Sayang was undeniably very emo being left alone at home without her cat-family. She refused to talk to us for leaving her alone earlier. We are trying our best now to try to cheer her up. She even ignored us when we try to attract her with her favourite toy. After a lot of coaxing she is finally at least talking to me when I call her.
Anyway after nearly breaking my arm from lifting Slinks and Scoot around in carriers, we got to see our vet Dr. Hsu. Apart from getting their flu' jabs - flu' means herpes and chlamydia viruses, the most common illness group as well as the most contagious in the fosters we care for, hence the jabs extremely necessary - I asked if we needed to deworm the two again after having already put them on Revolution. Revolution doesn't kill one of the intestinal worms, tapeworm, but Dr Hsu said that deworming them from tapeworm wasn't necessary for them because they didn't have the symptoms of tapeworm, and that they were unlikely to get it since they don't share a litter box with the fosters, most of the time. I also asked about their easily-dirty ears, a problem Sayang doesn't have, and doctor said that it was merely ear wax, not mites, especially since being on Revolution ruled that out. I just need to clean their ears more often, especially Scooter's, because he has larger ears. I also asked about Slinky's teeth, since she is older, her teeth need to be checked more. That and she doesn't chew her food. Doctor said her teeth were fine, which was a relief. Slinks is 6 years old, estimate, this year.
I also picked Dr Hsu's brain a bit about feline health. He said that kittens between 4 to 6 weeks of age die easily because they are weaning off mother's milk, and therefore their mother's immunity, so the sicknesses that come to them are sudden, and death can be sudden too. I had mentioned Kelly and Tigi's cases to him. Kelly's death was due to sudden drop in blood sugar level during passing out the worms, and intestinal obstruction from the parasitical worms. Deworming is necessary, but sometimes this kind of death cannot be helped. I also asked about kittens' reactions to flea treatments and whether there are any symptoms that can be watched out for in cases of adverse reactions to flea treatments, something that is often stated on flea treatment labels. Apparently, adverse reactions are rare, and there are no discernible symptoms that can point to a diagnosis of flea-treatment reactions. As for Tigi, he was the one that treated her, and he actually is quite baffled by her case too, just another case of sudden kitten death.
Understandably for us as rescuers and fosters we are daily being stressed by the kittens we care for, they really do fall ill and die so easily. Thankfully the kittens Coffee, Macy, Totty, Layla, Misty and Velvet are old enough not to die on us suddenly. The young ones - the litter of 6 are doing well because they have their mother's milk with them; Pie, Bun and Tabby girl are orphans so I fastidiously watch, medicate and supplement their diets daily. Hopefully we don't have to rush any kittens to Dr Hsu anytime again soon because of suddenly-really-ill kittens.
So after that, we went home, and I fed them some sardines with chicken canned food from Fussie Cat, smelly enough so that they love me again. Sayang is finally now not that angry with me, and is curling up next to me finally assured that she will never be left without her family again. Yes, I think the next time, I will bring all three together - 15kg worth of cat - to the vet.
