You know, I've seen a lot in my years as a "cat dad." Especially the last few years where we've been adopting kittens about twice a year to rebuild the ranks in the household.
Never have I, or my wife, had to wipe a cat's ass multiple times a day. But, here we are.
I will start this by saying Gary is doing well. He has been sequestered in our master bedroom since Saturday evening, and he has taken great pleasure in running up and down the cat tree, playing with his toy ball and mouse, and running in and out of the cat tunnel. He is also a big cuddler and wants to sleep with us, on us, and get love and attention from us. In all respects, he's a pretty normal kitten with normal kitten behavior.
However, he's not completely well.
I mentioned previously that he had been on a medical hold in the shelter for awhile for digestive/gastrointestinal issues. The shelter vets and feline welfare assistants had tried to treat alternating diarrhea/constipation in him with not a lot of success. But, the shelter is sadly not equipped with a lot of actual veterinary solutions, tests, or expertise -- it's catch as catch can there, and they cycle through so many animals that each one isn't really given extensive levels of monitoring and care.
And, of course, I understand this and sympathize. It's a lot of work just to feed these animals, do their laundry, clean their pans and cages, etc. It's a large, constantly underfunded facility with a lot of moving parts, and I get it. This is part of the reason we wanted to get Gary -- we wanted to get him out of that environment so we could take him home and get him to heal up/recover/grow with us, and give him the care he needed so that he wouldn't just sit there in his cage indefinitely.
When we were finally able to get him, we brought him home and locked him up in our master bedroom as the base of operations for his care -- much like we've done with every other cat we've brought in. Generally, the other cats have been released to explore and meet everyone else in the house within a few days, a week at most. I think Charlie was out and hanging with everyone by day two or three, for example.
However, we can't do that yet with Gary. We wanted to get him checked out by our vet to clear him for parasites and to see if we could find out why he was experiencing such gastrointestinal distress. We love the little guy and just want him to feel better. So, on Monday afternoon, we got him into the carrier and took him to the vet.
Turns out that he was just chill in the car when we brought him home on Saturday -- on Monday he whined and cried, shit himself in the carrier (which let us get a very fresh stool sample for his parasite test, at least) and vomited from carsickness at the end of the drive over to the vet.
He is quite underweight for being 14 weeks old -- he's 2.02 pounds and just a tiny little thing. This is likely because of his digestive issues. Otherwise he appears to be healthy. He's too small to run blood tests at this point, but our vet isn't ready to do so yet anyhow. He examined him and his medical records, used the stool sample for a parasite test, and said we could go from there.
Yesterday morning we got the call that he is thankfully parasite free -- but, that opens up another line of questioning for treatments, because a parasite causing diarrhea and/or constipation would be an easy fix. Now we have to investigate whether he has food sensitivity/allergies, a stomach bug like Pete had last month, or something else. We got a bag of special prescription diet food for him at the vet and he's been eating that mixed with his normal food, with the goal of getting him switched completely over to it by the end of the week. He does seem to like it. In addition, we've been instructed to give him probiotic powder on said food once a day (just like we gave to Pete in broth form, and still give to him in broth form every few days) just to promote good gut health and see if it helps to rebalance him.
In the interim, he sometimes has normal poops, and sometimes he strains a little and leaks diarrhea off and on for a few hours. So, Daisy and I have been checking his ass and making sure we wipe it off with the cat version of soothing baby wipes. It could take some time for the food change and probiotics to have a meaningful effect, so we're watching him and tracking the food he eats, how many times a day he uses the pan, etc. I do think he's showing a little improvement, but it's still early.
We have our next appointment with the vet on May 20th. This is a little less than three weeks from now.
I told Daisy this morning that it's going to be very hard to keep him sequestered for another three weeks. Like, it can be done, but it is far from ideal. The other cats know he's in the room, they can't get into the room with him (so they can't play with him or sleep with us at night) and I'm sure it's stifling for the little guy as well. I know he wants to see them and play with them, and interact like a normal cat -- and it's likely low-level torture for him to not be able to.
There is a good reason for this though, aside from the butt-wipings -- if the new food and probiotics don't help his digestive issues much and he doesn't gain weight, there's likely some other underlying issue at play, and that could be something like FIV or feline leukemia, both of which would be very transmissible to the other cats. Feline leukemia is a death sentence 1-2 years after diagnosis, no way around it. FIV is less serious, and cats can live normal lives with it, but it's not something I want to pass to the other five cats in the household, of course. Neither of them are, obviously. The testing process for either disease is a six-months-or-more process with multiple tests needed to eliminate false positives or false negatives. And, until we get bloodwork done on him, we just don't know.
However, both of those are relatively rare -- they're not nonexistent of course, but they are worst-case-scenarios and not something we should be jumping to off the bat, because it's a relatively miniscule chance he has either one. Gary is young, has been in the shelter and foster environment since birth, and his stomach issues have not exactly been fully properly treated. So, our vet remains optimistic. If he's not showing much improvement in a week or so, we're likely going to try the antibiotic we gave Pete to see if it clears his guts up, and there are a few other options our vet can try too before we'd take more, shall we say, drastic steps. We still plan to do the full-on bloodwork in his next appointment to see what else can be ruled out.
Some of you may be saying this is a lot of work and money, and stress, for a little cat with a poopy butt. I told Daisy I see it as my fault for anything bad that happens with him. If he somehow does have feline leukemia or FIV, I've unwittingly brought that into the house and put our cats at risk, even if they don't interact with him (we do, though). We also couldn't keep him if either of those are the case -- he'd have to be rehomed to someone without other cats or he'd have to be returned to the Humane Society so that he could be adopted out into a household where he's the only cat. It would be a lot of money, and stress, and danger to our other cats, in the end to just to have to bring him back and be like "oh well." It would also be an immense amount of heartache...all brought on by me, who set this ball in motion by wanting to adopt the little furball with medical issues because he wanted me to love on him.
Daisy does not see it this way -- she sees it as us saving him from being locked in a cage and helping him get the medical care and love he needs, and getting him out of a stressful situation that was likely making him more sick. And yes, she is right there, but it's really easy to spiral into worst-case scenarios when you're stressed and sad about the situation.
Removing myself from it a bit though -- I mean, the cat has a little diarrhea. He doesn't have parasites, he doesn't have worms, he's super-active and playful and loving. All cats get the poops sometimes. People do too. In a sweeping sense of the word, it's generally diet and/or stress-based. He could and/or likely does have some food allergies or sensitivities, and they'll likely clear up after a bit with or without help from some low-level antibiotics, or as he ages a bit and puts on some weight.
I have to force myself to look at the best-case scenarios in order to keep from spiraling down into the worst -- because, frankly, it is a lot of money to treat him and pay for this special food, the supplies he needs, and these vet appointments. And I do worry about him, a lot. But, I have to stay positive that this is likely something quite minor and will clear up.
It helps that he is beautiful.
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