Thanks Melissa. I don't have a digital camera- other than a webcam. Have to borrow my mom's and she has come over to take a few pictures of them, so once she gets them loaded, I will post those. These kittens are hilarious...I think it's the group dynamic. One one one with me, away from the others, they are darlings. When out for playtime, they are Satan's Minions! Yoda is seriously the cutest thing I've seen in a long time (second only to the Monkee!) and he has this strut! He struts when he first gets let out of his cage...hilarious! They did not have diarrhea when I first got them, and I think Yoda was the only one who had some initial diarrhea when I started his amoxy. But then it tapered off and I was treating them with Amoxy twice a day and stools were normal...stinky kitten poo, but otherwise normal. Now, Yoda's diarrhea and the cow pies (that's a good description for the stools somewhat in between the two extremes)-- those smell pretty bad. I have noted the smell has gotten worse with the softer stools. About the supplements, this past Sat. was the first Sat. I took them to cat adoption day and put them on display and my mom came to check them out. Bragging a little, she said my fosters look better than the other fosters and there's no comparison! She said they look like they are getting vitamins and they behaved so well...they loved their outing! Their skin and coats look crazy-good! But I told my mom, well, they better look good, I'm feeding them cans of food that costs like $80 cents for a teeny can! They are so much better off than they were in their previous home, so everytime I get worn down and worn out, I remember this. I wish to god that once again, I took "before" pix, so you all could see the "after" pix and be as shocked and amazed as me. But my mom is always so hesitant to condone the taking of before pix b/c she always thinks that when they come to me in such bad shape, that they will die. She thought Yoda would die over Labor Day weekend. I guess she views that taking of the before pic as macabre or something. Then, when they survive and come out looking awesome, we kick ourselves for not taking a before pic. Urgh. -Caroline
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: RE: Kitten QuestionDate: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:10:09 -0500 Hi Caroline, I was thinking about you and the kitties. I’m glad to have a new topic to discuss—thanks! Anyway, I gather from your post that they didn’t have diarrhea before or soft stools right? I know my vet told me the antibiotics can cause diarrhea. We had Ashley on Clavomox because of her cow-pie stools, but even after she was finished with the Clavomox, it took 2 weeks for the stools to harden. She still has a touch of the soft stools and some stinky gas now and then, but the smell isn’t unbearable as it was before. Our house no longer smells like a giant litter box. This may sound gross, but how’s the smell? With Ashley it was nauseating—it could seriously bring you to your knees. It turned out to be persistent parasites or bacteria or something like that which hadn’t gotten cleared up from the first trips to the vet’s. She was a kitty eating out of a dumpster, and I think the vet figured that because of the damage done, it was taking longer to rehabilitate her. However, she came to me with diarrhea; she didn’t develop it. And it took several months to get better (after much distress on my part). But, like I said, the vet said the antibiotics can cause diarrhea. Maybe it just takes a while to get out of your kitties’ systems. I think it’s great that you load up on the vitamins and supplements, but you make me feel like a negligent mommy! Oh, we also switched Ashley to some blander food for a while. I think it was Science Diet ID or something like that. But, I think you’re light years ahead of me on the nutritional side of things anyway. I hope you find homes for your babies really soon. You should post some pictures of them for us! We could all use a little cheering up and a reminder that the kitties, not our egos, are the most important things here. Melissa From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Caroline KaufmannSent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 1:55 PMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: OT: Kitten Question I am down to three foster kittens now as one was integrated to the on-site adoption facility (the pet supply store) on Saturday. He was bigger and totally healthy and getting to be too much for me because he was the instigator and a bad influence on the other ones. He was a B/W little Kittler, so it figures! Of the three I have now, they seem to be having a touch of diarrhea? And I don't know what the cause is? I'm not doing anything different with them. They all get fed Wellness Wet Kitten food and Eagle Pack Holistic dry kitten. Each gets about a half of the small can of Wellness in the a.m., and the same in the evening. When I leave for work, after they have eaten the Wet food, they get the Eagle Dry- kind of free choice because they stay in crates when I am not home, so I like to leave them with some food. They are all drinking water fine, except for when they tip their waters over, but I don't think they go too long before I am able to get home and refill them and it doesn't happen every day (I just ordered "coop cups" from Revival, so these should solve that problem).On their wet food in the am I sprinkle L-Lysine free form powder and Brewer's yeast (and have been doing this for weeks now). In the pm, I do the same, but add a sprinkled on gel cap of Colostrum- about 290 mgs each. I just placed an order for "Just Born with Colostrum" and will be switching them to that when I get it. I think, but am not for sure, that they are June babies and I don't know if they are from the same litter- 2 might be, but I don't know for sure. The smallest now weighs 2.8 (and I should not that this is the only one that hasn't been fixed yet because it weighed too little, but now with me, it's a little eating and growing machine!). The biggest- Yoda- the first one I took in that I thought might die (weighed 2.4 lbs and they had him on the floor for adoption!?! with a raging URI!), anyway, he now weighs 3.6 lbs and I've had him since Labor Day Weekend!!!! He's a growing monster. So they all have healthy appetites and they are all gaining weight and getting noticeably bigger. They run and play like maniacs (they have so MUCH energy! My mom tells me to stop pumping them full of vitamins and supplements!) when I let them out of their crates twice a day for play-time. They are all well now-- it took 2 weeks to 14 days to bust those URI's out of them, but I finally did it. I stopped the Amoxicillin well over a week ago, so it can't be that causing the diarrhea? But now they seem to be having soft stools, if not actual diarrhea. Yoda seems to be having the diarrhea more (I can tell with him because he has a crate to himself and the other two share one). My first foster cat- which I guess I am keeping (!), she's 1 now and no longer a "kitten" but a big, healthy mature cat-- she gets the same protocol of supplements, except she gets fed 1/4 can of regular adult Wellness in the am and pm and free choice Wellness Dry Core. She mingles with the kittens now during "play-time" and she is not having any diarrhea. Does anyone have any thoughts about a possible cause of diarrhea and what I can do about it? I'd appreciate some help! I haven't had kittens since I was 10, so I just don't know much about them...-Caroline Gear up for Halo® 3 and get a $25 Best Buy gift card. It’s our way of saying thanks for using Windows Live™. Get it now! _________________________________________________________________ Capture your memories in an online journal! http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us
