Two days ago, Sudhamma Chua had texted me about a mother-cat who had disappeared leaving her five newborns behind. I told Sudhamma what to do for the newborns, based on whatever I knew - syringe-feed Pets Own Milk, keep them warm and stimulate the privates to make them pee and poop.
Yesterday, Sudhamma said the mother-cat had come back, but did not seem to be interested in feeding her kittens at all.
This morning, again, Sudhamma texted me and said the mother-cat looked sick, so I asked her to bring the mother-cat and kittens to our panel vet for an evaluation.
Long story cut short, the mother-cat is in a very critical state. She has a very badly-infected mammary gland (mastitis) where the tissues have already turned necrotic (dead), and the infection has spread to another mammary gland. She has a very high fever of 40.5degrees, has diarrhoea and is severely dehydrated.
Apparently, mastitis could be due to an injury or a bacterial infection from the street. This could happen within 3-4 days. In fact, bacterial infection can take a turn for the worse even within one day.
Both the mammary glands have to be removed through surgery, but the mother-cat is currently very weak, so her chances of surviving an immediate surgery are pretty slim.
The other alternative is to put her on drips and give her antibiotics with the hope that the antibiotics would combat the infection and bring down the fever. Then, by next week, when she is stronger, the vet would perform the surgery.
Both options are equally high-risk but I asked which is of a lower risk -Option 2 is (put her on drips first and treat her with antibiotics).
So, we're going ahead with Option 2, and folks, please pray for her. By the way, Sudhamma calls her Bushytail, for obvious reasons.
Here's Bushytail, on drips. I had expected to see her in a worse condition, but she is sitting on her chest, so I thought that's not so bad (I hope!). The vet wanted to show me the infected mammary gland, but I didn't want Bushytail to be under too much stress. Might as well let her rest and recover with the least possible disturbance. The vet says when she recovers, she's going to be a very beautiful cat with medium-length hair.
These are the five kittens. All are okay except for one who had fallen into a deep drain and Sudhamma had to ask a friend to go down and pick him up. He is currently quite weak, but is still alright.
Sudhamma would have to nurse them now. The kittens came to my house just now when Sudhamma dropped in to pick up the hot water bottle and the carrier. We got the surgical gloves from the vet's (as hot water bags).
Incidentally, Sudhamma is the one who picked up Indy Jones three years ago, also from a drain. I took Indy from her as she had to go back to her hometown. Indy was in a critical state too, with bladder, eye and ear infections, but being black-and-white and bearing the adventure hero's name, Indy survived...and is now a big bully in my household!
Sudhamma seemed very worried about the kittens, but I told her not to be. Just do her best and let Nature take care of the rest.
That's all we can do.
Meanwhile, we wish Bushytail a quick recovery so that she will be fit enough for the surgery next week.
May the kittens grow strong and healthy too.
Your prayers for them would be much appreciated. Thank you.
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