Trousers Are Tasty

slurp!

Is that so Liesl! You know, some of your siblings are enjoying their solids very well indeed... chicken/ turkey in the evening and genty heated kitten food in the morning, with two other meals (that the kittens aren't interested in so far) and biscuits on tap too... you don't have to eat my trousers!

We went to the vet last night as Indigo's ear infection hasn't fully cleared, so some more (nursing safe) medicine for her. A different kind this time, so hopefully it won't knock her digestion off kilter this time. She's well enough, just has an itchy ear, and in scratching it is making it sore. I may collar her just to stop her scratching it for a bit. Anyway, as I made the appointment, I made a second one too, and took Friedrich along. I was going to take him next week anyway, so yesterday did just as well.

Well, Freddie is doing very well indeed! He's starting to bear weight on his leg, by dint of holding it at a funny angle, and he's managing to get around very nicely. Not as fast as the others, and yes he looks a bit odd, but he walks, he tries to run, he climbs... very very positive news indeed. And the vet had a good prod again and whilst he squeaked indignantly, (well, wouldn't you?) once again the vet was sure he wasn't in any pain. It wasn't that kind of squeak, and Indigo didn't leap to his side like she would if he had been in pain.

I took Louisa along too, and not being busy there, she was taken round to all the vets and nurses to determine her sex. Well, they now think she's 'looking more like a boy', her bits now looking like the beginnings of a prepuce- the furry oval bit boys have that contains the penis. But no testicles as yet, and her sex still isn't clear enough to say 100% one way or the other! 'Bring her back in 2 weeks with Freddie and we'll look at.. er... her... again!' was the advice. So I guess she'll have to stay 'Louisa' for the time being *grin*

What an 'interesting' litter I seem to have, this time around!

So of course I've been doing some reading up. If Louisa is a Louis, and her testicles do not descend, he can still be neutered at the correct time, and he'll be otherwise quite normal. It would be unwise to retain him for breeding purposes, however, many cats with one or both testicles undescended are sterile anyway, if they arent sterile they can themselves sire cats with similar testicles, and not removing them at the proper time could have health implications further along the lines. He couldn't be shown, except of course as a neuter. And while undescended testicles happen from time to time, if Indigo was to regularly produce such kittens I'd have to reconsider her use as a breeding cat of course. One kitten is nothing- you don't know if the responsible genes are from Mum, or Dad, or that the two together make a less than ideal combination, or it's Just One Of Those Things and neither will have another kitten like it ever again.

What's the betting she's a girl now? LOL

Pretty Indie

Mama cat, looking beautiful once more. Her head continues to clear, her fur is regrowing. I'm not using the aloe any more, her head is out of its collar, the antibiotics are a thing of the past. So it does look as though it was a food allergy.

Ah well... it only took me FOUR months to figure it out *facepalm*

Acne!

Photo by S.A.

This was Indigo's head on Sunday. What an improvement! Nice eye-bogey too *grin*

Unfortunately, whilst her head has been getting better, her acne is getting worse. Yes, cats can get spotty chins! I know WHY she's getting spotty... her hormones are kicking in, she's already had a mini- heat cycle, and she's gearing up for another I suspect, by the ultra- affectionate way she's been today! Once the kittens are off to their new homes and she goes back on Ovarid, (the Pill for cats) the acne will settle down, but at the moment I'm just shaking my head at something ELSE to mar her good looks.

I'm cleaning her chin every day with Hibiscrub, which she hates, of course. I took the collar off today too, so she could give herself a proper wash (having that on isn't helping, she can't clean herself properly, especially not round her face) Which she did, but then she started scratching her head a little too vigorously for my liking so on it went again.

Poor Indigo! And to make matters worse, the antibiotics she's on are giving her slightly gloopy, and most offensive smelling poops. We've been using an awful lot of air freshener recently!

But at least her head is getting better. One problem at a time eh?!

Thoughtful

Sweet Kenneth, half asleep. I love his serious little face!

I'm feeling fairly thoughtful myself. I took Indigo to the vet last night. The lady I saw today was much more clued up about allergies and the like, and she agrees with me that it looks like a food allergy. (finally! A diagnosis!) To what she couldn't say, but she agreed that eliminating dyes and artificial preservatives would be a good start. She also recommended buying food with just one source of protein, rather than multiple sources like most cat foods.

So Indigo needs new food. Because it's come on so badly, she also recommended I change it now, rather than wait till the kittens have moved on, so contrary to what I said before, we've changed food after all. There wasn't an awful lot of choice in the food despite the vet being in a large pet store, but I eventually found a complete kitten wet food and a complete kitten kibble, both chicken, for them to have temporarily. This will give me time to decide on what food i want them to go on with, and make an order from an online specialist. Zooplus, probably!

Which means, incidentally, that I have a whole, unopened, 4kg bag of Royal Canin Babycat (rrp about £30!) and half a big packet of Royal Canin kitten, probably about the same amount. I can't use them but I'm not throwing them out, as it's good stuff so I'm off to the Cats' Protection sometime in the next few days to see if they can use it... bet they can!

As for where this allergy came from? Well, it seems to have been precipitated by her pregnancy... so be warned, any random reader, if you are thinking of breeding your cat... just... don't! Seriously, just don't, unless you are VERY serious about it. Don't do it 'just once', for fun, please. I know my kittens' families won't, so I'm not talking to them now but I mean anyone else who has happened on this blog and is reading... don't put your girl through it and risk her health. Bottom line is, if I hadn't mated Indie, she may not have developed this allergy, and I feel very guilty about that. On the other hand, if it was dormant then it might have started any time, if she was ill, for example.But she'll need special food from now on for life.

I did ask if allergies were hereditary, and the vet said not. Cue a huge sigh of relief all round I think! I also googled last night to make sure (yeah, I know!) and to be honest there's not a lot of info on it... but from reading it seems that whilst there may be a small hereditary component for some airborne allergies- pollen, etc- food allergies are not known to be heritable. It's just MY cat who is dramatic, it seems!

So, a few changes for us here. I've switched the dry food, I've got a few sachets of wet food I will feed the kittens over the next couple of days (keeping Indigo away!) and then I'll switch that over too. I'm to carry on with the aloe inside and out, and the vet was most impressed with the comfycollar! Indigo's also got a course of nursing-safe antibiotic, so hopefully with all those things together, we should see an improvement before too long.

I did comment to someone yesterday that I thought it had improved a little already, unfortunately Indigo slipped out of her collar and scratched herself raw again... silly girl!

On a more positive front, she's got a rather round belly now, a far cry from the appetite issues and general skinnyness of Christmastime, and other than the allergy issue, seems to be blooming. She's going to get a shock when the kittens are gone, and she no longer gets three plated meals a day plus biscuits... my cats are mostly kibble fed with just the one wet food meal per day as a treat. Guess she'd better enjoy it while she can!

Registration

FINALLY got round to sending off the registration form today, after agonising over the colours this past week. I've been looking at Kenneth and wondering if he's caramel too, but decided he looked far more like Monty than Kensey. Ditto AnnElise, but she's down as a blue, too. Of course, colours can be changed, everyone who breeds Tonks, especially mixed caramel/ non caramel litters will be well aware that kittens can take a long time to determine, and many a breeder has taken their apparently blue or lilac kitten to a show only to meet with fierce discussion from judges and other breeders as to whether it really is a Caramel! But I've done my best, anyway!

Only just in time, too. Processing can take up to 4 weeks, and I have them here with me still for.... oooh, about four and a half! Nothing like leaving it to the last minute eh, but like I say I was agonising over the colour... I really wanted to get it 'right'. I had to do the form twice, as I made an error on the first and there's no room for correction on the form, plus it's confusing and that's how mistakes are made. I suppose i'm lucky I only had to do it twice!

Anyway, off went the form, the mating certificate from stud Harry's breeders (proving I mated Indigo with another registered Tonkinese and not a random tomcat from up the road!) and the fee, and I shall look forward to getting six 'pink slips' through in the mail... My first Tonkinese, all registered and official. I feel very proud.

On a less pleasant note, this is my poor Indigo's head. The lesions extend into her ears, and over both outer ears, and as you can see are red, raw and sore. Those of you who have seen her recently will appreciate just how quickly this has flared up. She's had a collar on for 24 hours now, and I THINK they haven't worsened any in that time, (because she can't scratch them, probably) and I'm hoping the collar plus the soothing gel will break the itch-scratch-bleed- scab- itch cycle and let them start to heal. Plus we have the vet on Tuesday. I'm hoping now she's only nursing sporadically there will be more options for her. And I'm busily researching preservative and dye free food for the big switcheroo once the kittens have moved on.

 Kenneth's new family were due to visit him tomorrow, but they very kindly contacted me after yesterday's blog entry to ask if I'd rather they postpone. Considering I expect they are dying to see Kenneth again, it was very kind and I did appreciate it- thank you very much S and D!

I had someone coming over tomorrow to look at AnnElise and Kensey, but I've let them know what's going on as well... they may well wish to cancel too. We'll see how it goes. Of course the worry (apart from my concern for Indigo which is, of course, the most important thing!) is that this might dissuade people from taking a kitten from me- understandably, of course, but fairly hard lines for me as the kittens are fine!

There are two other people currently interested as well, (one in the pair, one in AnnElise) and I've let them know about Indigo's head, and offered to help find them another Tonk litter if they wanted as well... I figured that was the right thing to do, but really, of course, I'd like to stomp my feet like a little child and shout IT'S NOT FAIR! After two weeks of not a lot, suddenly I get a rush of genuine interest in the kittens... and this happens!!!!!

Ah well, that's breeding for you, things go wrong and you just have to deal with them. *grin* I feel a bit better after my virtual stomp, anyway!

Indigo's Head

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Here's the side of Indigo's head, looking much better- she's had the collar off some days now. The large, crescent shaped wound she had has now gone from scab to tight red shiny skin to something approaching normal healthy skin again- phew!

In Need Of A Bath!

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Because the collar's on, Indigo can't clean herself properly, which is really annoying her. I've been trying to help out, but whenever Indigo sees me advancing with the cotton wool and warm water she goes and hides. Weeks of washing her head with hibiscrub or salt water have taught her that a human advancing with cotton balls is Not A Nice Thing, poor baby!

As a result she's getting a bit crusty, especially round her bottom, nipples and face... poor Indigo! I mean she doesn't look terrible, she looks fine, but cats are uber-clean animals so she probably feels quite nasty. She goes to clean herself and just ends up licking the side of the comfy collar! I'm sure she'd feel a lot better if she'd just allow me to help her out a bit, but there you go, I don't want to upset her any more than she is already.

Fortunately, Indigo's wound has been healing rapidly- the scab that had formed has now fallen off, leaving a red shiny patch below, about the size of a ten pence piece (you can see why the vet thought it might be ringworm at first...) The skin is still a bit crusty so I'm keeping the collar on a few more days to just further the healing process a little more and I'll probably take it off after this weekend. She has a few more spots coming (dammit!) but hopefully she won't scrape those as much. And hopefully her hair will grow back on the side of her face... it is growing back on the bald bits on her head.

What a nightmare! And I still have no idea what's causing this allergy.

Oh, Rats!

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Indigo managed to get out of her comfycollar last night. And naturally she's managed to scratch off the scab whilst it was off, so her head is now raw and bloody again. So we're back to the beginning!

Thumps. Head. On. Desk.

Oh and to make things worse, she now has two new spots... oddly on the outside of her ears, one on each ear! This allergy is the most perplexing- and frustrating- thing.

Collared!

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Indigo had a patch of spots at the side of her face a while back. The spots she got elsewhere at the same time have cleared up, but this patch is obviously in prime itching territory, and Indigo KEEPS scratching off the scab and making her head bleed. She's making the wound worse and worse as she goes- as you can see above it's looking rather sore. I'm worried it will get infected, and she'll end up back on the antibiotics- again.

So I bought this.

I did think that I would get her a Buster Collar- one of those clear plastic ones. So I had a search online and found this... from comfycollars.co.uk. It's an inflatable, adjustable collar which does the same job as a Buster, but is apparently less traumatic for the animal. I remember when my girls were neutered, they had the greatest trouble getting to their food bowls and I really wasn't happy about this given that Indigo is pregnant... but this collar doesn't interfere with her eating.

It cost slightly over £12, but it is of course reuseable so I will be able to add it to my kitty medicine box after Indigo is done with it. My dealings with the company were excellent I must say, fast delivery and I managed to check the wrong delivery option... they noticed, informed me and refunded the extra I'd paid before I even noticed my mistake. Many companies wouldn't have been that honest, or refunded the money, given that it was my error not theirs, so it was really really nice!

Anyway, it arrived today, and after some struggle I managed to get it on Indigo.

She is furious with me! But she can't scratch her head... she even tried with her back paws and she can't do that either... so all in all a good result!