Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sad

We have had a busy few days. Yesterday, we went home to Tennessee for a birthday party (mine, on Friday night) and a family reunion (the husband's family, on Saturday). It was a busy 2 days, but we had to be back tonight, as I am going trail riding tomorrow.

Alas, I lost my first bottle raised baby. I have raised many kittens -from as young as 12 hours old to 3 weeks old. I have never had one die. The middle-sized one of this litter has been acting strange for several days - star-gazing, mentally dull, vocalizing frequently for no reason that I could determine. On the way home tonight, he just kept crying and crying, and he wouldn't settle down or eat. He also just seemed off. When we got home, he had died. It makes me very sad. I work so hard on these guys. I just hope whatever it was, it's not contagious.

I did do a post-mortem exam on the kitten, though I was loathe to cut him open. His stomach was absolutely huge, his small intestines were empty, and he had a large amount of feces in his colon. It was soft and not impacted. I'm really at a loss. There were no obvious causes of death.

Poor kitten. Poor me. Poor husband (he has a big, soft, tender heart for kittens and puppies, so he took it hard).

6 comments:

The Snowboarding (and Crossfitting) Veterinarian said...

I'm really sorry. It's hard when you put so much time and energy and worry into them and then they don't make it.

The Homeless Parrot said...

Thank you. I accept it now a lot better than I once did, because I've raised enough kittens to know that it's part of it. But still, I've never lost one - and now 2 in 4 days - a cleft palate, 1 day old kitten that I took on (knowing it was BAD), and then one of my litter. Too many kitten deaths in too few days!

Elizabeth said...

I an sorry. You put your heart into them I can tell.

Shannon said...

I'm so sorry. I lost my first this past spring, the runt of a litter that waited in a high kill shelter too long for rescue and came down with a URI as a result. Although Mom was there, she wasn't the most fantastic caretaker and all six needed regular feedings, medications, pedialyte treatments and so on for weeks. For a long time, we thought we were going to lose all of them. But the bigger ones pulled through and thrived. The baby died on my chest early one morning and I touched her eye to check her corneal reflex than wrapped her in a blanket and put her in my freezer until I could find a place to bury her. For weeks, I had nightmares that she had still been alive when I froze her even though in my head I knew she was gone.

Amy said...

I'm so sorry

Mary said...

I'm so sorry -- on a happier note -- hope you had a good birthday!