Caleb, Conrad ..... and other... ... ... Critters ... ... ...

Caleb arrives sporting his big belly

Rach from Paws4Life contacted me on Tuesday night. She has been setting humane cat traps near the shelter in an effort to capture an injured stray tom that had been spotted hanging around. To date the tom has eluded capture, but she has been doing a roaring trade in catching hedgehogs! For the most part said hoggies have been healthy and after having a jolly good feed in the trap are set free to go on their merry way.

However, the first night yielded a very mangey little boy and Rach contacted me to see if I could help him. Upon arrival and inspection I determined that the hog was male, had awful mange and a very full tummy. After I had given him his first Ivomec jab I popped him into his hospital box with a bowl full of electrolytes along with a little food and left him to it.

Caleb, expressing his appeciation for his heat pad by demonstrating the 'splat hog'

The next morning's weigh in revealed that Caleb had lost just under 80gms which I was expecting as his tummy had been very full the night before. It was so full in fact that I think it was actually helping to prevent him curling up LOL. He'd been exceedingly busy over night and had completely trashed his bedroom. After I'd done his housekeeping and he had been back in bed warming up for a while - he really enjoys his heat pad, I got him up to give him his first oil treatment, start his Panacur and generally have a closer look at him. Apart from his mange which had caused a lot of cracking on his back, he seemed to be in pretty good condition which was great. He very shy and nervous which is to be expected but seemed to be coping with his new situation ok for the most part.

Ouchy ...

 These cases with 'dry mange' as I call it, are much easier; in my opinion, to manage. They don't tend to smell as much - and if they do smell it only lasts a few days at the most, the crust comes off quickly - generally within four days, and in my experience to date they are less likely to be fly blown. So far, Caleb has been one of the easiest cases I've had .. long may it last.

A quick word about his name - when Rachael's partner dropped this hoggie off to me I told him to let their daughter Indi chose a name for him. Rach warned me that said name could well be very random but I knew this from previous experience with Miss Indi and awaited the naming day with baited breath.

Rach informed me the next day that the naming decree had been announced by Queen Indi and that if the hoggie was a girl it was 'Kora-Nina' and is it was a boy it was 'Caleb' so Caleb it was ... I did let Rach know I was very disappointed to have such a mainstream name for him but the Queen had spoken hehe.

Oil treatment on board and it's back to bed to warm up

Caleb coped with his first oiling like a champ and even managed to curl up a bit more since his tummy had 'deflated' overnight. He had another light oiling yesterday and a good 80% of his crust has gone. He's mighty resistant to being medicated but we'll get there with that one via patience and perseverance.

After his big drop in weight the first night Caleb has been steadily gaining and has nearly gotten back to his admission weight. He is eating well - he just loves his Hills A/D and has figured out how to make a nest bed in his blankets so is more settled and content which will reduce his stress levels a lot.

In this photo you can see just how emaciated he is - his head here is about 2/3 the size of his body when it should be about 1/4 the size of his body when rolled up.



and so to Conrad ....

Jacqui from Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand rang me about another hog on Wednesday. This one had been picked up by some children and was full of maggots. Now, maggots and me aren't a good combination so I got them to take the hog to Luanne at Pet Doctors for de maggoting. Luanne then gave me a call later in the day to say the maggots had been dealt to and I went in to collect the hog.

Oh my! The smell was indescribable ... probably the worst I've encountered so far.

I had a new fosterer lined up to come and see me on Sat so I warned her that she would most likely be leaving with a hog in tow. I asked her to name this hoggie and she called him Conrad.

This wee man was VERY stressed so I settled him in his hospital box, gave him some electrolytes with a little food and left him to it overnight. I didn't like the look of him and the following morning he hadn't improved. He didn't eat or drink at all over night and his breathing was still rapid. I couldn't monitor him closely for most of the day as we had to go to Auckland hospital for a medical appointment but upon getting home later that day the first thing I did was check on Conrad.

Oh lordy, he was simply ALIVE with hundreds of maggots. I had to get over myself and my maggot aversion (instant vomit!!!) which I did pretty quickly once I had lost my lunch and hit the panic button spending the next 2 hours getting the maggots off him. It is imperative with maggots that they be removed ASAP as once they have hatched they instantly begin to eat the hog alive. By the time I had finished, Conrad was obviously in a very bad way. He was unresponsive and I assume, in deep shock.

I tucked him away in his warm bed and waited but I knew in my heart what the outcome was going to be. Checking him 1/2 hourly confirmed he was still totally unresponsive and throughout the evening his breathing got slower and slower until by 11.30pm I was certain he had passed over the Rainbow Bridge.  I waited until the morning to confirm it and my suspicions were correct.

RIP Conrad - may your time over the Rainbow Bridge be free forever from torture and pain.

Freedom, Freddie and Fab Fosterers

Beautiful Kera

A few nights ago I released Kera, almost 8 weeks to the day that she came in to care. On the day of her release Kera weighed a roly poly 1108gms and was beginning to have trouble rolling in to a tight ball.

Let's just say that she had plenty of blubber on board to sustain her over the first few weeks of freedom whilst she found her feet.

Fatty Fatty Bom Bom

Kera was released along with Lucky - another female hog, at Houchens House. This is the same place that Hector and Poe were released a few weeks ago and is a beautiful and special spot located on the fringe of one of Hamilton's southern suburbs. There are acres of formal gardens - all heavily mulched, which will provide provide plenty of forage for the hoggies.

Kera and Lucky's release boxes

A view of some of the garden at Houchens House

Freddie continues to thrive and having finished all of his medication is well and big enough to have graduated to a hutch outside.

He hasn't looked back since his move and at his last weigh in a few days ago he was 902gms. I'm not weighing him every day now as he needs to start getting his wild hog on which he is doing admirably.

In fact, when I last got him up to weigh him he balled and prickled up like an absolute pro. I was so proud of him hehe. He is growing a very impressive amount of fur as well as a good covering of quills and next weekend I will move him into a pen in preparation for release, for which he should hopefully be ready in 2-3 weeks.

Currently our Hamilton foster network is almost full to over flowing; which this early in the season is a bit worrying, as over the past 6-8 weeks we've had a steady stream of severely mangey hogs coming out of hibernation in very poor shape indeed. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that we are temporarily down by two fosterers which equals 4 hoggie placements. That aside though, the hogs that we have in care (all eleven of them!) are doing well, with some coming close to being ready for release.

 I also have to remind myself that this time time last year we had one 'official' fosterer in Hamilton - me, and that coming in to this season we have six super caring souls helping us, with more (hopefully) coming on line soon. Let's just hope that we can get our current inmates well and on their way before the main rescue season hits with a vengenace.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Freddie - Words Fail Me!

Well, Freddie simply breaks the cute - o - meter.... He's been with me for 8 days now and is just the cheekiest, wriggliest, happiest, cutest wee hog in the whole world.

Look at that face!!!!!!

So far, Freddie has been in care for 51 days, 42 of which were with Maritha; his and Kera's rescuer, who had done an awesome job to get him this far as he has been every bit as sick as Kera and far from an easy case.
However after struggling with him for 6 weeks, Maritha reached the end of her rope when Freddie's latest poo tests returned (still!!!) positive for Lungworm and also showing a very heavy Capillaria burden. This of course hmeant he needed yet further rounds of medications and when I reported this to poor Maritha; who was also struggling with a teething toddler, her face just fell. I had already made the decision to take Freddie on if Maritha needed to surrender him and when I offered to take him on she accepted immediately, ableit tearfully.

Once I had Freddie settled, I immediately started him on Deprim for the Capillaria and waited for the required gap between his last Profender treatment for Fluke; which had been given on the day he arrived, and starting Panacur - his 4th course!!! There is simply NO way he should still have had Lungworm and hopefully this latest round of Panacur will finally deal to it once and for all.

When Freddie arrived he was still quite skinny and underweight and although he had gained 297gms since admission. He was apparently quite a fussy eater and refused all wet food... Well he's had a change of heart and eats a huge bowl full of Jellimeat (into which I mix Flaxseed Oil and a Magnesium/Zinc/B6 supplement to encourage quill/fur growth) every night. I am very pleased with his progress so far and expect he will simply go from strength to strength for here on out.

In the ensuing 8 days since admission Freddie has gained 215gms and is now a healthy, plump 828gms. He's filled out a lot, has relaxed and is less anxious and frightened. In fact he is just the cheekiest wee thing around. Whenever I open his crate he pops his head out of his blankets and peers up at me to say hello.

Me thinks Young Freddie is going  to need a good long spell in pre release to wild up!

Crazy Busy! INCOMINGS!!!!!!

So, we have -

Rose Nathaniel - another disabled hoggie who has come to live with Sonny in her garden...

Jeffrey - a BIG boy who has come to me from Narelle as she is going away on holiday and suspected he had an infection brewing, which he does so needs medicating for 3 weeks. 

Freddie - rescued a few days before Kera by Maritha who has been working hard to help him but sadly surrendered him to me as she was finding it all a bit much - Freddie has been very sick as was Kera and hasn't been an easy case AT ALL.

Stinky - rescued by Jennifer who is caring for him at this stage.

George - a GORGEOUS wee boy rescued from near the university. He is being cared for by one of my fosterers, Fran - who also has Henry and Lucky outside in my old pen (which I gifted to her) getting ready for release. 

Biddy - in care with my fosterer, Hay.

Arnold - who came in via Pet Doctors. He's been in 'care' with his rescuer (hmmmm, don't get me started) who then surrendered him to PD when he 'went on holiday'. I suspect he had put the hog into the 'too hard' basket. Said hog wasn't in a good way at all when he arrived but he's now thriving in the very capable hands of Hay.

I'm hoping for a quieter day today and will try to get some posts done about the hogs in care here with me... oh, and a Sonny update :)

Baldric's Bolthole

Baldric has been very busy over the last week. He’s eating about ½c of biscuits every night and is continuing to try to build a nest inside the feeder box – I have placed other nest boxes in the fernery for him but he isn’t interested in these to date. Last night he did the reverse though and pulled the lining newspaper out of the box. Funny Boy. 

Keeping him confined in the garden wasn’t an acceptable long or even medium term situation however so after a few days of head scratching I came up with a solution to the conundrum of Baldric being trapped in the garden. I spoke with Donna and we agreed on the best place to make a bolt hole through which Baldric could access the outside world via Donna’s garden.

Ye Olde Bolthole ...

It didn’t take long for me to make it and I blocked it up with bricks until night had fallen - blocking it off prevents Westley going through during the day. That night I made a tunnel out of the bricks to stop mine and Donna’s cat hassling each other through the hole, I installed my IR camera about 1m from the hole and went inside to await the morning when hopefully I'd have some Baldric snaps to views.

Well, he found the tunnel all right and at 4.23am he went though it …. only  to come straight back into the garden at 4.25!   

I left it a few more nights before placing the camera again – which was last night. 

This time he left at 3.24am -

and returned at 4.51am 

 so he’s extended his excursion time but is still basing himself in the garden. He is looking really good and has obviously plumped up which he darn well should have with the amount of food he is eating! 

This is taken a few days later and is absolute proof he knows how to use his tunnel - he hasn't left though!

I’m going to try to get one of my wooden nest boxes sealed and into the garden this weekend to hopefully entice him into build a nest in which would make it much easier to monitor his whereabouts and condition, but he may well not ‘comply’ with my wishes, little brat.

Stealth Hog Revelaed!!!

Beautiful!

Tonight I was outside playing with Coco Cat at about 9.30pm when she suddenly stopped playing and sat at attention looking at the fernery - where the wild hoggie nest was located. AH HA thought I, maybe my visitor was up for the night! I raced inside and grabbed some gloves and my torch and went on a hog hunt. 

My suspicions were correct and it didn't take long  to locate the Stealth Hog who sat rather calmly observing me as I approached ...

Hmmm .... 

Scoping the hoggie up and bringing it inside I started to get a little excited as I thought I recognised the face and the hoggie was very squirmy and rather unconcerned at being handled.

At first I wondered if it might be Posh but on closer inspection it was revealed our visitor was a boy. Once inside under the lights I had a good look at the wee boy and he was in fabulous condition - albiet a little skinny due to just coming out of hibernation. There was absolutely no sign of mange or anything else untoward. 

Then, I made an amazing discovery ...

A bit skinny and 'pointy' but hey, he's only just woken up!

There in the middle of the hoggie's back was the faintest remains of some blue nail polish which means my little visitor is Baldric, come home to roost! I am so very excited and happy that he has successfully survived his first winter and that he is healthy and well. 

After reapplying Baldric's 'war paint' and giving him a dose of Advocate I took him back outside and popped him into the feeder box to have some dinner and to carry  on with the rest of his busy night. 

My beautiful little man Baldric

So, now ... well... 

I know I said that I wanted to capture the wildling in order to remove it from the back garden and let it go free, but I find I'm having some second thoughts about what to do. Baldric obviously knows where 'home' is and I don't have the heart to shut him out so what I'm going to do is cut a hole in the fence through to my neighbour Donna's garden so that Baldric et al can access the garden as he/they choose to. I'll make a lockable flap door for the hole so that during the day when Westley is out, the flap is closed and then open it up at night to give the wild hoggies access into the garden.

It's a feeder box Baldric, not a nest box!!!!

UPDATE: This was the feeder box this morning. Young Baldric has been a very busy boy overnight. I suspect he has gone to bed in the temporary bedroom box and will check later. BUT, I won't be moving the box out of the garden now. Instead, I'll get another wooden bedroom box made up and transfer him into that and this weekend I'll make a hog hole in the fence so he isn't trapped in my garden.

It will be really interesting to see if he leaves and for how long he stays away.

Crying for Crustina

Today is day 5.

Crustina has been in a steady decline since late on her 2nd day, losing 40+gms a day in addition to the weight lost from the mange crust and her quills. I have been syringe feeding her since day 3 and she was accepting the feeds and fluid ok until this morning. On day 3 - Monday, I sent a poo sample up to Narelle for analysis and yesterday she called to let me know that the slides showed a MASSIVE Coccidia and Capillaria burden as well as some Lungworm.

Then this morning little Crustina refused all attempts to feed her and by 3 pm it was obvious she had given up the fight, poor wee thing. With a heavy heart I took her straight in to the vet to be put to sleep.

Goodbye Crustina - May you be carried on your journey over the Rainbow Bridge on strong legs and with joy in your heart.

Stealth Hog

Telltale Poo!!

Hanging out the washing the other day I glanced down and what did I spot on the lawn but ....

Poo ....

At first I assumed one of the cats had diarrhoea - which was not welcome news in light of recent events, but on closer inspection and checking out the rest of the lawn I discovered that it was hoggie poo. LOTS of hoggie poo!

Now, this was a bit of a conundrum because the back garden is now fully 'enclosed' due to one side being shut off for Sonny's Garden and the other side being shut off to keep Westley on our property.

Hmmmmm ..... So .... Who? Where? What? How?

A tunnel fit for a hoggie

 Who?

Well, I suspect it could be be 'Red' as he had been sleeping in the garden bedroom box consistently for quite a while before he disappeared at the end of summer, and I assumed he had gone off to hibernate elsewhere.






Where?

Caught in the Act

There aren't many suitable hog nest sites in the garden and I knew no one had gone to sleep in the bedroom box - which I had subsequently removed once I had blocked off any remaining hog access via the remaining side gate. The most likely spot was my long term compost heap / dumping corner so over I trundled and had a good look. On the back side of the heap, near the fence I found a tunnel so the 'Where' was no longer a mystery.

What?

Already figured that one out - a Hoggie!

How?

Well obviously at the end of summer someone tunneled themselves a nice wee nest under the heap and has been fast asleep all winter. I confirmed this with my IR camera and caught the Stealth Hog in the garden the following night.

So now I need to figure out what to do. I'd quite like to have a look at the hoggie to make sure it is healthy, give it a dose of Advocate and to try and identify it before sending it on its way but I'm not going to disturb its nest. So I'll make a nice warm nest box out of a cardboard box (I haven't finished my wooden nest boxes yet, darn it) stuffed full of hay, in the hope the hoggie will move in to it. I'll give it a week and if it does move in I'll check it out then relocate the box to the front garden. If it doesn't take up my invitation I'll just leave the gate open with the camera on it so I know when the hoggie has left. In the mean time I've got a feeder box full of bikkies and and nice dish of fresh water which the Stealth Hog is enjoying every night.

Crusty or Crustina? It's Anyone's Guess ...

Crusty / Crustacia on admission

Every time I get a mangey hog in, I swear it is one of the worst I've seen. On reflection though, I guess I should say each one is the worst of that presentation that I've seen.

This is Crusty / Crustina - we can't tell the sex yet, as named by Geri, so we'll go with Crusty for now.

Worst Mange crack I've seen yet

Crusty was rescued in Te Aroha and brought to me at 7pm last night. His rescuers thought he had been attacked by a dog as he was bleeding but actually he had an uber thick mange crust which had split apart, taking his skin with it. The crack was about 2cm wide down his spine and 1cm wide across his shoulders. His feet were very red on their tops and I suspect the crust has been abrading them as he walks or he has been dragging to tops along the ground as he slowly became more frozen in place by the mange crust.






















He weighed 660gms was very, very stressed on arrival and other than checking him over as much as I could without traumatising him further and giving him a thorough oil treatment, I did little else other than give him some electrolytes, food and a warm bed to hide in.

This morning he was still with us and had eaten  and had more electrolytes during the night. I got him up and had another look at him and discovered his crust was lifting so had a go at removing some of it. I kid you not, it was literally like peeling a banana....It is the thickest, most extensive crust I've seen and man, does it smell!

After giving him some pain relief - which I couldn't do last night because he was dehydrated, I peeled off about 80% of his quills with attached crust. I'm amazed and relieved it has lifted so quickly. After that I managed to find a small patch of skin that wasn't bleeding and gave him his first Ivo jab and some oral Panacur. I treated the cracked and bleeding skin on his back and skirt with some special antiseptic spray and used some Colloidal Silver spray on his poor cracked and bleeding face.

This morning when I weighed him, Crusty weighed 696gms so he'd had a nice little gain over night was great. However, after seeing the huge pile of quills and crust I decided to re weigh him and was really shocked to discover he had lost 95gms! WOW!!!

Here he is when I'd finished. He could do with another oil treatment but I'll leave that until later today to let the spray treatments dry and for him to recover from everything I put him through this morning.

There is a lot more crust to come of yet and hopefully that will come away over the next few days. His face is massively crusted and cracked as well and that will probably take a week or two to resolve. However he did manage to open his eyes a little this morning. YAY!

Oh, Not Kero ...... Introducing Kera!

I've done it again!

 On Aug 8th I was giving Kero 'his' medication - this poor hoggie was mighty fed up with taking medication and I had had to figure out a way to get it into 'his' very tightly tucked in mouth without distressing 'him' too much.

The technique I figured out involved popping 'him' on his side and the tickling 'him' on his opposite side near the back leg. What this does is makes the hoggie squirm 'open'. First the back leg pops out, the the tummy followed by the head. It's actually rather sweet to watch.

On this day I was patiently tickling away and while I waited for 'him' to pop open a bit more I was admiring Kero's beautiful fat little tummy which was such a contrast to the appallingly emaciated wee creature 'he' has been.

Hang on ......

Kero ......

Where have your 'bits' gone?????

Yup, it transpires Kero is a Kera. She had been so incredibly emaciated and shrunken up that her she had looked like a boy (her genitals touched her nose when she curled up = boy) but as she had slowly gained weight, her 'bits' had gone south as her tummy had filled out and voila we have a girl!

Kera has now finished all of her medication except one more dose of Profender for her Fluke infestation. I had sent a 2nd poo sample to Narelle as we were still suspicious Kera had Fluke (a very nasty intestinal parasite) due to periodic 'snotty' mucous in her poo. This time the test confirmed she did indeed have Fluke, but treatment with the Profender will quickly knock it off.  Her quills are coming in fast and today she weighs 861gms. Her appetite is fantastic and she has a new light in her eyes. She's still very shy and is so very sweet.

She will probably be in care for about another 4 weeks whilst her quills finish growing in but I think it is safe to say that she is well out of danger and will soon be on her way back into the wild.

A Long Sonny Summer Coming Up!

Three weeks ago it became apparent Sonny was waking up from her hibernation. I could tell because there was a sudden increase in the amount of biscuits being eaten in her 'feeder' box - I KNOW RIGHT??? Yes, she is actually eating! She was also quite busy moving nesting material around and building new tunnels in/out of her nest.

So ........ it was time to get her up and weigh her.......

With some - aka massive, trepidation I gently removed Sonny from her nest. The change in her was immediately apparent - she felt a lot heavier, looked beautiful and when I took her inside and popped her on the scales I couldn't believe my eyes. She weighed an EPIC 860gm which meant she'd put on 152gms in just two weeks. I'm amazed you didn't hear my squeal of delight from your place because I was just over the moon happy and relieved.

Hi Mum!! How are ya?

The other big change was Sonny's demeanor. She was wriggly, nosey and seemed very content. There wasn't any sign of the growling, hissing, biting and depressed hoggie that I had put back outside in early winter. I gave her a dose of Advocate and popped her back into her nest, shutting the gates of her garden just in case she decided to have a wee tantrum and reject her nest because I had disturbed her - which she did indeed do, but not until that night.




The next morning when I checked in Sonny's feeder box I discovered that Madam had moved herself in and made herself at home. This was just fine with me! I didn't disturb her for a few days and once it was clear that she was going to stay put for a bit I removed the plywood cover from her old nest and installed it over the feeder/bed box to keep the sun and rain off it.

I opened the lid a bit so that the box didn't sweat and piled hay from th eold nest up against the front of the box to help keep the sun off it.







Then I put the ply cover over the top and left Sonny to it. So far she has stayed put even though I open the box every day to top up her food. She seems ok with this and says a quick hello before tucking her head back under her tummy and going back to sleep.

and then ...

Last night at about 10pm I went out to put the rubbish out and spotted Hector out in his run so I grabbed him and weighed him as he's going to be released in a few days so this was a good opportunity to weigh him without disturbing his daytime sleep.
I wondered if Sonny was up so crept over to her box and sure enough she was pottering along her 'hoggie highway'. I quietly scooped her up, weighed her and was delighted to discover that in the last six days she's gained another 52gms and was now 912gms. Her quills are shiny and she's round and plumb - just gorgeous!

Westley Wabbit Wonderful!

Home is where the hutch is.

 Well, what more can be said other than Westley is just a super, wonderful, awesome, amazing companion animal for Geri and simply a joy and delight to have as part of our family.

He now has a new house. It's much bigger, the bedroom is totally enclosed and is much more sheltered. I built a (carpeted!!!!) mezzanine platform in it for him and he loves to sit up on it. He is using the nest box (this is a chicken run) as his toilet - I've got a litter box with the pine pellet cat litter in there which makes cleaning a breeze. 

 To say this rabbit is spoiled rotten is the understatement of the year! He spends a very large portion of each day out of his house, galumphing, racing and binkying around the garden when he isn't grazing and sampling the delights of the orchard, the vege garden and other precious morsels!

In the evening he comes inside for cuddles and company. His usual routine is to either sleep on Geri's lap or her bed or  if he's feeling like he needs a bit more space he will hope a little way away and do one of his epic bunny flop overs. This is an indication of a rabbit that is sublimely happy and relaxed. It is a huge compliment for him to behave this way around us and shows he totally trusts us and feels very safe and secure.

Not comatose .... just fast asleep!

 Here come some more Westley pictures to make you smile and naaaaaaw!

Epic Bunny Flop Fail!

Soooooooo tired!

Hey! Can I Jump Down There?

Is This a Rabbit a Cat or a WHAT???

Kero the Hero

Day 1

WOW! Kero is teaching me a LOT! After an initial great weight gain he went into a serious decline with terrible diarrhoea and a complete loss of appetite. By Day 5 he was below his admission weight which was very bad indeed. I had spent the previous 3 days 'plonking' him in front of his food dishes every two hours in an effort to slow his weight loss as he was a very reluctant syringe feeder, so that was off the cards...

Day 9

In desperation on day 5, I made the decision to put him on some antibiotics in case the diarrhoea was being caused by Coccidia - a parasitic protozoan infection that can cause appetite loss/nausea, weight loss and green jelly like diarrhoea. As it was the weekend I decided I had nothing to lose because in my opinion if he kept losing at the rate he had been he would be dead within 24 hours.



The medication seemed to help and after 48 hours Kero rallied, his diarrhoea lessened and all of the nasty stuff associated with it - I don't really think you want the gory details, improved a lot as did his appetite. The next few days saw good, steady gains and I began to hope that he had turned a corner and that maybe the worst was over.

In the mean time Kero's mange had improved hugely, he was much less stinky and looked so much better - except that he was just skin stretched over bones. Poor little man.

Day 10

  On day 11 I decided to stop his antibiotics as he had had a 7 day course which is pretty standard for Coccidia and I was concerned that the medication may be causing the return of his diarrhoea which had once again hit with a vengeance. I also contacted the vet practice that had brought Hector to me, to find out how much some tests were going to cost as the time for guess work was over - we needed to try to find out exactly what was going on and I dropped a sample off later that day.

The loss trend continued on Day 12 with the amount lost jumping hugely so I decided to try giving Kero some probiotics whilst I awaited the lab results. Within 24 hours Kero had had a huge weight gain and his stools steadily improved as well which was a huge relief. He began eating like there was no tomorrow and started looking much happier and more comfortable in himself.


By Day 15 Kero looked like a completely different hoggie. His shape had rounded out quite a bit and his head wasn't looking too big for his body any more - well not quite so much anyway! The contrast with Day 10 was startling to say the least!

Day 15

 

 

 

Day 15

First thing on Day 15, I couriered a some poo samples up to Narelle so that she could run parasite tests for me. This was Kero's second sample to be tested - the first hadn't been too bad as it just showed Capillaria which his Ivomec injections and two courses of Panacur would have dealt with very efficiently.

Later that day I got a call with Kero's test results. It turns out that he is a very sick wee man indeed and it is amazing that he is still with us. His tests showed that he had both Gram +ve (bacilli & cocci) and Gram -ve (bacilli) bacterial infections as well as a yeast infection. To have both types of bacterial infection is very rare and it has been absolutely hammering his poor system - as evidenced by his symptoms to date. Turns out the probiotics were probably one of the best things I could have done for him. He's now been prescribed a new antibiotic which I'll collect tomorrow and I'll also grab a treatment from the pharmacy for his yeast infection.

Hopefully from here on it will be an unchallenged upwards curve of improvement for this little fighter. What a Champion he is!

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart ....

As some of you will know, for the kitten season of 2012 we fostered kittens and a few adults cats for a local shelter - Paws4Life. In total, 35 felines in need passed through our doors including two kittens - Lisbeth and Tyrion, who never left.

Tyrion and his three brothers; the Grey Babies, came to us with their adoptive mother Busy Lizzy. This little family had been uplifted from a property along with the kitten's birth mother who had rejected her kittens. Busy Lizzy  - just a kitten herself, was already nursing 2, one month old kittens and when the grey babies mother had rejected them she took the newborns on as well. On arriving at the shelter Lizzy's two kittens were fostered out as they were just old enough to be weaned. Lizzy and the grey babies then came into foster with us. The grey baby's mother was found to have a ruptured diaphram and once she had had corrective surgery and lots of tender loving care at Paws4 Life she was successfully adopted out to her forever home.

Five days after Lizzy and the grey babies arrived, I got a desperate call from the shelter. A litter of kittens had been found in a box on the road and the box had been sitting there for at least three days before the kittens were discovered and rescued.  One kitten was dead, two more had accepted the bottle but on wee girl was conpletely refusing to feed at all. She's had less than 5 mls in 24 hours and they wanted to see if Lizzy would accept her. I arranged for her to be brought straight over and I could hear her screaming as she was carried up the path to the front door. If she refused to feed or Lizzy refused her she was facing euthanasia the following day.

Sadly, it didn't work out with Lizzy but Geri and I sat up with the kitten all night and managed to get 5mls into her. The following morning I took her back to the shelter to collect some formula and get some advice from Rachael.















This wee girl weighted all of 185gms (a new born kitten weighs about 125gms) and it was thought she was about 2-3 weeks old.  But as it turned out, she had all of her baby teeth so was 6-8 weeks old but was severely emaciated.
 
In the mean time the grey babies were thriving but about a week after Lisbeth arrived they suddenly started crying and were very unsettled. Twenty four hours later it became apparent that Lizzy was very sick so off to the vet she went. It transpired that Lizzy was gravely ill and she ended up in the critical care unit at the vet for over a week. She nearly died but they managed to save her and after a prolonged period of recovery at the shelter she was eventually adopted.

Suddenly, we were bottle feeding five kittens! Once we confirmed that Lizzy's illness wasn't contagious I integrated Lisbeth in with the grey babies. She didn't know what on earth was going on but ultimately it was a really good thing for her socialisation.

Some of the fab Five wearing their 'food faces'

We had decided early on that we would adopt Lisbeth as she was obviously going to have issues and we felt that putting her back through the shelter wasn't going to be a good outcome for her. Of course, we also decided she would need the company of a cat her own age and we chose Tyrion as he was such a character.

We've been through ups and downs with our four ever since. In June 2013 we made the decision to stop fostering as we were having behavioural and health issues with our crew which I was certain were caused by stress related to having so many extra cats in the house. We worked hard at getting things on an even keel and things seemed to be fine for quite a while. Then in the late summer of 2014 I discovered that Tyrion had been spraying inside. This coincided with Effie and Coco becoming increasingly aggressive towards Lisbeht and Tyrion.

I put back into practice all of the measures I'd used in 2013 and for a while we made progress. Then Tyrion started spraying again so I put him on to Clomicalm and for over a month we had a break from nightly blacklighting and cleaning sessions.

Then, he started again.

I was at breaking point by this time and had to start to face the fact that  it looked like I was not going to be able to 'fix' this situation which meant that I had to make a decision about Tyrion's future.

Two weeks ago I finally came to the awful realisation that my wee man Tyrion would have to be rehomed. He couldn't stop spraying, was becoming aggressive with Lisbeth and was undergoing significant personality changes - becoming increasingly withdrawn and was obviously very unhappy.

I tried to rehome him through my network of friends and aquaintances to no avail as the stigma attached to spraying is hard to overcome, so admitting defeat I contacted Rachael at the shelter I volunteer for. 



Rach was fantastic and after discussing the situation at length we came to the conclusion that as Tyrion was maturing; he is 22 months, his need for his own territory - totally unchallenged or shared in his mind, was becoming overwhelming and that there was just no way I could provide this for him here with so many cats not only in the household but in the neighbourhood as well. We agreed that this was very likely an inherent personality trait that was coming to the fore as Tyrion entered adulthood and that there was nothing I could do about it - living here with us just wasn't doing it for him and I had to accept it was never going to, no matter how hard I worked at it or tried.

She also assured me that she has rehomed MANY sprayers successfully and that as long as they are placed carefully usually once they are out of the environment that they were finding stressful, they no longer feel the need to spray anymore. We agreed that Tyrion needed to be rehomed into a quiet (he's quite a nervous chappy), calm, sole cat household. Rachael is extremely picky when it comes to placing the animals in her care and I knew that she would be taking extra, special care with and of Tyrion for me.

Surrendering Tyrion to the shelter has been the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life and I am still unspeakably sad. I've been mourning his loss for weeks and Paws4Life/Rachael is the ONLY place/person I would/could have entrusted him to.

Once at the shelter, he stopped spraying which is usually the case according to Rachael. He was so bewildered and scared when I took him over, it was awful. I had taken his favourite cubby bed with me so I set him up in his crate and after crying on Rachael's shoulder for an hour I left, sobbing my eyes out all the way home.

The following 10 days were horrendous, but then I received this text from from Rachael -

"Tyrion adopted by the most amazing, sweet and lovely older couple. He is off (with his bed!) to watch Pirongia Mountain and to be thoroughly and utterly loved."

I rang her straight away and she said the couple's previous cat had died of old age and that they are very gentle, quiet people. I've been crying ever since with joy, hope, relief, sadness, grief, happiness .... I don't know!

The shelter has a condition on adoptions that if for ANY reason the animal needs rehoming the owners are legally obligated to return them to the shelter. So, I know that if it doesn't work out Tyrion will still be safe. However, Rachael has a full disclosure policy and this couple sounds perfect so I am hopeful that he has found his forever home.

Since Tyrion left the dynamic between my girls has changed enormously with less aggression and a LOT more "Oh, it's just you Lisbeth, yeah ok .... I'm going back to sleep" instead of "LOOK!!!!! IT"S LISBETH (or TYRION) > LET"S GET HER/HIM!!!!!" 

For now, I am holding my breath and hoping against hope that Tyrion has found his forever home, that his need to spray is a distant memory and that he will now move forward to live a blissfully happy and content life full of love and cuddles with his new family.

Goodbye my special wee man. I will forever hold you in my heart where there will always be a void in the space that you used to occupy.