Note: Page is still being updated.
LAPS:
- No updates yet today
TinyKittens HQ:
- No updates yet today
People for Happier Cats/TNR site:
Jingle Bell and Holle Belle
- Before Shelly’s visit: The girl kitten is eating like a champ. I haven’t yet seen the boy kitten eat anything. And I don’t think either has been out to the litter box (or out of the nest at all).
- Shelly’s first visit at just before 10:00 PST:
- Bit of background: The PO said that the boy kitten was so social that it was getting to the point where he was likely going to end up getting hit by a car or something. And when the other guys on the site saw the injured kitten not walking properly, they’d figured that they’d have to put her down but the PO said, no, he knew someone to take her to and so he trapped her.
- Boy Kitten: Shelly took samples from the boy kitten for his PCR test. (When she’d blacklighted last night, individual hairs were glowing, which is different from the usual ringworm presentation.) She put some ringworm cream on his ears. He’s really, really social and friendly, trying to climb up to her face. She tried to get him to use the litter box, but he was more interested in exploring. He finally did begin to eat, which is great. (He has a URI so that probably affects his sense of smell.) Shelly says that there is a fluffy tabby at the second feeding station that she thinks might be his daddy. She’ll be giving him a bath later, with reinforcements to help out.
- Girl Kitten: She puts up with being poked and prodded really well, but she’d much rather be holed up in her little nest. Her temp is 39.3 C this morning, which is lower than even when she first came in. She definitely has a big belly (Shelly showed it off) — hopefully it’s just worms as a pregnant kitten would be worst case scenario if the boy kitten does have ringworm. Shelly gave her Clavamox and cleaned out her ears a bit. (Shelly needs solution to properly clean out ears — the vet will take care of the kitten’s ears at the visit today.)
- Visit after vet:
- Kimsies was at TKHQ cleaning up when Shelly got back.
- Gwen will be coming by help with the baths later on.
- Names: The kids at Holly Elementary School (“TinyKittens in the Classroom” project) were given the task of naming the two kittens. They chose Jingle for the boy kitten and Holly or Bella for the girl kitten — chatters broke the tie for the girl’s name by choosing Holly. Both names have since expanded to become Jingle Bell and Holly Belle.
- Vet visit results: Holly Belle is not pregnant, just wormy. (Yay!) She did really well at the vet. She’s FeLV/FIV negative. Vet isn’t sure why her growth is so stunted. (She’s about five months old but only the weight of Eep or Owl, who are a month or so younger.) Her ears were cleaned and treated with drops to help with the itching. Her left paw (the one with the ligature indentation on it) appears to be healing well — the swelling is all even so no apparent pockets of pus/infection. Her right front paw, on the other hand, had apparent healed over with infection already taking hold — they opened and drained the pus pocket; she’s on antibiotics for the infection and Shelly will soak the paw a couple of times a day for the next three days to encourage the draining.
- Shelly took in the toothbrush with Jingle’s ringworm samples. PCR test results should be back in two to three days. She cleaned his ears out, gave him eye drops, killed a few live fleas.
- Both kittens have URIs, which will need a couple of weeks treatment. And Shelly wants to get one or both kittens fixed as soon as possible — Holly needs to be healthier for that and Shelly wants to wait for the PCR results before taking Jingle in. Thankfully, Holly is not in heat.
- Baths:
- Gwen (LAPS) came by to help with baths after 3PM. The sound was off for part of that time, and the cam was mostly focused on the nest until Jingle was in Shelly’s lap. Shelly blacklit Jingle after the bath and could see a lot more spots that fluoresced than she could through the dry fluff — no lesions, but the entire individual hair shafts glow, which neither she nor Gwen had seen before. (From what I’ve gathered from a little searching, if this is ringworm, it probably means that it’s an early infection, before the hairs break off leaving bald patches, before skin lesions are formed, and before any self-healing starts (the tips of the hairs would typically fluoresce only at that point.)
- Holly mostly licked herself (and Jingle) dry.
- Their bedding was all changed out, the extra nesting bins were removed along with the non-ringworm-protocol-friendly toys and objects, and appropriate toys were brought in
- Late night visit: At around 22:45 PST.
- Holly’s right paw is draining well. Shelly cleaned both of their ears a bit more. She also did a little more blacklighting on Jingle, more from curiousity than anything.
- Shelly has arranged for additional visitors (including Suzanne the Master Snuggler) to come in and play with and socialize the kittens. (Not that Jingle really needs socialization, but he does need human company and some heavy duty play time.)
- More background: Jingle is the last survivor of his litter. There were four kittens when they were first seen around (it’s unknown how many were in the litter originally — some may have perished before they were ever seen by humans) but only Jingle has been seen lately. They know nothing about Holly — she showed up on the site only recently. (I wonder if maybe she wasn’t dumped at or near the site some time ago — it might explain the fact that she’s clearly not feral, just really cautious.)
Today’s video caps courtesy of Sara (Little Darling):
Tiny Kittens Shellys morning visit with new kittens
Tiny Kittens Shellys morning visit with Cassidy
Tiny Kittens Holly not pregnant FELV Neg waiting for RW results
Tiny Kittens Shelly tries to check for RW on Jingle again cant tell for sure yet
Tiny Kittens Jingle & Holly after baffs
Tiny Kittens Shellys late night visit with Jingle & Holly more black light meds etc
[Page last updated: 2015/12/01 at 06:56 PST]