Oh Leslie,
I can't believe she's having troubles so soon. It does make sense that
she's in a fragile state after being in a shelter situation though. My
prayers are with you that she's able to overcome this very soon. When
you syringe feed her, are you giving her an opportunity to eat by
herself after the first little bit in her mouth. Does she seem to have
an appetite at all? If she can't smell, then letting her know how yummy
the baby food is might get her started without you having to syringe the
whole amount. Maybe warm it first to bring out the aroma? People on
the list have suggested a product for human infants called "Little
Noses". I've never used it, but I think someone said they wet a Q-tip
and cleaned the outside of the kitties nose with it. Maybe a drop in
each nostril will bring some temp relief. If it's dry and crusty, maybe
a touch of vasiline on each nostril would help. Please do let us know
what the vet has to say. Are you giving her lysine? Is she on abx?
Hugs,
Nina
Leslie wrote:
Hi everyone,
Umm, sigh, bad news. Not the worst, but 24 hours are not enough for a
bad turn! Anyway, when I got home yesterday things had deteriorated.
She was having trouble breathing, was running a temp (only getting a
partial flow through her nose and needing to open her mouth a little
to compensate), and wasn't interested in food. She's alert still and
moving around, but only out of necessity, though I could get some
interest in the laser pointer.
I don't know if it's a cold that is internal - it's like she needs an
expectorant. There was a URI going around the Humane Society (when
isn't there), so I feel like that's the most logical cause, but her
eyes are still clear and her nose isn't runny - it's not sneezing, but
coughing of sorts, but definitely respiratory. I tried running a bath
to get some humidity in the air, but that didn't seem to affect the
breathing and it just made her stretch out like she was hot.
As it so happened, I was meeting my vet for a drink last night (I'm
thinking of going into veterinary medecine as career #2 and she'd
agreed to let me "interview" her). She was most concerned with the
not eating and recommended that I bring her in today instead of Friday
(she agreed to rearrange her schedule to fit us in - very nice of
her), and to pick up baby food to syringe-feed on the way home.
She was in the same state when I got home and I tried to put a 1/3 of
the baby food in her. Pretty successful. I also got a ear bulb to
maybe get some stuff out of her nose, but like I said, nothing is
visibly coming out, so I only try this sporadically. A couple of
times, I've gotten a tiny bit of yellow mucus.
I stayed up with her until 1 this morning, just petting her, trying to
take her mind off of things. This morning, more baby food for 15
minutes, then two more small syringes at 10:30 (when I got home
between class and work). We'll go into the vet at 3pm.
Maggie, to answer you, she was spayed, but within the last couple of
weeks (I don't remember the spay date, but the stitch removal was
8/1). That trachea thing sounds feasible, purring seemed to trigger a
"cough", and she hasn't been purring since yesterday morning, though
with eye blinks and the leaning of her body she seems to be enjoying
the cheek scratches and body rubbing. Even if she doesn't have a URI,
she has some sort of infection, would this jive with what you're
talking about? Would it happen a couple of weeks after the spay?
From her mouth breathing, her breath smells...not good. The last time
that I smelled that bitter, moist smell, the circumstances were very
sad. I hope that she can pull through this. She's a dear little
thing and has so much more fun to have here! She seems uncomfortable,
but steady. I'm doing okay psychologically, but the force feeding
does wear on a person if it's long term, and keeping Satch at bay
hurts because I want him to understand that I'm not now spending more
time in with the new one for any other reason than she's in trouble.
And then when I emerge, I want to wash up before petting him, which he
thinks is just, plain mean. :)
I'll let you know how the vet goes.
Leslie