Update on the sickies

Barley, Kit and Rainy came down with diarrhoea post-vaccinations last week, and today we brought them to the vet. Despite putting them on Baytril antibiotics on Sunday alongside loperamide and kaolin, only Rainy improved significantly. Barley especially was not doing well with little improvement to her appetite. We were running out of medication too, and wanted to get them vet checked and get Kit and Barley anti-diarrhoeal jabs to help their recovery.

Kit, Barley and Rainy waiting their turn at vet

The kittens' temperatures were fine as were their other vitals. But the fecal exams showed that the bacterial infection that the vaccinations brought to the fore requires a different antibiotic - Metrogyl, instead, because their diarrhoea was being caused by motile bacteria. Supposed to be on it for 8 days inclusive today, but we will be consulting remotely with Dr Chong to see if the course needs to be extended or can be reduced in a few days' time.

After this morning's jabs, and dose of new antibiotics, there has been much more improvement. Kit and Barley are very active now - back to normal business for them. Their appetites have returned: saw Rainy, Kit and Barley devouring their second therapeutic meal of the day - canned food with supplements of probiotics, slippery elm bark and chamomile tea. Their diarrhoea seems to be more controllable now, so if they get even better, they can be free-roaming again. For the meantime, they have to be penned as Dr Chong says they need to be quarantined, and constantly cleaned of soiling, them and their pen.

Echo remains on Baytril - yes she is back on antibiotics because her flu' recurred. She also got a bit of the diarrhoea, on and off, which the Baytril will help to control. She is on loperamide and the same supplements as the rest. Her diarrhoea seems to have improved much and we are allowing her to free-roam again to see if her runny poo is containable. She didn't suffer any diminished appetite or energy, still the same, a crazy friendly playful girl.

Her flu' this time around is much better than before - only clear mucus, and it is already receding, plus no eye discharge. Her eye has shown much improvement also, especially after new topical medication of Framixin was prescribed last week at the vet, to replace saline and Terramycin.

Echo inspecting the vet's inspection light!

Her eye can open more now, though still not all the way, and it is less inflamed. Beginning to be able to see more of her actual eyeball - which is cloudy, normal part of the healing process for severe conjunctivitis. Tried to take a picture of her eye's progressed but she squirms a lot! -

Her right eye squints less now

So we have 4 sickies now - our usual quota for intensive-care-requiring fosters is 3, up to 5 cats maximum, to ensure quality of care does not deteriorate further with an already low human to cat ratio at our foster home (still operating at near-max threshold).

On the upside, Rainy has already been adopted and will be collected to her forever home once she is well. It is Rainy's rescuer Jason's family that is adopting her - their mom even came to sign the papers herself as she is the adoption decision maker of the family and one of the primary caregivers. They are also going to sponsor one of the cats' vaccination as Rainy had already been sponsored before they came for the adoption visit. Photo and more details when Rainy is ready to go home!

Barley, Rainy and Kit on rehab for 5 days

After their booster jabs on Wednesday, Barley, Rainy and Kit started having post-vaccination diarrhoea. Vaccinations can sometimes cause symptoms of illness that force the cat's immune system to build up against the diseases the cat is inoculated against.

We started treating their diarrhoea with medication - loperamide and kaolin, as well as probiotics, and herbal remedy of slippery elm bark. Their diarrhoea alleviated just a bit, and is not getting much better. We consulted with our vet today and she recommends putting them on antibiotics - we have Baytril on hand and she advised us the dosage. These 3 kitties will need to be on Baytril antibiotics for the next 5 days, today inclusive.

As such, they will not be available for adoption until they have rehabilitated unless an adopter wishes to follow up on own by bringing the kitten to the vet to obtain the medications and provide the home care needed.

We are hoping these 3 recover soon.

Joey and Jay got adopted today!

Vivien and Alvin, a couple that lives near Katong, have been wanting to adopt a cat for a long time. When they finally got their own home set up nicely, they did the research necessary for cat ownership, and the preparation. Then they came to us for adopter screening, and made a visit to our foster home.

They adopted both Joey and Jay, two kitties who enjoy each other's company, and have different personalities - Joey's manja and active, Jay is aloof and likes to lounge around. Vivien bonded more with Joey and Alvin with Jay, so they decided to give their home to these two for their lifetimes!

Jay's classic poofy tail and Joey being all 'carry me'

Both of them are now in their new home! We are so happy they now have a mom and dad!

#adopt Wanna take Rainy home?

"Meow! Am looking for human!"

Rainy is our miracle foster kitten. She (yes, confirmed is female, not male as initially suspected) came to us rescued from Bukit Panjang alone in a rain, when was 3 weeks old. She then fell ill with suspected toxoplasmosis and went on a 3 week course of antibiotics, visiting the vet twice. We pumped up her immunity with supplements and her symptoms never recurred.

Subsequently, Rainy's pen mates fell ill with flu'. Amazingly, Rainy didn't get it. She is really a miracle kitty.

Today, Rainy went for her first booster jab. She remains a bit of a runt, a 'teacup' cat, so only needed half a dose of the vaccination. Vet checked - all clear. Rainy is a survivor!

"Yes, I know I'm cute. ^_^"

We upgraded her to the older kittens' pen and allowed her more kitty-play-time with the other kitties who are allowed to free-roam. Through spending more time with her and observing her socialisation with the other cats, we got to know her personality better.

Rainy loves human affection. She likes to talk to us and gets along well with older kitties. She prefers being cuddled or lounging at her favourite areas, but she also obliges and plays with her foster siblings.

She has a ticked tabby and white coat with a long tail-

Side profile!

And she has this awesome baby face that totally matches her personality - she is so easy to handle for any kind of kitty necessities, from supplements and medication when she was young, to grooming and such.

Rainy baby

Rainy is litter trained, able to eat dry food on its own, on Revolution Pink, dewormed, vet-checked and vaccinated.

If you would like to adopt Rainy, do take a look at our 'How to adopt' column on the right side bar or see here.

#caturday Boarding Fund Appeal - Pls RT or Share

Our Boarding Fund is still in a deficit, as at 20 May 2011, the deficit is of $185.19. We need your help. To those of you who have already given - a very big thank you.


Our recent purchases that plunged our Boarding Fund into the red are shown below:

Our POSB Savings Account statement - Debits column

We are currently halting the purchases of new boarding supplies and halting claims of purchases till we get back in the black. Current outstanding claim is for purchase of herbal supplements for flu' and inflammation that our foster kittens such as Echo need to be on to adjunct pharmaceuticals as her eye is not getting better on pharmaceuticals alone, and her immunity needs boosting to prevent her flu' from recurring. The purchase slip shown here - 

Note: Prices are in USD

Tumeric is an anti-inflammatory immune-booster, echinacea is for immunity used as part of flu' remedy as well as for other kitten illnesses (hence we need a bought a big bottle of it), and the remaining are flu' remedies that have run out. 

We have also been buying boarding supplies such as new litter tray for our ICU pen, new cleaning brush for pet bottles, but are not intending to claim these purchases for our Boarding Fund so as to ease the deficit. 


Supplies we need but are halting purchases due to the deficit are of Nutripe canned food and Revolution Pink. 

Nutripe is running low - the kittens are all on dry food but are served their supplements in canned food once daily. We have about 10 cans left and use about one and a half to 2 cans daily at our current threshold of 12 kittens.

We used up all our stock of Revolution Pink on 18 May 2011 because we found fleas. We always apply Revolution on all the foster kittens if one shows symptoms of fleas or mites. All the kittens currently in our foster home are already on Revolution Pink but the distributor tends to be out of stock often, so we believe in stocking up about 3-4 boxes at a time for emergencies. We don't use Frontline because if we do use Frontline upon discovering fleas, then after that discover mites, we can't apply Revolution anymore.


How you can help:

• Make a cash contribution to our POSB Savings Account 188-52652-7 and SMS/call/email/DM us at 90880675/elaine@lovekuchingproject.org/@luvkuching.
• Buy a The Water Dish Bundle D for the foster kittens - 24cans Nutripe Chicken at $55 which will be delivered to our foster home. Remote payment modes available.
• Buy and deliver canned food for us on your own to donate to our foster cats. Apart from Nutripe Chicken, we also affirm formulas such as Addiction Brushtail, Natural Balance Chicken. (We feed poultry/fowl formulas only because some kittens either cannot digest fish or are allergic to seafood. Fish and seafood formulas are reserved only for those with flu' and can't smell well, or for new arrivals that are too stressed to eat. We still have those.) 
• Buy Revolution Pink for us through The Water Dish - enquiries@thewaterdish.com.sg or Maxine at 9685 3929. Or buy and deliver on your own through your preferred supplier.

If you can help, we greatly appreciate your generosity. You can also help by spreading the word (click the share links below). Thank you!

Fostering

This scenario is likely to happen to you as a cat lover or cat owner, some day, some time: You come across kittens without a mom at your door step, void deck, or at work. Or you get a call from a friend who is clueless about cats telling you the same. What do you do?

You blast out messages to friends with the kitties' pictures, asking who wants to adopt them, but get no firm responses. You call shelters and rescue groups like us, but we say we are full-house and have no space. What then do you do?

Here is how to resolve the rescue situation: Foster on your own.

It is not a leave-you-alone-in-the-cold remark, but rather an empowerment of you, the cat lover, to make a difference for the rescued kitten you chance upon.

Fostering the kitten you find is more beneficial than sending the kitten to a shelter or rescue group. Even at no-kill shelters i.e. not SPCA, shelters have a high number of kittens per human caring for them. If you foster on your own, chances of cross-contagion of feline sicknesses are greatly reduced as well. Also, you can provide better care simply because of the healthier cat to human ratio than at a shelter. And by fostering the kitten yourself, you make resources available at rescue groups like ours for kittens that truly have no other fostering alternative - our triage priority is on kittens in such situations. So, fostering, even if you are a first-timer, truly, truly makes a difference.

If you want to become a foster parent, you can start with a few basic logistics. A kitten pen like our ICU shown below, or even a large carrier will suffice for the initial fostering period. It is good to have some kind of cage if your cats don't take to new arrivals well. Otherwise, if your cats are the friendly type, you can simply use a room with a door to house the kitten in, like say the kitchen, or an unused bathroom.Or separate your cats from the fosters in different rooms, like how we ourselves did when we first accidentally became foster parents.

If you do decide to use a pen, get a simple litter tray like a baking tray or a plastic tray from a house-ware shop, for a few dollars. Bowls can be easily made from simple plastic disposable ones or old bowls from your kitchen cabinet that you seldom use. Feed the kitten the same food you feed your cat, there is no need to go out and buy something special just for a temporary fostering situation.

After the logistics, it would be best to get the kitten to the vet if you can't ascertain if it is healthy or not. There, the kitten can also get dewormed if you don't have dewormer on hand. You can also ask for a flea- and parasite- check to make sure the kitten doesn't harbour anything that can pass to your cats. Ask for a stray cat discount at the vet's - usual practice - since the kitten is a rescue.

If you are unable to pay for the vet's fee, you can post an appeal on Cat Welfare Society to get donations to help cover the cost - but this is not a sure-fire way to ease the financial burden because there are too many community cats needing medical attention than there are donation funds. The best thing to do is to pass around a kitty - no pun intended - among your friends and family to help accumulate some funds for the vet cost. 

If the kittens are not weaned onto solid food yet and need bottle feeding - Google to find out how to do it. You can use goat's milk from supermarkets if you chance upon the kittens at a time when pet shops and vets are closed, feeding with a syringe that you probably would have if you have cats that have seen the vet for sicknesses before. If not, find something you can use to dropper the milk into the kitten's mouth just to pass through the night. Buy kitten milk replacement and a milk bottle when you can head to the pet shop near you.

If the kitten is healthy and weaned, the next step is getting it a new home. Remember - fostering is a temporal situation, you will and should not keep the cat just because you fostered it, unless your household really decides to permanently adopt the kitten and care for it for the next 20 years.

How to re-home the kitten?

Our national cat advocacy organisation, Cat Welfare Society, is the best website you can turn to help getting a rescue kitten re-homed. Not only can you post the kitten for adoption on its adoption page, you can also find a sample adoption contract to use, guidelines on finding a suitable adopter. After you post the kitten on CWS adoption site, you can also link the post to blast to your social network. You can also post the link on our Facebook page's wall. Send us a tweet so we can re-tweet it to our Twitter followers too.

Fostering not only saves lives of cats in need, it also is very rewarding. You love kittens but can't adopt? Fostering ensures you get kitten pleasure without the long-term financial commitment for its entire life.

It is also addictive by the way, so don't go around bringing kittens home to foster just because you see them. Not all kittens need rescue - practise triage like we do. Focus on orphans, young kittens, ones that look like they need veterinary attention, and don't take on more than you can handle.

Share your fostering experience with other cat lovers to convert them into foster parents. Every cat owner should try it at least once!

Be the change. It's up to me. - Cat Welfare Society

Update on Berry, adopted by Charity [with photos]

Berry is settling well in his new home! It seems that Ushi has already taken a liking to her new playmate, and was spotted grooming little Berry.

When he first arrived at his forever home, his diarrhoea came back, possibly stress diarrhoea, and Charity and family brought him to the vet. The vet gave him an anti-diarrhoeal injection which helps contract the digestive tract. Upon returning home, the diarrhoea cleared up but Berry was in a lot of discomfort from the injection's effects, meowing like crazy and crouching as if his abdomen hurt. But eventually he calmed down and he has now integrated well with his new family.

We are so glad that Berry is well and in good hands!

Simone and her progress - with pictures!

Simone, rescued by Serene from Marsiling when she was 3 weeks old, has come a long way! Having been nursed by two foster moms, and thereafter weaned and litter-trained, she hasn't always had it easy. When her pen mates fell ill with the flu', she got it too, and it is now being treated with eye irrigation and medication as well as nutraceutical supplements and herbal flu' remedy. She is still undergoing rehabilitation for the flu' as it keeps recurring.

We took pictures of her today after a grooming session. But before that, let's look at her when she was 4 weeks old, taken by Furry Photos -

She is still being penned with Brulee et al, Tango & Winky, and her current foster mother Bree. Her previous pen-mate, Rainy, with whom she shared a pen with with her previous foster mother Mary Lou, has been upgraded to the Penthouse pen with Barley and gang. Simone misses her foster mother Bree too much and also still needs her care as she is weaker than Rainy.

Here she is, just turned 9 weeks old - very runt-like still - after grooming.

Her tricolouring. Can still spot a bit of inflamed eye.

Likes human affection

Grooming herself

She is still not ready for adoption yet, not until her flu' is well and recovered and she can be viable for her vaccination. She also still needs a lot of supplements to boost her immunity and help her recover from the flu' and be closely monitored so she can recover fully. It won't be long till she is ready for her forever home!

Latest pictures of our kittens for adoption!

These kittens are still looking for their forever homes! If you are keen to adopt any of them, do take a look at our adoption procedure on the right side bar under 'How to Adopt'. If you can't adopt, do spread the word and help these rescued kittens find a home!

All the kittens are on solid dry food, litter-trained, dewormed, vaccinated and on Revolution. 

Barley
A bicoloured black and white girl who is very active, loves kitty companionship and play, very easy going and always up to mischievous hilarious kitty antics. She also likes to meow for attention especially when it is play- or food-time!

A very sweet pretty girl

Long tail

Doesn't mind being handled

Pink nose leather

Jay (adopted)
A male bicoloured white and blue-tabby cross-Persian longhaired kitten who loves to lounge around and relax, play with kittens younger than him, loves to sit by you or on laps, and is very easy going with humans and cats alike.

Jay's fluffy longhaired tail

Hates baths! Just after taking one here

Enjoys lounging around half-sleepily

His lovely blue and white colouring

Joey (adopted)
A bicoloured white and mackerel tabby girl with a long tail and huge round eyes. She is very affectionate, loves to cuddle with humans and enjoys both lounging around and play time alike. She is very considerate of other cats but when it comes to food, it's Joey-eats-first!

Pretty Joey

Her big eyes

Her long tail, Oriental body shape

Joey with her BFF Kit trying to kay-poh

Kit
A tricoloured - white, red and mackerel tabby - girl with a long tail. She is slow to make friends but once she decides you are her best friend, she is loyally yours. She loves Joey the most, and our Sealy, followed by us the humans that she loves to meow awake in the mornings.

Kit's gorgeous tri-colouring

Grooming herself

Can't sit still for a head shot!

Hope you enjoyed the kitty-pics!

Bree's kittens - now 8 weeks old!

Here are Brulee, Bran and Banana!

When they were first born -

With their mother, Bree

At 3 weeks old, taken by Furry Photos -

With their pen mates

At 3 weeks, couldn't tell who was who!

Then they had a bit of a rough time, because their pen mates Sierra and siblings came down with the flu' and they caught it too. But their flu' has mostly cleared up, now just need to monitor for any conjunctivitis, and continue them on a therapeutic diet consisting of herbal and nutraceutical supplements for immunity and flu' remedy.

Here is Brulee, the only boy. He has a cute curly bobtail.

Brulee, the only boy

Very active, can't sit still

Wanted to inspect the camera

This is Bran, his similarly coloured sister who has a mid-length tail. Also active -

Bran, cream coloured girl

Also quite active, need to hold her down for pic!

Couldn't get her full-body pic without some assistance!

This is Banana, we call her Nana for short. She has the most mackerel tabby stripes and is reddish brown in colour, with a mid-length tail like her sister. She is the most reserved of the 3.

Familiarising her with touch

Still having a slightly sore eye

Her mackerel tabby stripes on her legs

The reddest of the 3

These 3 kitties are not available for adoption yet as their flu' is still coming and going, and once that clears up, they will be going for their vaccinations as they are of age. Do take a look at our Adoption Alert on the right for the kittens available for adoption if you are keen to add a feline member to your family!

TNRM at Lavender area on Thursday 5 May

We conducted our first TNRM at the Lavender MRT area cat colony on 5 May. There are 3 micro-sites where the cats congregate.

The first micro-site is along Hamilton Road in an alley near a church.

Alley, filled with construction debris

One of the cats trapped in this micro-site

There is a black and white cat here, male, that has a genetic leg defect, and was unable to access the trap due to his handicap. He also looks unable to mate, so we left him there and neutered the females in this micro-site.

Cat with handicap

The second micro-site is along the shophouses on Hamilton Road. The cats' carriers upon trapping were marked clearly with the unit numbers they were trapped from so they could be returned to the right territory after neutering.

Most of the cats here hide under cars

Spotted a not-yet-mature kitten here

The third micro-site along Tyrwhitt Road was the hardest to trap. There is an itinerant feeder here that the main feeder has been unable to touch base with. The cats here were already fed and could not be easily enticed into the traps.

Cats here hide behind this gate

There were 2 already sterilised cats also spotted here, so the population here is quite under control. One cat however is not tipped-ear, but he refused to come to the traps to let us bring him for an ear tip under sedation.

Neutered cat in abandoned house

Cat that didn't want to scale down the gate

Here are the mug shots of the cats we successfully trapped for neutering. All the cats have been returned to their original locations. The total bill was $380.

Tabby

Tabby

Tabby

Tricolour

Black/white

Black/white

For the rest of the cats that either eluded us or not yet mature for neutering, we have empowered the cat feeder to sterilise the cats on her own and gave her Damy's contact (our cat trapper and transport for sterilisation of cats) to help her with continuing the caregiving for these cats.

There is also a cat colony according to the caregiver that resides behind a supermarket. We went to recce the place on the Saturday after our TNRM at this colony, but could not find the cats. We will have to continue to liaise with the caregiver with the help of our Sterilisation Volunteer LY to see if these cats need help with TNRM.

Thank you to all the cat-angels who contributed the funds making the sterilisation of these cats possible. We received word from the town council (for this area, Jalan Besar) that all tipped ear cats will not be accepted by pest control during culling. You have saved the lives of the tipped ear cats!