A belated Happy Thanksgiving!

Things are going nicely for my two boys right now.  When I took Radar and TK back for their recheck TK's bloodwork is still holding normal, so he's been released from vet care.  Radar still has a tiny bit of ear infection, so he's still being treated for that.  I have to take Radar back on December 2nd for a recheck on his ear.

They've discovered a new way to wake me up in the morning.  Radar noses his way underneath my covers and works his way down until he's right at the small of my back.  Once he reaches that point TK then starts pouncing on him from the outside of my covers!  While I'm sure it's a grand game for these two little rascals, those needle sharp claws of Radar's sure don't feel good!!!  I'm hoping that they will invent yet another way to wake me up real soon, something that doesn't involve clawing me awake.

It's kinda hard to show both TK and Radar in one photo....TK's whiteness gets very bright, and Radar's blackness makes him tend to lose details.  LOL!

Freon likes to spend some time with the kids, when they're calm and not rough housing around.  TK is using Radar as a sort of body pillow, and Radar doesn't seem to mind being squished at all.  Silly boys!

 

Here the three of them are, all snug in my computer chair.  After I took this photo TK and Radar left the chair to spend a little of their energy wrestling!

 

Radar has done his famous hip toss to TK, and is preparing to pounce on him.  I try to supervise their play more now, it seems that Radar has discovered that TK has testicles and, obviously being a bit mystified by them, he often tries to remove them, much to TK's squeals of protest and pain!  Speaking of this rather personal thing, Radar hasn't yet developed (or dropped) either testicle yet!!!  My vet has said that when I decide to have the boys neutured they'll have to perform abdominal exploratory surgery on Radar to locate his missing testicles.  Ummm.......no way!  He may actually not have any!  Given the fact that he has birth defects (missing one eye, the other tiny and for the most part sightless, plus the flip tip ear), he may not have testicles, which would explain why they haven't yet descended.  I've done a little research and discovered at least two different ways that my vet can tell whether Radar has testicles without having to do surgery.  One way is to examine his penis.  If it has "spines" on it then he must have at least one testicle, but if it's smooth and spineless then he doesn't have either testicle.  Also, there's a test that can be done where they take a baseline blood sample to test testosterone levels, then they give him an injection that forces his testicles into testosterone production, and rerun the bloodwork at certain intervels to see whether the testosterone level rises.  Again, if it does then he has testicles hiding somewhere, but if the bloodwork continues to show no testosterone then he's sterile and doesn't have testicles.  I'm not sure if my vet's clinic can perform this type of bloodwork, so I'll see if they can examine his penis for spines first.  Either way, I don't want him to undergo surgery if it's all for nothing, ya know?

  

Why's my brother wanting my private parts???

New photos!!!

Radar and TK are both doing really well, they go back to the vet this coming Wednesday evening for their respective rechecks.  Hopefully TK's cbc will be within normal limits (he's still quite pink) and Radar's ear infection will be gone.  They're playing well, sleeping good, and eating a totally cat friendly diet now.  At last weigh-in (11/7/09) TK weighed 1739 grams and Radar was 1256 grams.  So, here are some new photos of the guys!

 Here's Radar trying to take a nap........but something got his attention!  He's getting fuzzier (as if that's possible) and looks like he's having a bad hair day most of the time.  Or......he could be suffering fly-away hair from us having the heat on!  LOL!

TK with his new sleeping partner Jasmine.  I'm so glad that the guys are trying to show her some interest!  Jasmine is 15 years old (my oldest kitty here) and she misses her sister Cinnamon a lot.  I lost Cinnamon several months ago to crf.  Now that the boys are here Jasmine seems to have taken a new interest in life in general! 

TK and Jasmine sleeping together again, with Radar trying to join in!  I had hoped that Radar would be the one smitten with Jasmine, but he doesn't seem as interested in spending a lot of time with Jasmine as TK is.  Oh well, what can I do?!?!?  (Just goes to show ya that cats certainly have minds of their own and will do as they please!)

And if this picture doesn't say it all, nothing will!  Jasmine momma's TK, and TK really does seem to love having her company.  Beautiful, eh?

It's a new day........

I'm sorry that I left you hanging like I did.  Let's go back to Oct. 14th for a moment.

After TK had not one, but two blood draws, he had a terrible time with bleeding from his right jugular vein.  The techs held his little neck for what seemed like forever to try and stop the bleeding, and eventually they got it to stop.  But, TK developed a rather nasty hematoma from it, and when we returned home he was in a serious amount of pain from it!  All that evening he just laid in my chair, and when he'd get up to move he'd let out a squeek of pain and collapse right back down again.  DH and I were both very concerned and afraid for him.  In fact, when we went to bed TK followed us to the bedroom but he didn't seem to have the ooomph to jump up on the bed.  I gently picked him up and placed him on our bed, where he stayed ALL night long!

By the next morning he seemed to be feeling a little bit better, but was so awfully sore.  He ate and slept, and whenever Radar attempted to play with him he'd again squeal with pain and run away.  Poor Radar, he just didn't know what to do.....he wanted to play and rough house, but TK certainly wasn't up to it.  Instead, Radar pestered me, play attacking me at the slightest invite. 

By Friday TK was on the mend, he definitely was getting over the pain in his neck, but he still didn't act like his normal self, like he just was lacking stamina.  He finally started playing a little bit with Radar, but again, even Radar noticed that it wasn't their normal wrestling.  This continued throughout the entire weekend.

On Monday I called our vet to discuss TK's situation, but she was busy and ended up calling me back later in the day.  Some very special friends had sent me a lot of information about hemobart, so when our vet did return my call I read some of the information to her.  She decided that maybe we should go ahead and treat TK for hemobart even though the test came back negative.  So, on Tuesday morning I went to the vet and picked up some compounded doxycycline.  I started giving it to TK Tuesday evening.

Well, let me tell you........by Tuesday night TK was MUCH better, wrestling with Radar and running around like his little butt was on fire!  He played, he leapt, he climbed, he was his normal nutty little self!!!  And he hasn't looked back since.

We finally got both of the boys eating real canned cat food, although their choices are (of course) some of the more expensive foods........they really like Sheba chicken.  Bad thing is that Sheba will be out of business come January 2010.  Whiskas will be taking over for them.  Both Sheba and Whiskas are owned by Mars company, so maybe Whiskas will start producing a Sheba-like food.  The guys are also eating Whiskas, Friskies.....most anything in a pouch as long as it's a poultry flavor.  Get this, they're now eating 5 to 6 meals a day of REAL canned cat food!!!  Plus, neither of them will even give AD a look now.

We had to take TK back to the vet this past Wednesday evening for a recheck on his anemia, and thankfully his bloodwork is now perfectly normal!!  Oh man, such a relief!!!!!  My vet was totally impressed by TK's recovery and now agrees that he most likely did have hemobart dispite the negative test.  She has even started Radar on treatment for it too, which makes a ton of sense.  They've been together since birth, and Radar could have it in his bone marrow just waiting for a time when he has some other illness, then it could spring to life and threaten his. 

In fact, while we had TK there we also took Radar, for moral support to TK, and he had an ear bothering him that needed to be checked.  Seems that Radar now has a very slight ear infection, so we're treating that too plus giving both kittens their doxycycline. 

On Wednesday the 28th TK weighed in at 3 pounds 9 ounces, Radar 2 pounds 3 ounces. 

Hopefully next time I post I'll have some new pictures of these guys to share with you!
Until then..........

Please........no!

There won't be any pictures in today's post, I'm just not up to uploading any from my camera.  But, I wanted to share the news with you about TK.

I had to take Freon and Angel to the vet's this past Wednesday evening for their monthly bloodwork, and because TK had been doing some serious scratching at one ear I carried him along too.

After the blood was drawn from Angel and Freon the vet came in to examine TK.  Seems that he has an infection going on in that ear, so she prescribed him some ear drops and an antibiotic.  She started looking back at his chart and saw where he had tested slightly anemic a while back, so she asked if it would be ok to run a follow up on that too.  I really thought it unnecessary, but let her do it.

Well, sadly, TK is now even more anemic!  So more blood was drawn for two outlab tests, one for hemobartonella, and the other a reticulocyte count.  We got those test results back Friday.

No, TK doesn't have hemobartonella, and no, he's not making any new red blood cells!

This is dire.......a potentially life-threatening thing.  It can be something as simple as malnutrition from him and Radar relying too much on canned AD, to leukemia in his bone marrow, to FIP, to any other number of causes........and all but malnutrition means that there is a likelihood that we may end up losing our dear precious TK, and also possibly Radar.

Needless to say I'm devastated!  These two boys have gone through so much, first being born outside, to our decision to adopt them, to battling diarrhea, and eating problems, and now this.  My heart is breaking.  I watch them run and play, with sadness, because I know what the future (or lack of) means for them.  I feel as if I'm already mourning them, yet they're still here.

Anyhow, TK is now on antibiotics and ear drops, plus pred, LiquTinic, and just finished up another 3 day course of panacur (just in case he has worms).  I've bought some Tiki Cat canned food and am working hard at getting both boys off the AD and onto some real cat food.

I have to take TK back to the vet on Oct 28th for followup bloodwork, and if his anemia is still as bad or worse then the vet will want to schedule him in for a bone marrow biopsy.

Please, if you're reading this and feel so inclined, good thoughts/prayers/healing light will be greatly appreciated, I'm NOT ready to lose my boys, not now!

Just a quick note.........

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but things tend to get chaotic sometimes.  I'm sure you understand! 

Anyhow, when we last left off Radar had completed his course of antibiotics, and I was waiting and hoping that things would be good for him.  Well, things were good for him for a few days, but by Tuesday evening he developed diarrhea again.  Grrrrrrrr...........  Oh well.  I continued giving him the kaolin pectin to try and stave off any severe diarrhea.  Wednesday he developed very loose, watery diarrhea, so I decided to go for broke and gave him a wee bit of Slippery Elm Bark powder.  A very dear person ordered this and had it sent to me!  It's in capsules, and so I've read on the internet that making a syrup would be better, but you can't really make a syrup out of the capsuled stuff because of additives that keep it from becoming syrupy.  I just opened a capsule of it and got a little of the powder out and into a syringe, added some water and mixed it up as well as possible, then syringed it into Radar's mouth.

Well, his diarrhea got a bit better!  WOW!

The next day (Thursday) he didn't poop at all (or at least what I saw) so I got a little concerned that I may have overdone the SEB powder.  I skipped giving him any until he pooped again, which was Friday.  It was loose again.  So, as you can see, I'm trying to figure out how much/how often he'll need SEB.  I've reduced the amount a bit and am trying to give it every evening.......and so far he hasn't gotten any real loose watery diarrhea again.  Hopefully things will stay calm for him, and for us.

In other news, I finally weighed the boys again.  As of October 11th TK weighed 1256 grams (2 lbs, 12.3 oz) and Radar weighed 926 grams (2 lbs, .66 oz).  See, they ARE growing!  And, either Radar is going to have another growth spurt soon, or he may just end up being a bit smaller than his brother. 

TK is almost entirely switched over to eating the adult kitty food.  Radar is still mostly canned AD, but he too will eat the adult kitty food, just not as much as TK right now.  But, get this, these two kittens are food hounds.......for all of our snack foods!!!  They'll eat popcorn, potato chips, donuts, biscuits, potato sticks, cheetos, and bread (just to name stuff off the top of my head)!  If we're eating, they want it!  I'd have to guess that at some point during their life outside they must have gotten into someone's garbage to survive.  Now I've been trying very hard to teach them manners, because TK will most definitely get right in your face to get whatever you're eating!  Radar seems to be grasping what "NO" means.  Although he'll give it a try, he'll stop after we say no a few times to him.  TK either doesn't understand no yet, or just doesn't care.  LOL!

Radar almost had me in happy tears Sunday evening!  I was in the bedroom watching tv and he climbed up onto the bed to spend some time with me.  He came over to me, climbed up into my lap, laid down, and started making bread on my stomach!  It literally touched my soul, this one little act.  To me it seems like he really knows how much I love him, care for him, and worry about him........and this was his way of telling me that he knows.  This morning I was watching ER on tv, and he once again came up to my lap, climbed up onto my chest, and started making bread on my neck (of ALL places)!  I let him......I sure didn't want to discourage my little boy.  Then he drifted off to sleep, and took me with him.  :^)

I haven't been able to get any pictures of them recently, maybe next time I post I'll have a few to share. 

The boys are still very much in love with their play cubes.  They spend about 2 or 3 hours a day zooming in and out of them, climbing up them, or trying to collapse them!  In fact, they enjoy them so much that the next time I went to Dollar General they had three more on the shelf, and I brought those three home too!  Hey, gotta keep my guys happy!

Talk with you again soon....................

In searching for new toys

Well, things here are going great with Radar and TK.  They no longer get crated at night, and even though I've lost quite a few hours of sleep to their midnight play sessions, I'm so very glad that they have blended in so well with my furry family. 

I've been searching for new toys that they both would like, which is a bit hard.  TK seems to prefer to play with things that move, while Radar prefers to play with things that make sounds.........logical, eh?  Have you looked at kitty toys on the market lately?  Seems they tend to fall distinctly into one category or the other, and I haven't yet found one single toy that covers both movement and sound adequately enough to really entertain these two boys.........until I made a trip to my local Dollar General store.

Funny thing was, I didn't go there looking for kitty toys!  I often shop there for cheap supplies for my school bus.  I went there one day last week, and decided to see what they had for kitty toys.  I didn't see anything at first that I thought would interest Radar or TK, but as I looked I saw these kitty play cubes.  Now, if you happen to have young children you know what play cubes are.  I thought about it, and almost talked myself out of not buying any, I really didn't think these kittens would like them.  But, on the offhand that they might, I grabbed one and started walking through the store getting my other supplies.  Then I found myself right back at the kitty toys again, so I grabbed another play cube.  In the end though, I bought 3 of them.  They were only $4 each, and if the kittens didn't like them maybe one of my other 6 would.

That evening when I got home from work I went about setting up the play cubes.  Data, Freon and Speedy showed immediate interest in the cubes, but TK seemed quite frightened of them.  Radar didn't know what the ruckus was about.  After the adult cats left the cubes TK started investigating the play cubes, and by the next day both kittens seemed to think that these new toys were the greatest thing!  OMG, they LOVE them!  And their method of play changes daily with the cubes.  At first they used the cubes to hide in from the other.

This is TK hiding from Radar, just waiting for him to walk by so that he can pounce on him!  Look at those "bug" eyes.......he gets soooooo excited!!!

Then they decided that these cubes could be like wrestling squares, and the games were on!

Then they decided to change tactics and Radar climbed up the outside of one of the cubes, and got himself on top, while TK waited inside trying to figure out which cube Radar was on.  Once TK located Radar he reached up and grabbed the dangling toys on the inside top, pulled on them, and Radar went to bouncing away on the top, like he was on a trampoline!  They are so funny!

In that last photo you can see TK inside of the red cube pulling down on the top to bounce Radar.

Another thing they've added to their play cube games is they'll both jump onto the top of a cube to collapse it, then they'll wrestle on the top of the collapsed cube!  All I can say is that this was the best $12 spent on toys so far!

Other than toys, the boys are doing great.  They are still eating canned AD, but we are gradually transitioning them over to the adult cat food.  We're taking our time doing this so as to not upset Radar's tummy too much.  One thing I've noticed is that these two boys will eat just about anything, be it cat food, dog food, and/or people food!  They are so totally into "our" snack/junk food that I've practically given it up myself.  I don't know if at some point while they were living outside maybe they somehow got into someone's garbage and developed a taste for it, or if they were just so hungry while outside that this "starving" mentality has become a part of them.  Either way, we're working very hard at developing some manners in our boys!

Radar's diarrhea has nearly gone now, just a "soft" episode every once in a while.  I haven't weighed them in quite some time.......they refuse to be still long enough for the digital scales to get their weights.  That's ok though, I know they're eating and growing stronger every day, so weight isn't an issue right now.

Radar got his last dose of SMZ-TMP this morning, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll continue to do well now that he's off the antibiotic.  If you look closely at the photos you'll notice that one of Radar's eyes shows well.  He is indeed a micro-eyed kitty, and we think that the source of infection was there.  Since he's been on the antibiotic one eyelid opens well.  That one eyeball is clouded over and there is no sight.  The other eyelid doesn't open much at all, therefore I don't have a clue if he has an eyeball in that side or not.  But, if he should start acting ill again I know my vet will represcribe this antibiotic until Radar is big enough to undergo surgery to remove his eyes and close the lids.  He has to be at least 5 pounds before this can be done though, and I certainly don't want any infection to stand in his way of continued growth.  For now, I'll be watching him very closely.

More updates to follow............... :^)

They're loose in my house!!!

We finally made the decision to allow both of the kittens to have the run of our house at night.  We picked Saturday night because neither of us work on Sunday, so we could sleep in if we lost any sleep.  Well, we slept fine!  The boys, on the other hand, didn't.  I don't know just what they did all night, but come Sunday they both pretty much slept most of the day.  Now that they've had a couple nights out of their crate they are adjusting nicely!

Notice how fluffy Radar is getting?  He's hefty now, having filled in his ribs and no longer feels frail and bony.  His diarrhea comes and goes, but even that has seemed to settle down a lot now.  He's still on antibiotics, but other than that, the only other medicine he gets is .3 ml twice daily of kaolin pectin. 

TK is of course the ever present whiner!  He isn't sure what to make of Radar's new found health, so he doesn't want to be on the floor much.  He'd much rather be in our lap, so I let him nap in my lap for a bit, but as soon as I put him down I see this pitiful face and hear him whining.......he's a very sweet guy, he is just unsure and/or not used to having Radar get the best of him.  They'll figure it all out eventually.

Here they are playing with one of their favorite toys......a jingle bell ball that dh tied a shoestring to.  Usually one gets the shoestring end, the other gets the jingle bell ball, and within moments they're wrestling each other, the toy tossed aside and temporarily forgotten.

This is a good indication of their growth.  This bowl is my dog's food bowl and is about 8 inches across.  Yeap, they're certainly growing.  What I really love is when I return home from work, as soon as I open the door, they both come running to greet me!  Sure makes one feel good to know there's a couple fuzzy faces on the other side of the door that are eager to see you!

I've been trying to hunt down toys that I think both Radar and TK would like, but it's hard.  TK is definitely into movement, chasing a laser dot like no tomorrow.  Radar is into sound, but not all sounds.  For instance, I bought them a crinkle sack.........and TK won't have anything to do with it, Radar wants to nap on top of it.  I've tried seeing how they'd like catnip, but neither seem too interested in it right now.  But, they're just 3 months old, so maybe as they grow they'll develop more of an interest.  At least then I could get toys that have catnip scent and know that Radar can locate them by smell.

They still eat canned AD, but we are allowing them small amounts of other foods.  TK really likes dry Friskies, Radar will nibble at it from time to time.  TK is more adventurous in appetite, and more bold.  He'll get right underneath my dog as she is eating a milkbone just to grab at the crumbs!  Thankfully my dog lets him get away with that....she likes cats a LOT!

I haven't weighed them for several days because......well, they just don't like to hold still long enough anymore.  Oh, and we definitely know that Radar has at least one very small micro eye.........his eyelid has opened just enough to see that there is one now.  So as soon as he gains enough weight (local vets request at least 5 pounds) we'll have that taken care of so he'll never get another infection in there.

Talk with you soon! 

Feeling so much better now!

Hi again! It's hard for me to believe that my two boys are now 11 weeks old! They're growing like weeds.....I last weighed them on the 13th and Radar was 722 grams, TK was 852 grams. It looks like Radar is going to catch up to TK.

While I know they're growing, we still put them into the huge crate at night and when we're not here to supervise them. That'll have to stop soon, but for now I'm a bit worried that Radar will get himself into some sort of trouble if left alone. So far he's not as much into jumping up on things like TK is. I did teach him just after we got the boys how to get himself down off our chairs and couch. He can get up them fine, he climbs up easily, so I just reversed him and held him while "climbing" him down. He learned that in just three passes, now that's the only way he gets down.

Oh, an update on Radar's poo problem.......we actually had a nice, normal poo from him last night! But then, this morning both of the kittens were really wanting out of the crate, crying and yelling at us, after they ate breakfast they both got into the big kitty litter box and sure enough, TK's was normal but Radar's was liquid poo again. I'm beginning to think that when he feels stressed out his tummy gets upset, and that's the "end" result. Maybe this is something he'll eventually outgrow........

They love playing together in the morning when I return from work. TK used to get the best of Radar, but now the tables have turned. Most mornings while I'm here at the computer reading email I can hear TK's yelling and carrying on because Radar has pinned him down and is refusing to let him get up.

The kaolin pectin that I ordered came in this morning so I zipped off to pick it up. I left the two kids loose figuring that I wouldn't be gone too long, and when I returned they were both on the couch looking at me like "Hey, where'd ya go??" It was cute! I immediately shook the bottle up well and gave Radar his first dose. Of course, his response was "Ewww....yuck.....ewwww" and wanted down immediately. Oh well, I don't care what his mouth thinks of it, it's more important now to see what his other end thinks of it! LOL!

Oh, I should add that they are both completely weaned now. TK hasn't shown much interest in the baabaa for several days, and Radar took his final sip from baabaa Saturday morning. He hasn't looked back for it since! They're both still eating canned AD for now because I really want to give Radar's digestive tract a rest, let things heal and settle down, and then I'll start introducing small amounts of different foods. No sense in causing things to get all upset again.

TK doesn't seem to have a favorite toy, he'll play with anything that moves! Radar's favorite is a simple jingle bell ball that DH tied to a long shoestring! They both play with it, plus they have a ball in a plastic track thing that they like, various mice and balls, and a feathered tiger tail thing on a wand. In truth I think that one of TK's favorite toys is any of my other cats' tails. He'll be laying in a chair and as any of my other cats pass by he'll reach out and grab their tail, giving it a little chomp. They don't seem to mind at all, I guess it's some right of passage here.

Well, that's about it for now........next post I'll have a bunch of photos for ya!

Pics of the boys

I just weighed my boys tonight and it looks like Radar is trying hard to catch up to TK. Radar weighed in at 662 grams (1 pound 7.35 ounces) and TK weighed 812 grams (1 pound 12.64 ounces). That means that Radar has gained 136 grams in just 5 days, and TK has gained 10 grams in 5 days. I think that dear little Radar was a very, very sick kitten, and is working hard now at trying to get healthy! Plus, we really don't know exactly when this infection hit Radar, but it's obvious that he's had it for a while. Hopefully, they'll both continue to grow into the beautiful, loving kitties that they want to be. :)

We had play!

I finally was able to talk with my vet yesterday about Radar, his diarrhea, and the ER vet visit. She told me that he definitely needs to be on an antibiotic, but agreed that clavamox isn't going to be the best choice for Radar. I told her to get whichever antibiotic ready and I'd be up to get it shortly.

Well, it turns out that she decided to give SMZ-TMP a try, but because of Radar being so small, she didn't have any pills that could be cut down into small enough doses. Instead, she compounded it right at the clinic into a liquid (and they added a bit of cherry flavoring?!?!?) and I brought it home, immediately giving Radar his first dose. Oh man, talk about foaming, spitting, and sputtering! At one point he followed me around looking very much like a rabies candidate! With him being black, the white spittle/foam/slobber stood out clearly on his little face. And he insisted upon following me the whole time he was busy looking rabid, like he needed me to witness what I had done to him. Oh well.........

He is still on carafate 3 times a day, although now that I'm back to work (was off due to holiday weekend) the timing is way off, and yes, sometimes it's given too early after eating, or he'll eat too early after taking it, but I'm doing all I can with it. Plus he's getting 1/2 teaspoon of canned pumpkin at least 4 times a day. At times he'll have a nearly normal poop, other times it's a bit watery..........but the best news is:

WE HAD PLAY TODAY! Radar and TK played today together for the first time since last Wednesday! Oh, it almost made me cry to see them enjoying time together like this. At least now we know we're on the right track, finally!

I know we'll most likely have more ups and downs with Radar, but it's definitely worth it. To see him enjoying life like every kitten should just warms my heart. And TK, well, he's fine, doing great, talks a lot, eats a ton of food, and purrs like there's a big diesel engine inside of him.

In over a week I finally got a chance to relax a bit, not being so stressed out over Radar's rear end. And, I didn't need to give him a mini bath today either.

So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping with all I can hope with that both Radar and TK will eventually become the adult cats that they're meant to be, and continue enjoying their lives with us.

Kittens and clavamox don't mix!

Sorry that this update has been a little while coming, but things have taken a turn to very hectic here lately. DH had to take both Radar and TK back to the vet early Wednesday 9/02/09 morning (luckily he had the day off work) because they were both down with severe diarrhea and neither would eat.

My vet first ran a fecal check on them both, and found nothing. No worms of any sort, no coccidia, no giardia. So then she moved on to running bloodwork on both of them. TK's bloodwork showed slight anemia, Radar's showed a high white cell count indicating infection. Hearts, lungs for both kittens sound normal. So she gave them both another dose of dewormer (just in case) and then prescribed panacur, flagyl, and suggested we try feeding them canned AD for a little while, until we can get them eating reliably. She also gave us some clavamox drops for Radar's infection, and we got some Nutrical for TK.

Things started to look better for the two, TK has shown a very good response, no more diarrhea and appetite is great for AD. But, poor Radar! The clavamox really didn't settle well at all for him! I put in a call to my vet Friday morning, but she was out all day on farm calls and never returned a call to me. By Friday evening Radar had diarrhea so bad....he was just passing water with a few flecks of poo in it. I had no choice but to take him to the ER vet.

The vet at the er examined Radar and found nothing seriously wrong with him except the nasty diarrhea, which he thinks the cause most likely is the clavamox. He recommended that I stop giving that to him, stop giving him the kmr, and prescribed carafate 3 times a day and some powder (Neopref) for his bottom, which is very raw right now.

When we finally got home from the er vet about 3 Saturday morning, I immediately gave Radar the first dose of carafate and then had to wait an hour to feed him. My boy was hungry, and being a total pest of himself about it, so I put him in the bathroom to wait. I had let TK out of the crate when I got home, and he was laying in front of the bathroom door listening to Radar carry on in there. Next thing I knew, TK was throwing up! Poor thing, he just got stressed out and/or missed his brother while we were gone.

Don't worry though, TK is fine now. He just needed to toss his cookies that one time!

The rest of Saturday I didn't give Radar any kmr, and he didn't really seem to miss it too much, until real late Saturday night. His poop has started changing a little from watery liquid to pudding like, but once he started stressing out over the kmr the diarrhea returned, and was much worse. I finally gave in and gave him a baabaa with kmr, which he nearly drank all 30 mls hardily!

Some wonderful friends on the feline diabetic message board are trying to help me in many ways with dealing with Radar and his poop. They suggested I give Radar small amounts of pure canned pumpkin (the fiber might help), so I went to the store Sunday and got a can. Funny thing, as I picked up the can to read the label I found that it weighs more than Radar!

I gave him about 1/2 teaspoon last night, and it seemed to help a little. So today (Monday) I started the day out with giving him the flagyl and canned pumpkin, then gave both TK and Radar their AD. Ummm......well, make that gave them two servings.......they cleaned the plate with the first helping and insisted on having a little more.

TK doesn't seem to be that interested in the kmr, he'll take a little sip of it, but then he wants it away from it. Radar, for whatever reason, does have a need for it. And, I've tried giving it to him in a saucer. He'll readily lap it up from a saucer, but then he has trouble judging it's depth. He sniffed for it, then got a little up his nose. I don't want him to aspirate it, so I'll just continue giving him the kmr in a bottle. He doesn't "suck" the bottle, just licks while the kmr runs out the nipple.

And, so far today Radar has had just one episode of diarrhea dribbling out uncontrollably. For the most part his poops have has some form, not normal and firm, but still, it's been better than pure liquid. I did have to give him a half-bath today though, pitiful little thing. His hind legs, tail, and tummy were just so nasty......so I took him to the kitchen sink and wet him with warm water, then scrubbed his nasty places with a little Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo. He got real upset, of course, but I just held him and talked real softly and gently, and he quit struggling with me! Then I rinsed him with the spray thingy, toweled him off, then let him go for a bit. After he got over that excitement he wanted to be held, so I wrapped him up in a nice thick towel and held him....for a couple of hours! He got warm in the towel, and then TK came up and laid down on me too, and next thing I knew I was almost asleep with them! LOL!

I do need to see his vet tomorrow to let her know what happened with having to take Radar to the er vet, and to see what, if any, antibiotic she wants us to change to for Radar. I'd like to try baytril injectable.......after all, the main concern with baytril is the possibility of it causing blindness, and that's not really an issue with Radar because he's already blind, but knowing vets she'll most likely want to try either amoxicillan or antirobe. I guess I'll have to wait and see what she'll choose next.

So, this is what's been going on so far here at furry central! Let's hope that we can get these two kids onto the path of well-being and growing soon!

Hi, this is Debra, I'm TK and Radar's human mom. I rescued these two kittens from a certain death. A few feral females had kittens and eventually they brought them to live underneath my house. Most of the kittens were extremely afraid of people, with the exception of Radar and TK. Over several days we started noticing that one by one the kittens were disappearing. I don't know for sure what was happening, it could have been a tom cat, or a raccoon, but these two were the last ones and I wasn't about to lose them.

We got them on a Saturday evening and let them spend the rest of the night playing in our bathroom. We have 6 other kitties and a dog, so I got a baby gate to keep the kittens apart from our adult cats. At night we put them into a huge airline crate to keep them safe. The following Monday I took them to my vet where they both tested negative to FIV/FeLV/heartworms, got dewormer, capstar for fleas, and ears cleaned and treated for mites. The vet estimates them to be about 7 weeks old.

Once all that was done I brought them back home......to their forever home.

It's been a real challenge getting them both to eat. Radar was born with no eyes, but he does have working tear glands. At first Radar wouldn't eat any food, but he would suck KMR from a nurser bottle. And, even though TK has eyes and can see, he wants everything his brother gets. Radar would be well one day, sick the next, well the next........I finally figured out that Radar was eating cat litter because it was the one thing he could smell! So, my next task was to find cat food that Radar actually could smell. We're still in the "figuring" out phase, but so far he'll eat turkey cutlets sprinkled with canned tuna, and Meow Mix canned food. He still drinks KMR from his bottle, but that's happening less and less.

Best thing is that they are indeed thriving and growing. This blog is for them, about them, and the rest of my furry family. And life with a blind kitten.

Hi there! I'm TK. Mom says that that's short for Tough Kitty! I'm tough alright, I love to play. I can run and jump and pounce and bounce, and then I fall asleep.

I'm learning how to be a real kitten. Did you know that means both my brother and I have to learn things like what's good to eat? My brother is strange, he eats stuff that we poop in, but not me! I want good stuff.......I'm just learning though.

I like to run up behind my brother and jump on him. He can't see me, I run sooooo fast! I gotta say though that he can sure hear good. I'm glad that we now live inside a home, I used to get pretty scared being outside.

Mom feeds us good....we get stuff like baby food, turkey, tuna, and milk (mom calls it KMR). We're growing fast, and mom lets us try new foods, stuff that comes in cans. At first we didn't like it much, but mom tries so hard, so we try too. And you know what?? Some of that stuff in cans tastes yummy! I hope mom lets us eat this stuff forever!

My brother didn't tell you that when it gets late our people put us in a really big plastic box. We spend the night in there, together. I like to pretend that I don't want to go in there, but my mom must see right through me. She knows that as soon as she shuts the door to our box we'll both be asleep in no time! It's got our place to poo, water in a bowl, some toys, a nice soft furry thing we lay on, and food in a bowl. Mom says that she can sleep better knowing that we're safe, and it's not too bad, it's our night home.

When our people get up in the morning my brother and I start screaming at them. We want to come out of our night home and eat.........turkey and tuna, please!!! They're good to us, they give us food, and then Radar and I play.

Hi! Welcome to my world!

Hi! My name is Radar (as given to me by my mom). I'm a little blind kitten. Although I don't know what "blind" means, I hear people say this word when they talk about me. Let me tell you a story of how I got to where I am today.


My furmom lives outside with a few of her relatives, and my mom feeds her and them. There were many kittens, but they didn't want the humans to touch them, and eventually they all disappeared. My brother (my mom and dad call my brother TK) and I didn't fear these people, they seemed nice enough, and they always was gentle to us both.

This one day (Saturday, August 15th, 2009) the people take both me and my brother into their home. They fed us, gave us toys, and loved us. We were a little afraid at first, we've never been inside of a home before. They let us play in a room all to ourselves. A couple of days later we got put into a small plastic box and we went for a ride. Oh, we were soooo scared! Then the car stopped and our box was carried into another place....could this be our new home? We finally were let out of the box, and some people did naughty things to us. They stuck us with sharp things, poked our butts with a slick stick, and gave us nasty tasting stuff! Finally, after it seemed like forever, we were put back into that plastic box and got another ride. This time we went back to the place we came from, our home!

I got sick when we got home....I just didn't feel good at all! Mom found out that one of the things given to me at that place we went to didn't agree with me, and she worried about me a lot. The next day I felt better, and so did brother. But, I get hungry, and can't see, so I eat things I smell, like cat litter. I'm so happy, my tummy feels good with this new strange food, until.....I get sick again! You've got to understand, I'm silly, and young, and I'm having a hard time learning what's good for me to eat and what's not.

This blog will be written by me, my brother, and mom..................