. I tell them “Look, I don’t come scream at YOU when YOU’RE eating, so knock it off!” I know I spoil them in lots of ways, but on this I’m firm. I’m protective of my food. 🙂
This makes me wonder if you’ve ever had a Rocky Horror litter. I need to see a kitten named RiffRaff 😀
We haven’t yet, but it’s definitely on the list of potential future litter-naming themes!
Dingwall Scotty has the cutest name EVER and I hope whoever adopts him keeps it! Can you imagine the nick names? Actually, I bet you can, how many does the little man have by now? Aside from Dingwall Wally?
Someone in this house might occasionally call him “Dingbat” and “Dingus.” I can neither confirm nor deny that it’s ME.
Sugarbutt reminds me of my baby Malcolm (who’s 3 and not a baby he’ll have you know). How much does Sugarbutt weigh?
The last time I weighed Sugarbutt – earlier this year – he weighed just over 12 pounds. He’s a very solid boy.
Robyn, I saw a photo of yours at one of my favourite food blogs.
It was so strange to see this crossover between two of my favourite, though entirely unrelated, blogs.
How funny! And the funniest thing is that though I made those ice cream sandwiches from scratch (Nance and I both made them for a post at Dinosaurs Can’t Eat Pizza (warning: occasional bad language)), I really wasn’t crazy about them. They do look good, though, don’t they?
I suspect that Brandywine is feeling the need to start weaning as well, sometimes when they are spayed, they never do; letting whichever kitten becomes their life time companion nurse until old age (it is very silly looking). But usually they get around to weaving about the time they would have gone into heat if they had not been spayed and this is about the right time for that.
Brandywine has become very serious about weaning the monsters lately. And perhaps as a reaction to that, Caspian has become a bit needy. I’m sure he doesn’t understand why his beloved mama won’t let him nurse, but she is NOT kidding about cutting them off. And I don’t blame her one bit!
We also have 14 cats. How do you deal with the horrified looks of people who find that out? You’d think we were cooking meth instead of loving us a bunch of rescued babies. Anyway, I believe the ratio is 6 cats = one medium dog. See? Not so bad. 😉
For the most part I either avoid the question or start throwing numbers at them in an attempt to confuse them. “Well, I have 25 in my house right now but OF COURSE they’re not all mine, there’s a mama and five kittens and then five more kittens” and then I’ll tell a cute story about one of the kittens to distract them.
On the other hand, I’ve also told the occasional stranger that I have too cats (as in, “too many”.) Is it my fault that they misunderstand it as “two”? I think not!
Well I’ve finally succumbed. Our first fostering responsibility just arrived today. A terrified lady-like calico just separated from her kittens. Thanks for the inspiration, Robyn.
JessicaD, how’s it going? We want details!
And this bugged me enough to come all the way back to the computer: That song has always annoyed me anyway, because of that line. (The way I’ve always heard it, it goes) “Brandy wears a braided chain made of finest silver from the north of Spain/A locket that bears the name of the man that Brandy loves.” WHAT kind of egotistical [expletive deleted] would bring an expensive gift from distant lands to the woman he loves/who loves him but whom he will not commit to, and has said expensive gift engraved with HIS OWN NAME?
I suppose it’s engraved with “Brandy and Sinbad the Sailor, true love forever except until it comes time for Sinbad to commit” or something, but seriously. SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY?!?!?! A locket with his own name on it?!?! That’s right up there with, “Remember my name, you’ll be screaming it later.” DUMP HIM, BRANDY! Find someone who’ll be able to provide you the kind of life that will let you get a job in an office or something instead of serving booze to pox-ridden waveboys all day. If you pick up roots and move clean, you’ll eventually get over Sinbad, because he won’t be popping back in every few months for a (probably crab-intensive) roll in the hay and more emo moping about how he just can’t leave the sea. He can damn well leave it long enough to come tumble you every so often – if he can’t leave it for anything more long-term, maybe he should just not leave it at all!
I WANT to like the song, but the staggering egotistical cluelessness of a man who would give someone a – HIS OWN NAME. I mean, come ON! Ugh!
This seriously made me LOL. Elayne, you always crack me up!
(But I still like the stupid song, hee.)
He reminds me of a Beulah when she looked like a little furry alien.
Oh, DEFINITELY. Same bulging eyes, same big ears. TonyRocky Horror Pickle actually weighs just a teeny bit more than Beulah did when I got her, believe it or not. Here’s Beulah, not long after I got her litter (The Seven) :
I’m going to have to position TonyRocky Horror Pickle in the middle of that same track. We’ll see if he goes along with it!
Once again, y’all will have to forgive me – yesterday was another busy one, and I didn’t get to sort through my ‘Maters pics to do profiles of Sungold, Wellington, and Caspian. I PROMISE I will get to them next week! I do have pictures of the ‘Maters playing on the cat tree in the front room to tide you over, though.
That toy mouse hanging on the string has got to be just about the most beloved toy in this house.
Hmm. I guess that must be Kennebec down at the bottom, before he went off to Petsmart, keeping an eye on those crazy ‘Maters.
And joining in!
So, about TonyRocky Horror Pickle. Yesterday morning I went in to find that the litter box in his cage was full of diarrhea. I also found out that he wasn’t IN the cage. That little monster is small enough that he can squeeze out through the bars of the cage! He was curled up with Polly and Petey, sound asleep.
Though he’d eaten just fine the night before, TonyRocky Horror Pickle wasn’t interested in eating at all. Nothing interested him – he’d sniff at whatever I offered him and then turn away – and when I weighed him, I found that he’d gone from 10 1/2 ounces to 9 ounces, overnight. I offered him some formula (he wasn’t interested), and finally syringed some chicken baby food into his mouth. He swallowed it – and kept it down – but after 3 CCs, he started fighting me. He drank some water, and then climbed into a cat bed to lay down. I put him back in the cage and shut the door.
I had some errands to run, and when I got home an hour later, I went to check on him. He was in the litter box in his cage having really watery diarrhea, and I decided it was time to make a run to the vet. I called, and they told me to bring him in.
Long story short, the vet didn’t really find anything. They did a second fecal, didn’t find anything, and ultimately they gave him some subcutaneous fluids, I got PediaSorb to give him at home, and I got a broad-spectrum antibiotic for him. I’m giving him that, continuing with the dewormer, and we’ll see how it goes. She did say that he was very vigorous, which I think is always a good thing.
When we got home, he started screaming at me. It turned out that His Majesty was hungry and wanted a touch of food RIGHT NOW. I fed him, and he ate pretty well. It turned out that pretty much every time I went into the room and woke him up to give him some PediaSorb, he wanted to follow it up with some food. So I obliged, because I’m nice like that – and I do NOT like seeing a kitten’s scrawny, bony little shoulder blades sticking up.
Yesterday was the day that the rest of the Pickles decided to start with the diarrhea. It actually got a little better as the day progressed (one of them pulled the ever-popular (poopular!) move wherein he used the litter box, stepped in his diarrhea, stepped out of the litter box and shook his foot so that litter-covered poop went everywhere.
And you thought this fostering thing was all glitz and glamour!
So I think that TonyRocky Horror Pickle will continue to do well. He’s the friendliest little thing, and loves to be held and petted – as do all the other Pickles – so I’m spending as much time in there as possible.
Oh, Petey Pickle. You look like SUCH a little Gremlin!
Sweet Percy Pickle needs a kiss.
Joe Pickle spends a lot of time in my lap.
Pretty, pretty Joe.
Nice of Polly Pickle to put her foot AND her tail in Petey’s face, isn’t it?
Percy Pickle would like you to know that he’s got a delightfully spotted belly.
“You no touch da belleh.”
TonyRocky Horror Pickle checks out this strange new world.
I think that Petey (the gray one) looks like a bunny here.
Though I know it looks like he has a bare spot next to his mouth, that’s a combination of wet fur (I’d just wiped off his face) and the camera flash. There’s no bare spot there, believe me. After I saw this picture, I went up to check. Kelly keeps trying to give me ringworm, but I won’t have it, Kelly! Stop that! 🙂
Once he’s filled out a little and is over this phase where he needs a bath at least once a day (he is such a sweet little mess, that one), I think he’s going to be gorgeous.
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who’s the fairest of them all? If you say one of those little upstarts upstairs is more beautiful than I, I shall poke you in the big glass eye.” (He never claimed to be a poet!)
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Previously
2011: It was delightful.
2010: No entry.
2009: Mondays? They’re exhausting.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: So cute, these two.