The Trouble with Tabbies. And Wylla. And Bean

You guys, it's been crazy around here. It all started with two trips to the emergency vet and one to the HS vet with Beau and his mysterious Limping Kitten Syndrome. That was resolved, thankfully, but next, came rivers of diarrhea flowing from all of the Huddlestons.  I'll spare you the details, but it was pretty dang gross.

I took the kittens to the Humane Society Vet on Tuesday, along with a couple of poo samples, and they came home with a de-wormer, Metronidonzal, probiotics, and a bag of sub-q fluids to start them down the road to recovery.

That same afternoon, Craig was cleaning out Wylla and Charlene's litter box when he noticed a little blood on the surface of the litter. We didn't know who was responsible for leaving it but suspected it was Wylla because of her recent UTI. We called the vet and set an appointment for the next morning, then monitored the box just to be sure it was her. It was.

Wednesday we brought Wylla in for her appointment, and a urinalysis revealed another UTI.  We got some antibiotics, booked her for a recheck, and I decided to also make an appointment for Charlene. Bean had been drinking a lot more water than usual and was using the box more frequently,  so I wanted to bring her in for a good once-over.

The next day Charlene just wasn't acting herself. She seemed very sensitive and uncomfortable, so I called the vet to see if they could squeeze her in for an appointment.  When we took her in on Friday for the exam, they did a urinalysis, blood work, and an x-ray. The x-ray revealed that one of her kidneys was slightly enlarged and when the results from the urinalysis and blood work came back on Monday, our vet concluded that the likely cause of her discomfort was a kidney infection.  She's on antibiotics for a month, then we will go back for a recheck.

The drugs seem to be working for both Wylla and Charlene, and I think they are feeling much better.

Now, back to the Huddlestons: After a few days on the meds, I didn't really see much improvement with the kittens. They were acting normal, eating fine, playing as they should, but things weren't thickening up in the litter box.

On Friday night, Beau's energy level was noticeably lower than the rest of the kittens and his diarrhea was even worse than before.  I upped his sub-q fluids to twice a day to try to keep him hydrated, and I also started syringe feeding him to give him a few extra calories. Things didn't improve Saturday, and he was starting to feel a little too scrawny, so Sunday morning I headed out to the emergency vet with the tiny guy. They gave us a different antibiotic to try and said to continue with fluids and syringe feeding to sustain him while we wait for the medicine to kick in.

Yesterday, everyone went back to the HS vet, and we came home with more new drugs to try, special food, and a different probiotic. Our fridge looks like a pharmacy!

We're not through all of this yet, but Beau did seem perkier this morning. Things were looking a little better in the box for all,  so hopefully, the new meds are doing the trick.

We'll get through all of this, I'm confident. Sometimes, it just takes a while with diarrhea and little kittens -- you just have to keep trying different drugs until you find the one that works.  And until then, you just make sure they're getting the calories they need and that they are staying hydrated  -- and that's exactly what we're doing.

Today day marks two weeks since these cuties moved in, which is normally when quarantine is up, but until they get over their bug, we will keep them separated from the big cats.

Hopefully, before this week is out, we will be able to spring them! Fingers are crossed.