The Cat
Emily is the newest member of our family. She is one of four surviving siblings of Sherlock’s family. We rescued her this past fall which you can review and follow the whole story by visiting kitty tales.
Kitty Tales
We used to have the following entries as part of our blog entry section but Lisa could not erase it. It is a critical point in our life and to have it erased will be like it never happened at all. Sherlock was and will always be a special part of our life and will always be remembered. His story might have ended, but what we have learned from the experience and what his brothers and sisters continue to teach us.
Upon experiencing the lost of a kitten and raising four kittens we created a website just on that. If you would like to learn more about this project and how you can help cat every where please click here!
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Sherlock
It is amazing how quickly life can change from one direction to another. I just hope that I am prepared for which ever direction life turns. With that said I was not quit prepared for the direction life has taken me within this past week. I have raised a cat for 16 yrs and volunteer at the local Animal Rescue for about 3 yrs. I have absolutely no experience in raising a week old kitten, but someone in the heavenly above must have felt that I was the person to bring up this kitten.
It started with a co-worker bringing the attention of my boss and the receptionist that we have perhaps a litter of unknown kittens living behind our building and possibly within the woods of the property. This is unknown since we only could find one kitten and only saw a possible glimpse of the mother cat. Before taking on the roll of being the kittens new mother we called all the Animal Rescue groups in the county but no one had the staff or volunteer support to take on this responsibility. Unfortunately without anyone being able to take on this responsibility the kitten’s fate was not looking too good.
After considering all the options I decided that I was the person to take on this responsibility and have received much support from the Animal Rescue group I help out. Which is a life saving factor since I receive lots of help if anything should go wrong. This is a life changing event since all my future projects/vacations stand to a halt for the next two to three weeks of my summer.
For the past five days I’ve learned a considerable amount of information on raising a kitten. If you are someone or know someone who recently finds themselves in a similar position the following are a few things you need to know.
1. THINK & STOP before you pick any baby animal. Once you pick it up the mother may not take care of it due to human scent. WATCH the baby for about an hour from a good distance to see if the mother comes back to retrieve their young.
2. Retrieve the baby only if the mother has not come back to retrieve it. Carefully pick up the baby and put it into a box. Once it is in a box call a vet or local animal rescue center to find out what action needs to be made. Make sure the box supports and gives the animal access to air.
3. Never feed a baby kitten (wild life) milk you buy at the local grocery store. This can have very negative affects and may lead to death. Always talk to a vet or wildlife specialist before feeding anything to a baby domestic/wild animal.
4. For a baby kitten you have to feed it every 2 to 3 hrs and keep it relatively warm. You can buy the food at your local vet or pet center. Part of feeding a kitten you also have to wipe their butt so that they are stimulated to go to the bathroom. If this is not done they will not go and they will become sick.
5. Take it to a vet to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. So that it can begin medicine and be treated for any serious illness it may have.
6. For new parents to newborn animals. Beware that between 1 day to 3 months you are at high risk of losing the kitten from virus, bacteria, parasites and other disease. From 3 weeks to 6 months they are at high risk of choking, falls, drowning and electric accidents.
Sadly Sherlock’s story ended sadly….
Remembering Sherlock
We all have lost a pet in our lives. In the past I have lost a German Retriever to mouth cancer, Golden Retriever to cancer which ended up snapping his foot. As well as I have been close to friends and families pets that have been killed or died naturally. But nothing would prepare my sister and I loosing a pet so young.
After his death I started looking at the book that I borrowed from the library to help me raise this little guy. I saw that there were so many parasites and disease that go after kittens. That from 1 day to 3 months there lives are in danger. Even if we did something different the same result may have occurred.
SHERLOCKS STORY
We figured he was 3 days old when we found him. He did well until he was 20 days old. Then on his 20th day he began starting to get diarrhea which was on Friday. He hardly was moving and would not drink his milk. I read that if kittens start having diarrhea they were at high risk of getting dehydrated and take them to the vet immediately because they could die. I took him to a near by vet that had emergency hours. They told me start feeding him wet kitten food and give him either warm water/ kitten milk. As well as start treating him for worms by giving him a D-worm every other week.
By three days (Monday) he started getting blood in his waste so I called our normal vet who had a free time that day. He was still active and meowing. He was even climbing the bars in his crate. The vet told us to not worry since he was still active and taking in his food. She told us to continue doing what we were doing. Add a tube of bacteria to give him three days in a row and then give it to him every other day. That she would call us that Wednesday to check on him.
On Tuesday night he woke my sister up at 4AM. She said he was active and made a mess which she cleaned up. But was moving and drinked his water like usual. We decided to give him a couple of more hours to sleep since he had a bad night because by his 3 week we started checking him every 6 to 8 hours because he seemed to be sleeping longer.
On Wednesday between 9-10AM the vet called to check on him. I told her he was sleeping because that night he had a bad night and everything seemed well. He was not dehydrated and was still going well.
We had not check on him since 9AM and decided to check on him at 11 AM he was snoring and was not moving. We called our vet back and told her what was going on. She asked if he was still bleeding and what color his gums were. I told her yes he was still bleeding but not as much and his gums were light pink to white. She told me to take him to the emergency vet hospital in another county. We got there by 12PM.
They put him in the back and said that he has a 95 temperature was dehydrated and his blood sugar was low. They put him in an heater to get him warm and fed him sugar water to get him hydrated. Gave him a 50 to 50 chance but said the odds were not in his favor. Within 2 to 3 hours he was dead.
At the end we hope his story save some lives and prepares others for the journey ahead. Even though the journal was difficult we would not traded for the world because we know we tried our hardest. But wish someone would warn us so that we were more prepared. But even if someone did it would of still been hard to say good bye…
WARNINGS
1. Try to not speed their growth take your time raising them. Enjoy every moment you have with them because before you know it they will be all grown up or end up dieing. Have a good reference to make notes what each cycle or age will bring so you can keep up with their schedule.
2. Between 1 day to 3 months are the critical times of a kittens life. This is there weaker moments because they can get parasites, virus and other diseases that can cause death.
3. Between 3 weeks to 6 months from when they begin to walk to becoming independent they are endangered of chocking, falls, drowning, electric, water and other accidents. It is important to continue keeping them in a soft and safe place from these dangers.
4. Keep them in a safe and warm spot during their early life. From 1 day to 4 weeks they are unable to maintain their own body heat and relieve themselves. They only begin to do so between 4 to 6 weeks.
5. Do not give them cows or other animals milk. It is harmful to kittens and cats. We first went to a vet to see what we would need and received the first dose of kitten formula.
6. Do not starve the cat to train it to eat out of a dish bowel. I am guilty of starting one day doing this but decided against it. They need nutrients and doing this could dehydrate them. Introduce the process during one of your feeding times.
7. Do not give them tuna fish. Complete Kitten Care by Amy D. Shojai advices that to much tuna fish can harm them. Plus the smell of tuna fish is to powerful for them.
8. Take your kitten to the vet when he/she begins to have diarrhea this dehydrates them. Kittens can easily get dehydrated. Beware that diarrhea could be caused by a disease, parasite or virus hiding in their heart, stomach and/or liver that vet can not find within the stool.
REFERENCES:
1. Complete Kitten Care by Amy D. Shojai
2. The Common Sense book of Kitten and Cat Care by Harry Miller
3. Cat: The Complete Guide by Claire Bessant
CONDOLENCES:
All my sincere wishes to you after losing your pet/family member. They keep us happy and loved as we love them in return. God gave them to us for a short period of time in order to teach us about compassion and love. My Weimaraner is sad now that I told him about your cat. He likes to stalk our cat and act like a bully. But when it comes down to it… he loves her. She’s old and has tumor problems. She probably won’t be around too much longer. I show her as much love as possible. And so does my Weimy. God bless you. I’m sorry for your loss… KS from Facebook
Oh, I am so sorry about the kitten. Kitties graces our lives. It is hard to lose them. RV a friend
May your pet live on in your memories and bring you peace. With Deepest Sympathy. AA Veterinary Emergency Clinic
We always get so attached to the little animals with the greatest needs. A special thanks for your gifts of love and caring for those little animals that cannot care for themselves. A hug for both of you! K from CCHS
In memory of your beloved pet. We want you to know that others are think of you in your time of sorrow. We are sorry to hear about Sherlock.
C Veterinary Clinic