I moved to Pakistan -one month agoto care for my husbands widowed mother. Three days ago my husband and i decided we wanted a kitten to love and take care of. So, he went out for awhile and when he returned he had bought a 8 week old silver persian.My husband knows like...nothing about cats really. So apparently these "pet shops" are in deplorable conditions and our kitten, named akita, was the youngest and smallest of about 100 cats, all kept in the same big cage. I first noticed a terribly disguisting smell and I ignored it, thinking she probably had to sleep in cat feces since she is the smallest of 100 older cats, i just assumed she needed a bath, then when I held her the day she came to our home, it was clear to me that she had an extremely high fever so I delayed the bath. The first night she seemed fine. The fever had gone away fast on its own so I did not feel it was a big emergency at that point. But the next morning when we woke up, the fever had returned and was very hard to bring down.(that was 24 hours ago) NOW the poor lil baby...I started to really check her out today(day 2 1/2)She has had a high fever for 2 days (have not used a thermometer, just I could feel this fever is high on her tummy and her foot pads)aside from the fever, she has the black residue in her ears, which I assume is ear mites, she has what I think is severely matted hair on her neck. like hair balls- the hair is hardly noticable on these 'balls' so then I started to think it might be some really gigantic deformed ticks or something) ALSO she has on her back hip area a very large perfectly circular black patch. she is extremely underweight.Her breathing is very rapid. and she appears to have conjunctivitis in her right eye. She is lethargic and dehydrated. She has a healthy appetite but only drinks very lil water and has only urinated 2-3 times since coming home, and all the time she only has urinated a few small drops each time. I am very concerned, i feel so bad for her, I want to help her to feel well and healthy and happy. But i do not trust Pakistani vets becausein 2006 we were here too and we had a small black and white colored persian kitten, the shop we bought him from sold him although he was only 1 week old(much too young to be away from moms milk) and he developed a fever and lethargy so my husband took him to a nearby vet and the vet gave him- get this- childrens tylenol!!! He passed away within an hour.I feel that here it just seems that people care more about money than about life- it disguists me!I want to help this lil baby girl so badly, but i am really not sure what to do and at this point I don't know if any vet is trustworthy here too. She is laying beside me as I type, sleeping, she is so precious and really loving and affectionate and will gobble up any affection I give to her. i am already in love with her. This is the second sleepless night i have had trying to just make her comfortable. And I'm really not sure if she's gonna make it til morning. My husband is taking her to a vetrinary hospital in a few hours, if she survives that long. I am desperate to give her a little relief and comfort. My heart is breaking and I feel so helpless now.
Thanks for listening. Any encouragement and advice will be appreciated very much:)
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Introductions
new kitten from Pakistan-need urgent advice
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Welcome to the Daily Kitten, Tami. I'm so sorry your kitten is in such poor condition. She definitely needs to be seen by a vet and may need to be hospitalized to make sure any infection is being properly treated and that she isn't dehydrated. Please keep posting to let us know how she is doing.
Posted 1 month ago by Kitten Whisperer #
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Just try to keep her warm, comfortable and hydrated until you can get her to the hospital. Can you get pedialyte or dioralyte (or some kind of children's rehydration salts) there? Or Gatorade? If not just use lukewarm water but try and get it down her with a syringe. (Don't put her on her back, she should be upright or she could choke, and if she does choke, hold her gently upside down until she stops choking). Is she eating wet food? If she is, that's good, she should be getting some moisture from that, don't give her dry food. She won't be able to regulate her own body temperature very well so hold her next to you to give her some of your body heat or use a heatpad or hot water bottle (with enough room to crawl off if she gets too hot).
Can you maybe ring your embassy and ask if there is a good vet that the embassy staff use for their pets? (Assuming you are in the same city.)
These websites may be useful, especially the 'tent test' for dehydration (pick up a bunch of skin on her neck and let go. If it snaps back, she's normal. If it goes down slowly or worse, 'tents' -- stays up -- she needs fluids).
http://www.kittenrescue.org/pages.php?pageid=15
http://www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/orphans.shtml
http://www.feralcat.com/raising.htmlYou are wonderful for looking after her. I hope she can keep going until you get her to the hospital.
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