One Big Happy Family

Sometimes, even our mistakes can end up saving us...

We received a stray mom in a trap with her new born babies. The mom was nice enough to be handled so we placed her in a cage with her two 1-day old babies and covered the door with a blanket so she could get back to caring for her kittens.

I would check on her about every half hour to see if she had jumped in the box with her babies. Unfortunately, she seemed to be ignoring them. However, the babies were calmly sleeping so I decided to give her a couple hours alone and see how she does.

Even though the instincts to take care of their young can be very strong, sometimes new moms just don't know how to, or maybe just don't want to, take care of their babies. Also, moving a new mom and her babies to a new place can be very stressful and she can reject the babies. This seemed to be the case when I checked on her again and it was obvious she was making no attempt to clean and nurse her kittens.

I made the decision to take the babies out and attempt to bottle feed them. Unfortunately, that did not go well. Some of the time, even the best efforts from the most experienced bottle feeders can not replicate nature for very young kittens. A staff member and I were continuing to try, carefully dropping kitten milk replacer into their mouths in an attempt to get them to latch on to the bottle. I was beginning to get discouraged when I remembered that we had a lactating mom with three 1-week old babies that was mistakenly left at our shelter when she was supposed to be transferred to another facility for foster!

We rushed the little kittens over to "Baby" - the lactating mom had given birth to 3 beautiful kittens at our shelter one week prior. At first "Baby" seemed reluctant to sniff these new little creatures, but when we placed them on the blanket and they began crawling around she began to lick them -- this was our first success!

We then moved "Baby" to a new cage and placed the new borns on her; they started to suckle vigorously -- this was our second success!

Since "Baby" is an amazing mom, her 1-week old babies were very big, plump, and twice the size of the 1-day olds. I was a little worried that they may push the young ones out of the way in an attempt to compete for milk. However, all my fears were allayed when I checked on the new family later on throughout the day and found these adorable scenes:





A few days after we created this mixed family, a wonderful volunteer decided to take them home and foster them until the kittens are ready for adoption. Last I heard they were all doing great! And they should all be available for adoption during the last week in October.

The Armadillo Dog

I still remember when a staff member told me, "You need to see this dog! She has nearly no hair left!"



She came to us in desperate need of help. By just looking at her, one may question her ability to recover from such severe neglect. Her skin was thickened and rough, and she was covered in flakes and scabs - it was evident she had been suffering from a severe skin infection for a VERY long time. Her nails were very long, and her thickened skin was harboring bacteria and yeast giving her a very bad odor. Her appearance earned her the nickname "Armadillo dog".

There was no question about whether we were going to treat her. Having been so wronged by the people that were supposed to keep her happy and healthy, we had no choice but to try and make it right.

As a new veterinarian, a few things popped into my head about what could have caused this to happen. Mange... Allergies... Endocrine disorders...

Knowing that she needed to start on a treatment regiment right away, I went with what diagnosis I thought was most likely due to the way she looked - demodectic mange.

A few days after having her in our care and being on treatments, her attitude started to improve and she became pretty active and friendly with us! But, then we noticed she started getting goopy eyes, and she had an indention on her right cornea. I was worried she might be developing an ulcer! At the shelter, we don't have very many diagnostic tools yet. So, it was off to a local veterinarian to stain her eye, do some skin scrapes and some blood work to see if we could get a diagnosis.

Staining revealed no ulcer - yay!
Skin scraps were negative for mites - hmmm...
Blood work was not definitive for any endocrine disorders - extra confusing...

Taking all this into consideration, it was decided that as long as she was continuing to improve, we would keep her on her antibiotics, her eye medications (to keep her eyes from drying out), start a special shampoo regiment, and get her into a foster home so she could receive consistent treatments in a less stressful environment...

3 weeks later I see this kid in our front office:



She looked so good! Her skin was returning to normal and she was starting to grow some hair back!

We don't know if her hair will ever grow back completely, but as long as her skin is healthy, I don't think either of us will care :)

To date she has completed almost 1 month of antibiotics and shampoos. Pretty soon she will be ready for adoption!!!

UPDATES

The little black and white kitten, named "Victory" by a staff member that closely worked with her, made a complete recovery and was transferred to NOAH (www.thenoahcenter.org), a wonderful facility in Stanwood, WA where I am absolutely certain she will find a terrific home!

"Treadwell", the gray and white kitten run over by a truck, is continuing to make his recovery. While he is still not out of the woods yet, he has overcome his neurologic signs and has become quite affectionate! He has even started to purr! I will let him walk around on the floor of my house from time to time - where he is greeted by my aussie, my shepherd mix, my pit bull, and my other cat - and he has definitely learned his routine of being offered delicious canned food and using the litter box when I place him in there!

Have a Heart

He was brought to us - in a cardboard box - after being run over by a truck. The idea was we would "put him out of his misery". He was definitely in shock; mucous membranes were white/pale, he was unresponsive to basic physical stimuli, and he was trembling. After a quick physical exam I found no evidence of extreme external bleeding or injuries, no broken bones, and his pupils were responsive to light. Part of me agreed that his suffering should end; part of me questioned the idea that he couldn't recover from this... Do I put him down? Do I try to save him?

I decided to give him a shot at recovery.

Since we do not have the capacity to set up animals with IV catheters and deliver intravenous fluids at a continuous rate (which would be ideal for a patient in shock), I only had the option of giving him subcutaneous fluids. After inserting the needle into the skin of his scruff he reacted by trying to crawl away from me (a GOOD sign). I administered as much fluids as he would allow (about 15 mLs), and then I wrapped him up in a towel and held him close to keep him warm and monitored his progress.

I was going to give him a couple of hours and see if his mental status improved and then make a decision about his fate...

By the end of the afternoon, he had stopped shaking and was acting more alert. By the end of the evening, he was eating soft food from a spoon.

Within 2 days he was up and walking (though, abnormally [hypermetric in front left limb; ataxic in hind limbs] - the evidence of being squished by a truck tire was blatantly obvious).

Now, 3 days after his accident, it has become apparent that he is a feral kitten. He is making progress, day by day; he's still not the most affectionate guy in the world, but he's getting better.

As good as he is doing, he still has a ways to go... And as pliable and recoverable as a kitten body is, the fact is he was run over a truck and it might take months before he as good as new.

But, I'm in no hurry; I'm just glad he's getting better.

Signs of Life

This little girl was brought to us in a cardboard box by a police officer. She was rescued from a less than ideal situation -- the rest of her litter mates had died from a really bad upper respiratory infection. When she was brought to us, it with was with the premise that we "don't waste too much time on her"... I brought the box back to our medicine room and mentally prepared myself for what I might see upon opening the box. I lifted the first flap and her little head popped right out! I had to put my hand over her to make sure the rest of her didn't fly out as well!

I removed her from her cardboard vessel and assessed her general condition. She was borderline emaciated, dehydrated, and had a pretty bad upper respiratory infection. Her eyes and nose showed significant discharge and it was apparent she was horribly uncomfortable. However, she was bright, alert and responded to physical contact. I couldn't just put her down - she wasn't ready to give up, and I wasn't going to give up on her. We started her on some oral antibiotics to address her secondary bacterial infections and moved her to our isolation room. Within a couple days she was making some progress, but one of her eyes really started to get inflamed so we added some eye ointment to her treatment list. A couple days later we tried a couple drops of nasal decongestant to try and dry up her nasal passages - it worked! From then on, she continued to get better and better and fatter and fatter!

Today was day number 12 of her treatment and she is nearly as good as new! And just a couple days away from being put up for adoption! As you can see, she's active enough that it's hard to get a good picture of her :) It's things like these that make me remember why I do what I do...