darkflavor

This has been a bad couple of days because of the new kitten. To continue on will expose you to gross medical issues…
We acquired a female Russian Blue kitten from a stranger that listed it in the paper. We paid a lot of money for that breed. At the time the kitten appeared healthy and outgoing.
After the cat was home it would not eat dry food. Another cat of ours vomited a meal and the kitten nibbled on it. We realized that she likes soft foods. The person we bought the cat from claimed it ate dry food but he also fed it tuna and water. After we offered the kitten some tuna and she ate it. We learned that her teeth are not developed enough to chew so she cannot consume dry food.
Her eyes were dirty, teary and looked infected. It has become clear that the previous owner had not weaned the cat.
Around December 31 her eyes cleared up which means the antibiotics in the mother’s milk have worn off. Several hours later she vomited up tuna. Later on that night before bedtime we noticed to our horror the kitten’s prolapsed anus. It was blood red and difficult to look at. If you want to know what we saw, just do an image search on google. The prolapsed anus protruded out maybe a quarter of a centimeter. We desperately attempted to determine the cause of this anomaly. We concluded it must be abdominal stress caused by the low fiber diet and we seeked medical attention of the kitten to return the protrusion to its rightful position. There are three veterinarians that are open only at night in Las Vegas and we sped though the city to reach one.
The midnight Vet gave us wet cat food to replace the tuna. He, much to the cats dismay shoved a thermometer up the cats rear. I have seen this done on other cats before and this kitten reacted sharply which implied extreme pain. The Vet determined that the kitten is suffering from Coccidiosis.
Coccidia is a protozoa that ravishes weak hosts. Fit animals are not effected and its quite common in New York and rare in Nevada. It is transmitted via stool and is hardy, difficult to removed from the environment. Could it be transmitted via vomit? (The other cats may carry it but do not show signs of the disease)
This parasite can only be rid of via Sulfa-based medicine and guess what, the Vet did not have any. You may not be aware, but Nevada State law states that pet medicine cannot be administered without the animal’s visit. The Vet said he would fax proof of visit to our regular daytime Vet and referred us to another night vet however, they were out of the medicine too. The third night vet would not give us the medicine without seeing the kitten and that would cost over a hundred dollars.
In the meantime, our kitten now has explosive diarrhea and all Tara can do is hold on to her and we drove home.
The next day we contacted our regular Vet to ask if the fax came through. It has not. The nighttime Vet we saw is not open but lucky for us our Vet offered us the Sulfa-based med’s anyway. It has now been three days since giving the kitten med’s. She still vomits and does not eat. Both Coccidiosis and Albon cause decreased appitite. The anal prolapse has expanded into a rectal prolapse due to continued stress that has pushed the intestine further out. It now extends about half a centimeter out (the cat is about seven inches long, its very gross). If it is not returned inside it will become necrotic and be fatal. We apply sugar-water to the exposed intestine to keep the cells alive. We failed to push the rectum back in and Monday (05Jan04) will seek sedatives to relax the cat and try again. Because the rectum is exposed she has little control and often soils that which she is in contact with. Since she sleeps nearly twenty-two hours of the day it is not much she soils.
The medicine takes around ten days to kill the Coccidia but meanwhile we fear that starvation or rectal prolapse will cause greater problems to the kitten.
Off to bed I go and hopefully tomorrow will be better than the last five days.