Litter of 5
Around the beginning of November 2016 a litter of 5 almost new born cats were found in a house. They had been abandoned by their owner and the mother cat was nowhere to be found.
We are unsure about the exact situation as far as the occupier of the house is concerned, but we do know the house was a mess and the conditions were less than ideal for a new born litter.
Unfortunately, the litter was discovered too late, three of the kittens had already died but two were still alive, albeit not in the best of health. The two survivors ended up in the care of a veterinary nurse who hand reared them in her own home.
Being a big Harry Potter fan she named the kitten brothers Fred and George. It was touch and go for a while but both kittens began do improve although Fred struggled a bit more than his brother.
As It Happened We Wanted A Cat
It was in December 2016 that my wife and I come into the story. We had been in touch with the Cats Protection people, so they were already aware we were looking to take on a rescue cat. They contacted us asking if we would be willing to take on two rescue kittens because they knew of a veterinary nurse who needed to find a home for Fred and George.
So on January 1st this year, now about 8 weeks old, we introduced Fred and George to their new forever home. It was awesome to have pets in the house again. We had kept cats previously, my eldest one, Tigger, had died aged 22 the year before.
It was very apparent over the next week or two that Fred was still struggling a bit. He would have the odd bout of diarrhoea, plus he wasn’t growing as quick as his brother.
One night my wife noticed that one of his eyes looked different. When cats eyes catch the light at certain angles they obviously light up reflecting the light back. With Fred, his left eye just didn’t reflect the same as his right eye.
The vet dismissed it as just being due to the lighting or angle of it, but a week later his eye still wasn’t quite right. After pressing the issue with our vet we were referred to an eye specialist who agreed with us and after tests concluded it was Anterior Uveitis.
Extract from PETMD
The uvea is the dark tissue at the front of the eye that contains the blood vessels. When the uvea becomes inflamed, the condition is referred to as anterior uveitis (the literal translation of which is inflammation of the front of the eye). This very painful condition affects the cat's iris and the surrounding pupil tissue, which in turn, may threaten your cat's vision.
http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/eyes/c_ct_anterior_uveitis
After treating Freds eye with drops and cream his eye was actually starting to look quite a bit worse. It was at this point the eye specialist said that one thing that could cause this eye condition, especially given his rough start in life, was Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP).
FIP
Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a viral disease of cats caused by certain strains of a virus called the feline coronavirus (FCOV). Apparently most cats at some point in life will have FCOV but it’s not usually an issue. There are no symptoms and in most cases both the cat and owner would be totally unaware of the virus.
Unfortunately in a small percentage of cats carrying FCOV (5 to 10 percent), the infection progresses into clinical FIP. This is caused by the FCOV virus either mutating or by the immune systems response.
FIP usually affects the abdomen, kidneys or brain and in almost all cases proves to be fatal. There is no cure or antidote. We had Fred tested and he was positive for FCOV.
About two weeks later our worst fears were realized. One after noon Fred went completely off his food and became quite lethargic. A few hours later and he began to develop a very slight twitching of the head. The next morning he was still off his food and also his water, plus the twitching was slightly worse.
We got him to the vets, who were in no doubt that he had developed FIP. Due to the nature of his symptoms, it was clearly affecting his brain, and the vet said Fred will only continue to deteriorate.
With no cure available, we were sadly left with only one option, we said our goodbyes and Fred was put to sleep.
Even though we didn’t have Fred long, we had all as a family become very attached to him. I don’t know if it was due to him having been hand reared but he was very loving and wanted to be handled a lot more than any of our previous cats. I am happy that even though his life was short, we made sure it was a happy one.
So what about George?
While all this was going on George had continued to do well. He was very active and playful and his appetite was increasing every day. It was very noticeable how much better his coat was compared to Freds, and he soon overtook Fred in terms of size.
After we lost Fred we wondered if George would miss him. They had been quite close, always playing together and cleaning each other. To be honest, apart from seeming to look for Fred once or twice, I don’t think George missed him too much.
Fast forward to the present, George is now 9 months old. He seems to be in really good shape and doing well. I love being awakened at 630am each morning with him sat on my chest licking the end of my nose. George knows when it’s time for breakfast.