Pekoe

Pekoe, the little orange and white female kitten, came back from a day at SafeHaven a different kitten. I hope she's just tired out, but she is also favoring one leg. I don't know what is going on. She has no energy and walks like an old old cat, stiff and very sore.

I don't know if her URI might be about to get worse, or if she's worn out, tired, just needs more sleep, or if maybe she has an absess beginning in perhaps a bite wound. Her cousin, Miato, a full two months older, is rambuncious and maybe bit her in play. It can be hard to find those bite wounds. They take a few days to infect, too. Or if she has maybe a congenital defect that is getting bigger as she does.

But why the sudden change I wonder? Why did she come back from one night and half a day there so changed? It is probably only coincidence. But, I have to get her in to see a vet is the bottom line, if she shows no improvement by morning.

She came to me horribly underfed and sick. And yet she was active and playful and ate tons and would leap onto my lap from the floor. She's still eating, which is a good sign, but now the stiffness and favoring of one front leg and lethargy. I can't figure it out.

Maybe she is just worn out. I thought that yesterday after she returned here, and that she would snap out of it. It was stressful for them to go there, then come back. Change is hard on little starved kittens and sometimes they don't sleep enough. She's so frail and underweight. She has a home waiting for her once well and spayed. But now, I wonder what is wrong with her and if she'll even survive.

I'm trying to leave them alone, but they're in my bathroom and I've been having stomach issues and have been in and out of there a lot tonight.

I should probably get Miato out of there. The boys never have much empathy for anybody else at that age and jump on her, tromp across her, even if she doesn't feel well.

Miato does not have a cold but since he's so young, I hate to expose him to the rest of my cats, all of whom now seem over their colds, but the virus is going to be out here. The colds my cats got they quickly got over, except for Shady, who at least now is over hers.

It was a strange virus I'd never seen before, in regards to its symptoms. None of the cats with the exception of Shady, had any drainage, eye or nose, with the virus. Shady's eye drainage I believe came as a result of a simulataneous exasperation of her chronic herpes. However, this cold virus seemed to cause extreme congestion, that drained down the cats throats and sometimes caused repeated sneezing and coughing that sometimes ended in sneezes. It's duration was short, four or five days for those who had it the worst.

The usual cold causes cats to have eye and nose drainage and gunk. This more resembled the human cold virus that went around last year. That virus caused misery to a lot of people with drainage down the back of the throat, sparking coughing fits.

I still have a couple of cats who did not catch it. Surely they will. I don't want Miato to catch this virus. It seems to be caught by the cats in direct contact with each other more so than those who do not interact directly with others or who sleep in areas where affected cats have slept. For example, my oldest cat here, Vision, who is a lone sleeper, has not caught the virus yet, despite her age and despite the fact she often sleeps in the box bed where Shady will sleep. Vision is a tough old gal to have survived all she's survived in her life. The feral calico has not caught the virus so far either, but then again, she is one tough cookie, too.