No Car. Two Kittens. Rogue Has Vertigo

 Life has not been the easiest lately.

The RV park cats are a challenge, given the distance.  My car went to the shop yesterday.  I spent all day the day before cleaning it.  I haul cats, by the score.  It stinks.

I lost Storm last Sunday.  Or was it Saturday maybe.   I found him unable to get up and weak in the legs.  He's so feral and has been his entire time here.  At times, its been difficult to find him, when I do my check, to make sure I spot them all.  He's just super shy.   I took him over to Heartland where he was euthanized.  He was skinny and something had happened suddenly.

I'm resigned to the losses.  Sure it hurts.  With Storm, I barely even ever saw him.  He did go with me to the coast clinic a year ago, camped out in the yurt with me and a couple others, and I got them in on two consecutive days for dentals and updates at the coast clinic.  I had to net him on the fly to get him in a cage to take him.  That's the way it is for most of the cats here.  

Hey it was a "pet friendly" yurt!  That's the cage he and his buddies were in, over at the back on the right.

Today its Rogue, something entirely different.  He's old too, like almost all the cats here, Haleys' relative.

I heard yowling in the early morning hours, thought it was Comet, wanting chicken, yelled to please quiet down, that I don't have any more chicken.  It wasn't Comet yowling, it was Rogue.  When I got up, I found him rolling around on the floor, obvious vertigo, head tilt to the right, right eyelid sagged and watering.  Oh no Rogue.  He otherwise seems healthy, good weight, maybe chubby, and hydrated.

I set him up in a large cage after reading that vertigo in cats can be self limiting and he could get over it in a day or two or three.   But, also, it can be infection or tumor caused.  Or even head or neck trauma I thought to myself, thinking of the cat runs.  I get vertigo every now and then.  Usually its a combination of dehydration and allergies.  Rogue is not dehydrated. 

The cats love the cat runs here.  None are over six feet off the ground, which you think would be safe, but maybe not for old cats.   It was his colony mate Raindrop who fell off a cat run, sustained internal bleeding and had to be euthanized.

Rogue was begging for the chicken I cooked up for Comet just yesterday morning.  He seemed fine then.  

I have no car right now.  I can't run him to a vet.  My own vet can't fit him in, they said.  Staffing issues.  So, I need to give him his three days, see if he improves, because likely a vet would suggest euthanasia since he's wild.   I'll give him that.  Let's do the differentials here.  If its idiopathic it will resolve in 1 to 3 days.   If its a tumor or neck or head trauma or stroke, its a euthanasia event.  The only outcome that could be helped, with a vet visit, I think is if its an infection.  

I need to get the two kittens from the RV park back up there to them.  My car should be done this afternoon.  Last night, the mechanic said they traced the dash lights code to a malfunctioning Mass Air Flow senser, whatever that is.  Fortunately its up top, right on the air filter container. Easy to change. It regulates the air the engine gets, which was why its been pinging.  Also my rear shocks are in very bad shape, the reason when I go over a bump the car keeps shimmering, I call it.  Bouncing really, but hard bouncing.  Hard to explain.  So the shocks and the Mass Air Flow sensor are being replaced.  I should have it back today.  Then I can take back the kittens and also go to the ER vet if I need to go with Rogue.

Munchy, above, whose cold became bad

Munchy and his brother Tippy.  Tippy's cold is gone now.

I'll get them back up to their RV park and the car back and then figure out about Rogue.