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Today has been extremely emotional for a day that was supposed to be my day-off. Coming home from the bank and the post office, I found two newborn kittens tangled in the ivy under the bushes, along with the placenta, which was covered with maggots. One of the kittens (Polydeuces, as I'm calling it, despite the fact that its litter mate is not a twin) was fine. The other - Castor - was covered in maggots - on its side (in what looked to be a wound), around its anus, in its mouth. I don't know how it was even still alive.
I deliberated for a few minutes. We already hand-reared a gray kitten, which is now over four weeks old (by my count), and Mom rescued a few-days old calico behind the barn yesterday. With two jobs, I can't do anything for the kittens, and Mom's never raised any this young. If I did nothing and let them die, then I'd only hate myself for it.
Grabbing a knife from the kitchen, I set about separating them from the vines. The stench of rotting placenta and the maggots drove me off a few times for fresh air, but I managed to free the kittens from the vines and the afterbirth, which I gathered in several paper towels and dumped in the garage trash bin.
I started freaking out when I took the kittens to the kitchen to clean them off. I hadn't realized how bad Castor was; in her condition (yes, her - she's a calico), I knew that there was really nothing I could do for her. My moral dilemma of the day: Do I feed her, or do I wrap her up and wait for her to die? I called Mom, because I completely lost my nerve. She told me she was fifteen minutes from home.
I fed Polydeuces, because s/he had the best chance of survival. Her/His condition was less severe and of the two, s/he appeared the strongest. S/he was able to take milk from the bottle, which was another good sign.
Fortunately, before I could do anything to Castor, Mom came home. She wiped the maggots from her body and cleaned her. We tried to feed her, but she wasn't taking any milk. We weren't sure what her condition would be, so we decided to wrap her up and let her sleep.
It's 6pm now, and she's still alive. Unfortunately, I noticed that she has a cleft palate - a groove running down the top of her mouth and a tiny hole. She's not taking milk still, unless I force her, but some of it is coming out of her nose. I researched cleft palates, and the general consensus amongst vets is that it's easy to euthanize a kitten with a cleft palate than to tube feed it for 6-8 weeks, when it can be operated on to have the palate fixed.
I have no idea how I'm going to break this to Mom.
I deliberated for a few minutes. We already hand-reared a gray kitten, which is now over four weeks old (by my count), and Mom rescued a few-days old calico behind the barn yesterday. With two jobs, I can't do anything for the kittens, and Mom's never raised any this young. If I did nothing and let them die, then I'd only hate myself for it.
Grabbing a knife from the kitchen, I set about separating them from the vines. The stench of rotting placenta and the maggots drove me off a few times for fresh air, but I managed to free the kittens from the vines and the afterbirth, which I gathered in several paper towels and dumped in the garage trash bin.
I started freaking out when I took the kittens to the kitchen to clean them off. I hadn't realized how bad Castor was; in her condition (yes, her - she's a calico), I knew that there was really nothing I could do for her. My moral dilemma of the day: Do I feed her, or do I wrap her up and wait for her to die? I called Mom, because I completely lost my nerve. She told me she was fifteen minutes from home.
I fed Polydeuces, because s/he had the best chance of survival. Her/His condition was less severe and of the two, s/he appeared the strongest. S/he was able to take milk from the bottle, which was another good sign.
Fortunately, before I could do anything to Castor, Mom came home. She wiped the maggots from her body and cleaned her. We tried to feed her, but she wasn't taking any milk. We weren't sure what her condition would be, so we decided to wrap her up and let her sleep.
It's 6pm now, and she's still alive. Unfortunately, I noticed that she has a cleft palate - a groove running down the top of her mouth and a tiny hole. She's not taking milk still, unless I force her, but some of it is coming out of her nose. I researched cleft palates, and the general consensus amongst vets is that it's easy to euthanize a kitten with a cleft palate than to tube feed it for 6-8 weeks, when it can be operated on to have the palate fixed.
I have no idea how I'm going to break this to Mom.
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Date: 2010-07-11 02:04 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-07-11 02:26 pm (UTC)From: