Uni and Chili Have Been Spayed and Neutered

Brother and sister Uni and Chili have been spayed and neutered last Wednesday. Chili was supposed to have been neutered weeks ago together with brother Mochi but his blood tests showed elevated liver enzymes. We had to give him a liver supplement first. But since Chili is so laid back and gentle, giving him medication has never been a problem.

The weather has been so hot here that a lot of animals have gone sick, mostly with symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting. A week after his blood test he became ill. His temperature was high and he stayed in the hospital for 3 nights. At the same time sister Jelly Bean also had diarrhea. We gave her Yakult, then Benebac and when she was still sick, the doctor prescribed her antibiotics.

Uni had her blood tests last Sunday and results were normal. Uni is the smallest of the four siblings and thankfully she has never been sick. She and Chili are now doing well. They came home with their satellite dish around their necks. Chili ate right away but Uni preferred to be alone for awhile. We didn't force her and yesterday she ate on her own and used the litter box.

Jelly Bean is already doing fine and I've scheduled her blood tests to be taken tomorrow. Hopefully, like Uni, her results will be normal. I get paranoid with these 4 kittens as their Mommy had kidney problems and left us too soon.

My next project is to have the female cats out front to be spayed as well. I can only have 1 done at a time. We don't have enough space for recuperating as most of the garage is occupied with the babies one of the female cats has left here for us to take care of.

A Tale of 7 Kittens

When there are strays who wander to our house for food, we don't have the heart to turn them away. As a result, we have several cats who regularly come to the house during meal times. There is a lady who cares for some of them but she cannot keep them in her house and because of limited income she cannot bring them to the vet when they get sick. A few weeks ago, one of the cats brought her kitten in our garage and left her there. It was a very small white kitten who was very thin. I tried giving her some food but she wouldn't eat and just lay there. I thought she was already dead but when I picked her up she started moving but was cold to the touch. I brought her to the vet, where she was given a vitamin shot, prescription medication and eye ointment. I told my Mom about her since we are caring for a number of cats already but she was okay with it. She also couldn't turn her back on an animal in need. We named her Sugar.

The next morning my Mom told me to go outside and look at the cage. I was surprised to find that the Mommy cat left another 2 kittens, so now they were 3. This went on for several days until they became 7 kittens.

I bought another cage and we had to put some wire across as some of them could escape because they were so tiny. There was even a morning that the Mommy cat brought a healthy looking kitten which someone was taking care of. We returned that kitten. The babies were on antibiotics and had a viral infection. My Mom patiently gives them milk from a dropper. The Mommy cat, it seemed had been nursing all the kittens even if some of them weren't her own.

We also noticed that they were scratching and had some bald spots. The vet examined them and thankfully it was not scabies but fungal infection. From experience, fungal infection is easier to treat although it is still contagious. They are being treated with Betadine. They are of varied colors and now they all look like brown kittens. 

There is one kitten who is blind in one eye and had grey markings. We called him Molasses. Sadly he passed away last week. 

We are hoping that they will grow up to be healthy kitties. We plan to have them adopted to loving homes when they are big enough and well enough. The sad thing here is that it is hard to have cats adopted out especially if they do not have breeds. 

We have also scheduled the female cats outside for spaying starting next week. It is in a NGO clinic where the spaying fees are much more affordable.

Bitty Hurt His Eye

I got quite a scare a few nights ago. I was out having coffee with friends and my siblings when my Mom called to say that Bitty's eye was bleeding. Bitty is our 9 year old blind cat. We hurried home and looked at Bitty, his left eye which is protruding looked like it was deflated and there was blood. We brought him to the hospital which was, thankfully, open 24 hours. The doctor gave him antibiotics and pain relievers. He also administered topical antibiotics and medication which was deproteinized calf's blood extract to heal the wound. Bitty was so quiet throughout the whole procedure and kept on going to my side to hug me. I felt like something was squeezing my chest to look at my little boy. He may have scratched his eye. He didn't act like he was wary of the other cats.

After the hospital, we then proceeded to look for a 24 hour drugstore to buy his medication. I'm applying his topical medication twice a day. We have to wait at least 5 minutes after placing the antibiotic before applying the wound medicine so that the antibiotics will have enough time to seep into the eye. He was also prescribed a pain reliever to be taken every 12 hours.

It's a good thing we've been on holiday. Bitty has been by my side constantly and he has me all to himself.

It Must Have Been Fate, Cupcake

Last March 26, I was driving home, when I turned on a street and saw that there was heavy traffic on the usual route I took. I decided to go to the grocery first, in the hopes that traffic would have eased up by the time I went home. Sure enough the street was clear except for this familiar silhouette in the middle of the road. I drove slowly and this kitten looked up but refused to budge from where he was standing.
It looked like he was lost and was looking for something. There were creeks on both sides of the road. I took it to the side where there was a gate, thinking that he may have gone out and got scared. It went under the gate but kept crying. I went back to the car but I didn't go far and was trying to see what the kitten would do next. It ran from under the gate, onto the street to the other side to stand on a low wall where it could plunge onto the creek. Ok, enough was enough, I went out and tried to get the kitten who then decided that he wanted to play catch first. After causing a scene, I was able to get him only to realize I didn't have a carrier or box.

I kept the kitten on my lap to calm him down but he kept trying to escape and was still crying. I sang to him like I do with my babies when they are agitated - and it worked. Its head was slowly getting heavier until I could feel its even breathing. Maybe I bored the poor kitty to sleep, but it worked! We were able to get home safely. 

The kitten turned out to be a she - her name is now Cupcake. She had her first vet visit last Sunday. I was thinking of putting her up for adoption, but we'll see. One thing I am sure though, she will never live in the streets again.

The Benefits of Neutering

Gummy Bear is not the type of kitty who likes to be held. He plays rough and he bites for real. We have accepted this as his natural behavior. But when he reached about 6 months and was old enough to look for a mate, his behavior turned aggressive. We had to wait because one of his testicles had not descended.  He would pick fights with all the other cats and he sprayed everywhere. When it looked like his condition was not going to change, his vet decided to go ahead and do the operation.                                               

He has stopped spraying since then and though we still can't hug him, his behavior has mellowed. He still picks fights but he has chosen only one other cat, Dumpling, to growl and hiss at. He likes playing with the kittens and has become friendlier with his humans. When I would be petting and playing with the kitties, I would see him looking at me. Seems like he is only waiting for an invitation, because when I call him, he would come near me and wait to be petted. 

Neutering of cats also decreases the urge in males to go out and look for females. This will make them less susceptible to fights and getting run over by cars. And as responsible pet owners, we should also try not to add to the population of homeless cats if we are not willing to take care of the kittens they sire.

I Need My Therapy!

 

There are days when you wish you could divide your body or have as many arms as an octopus, there's just so much to do. Today was such a day. I found it hard to unwind even when I reached home. I just felt high strung and couldn't relax. That was until I sat on the couch to watch Animal Planet and one by one my cats Chester, Kahlua, Munchkin, Milkshake, Taffy, Chili and Honey sat beside me to watch television as well and rub their faces to be petted. They took turns on my lap and cuddled. I started to feel like my normal self again. When I went to my room after dinner, my kitten Uni raced me to the door and Bitty welcomed me inside. We rested for awhile with Uni rubbing her face on mine and made noises like a bird. 

In animal language, rubbing of faces is a sign of affection and I just wallowed in theirs. I read in an article that petting a cat is like taking valium. They sense how their humans feel and could detect if anything's different or wrong. So with 18 cats, that would mean that I don't need to go to the drugstore for a long time to come :-)

A Sign of Trust

I have read that an animal's most vulnerable area is its belly. If an animal would get on its back and show you his tummy, he shows you that he trusts you.

I find them especially cute in this position, they look like little children. I also find it very flattering that they would show an enormous amount of trust in their humans.

I encountered one of my kitties, Raffles, in the middle of a busy intersection, when she was a tiny kitten. She was causing so much traffic because the cars were trying to miss running over her. When I got her, we were both shaking, she was panting and all I could see were the whites of her eyes. She was able to relax when we got home, and started showing signs of hostility. Whenever we would greet her, she would hiss and try to escape. This went on for awhile, and slowly she was able to lower her guard and let us touch her. She's now a fat kitty who runs to us when the other cats would pick a fight with her.

A little patience and a lot of TLC really works wonders.