At the Sunday morning weigh-in Piper was down an ounce-and-a-half. That's a bit unusual, but I thought it might have been because she had pooped a few minutes before I weighed her. By Sunday evening she seemed lethargic, so I weighed her again. Down another ounce, and that ain't right.

We took her temperature… 105.3! Normal is 101-102. We'd already been giving her Clavamox for a probable urinary tract infection, so we gave her subcutaneous room-temperature fluids with a dose of Baytril mixed in. And we mixed up some slurry and syringe-fed her 30cc.

By Monday morning her temperature had subsided a bit (to 104.9) and she'd gained back two ounces. We gave her more fluids with another dose of Baytril and syringe-fed her slurry and Nutrical. By Monday night her temperature was back down to 100.9, and she'd resumed nibbling a bit on her own. Yesterday we skipped the fluids and just gave her meds and Nutrical.

She seems better again today, though still not back to full speed. One thing we've learned over the years is to trust our instincts (and our thermometer) and intervene when something doesn't look right, rather than just waiting a day or two to see if things improve. The combination of dehydration and fever can be deadly for young kittens.

While Piper's had a sedentary start to the week, our bigger kittens continue to race around the first floor when we let them out of the villa. Gigi's rhino hump is barely noticeable now, and with the help of betadine, clotrimazole, and itraconazole, she and Oggi are steadily overcoming their ringworm symptoms.

The fur Oggi lost on both his ears has started to grow back, and we can hardly see the once-naked spots on Gigi's paws now. By the time we transfer them to another HT fosterer on Friday (we leave for Santa Fe on Sat am), their only obvious symptoms will once again be… their drippy and cloudy eyes. Sigh.

Viruses? Fungi? Symptoms? Those words continue to be irrelevant to our teflon tabby, Sonny. Make that our former teflon tabby, since Sonny went home two hours ago!

The woman who adopted him has a 17-year-old cat who acts her age and a playful young female cat who needs a more active feline companion. She'll be getting a great new pal for Christmas – we're really happy things worked out so well for Sonny and his new family.

filed by: TS