Abcess on new kitten,hand holding and advice appreciated.

[dobby2001]

Hi folks, we took ownership (or should I say became slaves to ) two recue kittens on 23rd December. They are brothers,approximately 12-14 weeks old (nobody knows exact age as they were found with mum and 2 siblings). One brother (Twinkle) has, from the start been your typical bonkers, run around full pelt, chasing its shadow kitten. The other has always been very shy, hides when strangers come but ok if you phyiscally pick him up and sit him on your lap for a cuddle.

The second one (Pixie)we have already deduced, is going to be the one we worry about the most. Within 3 days of arriving it had a nasty sore patch around its neck from constantly scratching and licking what satrted as a tiny mark (foster mum thought Twinkle had bitten him, turned out to be reaction to fleas bites!) This was quickly sorted with steroid injection and treating for fleas (reaction occured 2 days after previous flea treatment ran out - even vet commented we had a sensitive flower there!)

This Friday evening, Pixie appears with a tennis ball sized lump on his sholder blades - no mean feat when you are only 2kgs! trip to vets reveals temp of 41.5 so after a quick shave,he was returned with abcess drained and a course of antibiotics. We think that his brother had bitten him whilst trying to playfight and caused the infection. Wound is left open to drain so looks awful but otherwise all seems ok. Pixie has since been eating and drinking and takes the antibiotics each morning fine.

Except the abcess isnt draining I have,two evening running had a kitten with the same size swelling which i have had to sit and massage until the wound reopens and drains out. tonight i had to stop as it seemed all blood not pus

Spoke to emergency vet who said as Pixie is eating and drinking it is not life threatening but he needs to go down tomorrow,probebly to have drainage tube fitted.

Noticed this evening he had not moved from where i put him at 5pm and not eaten or drunk anything. I am wondering how much this little man can take

We're in the same situation with our 20 year old man at the moment, I wouldn't worry to much about the eating but you need to make sure that he doesn't become dehydrated. We had to syringe water into our old boy as he really was and still is very poorly. Keep his abcess clean by cleaning it with cooled boiled water and see what the vet suggests tomorrow.

hope all is well now.
It's reading things like that post which remind me I really ought to sort out insurance for our two nutters.

Sadly things took a turn for the worse and Pixie began vomiting early this morning. We got her to the vets who found her core temperature had dropped to 34.9 (normal cat temp is 38/39 from what I can gather) and she was shutting down. . they took him in for fluids and monitoring with some bloodwork,but i received a call 2 hours ago asking permission to put Pixie to sleep as he had fallen into a coma and his body was effectively shutting down Was on pre school run at the time so had to hold it together for little ones (almost lost it when one of the toddlers kept looking in Pixies bed and asking "wheres cat?) and now they are having their naps i am having a good blub. His brother keeps looking everywhere for him as well

how awful. At least you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that you did every thing you could for him.
Would you consider getting another singleton to replace him?

Not sure yet Kreecher,still all a bit raw. The place we rescued them from are shocked (as are we) that he went dowhill so fast and were contacting the vets to ask for bloodwork results,as we of course have his brother still and he has a brother and sister placed elsewhere,so they want to make sure there was nothing the others should not be checked for. Vet does think that Pixies immunity was low due to previous reaction to fleas so want to check all ok with Twinkle first.

BTW Pixie and Twinkles pics are on my profile if anyone wants to take a look.

I'm sorry

Not much to add except how horrible for you. We've had counts in head 5 cats over the years and losing them doesn't get any easier, even when they're old. Massive hugs to you.

To reassure you about your kids, I'll tell you what happened to me. When I was seven we were going to get a kitten from a lady down the road whose cat had had a litter. We went to see the little cutie, played with it, etc. She wasn't old enough to leave her mum, so every night for 3 weeks I kept asking my mum 'Is the kitten coming soon?' and generally getting hugely excited. But the kitten died before we even got her, because she had a heart defect or something. I still remember my mum telling us. But we got another kitten and all the upset and tears were forgotten in the excitement of a new kitty. You may feel you can't cope with another one, but your kids will probably be a lot quicker to move on. It doesn't mean they didn't love your original kitty, just that time goes quicker for kids.

Are you going to get your kitty back from the vet to bury yourself? Or his ashes? If so, this is a good opportunity to teach your children about death (sounds morbid, but necessary sooner or later). Explain in terms they understand that the kitten was very sick, and his body couldn't cope. Don't say 'he's sleeping' or 'gone away' - tell them the truth in language they can understand. Then have a little funeral and involve them in it. That's what my mum did with us and strangely it helped a bit.