Oh Poop - Days 8 and 9

Poop has become a huge part of our lives recently.  Not only because it's such an important health indicator, but there's also been so much of it.  Don't worry, there won't be photos of the poop.  Not because I don't have photos.  But my husband and sister convinced me that no one wanted to see that, so no poop will be shown in this blog. 😛 That being said, there is a lot of poop discussion - so if you have an aversion to poop talk, you may want to skip this post!

Going to the Vet

Seems like forever ago, but in my first blog post, I had mentioned that the vet had given me an appointment a week after the date I found him.  That day was upon us!  The day before, I actually called the vet to confirm it was worth bringing him in.  My initial terror with Phoenix had dissipated a bit, and I didn't see a need to bring him in if there wasn't anything they could do.  They suggested I come in anyway just to have the vet give him a look over.  Helicopter mom wasn't going to say no to any extra reassurance on Phoenix's health.  In fact, I decided I'd collect some stool samples as well.

I was so impressed at Phoenix's poop recently.  It had finally started improving from being more soft.  He went from pooping 6-8 times a day to having more time in between, and the poops were finally transitioning to what the Kitten Lady had shown in one of her videos on Monday.  I saved the poop just in case I didn't get another one before our appointment.

But he did poop again.  And again.  And suddenly the stellar poops had started turning back into the softer stools but even worse than before.  So I collected both those stool samples to take them with me.

I was actually surprised about the anxiety that kicked in the morning of the vet appointment.  What if the vet did something that caused him to crash?  What if the vet wasn't comfortable with such a tiny cat?  What if they didn't keep him warm?  What if...?  You think I'd feel safer having Phoenix with a veterinarian, but nope.  It was something different, and that's always scary.

One of the best ways to deal with the anxiety is to do something rather than nothing.  Since I didn't know how long I'd be waiting in the car once they took Phoenix into the vet, I needed a backup heat pack just in case (since there aren't any outlets in my car).  I have these heating packs that heat up and then can be "reset" once you boil them.  They were what I had used the first day Phoenix came into our home.  Unfortunately that meant I had "used" all of them, and now needed to reboil one so that I could take it with me.  So I went ahead and got it in the pot with a towel and set it to a boil.

Now, this had been the first day where the air quality where we live had finally dropped to "good" and was at healthy levels!  Why do I bring this up?  Because I completely forgot about my boiling pot while I went back to work.  Towards the tail end of a 1x1 meeting, the fire alarm started beeping, and I immediately realized what had happened.  That's the fastest I've moved ever since sheltering in place in March.  No fire, but the kitchen was smoky, the towel was burnt and so was my heat pack.  It's almost as if I missed the crappy air quality so I decided to recreate it indoors 😂.

I wasn't about to try boiling another one with my upcoming meeting load.  Instead when it was time to go to the vet, I boiled some water, put it in a jar, and brought it with me as a back up source.  I also grabbed my three different poop samples, the karo syrup, a syringe, and some tissue... just in case.  Keep in mind, this vet is about a 2-3 minute drive from our house.

We arrived at the vet shortly after the leaving the house, and we got to sit in the car for about 10 minutes waiting for him to be taken inside.  I definitely appreciated the process given the response to COVID, but it definitely made me more nervous when they took Phoenix in and I couldn't go with them.  Not too long after, the vet came out to speak with me.  Phoenix's heart and lungs sound good!  He was well hydrated and overall looking healthy!  While Phoenix did have diarrhea, it was still too early to deworm him.  So there wasn't much to do about that.  He did suggest we lighten on the karo syrup, so we started removing that from his feedings.

No, he can't hear yet.  Wishful thinking on my part, but he's got some ways to go.

More on Poop

When I got back home, my poop adventures continued.  After stimulating him, the poop came out and there was a bit of blood in it 😨.  Good news?  It was bright red and was right at the beginning, which made me think it wasn't come his intestines, but just a small cut.  My immediate thought was that it was from a rectal thermometer; so of course, I picked up the phone to call the vet and confirm (let's hope I become less paranoid as I grow into this cat mom position more).  They called back a bit later and confirmed that the blood was likely from the diarrhea and rectal thermometer, so no cause for concern.  Spoiler alert, we haven't seen any blood since!

Unfortunately, from this point forward, there's been a lot of poop in our lives.  The diarrhea got worse and worse, and by day 9, Phoenix was pooping during most naps.  Given how he crawls around and how soft the stools are, this leads to poop on the towels, blankets, and the cow.  Even worse, it leads to poop on Phoenix.  If you don't have experience cleaning up poop, then you may not know that it isn't quite as simple to clean off dry poop.  Even harder when it's in his fur.  To date, we've had to clean poop off the cow, off all of his feet, off his tail, off his belly, and even off his back.  Yes.  His back.  Needless to say, this has added an extra challenge to our regular routine - and we have successfully gone through a bag of 70 cotton balls in 4 days.  Don't worry, another 300 of them are on their way.

On the evening of day 9, I realized I had a text from the woman who helped us out on day 1.  Her name is Linda (I asked her if I could mention her name here), and she has played a huge part in the success and health of Phoenix.  I had mentioned he was doing well, but brought up the poop (because that's pretty much all my life is at the moment).  She suggested giving Phoenix pumpkin and probiotics and said she would be happy to give me some if I swung by.

More importantly, she said this was normal!  Everything I've read about what kitten poop should look like is NOT what Phoenix's poop looks like.  But she mentioned that at about 1 week, this is actually not unexpected for orphaned kittens.  *Sigh of relief*.  So with a plan in place to address the diarrhea and the comfort of knowing that this was normal, I was able to to prep for bed with a bit of stress off my shoulders.

Enough about poop.  Here's some highlights despite all the poop.

Photos and Videos

Hanging Out - Walked by and caught him sleeping like this one day.  He didn't stay this way for long, but it was long enough for me to snap a photo and get a good laugh.

Nap Time Snuggles - A fairly regular occurrence.  Phoenix moves around a lot while he sleeps, so you'll catch him in different positions snuggled up against the cow throughout the day.

Grooming - Now that Phoenix has a lot more fur, we've taken to "brushing" him from time to time.  The brushing is encouraged to help mimic what the mother would do for her kittens.  It also helps encourage the kitten to develop his own grooming practices as he gets older.

Waking Up for Food - Sometimes we have to wake up Phoenix for a feeding.  So here's a video as I wake him up to eat.  (And remember, no judging me for my kitten voice!)

Burping the Kitten - Yes, you have to burp a kitten after they eat while they're still bottle (or syringe) feeding.  So here's a photo of Nguyen burping the kitten.