Today was a bit of a rollercoaster after having to fairly chill days. But all in all, the day seems to be ending on a positive note.
A Scary Start to the Day
The night had gone so well. Phoenix still eats with a crazy appetite and continues to gain weight. He slept like a kitten baby, and there was no sign of the blood from the evening before. And then you catch videos like this, and you can't help but think, "there's no way this little guy can have any problems with that face!"
But he does continue to poop up a storm. So in the morning, it was clear he needed another bath. My meeting schedule today was pretty heavy, so I was using my regular morning check in meeting to do a cleaning and a feeding.
Phoenix did great during the meeting. He weighed at 205g, he went through his butt bath like a champ (he cries the whole way through), and he ate up a storm. He went to the bathroom, and all seemed right with the world. I put him back into his container, and he was moving around whining per usual. He usually takes some time to find the right spot before falling asleep.
Honestly, I don't know what it was that tipped me off. There's a different between "whining" and "screaming" maybe? But whatever it was, it pulled my attention from the meeting and I looked over into the container. He was shaking a bit and clearly straining, so I lifted his tail and saw red. Poor guy had just pooped out some blood 😥. Truthfully, I didn't know if it was poop or pee, but neither are a good sign. My meeting ended 5 minutes later, and I had to hop into another meeting. This meeting thankfully ended 15 minutes early, giving me the opportunity to call the vet. They ended up making room for Phoenix to come in at 4pm to check him out.
The rest of the day went by pretty uneventfully. I ended up taking a somewhat half day off of work (still called into one meeting in the afternoon), but between Phoenix and goings-on at work, I was checked out and needed a mental health break. I find it helps to take extra cute videos and pictures to make me feel better about Phoenix when I'm worried. Here's two!
Video of Nguyen feeding Phoenix - look at him go!
Listen closely - he's purring!
And before you knew it, 3:30pm was upon me and it was time to prep for my 3 minute drive to the vet. We had prepared the heating pad (Nguyen did this again, I'm still paranoid about trying to burn the house down like last time), and I got all my stuff together. Phoenix was due for a feeding, so I brought his milk and thermos of hot water to heat things up while I waited for the appointment. Of course, Phoenix decided it would be a great time to make a mess, but it is what it is. I had to leave and there was no time to handle a butt bath and dry him off sufficiently. So off we went, poop disaster and all!
I arrived at the vet and while we waited, I prepped Phoenix's food in the car. For whatever reason, that was one of the easiest feedings I've had in a long while. He just latched on and ate like a champ. Made me think of newborn human babies that fall asleep in the car or something. If he's super fussy in the future should I try feeding him in there?? Seriously though, I think it just had to do with the surrounding warmth of the car and the heating pad he was sitting on top of. So he hung out on my lap for a bit while we waited, and I noticed the tiniest of openings at the inner corner of his eyes 😮. But it was so small, that maybe it was just wishful thinking.
Video while we were waiting for the vet!
And then they came and took him and it was a short wait before the vet came out. Phoenix seemed fine. His weight gain is looking good, and we suspect that the blood is just from inflammation caused by his constant poop storm. Since he was getting up there in weight, they went ahead and gave him his first deworming treatment. They also sent me home with a three day course of Ponazuril, which would help treat Coccidia (something which could cause the mucousy poop). So that marked another milestone for Phoenix; his first deworming out of the way! And no antibiotics for now. The vet said he's a bit too young and the antibiotics at this age tend to mess around with the GI tract. I also had her confirm that our baby shampoo and ointment were kitten safe to use!
And then? I asked her about his eyes. And she said the same thing I did; it seemed like they were starting to open! I've tried to snap a photo, but it's so miniscule that you really can't tell in them! Kitten eyes open from the inside corner out, so look towards the nose area to see if you can see it opening. But in the photos it tends to just look like shadows, so it's really hard to see a difference.
So home we went. And it was time for a proper bath. I had cleaned the bathroom sink earlier to prepare for a proper bath. I filled it up with warm water, checked the temperature, and we were ready to go! I grabbed Phoenix and plopped his butt into the water. He promptly pooped into the sink for me (whoo!), and I gave him some scrubbing. I then got some baby shampoo to do a more thorough cleaning. Check it out below!
As you can tell, he cries the whole time. We unfortunately don't have a shot so you can see just how fluffy he is. Next butt bath, I'll try to get a photo just so you can see it. It's pretty funny looking! We ended our bath time adventure by putting some ointment on his butt and tail to help soothe the pain.
Most of the evening went pretty uneventfully after that. I did get a little bit more blood coming out during his 8:45pm feeding, but it was less than this morning. Stressful? Yes. But if you're worried about Phoenix, check out a video right after that happened. This makes me feel less worried; just look at how happy he is! And did you know Phoenix liked belly rubs?
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