telophase | (no subject)

Am still somewhat sleep-deprived as Tiny Kitten thinks the most appropriate place to spend the night is ON MY FACE. Hey look! It's warm and makes funny noises! I'd put him him another room at night to keep him from developing bad habits, but there *is* no other place without seriously disrupting the other cat's groove - I'd have to move both her water* AND her litterbox. QUELLE HORREUR! So, the bedroom and a furry facehugger it is. (It's not *that* bad - he's getting the idea and only tried to put his paws all over my face last night.)

Sora had also developed a worrying sneeze starting Saturday - while kitten sneezes are darn cute, lots of them are worrying. He was showing no other signs of illness - food, water, litterbox habits and INSANE KITTEN ENERGY were all normal. I took him in to the vet's yesterday, where they found he had a slightly elevated temp, but no other symptoms. So he's diagnosed with either an upper respiratory tract infection or allergies. I've got an antibiotic to give him twice a day, which he luckily will consume with a wee bit of tuna.** I also have a bottle of children's Benadryl, which I have so far failed to give him - the vet calculated he could take .8 cc - because I'm just nervous giving cats medicines in general. The sneezes don't seem to be cramping his style***, so maybe I won't utilize the Benadryl.

Hopefully he's not allergic to feathers. I'd have to get rid of my pillows and his favorite toy. :( But he still sneezed at the vet's, with no feathers, so I assume it's the URI instead.

No introducing him to Nefer, even though he tends to be very fast and escape the bedroom when I'm going in or out - until he's no longer sneezing. No way could I get medicine into her. I'd have to take her in to get a shot or something instead.

* Which she has trained me to keep on the bathroom counter. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but she is a cat of deviousness and subtlety at times.

** More bad habits. He's going to have high expectations of me.

*** Cramping mine, of course, as he tens to be sitting on my chest and facing in the general direction of my face at night when he sneezes. Ick.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Our kitties must be related. Mine came with an URI and was on antibiotics once per day. Poured over his food and he didn't care, ate it all. And never showed signs of being sick except the sneezes and large buggers coming out after 10 sneezes. It was like trying to blow a toddler's nose.

The separate room idea worked for me and my kitties. The middle cat has totally excepted him and made him his play buddy. The old man watches from a distance and has gotten over the "don't touch me!" phase...mostly.

Good luck with it all.

Thanks! I hope Nefer accepts him. :)

The first night our foster kitten felt brave enough to come downstairs and sleep in our room, she took over my pillow and slept on my head.

That was preferable to a couple of nights later, when she took the kitten collar she refused to wear under the bed and killed it. For a few hours: "jinglejinglejinglejinglejingle jingle jingle jinglejingle".

He woke up at 5AM today and thought it was an excellent time to play. And the best toys he could find were my fingers. OW!

Somehow the thought of a kitten sneezing is both A)adorable and B)hilarious, especially if it is allergies. Maybe it's the other-cat dander!

I'll try to catch video of it. XD

"No way could I get medicine into her."

Oh, yeah, I know that experience. The cat either rapidly shreds your hand to the bone...

...or makes her best effort at getting the pill to achieve escape velocity on its way out of her her mouth.

And it's not just me being a wuss about it, either - the only time I had to pill her (deworming pill), I tried for 15 minutes before stuffing her in her carrier and taking her to the vet's office which was 5 minutes away from me. The vet tech said "Sure, I'll do it!" and took her out of her carrier right at the front desk and tried. Shortly thereafter, she put her back in the carrier, took her into an exam room and closed the door to try again. :)

And when they give her an exam, they have to take her back and zip her up in the bag to prevent carnage. XD She's a very sweet cat otherwise!

Having bred and shown cats for 10 years, and worked in an animal shelter for four, I can confidently say that every kitten in the history of the known world (esp from a shelter) at his age gets the sneezes. (ADORABLE sneezes) It's 99.99999% of the time a very common URI, a rhinovirus (kitty cold). I wouldn't waste time with the benadryl unless he's got itching too. The antibiotics, as you know, won't fight a virus but will stave off any secondary bacterial infection - and also probably give him a bit of diarrhea (did they give you clavamox drops?) so don't be alarmed if you see that. And if Nefer starts to sneeze in a few days, don't be alarmed at that either. Also common for adult cats to relapse - many are chronic carriers, and the stress of a new kitten + exposure to a new strain of the rhinovirus is enough to give them a little cold for a while.

Thanks! :D Yeah, all he's got is the sneezes, no itching. Yup, clavamox drops.

that sounds adorable, although i would likely find the furry face-hugging a little irritating. XD;

He's getting better! Although he likes to get up at night, go to the litterbox, then come back and snuggle down beside my head AND PUT HIS LITTERBOX PAWS ALL OVER MY FACE AAAAARGGHH!

oh my. >_>