Well the day after I lost Aeryn I went to the Huntsville Animal Services (aka pound) and rescued these two babies on 30 July 2007. I still hear Aeryn crying at night. She and Spocky are welcome here always God Bless their souls. But love is the best medicine for my loss and their names are Trip and T'Pol. Their names come from characters on Star Trek Enterprise, Trip the chief engineer and T'Pol the Vulcan science / first officer. The pound would not release them to me as they were not spayed or declawed. So an appointment was made for Wednesday with my vet to have them spayed, neutered and declawed. So on Wednesday 1 August 2007, I went to the vet and found out they were too young to have that done to them so I took them home. Trip is a grey and white male Domestic Short Hair (DSH) 7 or 8 weeks old and weighs 1lb 10oz. T'Pol is a calico female DSH 10 or 11 weeks old weighs 2lb. 4.5oz. Both have Feline Upper Respiratory Virus (FURV) and coccidia. Trip had tape worms. Not to worry, they are both on medication, amoxicillin and Albon and will receive lots of TLC. Every meal a buffet and the buffet lasts all day and all night :). In a week or so I take T'Pol in maybe to be spayed and declawed. Both go in for a checkup. We want to give her a week of TLC to get her ready for the surgery. Trip will go in about 4 weeks for shots and neutering and declawing. He simply isn't old enough. Thanks once again to the animal care clinic and Dr. Vaught. Their ages are slightly different by a few weeks so they are not from the same litter. But they like to rabble rouse together. These are my new loves. It shouldn't be too much to ask to live to love and be loved. But sometimes it is. For now though, these two are doing fine.
So without further to do, introducing (drum roll please)...
TRIP
T'POL
Trip & T'Pol
Now you may tempted to ask why is it all kitties from a pound whether in Huntsville Alabama or Bucyrus Ohio get sick like with the FURV. I was, so I asked. Plain and simply it is due to overcrowding and lack of cleanliness, specifically urine and feces. When one has an accident then another steps in it or rolls in it and then of course they clean themselves by licking. So now you know. But not to worry. They will always have the FURV it never goes away, it's like herpes. But unlike Aeryn, if these two do not develop an IMHA condition then they will not be on immunosuppressants and should do fine. They may have flare ups from time to time but they should be less severe than what happened to Aeryn and we know the Viralys worked on Aeryn, so I'll bet it will work on Trip and T'Pol as well. Oh and yes, it appears they are litter box trained. All cats naturally seek that type of earth texture but some can learn bad habits. The first thing they did when I brought them home was find the litter box. Then we ate, then we played and investigated and did I mention PLAY? :))
Trip is very active always hopping and pouncing and jumping and batting and playing. T'Pol is very quiet.
8 August 2007 So one week later I take them to the vet as instructed and while there I noticed T'Pols eye is suddenly blood red. The doctor says it's hyphema most likely caused by toxoplasmosis or cryptococcus and the added stress of travel to the vet made blood in the eye worse but that we had missed it. Sure enough the pictures from last week reveal a small red dot in the lower corner of her left eye. So blood was drawn and sent off for testing. Meanwhile we are starting treatment immediately on the most probable bet toxoplasmosis. She was immediately tested for feline AIDS and FLV and found to be negative. Treatment is dexamethosone and clyndimycin Antirobe with prednisone acetate drops for the eye. The coccidia in Trip has doubled on the Albon so we are switching to Panacur for both. No spaying today.
11 August 2007 Took T'Pol in as instructed her eye has mostly cleared up and the test results were messed up, the lab checked for smokey mountain spotted fever and not toxo and crypto.
14 August 2007 received word T'Pol has tested negative for toxo and crypto. So it looks like the hyphema was due to trauma. After 10 days of treatment I am to take her in.
18 August 2007 T'Pol appears to be feeling better and the hyphema is completely gone. During the past several days I kept them separated during the day to give her rest from Trip. I believe that more than anything, this has been responsible for her improvement. She now wants me to hold her a lot of the time. But still not very playful. Took both into the vet today. The coccidia is gone in Trip and almost gone in T'Pol. T'Pol is to maintain another 5 days of Panacur only. Both received FLV and Rabies vaccinations. That really affected them both. T'Pol had the most trouble with it as she vomited and defecated before she got to the litterbox. Trip was just plain knocked in the dirt so to speak, kind of nice to have a break from the human pin cushion role but also scary. Both are sleepy, lethargic and have a little fever. Trip is still too young for neutering and tested negative for feline AIDS and FLV. Glad to have both finally tested. It seems both are suffering bowl irritation from the damage the coccidia did, but the coccidia is under control finally. T'Pol seems to be lagging behind trip in recovery. So T'Pol is old enough for spaying but not healthy enough. I am to bring both of them back in 3 weeks. We looked at changing diet to a low residue formala but the Fancy Feast products they like to eat have more fiber in them so the doctor recommended staying with those.
19 August 2007. Trip has pretty much recovered but T'Pol has not. The inoculations have affected her deeper and longer than Trip.
20 August 2007. T'Pol feels a little better but still not where she was before the vaccinations.
30 August 2007. T'Pol has gone to the next dimension. For the past 10 days we have suspected she was suffering from coccidia and gave her a Marquis treatment and discontinued Albon and Panacur. For the last three days we have suspected it is FIP instead as she continues to get worse. She was losing weight not gaining like Trip. She wouldn't eat I had to give her Rebound with a syringe. An autopsy revealed enlarged kidneys with nodules on them and almost completely enclosed in a sac. It is believed due to FIP. A PCR test was ordered 2 days ago but still has not come in yet. Trip seems to be doing fine however. Once again I believe the vaccinations are to blame. In this case I believe her immune system was taxed fighting what was probably FIP and the shots were too much for her to handle in addition to the coccidia and probable FIP. Hindsight is of course 20/20. At the time we gave the vaccinations we had no idea she was fighting FIP, she was gaining weight and eating fine up to that point. Even her bloodwork for proteins and organs all were normal even 3 days before she succumbed. It appears now that the hyphema was probably caused by the FIP and that she had FIP since I adopted her, probably since birth. In the end she was weak and her nervous system was effected. She could only lay there and urinate on herself. All the Rebound I gave her was to no avail, it was as if she could not assimilate the nutrients. In the end it appears her affliction made her loose weight and basically starved her to death even with the super food rebound. The night before and the day she died she had what appeared to be hypoglycemia seizures which of course we administered some syrup. I have no regrets. Grief but no regrets. The vets and I did the best we could and made the right decisions at the time with the information we had. And that is all that can be asked. It is interesting to note that she had several bouts of urinating outside the litter box. At the time we attributed it to behavior, now of course we know different.
Good bye T'Pol I am glad to have rescued you for at least a few weeks. For a few weeks you had a warm comfortable home with lots to eat, play with and of course love. A chance for a fantastic life. I will always love you with all my heart and remember you as with all my babies. You were a good girl, such a shame to have lived and loved for so short a time. Rest in peace T'Pol.
01 September 2007. I took Trip in for a check up and to discuss how to proceed now that we highly suspect T'Pol had the highly contagious FIP. Although her PCR test results still have not come back. Trip has been doing very good, eating like a horse, playing hard and very active like a kitten should be. He seems fine, no traces of coccidia although his feces is still pasty looking and very odorous so we are treating him with the Marquis. I had separated them since we suspected FIP about 5 days ago but no doubt if T'Pol had FIP then Trip has been exposed. We believe that his immune system has been able to resist the exposure to the FIP as he does not appear to have any outward signs of FIP. I will watch him closely and take him in next week. In the last 2 weeks Trip has gained a pound. He feels good, eats good and plays hard so I think he has a good chance. Only time will tell. As far as rescuing another baby I will wait a while to see what happens with Trip and to put some time on any lingering virii even after disinfecting what I can in the house with 4 ounces of bleach to a gallon of water.
Here you can see the effects of Trips daggers which were trimmed today.
And here you can compare the pictures above to these and see how much he has grown.
15 September 2007. It's two days since Trip has been neutered and front declawed. He is doing fine, no changes behavior or otherwise that I can detect. He is Playing hard, eating like a horse and well, basically normal. I have pain medicine for him Butorphanol Tartrate (Torbugesic) mixed with viamins called (Torb and Tinic) and an antibiotic Amoxicillin (Amoxi Drops). He gets .5ml of each twice a day. But I don't think pain is an issue. On the day he had the surgery he started to hurt a long time before the 12 hours a dose is supposed to last was up. Which is to be expected, the pain medicine never lasts as long as they say it does. So they gave him some early. But on the day after they let me take him home as he got to the 12 hour mark he wasn't in any pain at all. Running and jumping and grabbing with his front paws. I'm really amazed and how well he has troopered through it. As usual I'm little more than a pin cushion to him. I'll have to get him a play mate soon. I managed to catch some good shots while he was napping. About the only time I can. When he's not sleeping he's full blower after burner.
20 September 2007. Trip is still doing great and got a new friend today :D.
