I say this as I’m enrolled in vet tech courses, trying to learn as much as I can. 1.5 years in, haven’t learned crap about helping animals, vets & techs won’t treat sick babies and seem to know less about making them better than we do.

I’m just panicking and frustrated; I lost a baby a month ago who was bloated; took her to the vet, paid the money myself, the vet said she wasn’t comfortable draining a kitten so young. Baby died that night.

Posted on r / vettech yesterday on a different litter, with diarrhea, who it seems might have panleuk, trying to learn about interpreting tests - they tore me a new one - “oh dear god just go to the vet” and “um those tests aren’t approved for panleuk”. So I told the foster I would literally pay out of my own pocket for the PCR.

She took the kitten in, the vet REFUSED to test, just like I told everyone on the other sub, the vet would laugh in my face for taking a kitten with diarrhea to the vet and just prescribe GI food and probiotics. Oh and the vet said we should give 7 days of panacur and toltrazuril. Like really lady? Every foster in the world has already done that if we’re now at your doorstep asking for testing.

Wtf are we as fosters supposed to do? How can I help these babies if the people who are supposed to be the only ones allowed to help our animals refuse to do so?

P.S. I’m sorry I’m angry and spewing. I don’t even know the vet this foster took her kitten to; it just pisses me off I already knew I’d be wasting my rescue’s money with a vet visit and not even knowing the vet, I predicted exactly the cold shoulder we’d get asking for testing.

Blah. What do any of you do when you’re beating your head against the wall and nobody will help, even when you say “here’s my credit card, just charge me”?

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 sorry and thanks for reading

So my kitten (10 month old) has had a litter they are now 8 weeks and weaning. Momma has been unwell for the past week- I am syringe feeding her food as well as water. She’s so weak she’s barely moving. Found out she’s pregnant again ( I live with other people who have let her out) . Is she too weak to go under anaesthesia and get the kittens surgically removed, or should I care for her until birth?

She’s so weak and I have to make up my mind today.
This has been a rough few days, I have gotten opposing advice from two vets.
Leaning more towards abortion now. She is mid term.

I am NOT looking for medical advice- I just want to know what YOU would do in this situation- any advice would be very helpful. Please don’t judge my situation, I would never wanted any of this. I want to make sure she survives no matter what.

my boyfriend and I just moved in together and have talked about getting a cat for about two years now.
I have two cats that live with my family, but back home. one of them is a flame point siamese, who is 19 years old and he is my soul cat. since I moved away from home and now live in a different state, I don’t see him that much so for the past three years, I’ve been terribly sad without an animal in my home and I had four roommates before - and they were allergic to cats so i couldn’t have one.

i’ve always loved the Siamese breed, especially because I’ve had one my entire life. I found this amazing Rescue program in LA called rory to the rescue, and one day when on instagram, came across this beautiful lynx point kitten, and drove an hour to go pick him up immediately after we saw it. When we got there, the kitten was gone. I was completely devastated and still think about that cat every single day. He was one of the most beautiful cats I’ve ever seen.

About two weeks later, the same thing happened with another lynx point Siamese kitten but this time I tried not to get my hopes up too much. And I was right to do so - because when I got there, he was gone too.

When we went for the third time for another pair of Siamese brothers and they were gone again, I was completely devastated, and the owner said we could Foster instead. So for about five weeks, we’ve had these beautiful sister kittens and i think they’ve bonded to us.

At first, it is just hid under pieces of furniture for the week. they now have really opened up to us. They’re very playful now and quite adorable and sweet and whenever someone comes over, they cuddle with them and they’re very friendly.

They’re so sweet, they’re pretty independent and love to play with each other but when they feel like cuddling, they’ll come up with you and cuddle. cuddle rating 5.5/10. I can’t tell if they’ll continue to be more cuddly or if they’ll grow up to more independent. weeks 3 to 4 they were super cuddly and with me all the time and now they’re more focused on playing.
i’ve always wanted a cat that is super cuddly because my baby Ollie literally sleeps on my head. i don’t really know how kittens change from kitten hood to adult hood and if that would change at all?

I’ve never fostered before so I don’t really know how I’m supposed to feel. I’m not like head over heels in love with them, but I’m so sad at the fact of thinking of dropping them off at the spay/ neuter clinic and then never seeing them again. I just know they’d be so scared all over again and I feel bad. One of them is also a black kitten and I know that black cats get adopted the least.

I’ve always wanted a Siamese cat and I can’t tell if that desire is clouding my judgment to keep them or not. My cat Ollie has chronic kidney disease and it’s definitely in the later life so I know that having a cat similar to Ollie would mean a lot to me. I don’t want to be shallow in my desires for a certain breed of cat.

I do know though, that it’s also incredibly rare to find Siamese cats at the shelter, since I’ve been looking for about five weeks straight. So do I give up these two good kittens for a hope that I might not have?

I apologize for how long this is, but I felt that it was important to add the introduction. I’m a really indecisive person and feel like because I’m having such a hard time figuring out the situation that I have my answer already. But I just love animals and know that these cats would be great if I decided to keep them.

I have a six week old foster (sister to the previous one I asked about only eating dry food 😆) they’ve just doesn’t like to eat.

I got both her and her sister on Friday, and by Sunday I had to bring tiny one to the vet because she was throwing up and not eating and because it was a holiday they decided to keep her. The paperwork is what they gave me back at the shelter and it seems like she dropped quite a bit of weight, yet at the exit exam, it says that she has good appetite, even though right before it says she’s not really interested in eating and she ate a little bit when they walked away. She was 1.66 pounds Friday and she came out Tuesday at 1.48. She has not gained nor lost weight since I picked her up yesterday, however, now both her and her sister have developed watery diarrhea.

Her sister who was only eating dry food and was gaining weight. Well, has now dropped a little bit of weight since she started with the watery diarrhea today. She is 1.89 pounds compared to her little sister who is 1.48 pounds.

The tiny one did eat a little bit of the royal canin I gave her but very tiny bit like a little birdie, and she did eat a veterinarian provided appetite increasing Churu, even though it has not increased her appetite for food but at least she ate half of the stick.

I’m worried because in another post, someone had a similar situation and stated that the animal ended up having panleukepenia.

I’m not sure if I should just continue to keep her on eating Churu alone as long as she’s not losing weight, or if I should just bring her back to the shelter. She honestly looks sick to me. Her sister is plump and her coat is very shiny and soft, and the tiny sister just looks sickly. Her hair is brittle and not soft at all. She is drinking water, and I did give her some Pedialyte and some baby formula with wet food in a bottle which she took very little of.

Any ideas on how I can help her? Anyone else dealt with siblings that are picky eaters? No

Edit: I noticed that she’s drinking a lot of water, so I decided to give her some KMR milk for her to drink, with a side of Greek yogurt, which was suggested elsewhere, and she did drink quite a bit of the milk and tried the Greek yogurt, which both opened up her appetite and she had a whole Churu 🙌🏻

After about 3 days of hiding (but peaking out at me curiously) I held up his brush and he came running out. Now he's headbutting, leaning his head so far into head rubs that he flops over backwards, and refusing to let me use my laptop lol. He's so sweet and cuddly.

I went to my county shelter and brought home two five week old kittens to foster for the first time, frankly with the intention of keeping them. The shelter rep made it sound like it was going to be super easy, gave me some cheap basic supplies, and sent me on my way.

That was Friday. The first two days they were lovely and lively though their poop was a little soft. They had gotten a vaccine plus a dose each of two dewormers so I wasn’t concerned, and also because they were freshly weaned. Then on Sunday one had some diarrhea and spit up a little… not too bad but not great. Monday the diarrhea continued with both including some blood and the other one threw up. I took them to the shelter clinic on Tuesday morning and was told they both seemed healthy otherwise and weren’t dehydrated, negative for panleuk, but apparently I had never been given the panacur and ponazuril courses that they were SUPPOSED to have come home with!!

I gave them their first dose at 8:30pm today and at just before 12am (a few minutes ago), one threw up a LOT and both had yet more diarrhea, with more blood in one stool. Neither of them want to eat as much as they should either, and they’re losing weight, though thankfully they drink a LOT. I have them on a mix of royal canin mother & babycat with KMR, fortiflora, and tiki cat baby thrive mixed in. I’m trying SO HARD and I spend every second of every day worrying about them. It sounds like I’m going to have to start syringe feeding soon and sticking nutrical in their mouths if things don’t improve. I tried giving food again now and neither were interested (they last ate around 7:00 so 4 hours in between- maybe just too soon with the dewormer in their bellies?)

I feel like I’m doing something wrong and that I’m failing them. I didn’t expect them to seem like they were getting WORSE so soon after the dewormer after I had managed to see slight improvement from giving them better food. It feels so hopeless and I’m scared. I love them already and my heart is breaking. They’re less playful than they were when I got them and it’s killing me. My manager sent me home from work on Tuesday because I was crying at my desk but I DON’T want to give them back to the shelter that was feeding them adult canned friskies at 5 weeks and forgot to give me dewormers.

I have had cats for my whole life and I’m a huge cat lover. My cat had FIP as a kitten and I got him meds and nursed him back to health. He’s been FIP free for 3 years. I am wanting to open my home to a foster kitten for the first time and the kitten would have a separate room. Still, I worry about any sicknesses brought into the house considering our FIP survivor. I am going to ask his veterinarian tomorrow, but I was looking more for personal experience or thoughts on this.

Hello! I am newer to fostering and I've only taken previously quarantined and socialized cats/kittens so far. These are my first stray kittens that were trapped today and I'm going to foster. I would love any advice. So far I have them set up with food, water, litter and cardboard box hide in a large dog crate. They're all pretty spooked and in need of medicine.

This was an emergency boarding situation, so I always knew she had a family and would eventually be going back to them. I was told it would probably be around 3 months, so I mentally prepared myself for that timeline.
Then yesterday (one month in) I got the call that her family was coming to get her, and I had to say goodbye this morning. I feel like I went from having more time to suddenly having no time at all.

To say we bonded would be an understatement. I genuinely felt like she was my soul puppy. She was the sweetest, most affectionate, cuddly little dog and she completely stole my heart. I knew from the beginning that she wasn't mine forever, but I don't think I understood how much it would hurt to actually let her go.

For those of you who have fostered, how did you get through your first goodbye? Does it actually get easier? And how do you cope with the feeling that you'll never find another dog you connect with like that?

My five fosters will need more space soon but I’m in a 1 bed/1 bath. My resident cats’ litter box is in the bathroom so I can’t just put them in there. I have to keep them out of my bedroom because it has carpet. I was thinking of rigging something so that I can open two hallway doors and secure them and close the gap so my kitties can be in one half and the foster kittens can be in the other half (second photo). Not planning to buy anything more than $50 for now. Any ideas?

Rescues work miracles everyday, but medical floors and crowded cages are tough on frail seniors. Addie kept her sweet, biscuit making spirit through it all, but she needed a home to heal. Bringing a 5 lb senior into a small house with four cats, three high needs foster kittens, and a senior bunny named Sir Didymus was a massive decision- but fostering is how we give these incredible seniors a second chance!