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!