At the late night feed for the kittens, I noticed that Tweedledum was hanging back from the group. This beautiful tortie kitten’s head was hanging low over a water bowl and my heart sank. This is one of the warning signs of feline distemper. 🙁 All of a sudden she tossed her cookies and it was yellow and foaming (another sign).I have to admit, I said a bad word at that moment. I scooped her up and she was on fire. Woke Mike out of his sleep and he held her while I took her temp 105.3! She was fine at 8:00 p.m. but that is how this virus hits. I rushed her inside the bathroom and made her a tepid bath of lukewarm water and rubbing alcohol and went to work. I gave her supportive fluids, put her inside the warming cage and said a million prayers before trying to get some rest. I was up and down with her all night and this morning, I am so thrilled to tell you that her temperature has returned to normal (which doesn’t happen with distemper) and she is eating and back with the others. I am not sure what happened? Perhaps it was the ringworm treatment as the dip is sulfur based and I noticed after treating all the kittens that she was licking the others dry.

We have kept up with the vaccinations of the kittens against this awful disease but the vaccine is not foolproof and while they are here, there is always the chance they could become exposed. The disease hit us two years ago, the virus lives inside the house for five! I keep my prayers close and do all I can to guard them but last night, I was almost sure I had lost the fight. I am grateful that in this instance, I was wrong.

Tweedledum is a very shy Tortie around humans but she tends to mother the other kittens as she is one of the biggest kittens in there. I hope she won’t decide in three days time to once again lick all of them clean and come out with such an upset tummy as she tries to scare us to death!