Thursday, June 26, 2008, 07:03
My Little Man
Little Mr. Puffball died at 10:30 Wednesday evening.
All day Wednesday he seemed like he was doing better and taking an interest in what was going on around him.
He slipped into a coma at 10 p.m., and a half hour later, he died.
Randy and I had decided to call him Simon Peter.
I was holding him when he died.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 04:42
Little Mr. Puffball
I had to take little Mr. Puffball back to the vet clinic again on Tuesday. He still is not doing very well. Perhaps "third time is the charm" as they say.
The other kittens in the barn are doing much better now that I have been giving them amoxicillan for a few days. When I see how well they are eating and are running around and playing, I can really see that the little long-haired tom is not doing so well. Randy and I both think it's a tom, and they think so at the vet clinic, too.
We are now trying our third and fourth antibiotic for the little guy (Clavamox for the respiratory infection and a sulfa drug, in case coccidia is part of the problem; the sulfa drug will help for infection from intestinal parasites). His little nose is not as stuffy. And his eyes are not as watery. But he is not very lively. And he does not want to eat on his own. He pretty much just lays around and doesn't move hardly at all. I am still trying to get whatever I can into him during the day by mouth with a 3cc syringe.
When I took him into the clinic on Friday, he weighed .8 pounds. Tuesday he weighed 1.3 pounds. He still needs subcutaneous fluid, and I HATE doing that to the poor little thing. I am sure he is sore from being poked so much.
I have taken him down to the barn a couple of times to see his siblings and his mother, and he is so happy to see them. But of course, since he's so sick, I can't leave him down there.
I wish there was more I could do to help him.
Dry again?
Now that summer has officially arrived, it seems as if the rain has stopped. We have had a string of bright, sunny days with no rain.
The garden is just sitting there, not doing much. The oats field is just sitting there, not doing much. And the corn fields in the area are just sitting there, not doing much. It hasn't been terribly hot yet, but I suppose that's coming, too. And more heat will dry things out even faster.
It's seems so strange to me that it can be so dry up here, and only 150 miles south, flooding has carried away houses and drained a lake.
LeAnn R. Ralph