Somebody is feeling much better, 3 weeks after kittening and 2 1/2 weeks after being taken seriously ill, Bob is in the mood for love again. Sorry Bob, not a cat in hells chance of that happening! Listen out for the splash as Beetle falls in the bath that I had just run for myself.
Her tummy is all but healed now, which considering how bad it was just 19 days ago is pretty close to miraculous
Sadly Bob has no interest in her kittens now, but Tibbs continues to do a grand job with them, keeping them clean and providing top up feeds between the bottle feeds that I give them. They will be 4 weeks old tomorrow (10th August) and seem to be developing pretty much normally.
Beetle continues to be a complete nutter -
And of course the dogs are still going on their fabulous daily walks :)
After nearly a week on I/V fluids at the vets Bob was finally well enough to come home a few days ago. She is still far from being right but is now well on the road to recovery. Initial scans showed peritonitis, though we don't know what triggered it. On Saturday morning she finally started to expel all the toxins from her body, she now has gangrenous mastitis and although this looks absolutely horrific it is actually nowhere near as painful as you might think as all the nerve endings in the area have died. She now has to go through a process of sloughing off all the dead tissue, then granulation of the wounds will start, at this point it will be more sensitive as nerves will return to the area, and eventually she should heal completely. She is tolerating all her treatments without fuss and I really think the hardest part for her is not being able to nurse her kittens. I am adding a couple of pictures of her wounds but will put them right at the bottom of this page as you may not want to see them.
Tibbs is doing a sterling job with both her own kitten, Polly, and Bobs kittens. Although she does not have enough milk for them all (I am bottle feeding the kittens every few hours) she does keep them clean and warm.
Warning - graphic pictures below, please be assured that Bob is under close veterinary supervision and is receiving all the necessary care to ensure a full recovery.
The last few months have not been the easiest, firstly Dollar bloated, then I lost Manuel this was followed by Tibbs split litter, of which only Polly survived and now Bob remains poorly and at the vets whilst I have had to bottle feed her very young kittens. This has put a lot of strain on me, not only physically but emotionally and when the dogs came into season it meant I had to take a step back and think of my plans.
Dime was due to be mated this week, and I got as far as travelling to see the stud dog, but having thought long and hard about it I made the decision not to mate Dime on this occasion. The dog I planned to use is absolutely fabulous and I fully intend to go back to him on Dimes next season as I desperately want a pup from this pairing, but I just feel that the timing is not right for me at the moment. So I can only offer apologies to those who are waiting for a Dime puppy and hope you will consider waiting another 6 months, I really do think this is going to be a litter worth the wait.
On a brighter note, Polly is just the most adorable kitten, super friendly and just perfect in every way (I may be just a touch biased there).
Bobs kittens are doing very well, all things considered. Tibbs and I are sharing the load with them, I feed them (she doesn't have much milk) and she cleans them, keeps them warm and loves them as only a cat can. As I type this Bob remains on a drip at the vets, but reports are that she is starting to turn a corner and we hope that she will be well enough to come home by the weekend.
This little clip is of the kittens waiting to be fed, they are quite demanding, lol.
It's been a turbulent few weeks with the cats, 1st we lost Manuel, then we had Tibbs with her split litter, one of which, despite fighting hard for her, we lost and now Bob has a nasty infection and is currently at the vets on a drip (she is showing signs of improvement and I am hoping she will be home tomorrow). Thankfully, as is typical of many queens, the mothering instinct is very strong in Tibbs and she has stepped up to the mark and is happily nursing Bobs babies. I am also trying to supplement Bobs kittens as Tibbs milk supply has only needed to feed one kitten for the last 4 weeks so it will take a few days for her to up production. What is amusing is seeing Polly, who has never had to compete for anything, being pushed out of the way by the tiddlers, who are not backwards in coming forwards. Just in case the animals felt I didn't have enough to worry about, Dimes progesterone test says that she needs to be mated in within the next 0-48hrs!!
