The Way Things Are

Minnie Mao is all better now and has been for some time. I would say that the whole thing lasted maybe a week and then she was back 100%. Thankfully! We love our little Minnie Mao! Even DH who was decidedly NOT a cat person when I met him almost twenty years ago.

You may have noticed that I did not post anything for several months (between February and July). The fact is that I was just not able to. We lost a number of kitties in that time. Quickly going from eleven down to our current five. Three of the male kittens and then three of the wild toms. As far as the kittens go, at that point we were just beginning to manage to handle them. I posted about the first two that we lost, but I will reiterate... They were all apparently wormy and I was able to take some fecal samples into the vet along with a couple of the kittens. We began to treat them them all for the Coccidia and worms. One of the twins (Sugar Bear) and Poppy (who we could not handle at all) became very sick. Poppy especially... and as the worms were flushed from his little body we saw that he was the most infested of all. We lost Sugar Bear overnight. We took Poppy in to the vet who kept him over that Monday night, even taking him home. Even with the best possible treatment, we lost him, too.

Some time later, we took Izzie in when he began to refuse food. He was tested for FIV and FeLV...Feline Aids and Feline leukemia. He came up positive for Feline leukemia. He was one that the wild toms were always picking on. This may be how he became infected. Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, we had him put down upon the recommendation of the vet. It was a tough moral choice. Even if he survived, he would always be a carrier and spread it to other cats. There was no way we would be able to keep him away from others.

One by one, we had all of the other cats tested. Praise God that neither Mama Kitty nor any of the other kittens were infected! Unfortunately, all of the wild toms were positive for Feline leukemia and one (Rocky) had both leukemia and aids. We had to put down Tommy Felix and Tommy Tiger. One of the Veterinary assistants who is particularly kind-hearted took Rocky home to live out his days. He was a wild, strictly outdoor tom, but would now be confined to living inside, isolated from all other kitties, but with plenty of human love. I heard recently, that he died a few months later.

I should point out that my dilemna about whether or not to vaccinate was decided for me at that point. All of the non-infected kitties were brought in and vaccinated for rabies and their first dose of the FIV and FeLV. Then a month later, they had their second round of FIV and FeLV vaccines and also the distemper vaccine. Our vet assured us that the vaccines that they use are the safest on the market today; there are no harmful preservatives or adjuvants in the mix... My concern was for the number of pets that end up having cancer at the point of vaccine injections. I will find some links for this and post them here when I find them again and also a link for the brand of vaccine that is used by our veterinarian.