August 2018 Notes

Who’s in care with TinyKittens as of August 30:
♦ Upstairs at TKHQ: Coridan (ginger mackerel tabby with a lot of white), Chapel (ginger mackerel tabby and white like Coridan but bigger), Shelby (tortie with ginger nose stripe), Sigma (tortico with ginger face and ginger leg), Salia (tortie with a ginger triangle over her left eye), Hyatt (brown tabby with white), and Gallico (B&W tuxie) are upstairs in the “Kidney Room” aka the white room (although now that all the kidney cats are gone, it should be called the “Dental Room” or as somewhat in chat called it the “Ginger and Spice Room”)♦ Downstairs at TKHQ: Eight 10-12 week old kittens from a “complicated situation” — Petrina (black female), Jax (black male), River (black male), Briar Rose (grey female), Dusty (grey male), Blu (grey male), Cleo (grey female), Rudy (grey female)
♦ At Shelly’s: Mason is upstairs with the Teens and Cassidy; Aura and the Kinks kittens are upstairs as well; Princess Consuela and her Auto Kittens are downstairs.
♦ At Kimsies’: Moustachio (aka Stashie Bumblepants)

→  Comparison weight chart from Firefly’s kittens to Princess Consuela’s Auto kittens ←

August 30

• Horizon and Harley went back to the Happy Forest today.
• Coridan and Shelby went in for a follow-up checkup and blood tests. They’ve both been given the all-clear — their anemia has resolved, their mouths look good.
• Sigma and Gallico will both likely be going back to the colony next week.
• Chapel is scheduled for his dental next week as well.
• Hyatt continues to get more comfortable in the room and is enjoying getting pets from humans. Still waiting on the titre test results.

August 29

• Gallico had his dental surgery today. He had five teeth pulled and his butt bites were shaved and cleaned. His blood work was great.
• Salia also had an appointment today to have her ears and snarfling checked out.
• Fort Langley experienced a power outage (caused by a motor vehicle accident) from about 01:00 this morning. Coincidentally, it was right at the moment that Gallico and Hyatt were having a particularly loud sparring moment. All of the cams were down until power was restored before 09:00 and until Shelly got the cam PCs back up and running.
  
• Shelly posted a video of Hyatt moving more confidently around the room now.
  
• Evening update:
  • Salia probably has an ear polyp in her middle ear, which can cause congestion if it is growing in a way that blocks her airway some. Her blood work shows chronic inflammation so she’s likely had this for quite awhile. She is on new meds but may require surgical removal of the polyp if the new meds don’t clear everything up.
  • Harley and Horizon will be going back to the colony tomorrow — Harley is fully recovered from his dental and Horizon is just so unhappy with being inside that there’s no reason to keep him since he doesn’t really need a dental. Coridan and Shelby will go back once they get the all clear from their follow-up visit and meds tomorrow. Sigma still needs a week of recovery. Gallico will get the usual two weeks of post-dental recovery. Salia and Hyatt are more long-term cases. And it looks like Chapel will be getting the last dental appointment. [So much for just being here to be Coridan’s support cat. LOL]
  • The eight downstairs kittens went in for their speuters today; they couldn’t really find testicles on two and one of those turned out to be cryptorchid. Four of the kittens are in foster care now through VOKRA. Mary and Chance‘s human posted some pictures from her recent snuggle session with them.
    

August 28

• Overnight: Gallico continued to set everyone off, especially Hyatt, in his efforts to find a way out of the catio and back to the forest. Lots of screaming and punching and jockeying for position. By later in the morning, a truce was mostly in place. (Unfortunately, everyone in the room is still tense and so small things set everyone off a random times throughout the day.)
• Cathy came to visit. She got Chapel playing with a jingly feather stick and was able to pet Hyatt for quite a long time, first with the noodle and then with her hands.
  
• Gwen came in to give Coridan and Hyatt their meds. Chapel was in full Sable-Mama defense mode, lunging and spitting. With some support/distraction from Shelly, she was successful.
• Horizon was mostly in shut down mode from the time Shelly put him up in the cat tree yesterday until late today.
• Shelly’s evening visit: They got the uveitis blood panel results back. (This panel checks for FIV/FeLV, coronavirus, toxoplasmosis, bartonella, and cryptococcus.) The results were “OK but perplexing” — the PCR test shows if he is carrying or shedding the virus right now. They will be doing a titre test to check for antibodies. She took some video of Hyatt’s eyes for Dr. F and scooped out some of Salia’s ear pus. She spied a raccoon outside, on top of the catio, and took some video while warning the raccoon to not mess with Sigma. 😉 (Shellys says that there used to be a family of about 15 raccoons living near the house, but they all disappeared when all the trees were cut down several months ago.)

August 27

• Hyatt went to Mountain View today. He was neutered and had five teeth removed. He is also apparently blind. The blindness is recent, and Shelly doesn’t know if he is completely blind or if he can see shadows or contrasts. Physical exam and x-rays of his bones (spine, hips, etc.) and head didn’t show any signs of trauma so it doesn’t look like he was hit by a car or anything like that. Could be caused by high blood pressure, but his BP was good while under anaesthetic. Other possible causes include viruses or infection (such as toxoplasmosis) or stroke. As such, there’s a slight chance that his vision will come back. Should have test results back in a couple of days. His body condition is good, no emaciation, and his ears look great now.
  
• Kathryn Jane trapped the final two targets for dental visits.
  
  • Horizon was initially TNRed on April 15/16, 2015. He weighs 5.69 kg, or about 12.5 lb. He was given Gabapentin, Revolution, vaccines, and an ear cleaning.
  • Gallico is Horizon’s BFF. He was also initially TNRed on April 15/16, 2015. (Gallico was named before the current naming convention was put into place — as a black and white tuxie, he would normally have gotten a “D” or “E” name, like Doyle or Eaton.) He weighs 6.185 kg, or 13.6 lbs. He has a draining bite wound on his butt and a loose incisor so he will likely get the first available dental appointment. He was given Gabapentin, Revolution, and an ear cleaning. (He was already vaccinated in January.)
• One of today’s new trappees (likely Gallico) will be taking the Wednesday dental appointment. Coridan and Shelby will be going back for their check ups on Thursday. A regular appointment will be made for Salia. Current HQ residents:
  
• Evening update: First round of test results indicates that Hyatt has lots of chronic inflammation and he’s anemic, but his kidneys are OK. Shelly is giving him a pill for the inflammation. Still waiting for PCR panel for various infectious diseases — one possibility is FIP.
  
  Everyone was extra jumpy during Shelly’s evening visit, and Gallico’s attempt to jump up onto the already-crowded top catio shelf set off a chain reaction in the other cats.
  

August 26

• Chapel puked on the top platform of the cat tree while Linda B was visiting this morning. Maybe just ate too quickly?
• Shelly came in to check on Hyatt in the afternoon. He’s much calmer now, after the Gabapentin and a quiet night in the double trap, and she was able to easily get him into her lap to clean his ears again. The mites are all dead or dying, though there is still pus and mite dirt. She was able to look at his teeth, which look pretty bad. (See picture in comments on her Facebook post embedded below.) And she was able to weigh him: he weighs 3.845 kg (close to 8.5 lbs). She left his trap open so that he could come out and mingle with the other cats. [He clearly has something going on with his balance, whether it’s a result of the terrible ear mites, CH (cerebellar hypoplasia), vestibular disease, trauma, or some other neurological issue is unknown at this time.] He will be headed to Mountain View early tomorrow for a complete exam, neuter, and dental.
  
  
• Shelby has started sneezing and sounding snarfly now.
• Harley will be going back to the colony later this week. The rest of them are going to be sticking around for a bit longer. Shelby and Coridan will be retested this week to make sure that their blood tests are good. (Shelby was a bit anemic and Coridan had some anemia and mildly abnormal kidney levels.)
• Chapel did not really partake of the evening pre-fasting snacks, which is unusual. He was especially growly, though.

August 25

• Snugglers are taking shifts socializing the kittens downstairs in the hopes of getting them ready for fostering or adoption sooner rather than later.
• Chapel has started sneezing.
• New intake: The very unhappy Hyatt. He’s a recent visitor to feeding station, intact. Shelly brought him in because she had some health concerns about him — he’s a big guy, but skinny and his back end seemed unstable to her, he’s a bit wobbly.
  
  
  He’s dirty and smells like he has an infection. He was more fractious than Chapel was on intake, but Shelly’s reactions are quick from experience. LOL She gave him some Gabapentin to mellow him out a bit. She then checked out his ears — he has a lot of ear mites; she cleaned out his ears and put in some Surolan. And she gave him Revolution. He was very upset and bit her (lightly) a few times, so she limited what she did during the intake in order to give him a chance to mellow out. She left him in a double-length trap (with food and litter box) in the room with the other cats, in order to limit his ability to hurt himself and to make him a bit easier to get to for future meds and treatment. (Shelly is going to try to get some injectable antibiotics. He will be going to the vet on Monday.
  
  

August 24

• Last two Harvie cats should be going into foster care on Sunday.
• TK is hoping to get the eight kittens from the ‘complicated situation” who are downstairs adopted through another organization. They are a lot of work right now (including needing enemas) and some are still quite shy. Snugglers are coming in shifts late into the night to try to socialize them so that they will be more adoptable.
• TinyKittens still has two more dental appointment openings (since the two trapped yesterday don’t need dentals) so hopefully they will be able to trap two more cats who need their teeth looked after.
• Aura is recovering great from her spay. Shelly posted her rads.
  
• Consuela’s kittens officially have the largest litter average of all TinyKittens litters so far at this age. (Their average has been up around the largest for quite awhile now, but today they are well in the lead.)
• Salia is getting her ears cleaned and meds twice a day (in the morning by Gwen and in the evening by Shelly). In her evening visit today, Shelly noted that Salia’s ears already look much better, though there is still pus. Salia also let Shelly give her cheek and chin scritches for quite a long time while she was lying uncovered in Shelly’s lap. (The funny part of the this visit to me is that you can just feel the waves of disapproval coming off Chapel in the cat tree in the background. LOL)
  
  

August 23

• Harley had his dental today. He had three teeth removed, including broken canine and a back tooth with a broken root. Blood tests were good.
• Aura had her spay today.
  
  
• Two more cats have been brought in for dentals:
  
  • The first appears to be Carver, a classic tabby ginger who was neutered on January 15, 2018, and was quite ferocious at the time. He was brought in today because he was only eating with his left paw and the trappers thought he might be having trouble with his teeth; his teeth are fine, so he will be taken back to the colony later today.
  • The second one is tortie Salia. She was originally TNRed on April 1/2, 2015, in the same trapping batch as Quinn (aka Quinnbnny), Shelby, and Torelius (aka Mr. T). (She was thought to be about six months old at that time so is nearly four years old now.) She’s only returned to the feeding station recently. She was brought in today because the trappers thought she sounded wheezy, which Shelly says she does. She also has ear infections (from ear mites), especially in her right ear, so she got a good ear cleaning and will get Surolan ear drops plus antibiotics. She will get the Monday vet appointment spot, though she doesn’t appear to need a dental. She only weighs 2.71 kg (just under 6 lbs) and comes from the middle area between the Happy Forest and Nano colonies. The notes from her original spay in 2015 indicated that she had an ear infection then, too.
• Shelly is using an Assisi Loop on Cassidy in the hopes that it will help reduce his pain hip and stump.
• Kathryn Jane posted videos and photos from her time at the Happy Forest today, including video of Ramona.
  

August 22

• Shelly posted some of Sigma‘s dental scans. Dr. Ferguson believes Sigma is between 6 and 8 years old and that her missing teeth have come about as a result of dental disease, tooth resorption, and some kind of trauma, possibly having been hit by a car. She is otherwise in really good condition and her blood tests were all good.
  
• Harley has his dental surgery tomorrow, and Aura has her spay surgery. (Aura’s CT scans will be done in about a month or so and her palate surgery will be after her adult teeth come in.)
• Eight 10-12 week old kittens are temporarily living downstairs at TKHQ until fostering can be arranged. They come from a “complicated” situation (details unknown) and will not be on cam.

August 21

• Sigma had her dental surgery today; her remaining three teeth were removed. Shelly will post more about what the x-rays showed (regarding Sigma’s missing teeth) once she gets the scans and talks to Dr. Ferguson.

August 19

• Kathryn trapped Harley and brought him in. (They are trapping and bringing in the older cats to check to see if they need dentals or have other issues. Harley volunteered as tribute today.) He will go in for a dental next Thursday as he has a broken upper left canine and possible tooth resorption. He was first trapped on January 27, 2018, and was neutered on January 29.
  
• Sigma‘s dental surgery will be on Tuesday, August 21, 2018.

August 18

• The Kinks (Arthur, Avory, and Ray) went to their forever home together today.
  
  
• Sable went to live with Quinnbunny and Macey. (It was supposed to be a foster situation, but she got her tiny suitcase, including her graduation cap and the fuzzy red ladybug tent. Her new family later confirmed — as did Shelly — that they’ve actually adopted Sable. Yay!)
  
  
  
• Gwen got some video of Billings and a happy Ramona at the colony today. (More videos from Shelly in the comments of that Facebook post.)
  

August 17

• Billings‘ mouth has healed nicely so he and Ramona went back to the Happy Forest today. (Ramona had a really promising play session with Suzanne earlier today so hopefully she’ll turn in her feral card sooner rather than later, but she — and Billings — seems happy to be back in the colony for now.)
  

August 15

• Huggins and Ribsy went to their forever home together today. Their Facebook page is Ribsey and Huggins.
  
  
• Coridan went in for his dental today. He had 10 teeth removed (including 1 canine), 3 of which were abscessed. Per Shelly, “Bloodwork shows he is anemic and has some borderline kidney values, but he also has been having bloody diarrhea plus his mouth inflammation, which could be a factor.” He will start on Panacur (fenbendazole, a dewormer) tomorrow and is getting metronidazole (an anti-inflammatory antibiotic) and (like all cats/kittens who have surgeries) lots of pain meds.
  
• Sable will hopefully be going to her foster home this weekend.
• Sigma *was* supposed to go in this Friday, but will be going in next week (August 21) instead. Ramona, Chapel, and Billings are still expected to be returned to the colony sometime this week. Coridan, Shelby, and Sigma will be at TK for at least another couple of weeks while they recover from their dental surgeries.
• There are openings coming up for four more dental surgeries, though TK is not sure which four cats are most in need. (They will have to trap and check likely suspects to determine who will get those appointments.)
• The Kinks are going to their forever home together on Saturday.
• A difficult-to-socialize Harvie colony female has joined the four “roof cat” boys in the downstairs room to see if she will get along with them. They are all going to be going to a great barn home tomorrow morning. (The boys have been here for 57 days so far.) After that, that will just be two Harvie cats in need of fostering prior to eventual adoption. (Not sure which two cats that is — there are six cats in the Harvie colony catalogue who are listed as being at TKHQ, but none of them are available for adoption. Perhaps Shelly means adopted into a barn home.)
• Aura has three surgeries coming up over the next few months: her spay, a surgery to create a dental flap, and then the surgery to fix her cleft palate.
• A month from today, TinyKittens has to be completely moved out of the current TKHQ to be run (at least for now) out of Shelly’s house.

August 14

• Shelby had her dental today and had 10 teeth removed.
  

August 13

• Chloe goes to her forever home today.
  
• Ramona, Chapel, and Billings will be going back to the colony this week, likely on Wednesday. Shelby, Coridan, and Sigma have their dentals scheduled for this week. Aura’s spay is scheduled for next week. The Harvie boys will hopefully be going to a barn home next week.

August 12

• Shelly got some Chapel elevator butt while waiting for Lorie to show up with Sigma.
• Sigma (Cassidy’s and Topper’s mama) was trapped by Lorie this afternoon. She’s very small and very skittish. She got Revolution and Gabapentin. Got her ears checked out. (They’re dirty but not terrible.) She weighs 3.16 kg, or just under 7 lbs. Body condition isn’t too bad. Shockingly, she only has three teeth left — upper right canine and two lower premolars (one on each side). Shelly doesn’t think it was trauma or disease, and she doesn’t think Sigma would have had a dental during her spay without Shelly knowing about it or that the neighbours or another group would have done it. So the likely scenario is that the teeth just fell out.
  
• The Kinks have been adopted together and Huggins and Ribsy have been adopted together. More details to come.

August 10

• The Kinks (Arthur, Avory, and Ray) had their neuters today. They have no heart murmurs and tested negative for FIV/FeLV.
  
• While they were under, xrays were taken of their kinked tails.
  

August 8

• Saratoga has been officially adopted by the humans who adopted Hannity and Riska. Their Facebook page has been renamed Hanna Tea & Riska Biskit’s Tiny Toga Party.
• Shelly uploaded an interesting post to Facebook, describing TinyKittens’ feral handling procedures along with the video of Chapel’s intake.

August 7

• Billings went for his dental surgery today. He had three teeth removed. After retesting, his blood work turned out to be all fine.
• Two more feral cats have been brought in: a VERY fractious Chapel (sounds a lot like my lovely, docile cat used to when we were at the vet LOL…I call it “feral bobcat”) and Shelby. Shelly gave them both some Gabapentin to help mellow them out a bit.
  • Chapel weighs 7.75 kg minus 0.54 kg for the towel, so 7.21 kg or 15 lb 13-ish oz! (Big boy!) He has an ear infection, like Coridan. Body condition and teeth appear good, though. He was originally TNRed on June 18/19, 2015.
    
  • Shelby weighs 4.235 kg with the green towel. (She was initially trapped on April 1, 2015, and taken to LAPS. Her kittens were born there on April 16, 2015 — 3 boys Sherlock, Shia, and Sheriff (2 ginger, 1 black) and 3 girls Shayla, Sheridan, and Shelly (1 grey, 2 dilute torties). Unlike some of the other mamas, she was able to nurse her kittens until they could be weaned and was returned to the colony on May 21, 2015, along with Hera.) She’s a bit on the thin side. She has an abscess, which puts her ahead of Coridan for the remaining dental appointments.
    
• Currently, the plans are for Shelby to have her dental next Wednesday, Coridan next Thursday, and hopefully Sigma next Friday (if they can trap her).

August 6

• Billings was brought in this afternoon from the Happy Forest to have his teeth worked on as well. (He was originally trapped and neutered in mid-April 2015, in the same batch of TNRs as Pinecone. His name doesn’t follow the usual colony naming convention as he was catalogued before that naming convention was put firmly in place — as a ginger tabby and white cat, he would normally have been given a name beginning with the letter “C”.) Per Shelly, Billings has worse stomatitis than Coridan, though his extrusions (bone loss) aren’t as bad — he will be taking the dental appointment tomorrow. He weighs 4.785 kg (5.38 kg with the towel minus the weight of the towel .595 kg), or 10 lbs, 8-ish oz. (Chloe is not particularly welcoming to him on the catio, offering up much growling, hissing, and punching.)
  
• TK has one dental appointment available for tomorrow, which Billings will be taking because his periodontal disease is worse than Coridan’s. TK also has three more appointments available next week, for Coridan plus two others in need of dentals.
• Jennifer (Jedikittens’ mom and soon-to-be mom to Chloe) visited with Chloe, Sable, Ramona, Coridan, Ribsy and Huggins, and the Kinks at TKHQ. Snugglers Amanda and Cathy were also there. It was an fun, nearly-three-hour visit. Jennifer uploaded a short video of her petting Chloe.
  

August 5

• Shelly did on-cam intake of a new cat in the “kidney room” at TKHQ. (They need to do a round of dentals on Happy Forest cats — this is the first of them. Kathryn had been trying to trap all weekend. Cassidy’s mama Sigma is on the hit list but is so far eluding the traps.) This cat is Coridan, a lovely ginger and white boy. (Coridan was one of the first ten males neutered at the colony back in March 2015. He appears to be best buds with Chapel, who looks like his twin so they are possibly related.) One of his ears is infected, likely from ear mites. He has “special” incisors, like many of the other cats at this colony, along with other dental issues; his body condition is pretty good, all things considered (though a bit thin). Shelly gave him some ear meds and Revolution. He weighs 4.725 kgs or 10 lbs, 6-ish oz.
  
  
  

August 3

• Cheddar and Colby went to their forever home together. Their Facebook page is Cheddar.Colby.