So, last night, someone called me in a panic because a friend of hers had a litter of kittens that was knocking on death's door and she didn't know what to do, and can't afford a vet.
Needless to say, I told her she could bring them over and I would see what I can do. If nothing else, I can pull a solid "Ya owe me" from my vet, or an even more solid "ya owe me" from a couple friends and get them into the clinic come morning. So she brought them over, and thus begins my rant/vent.
So my night was spent giving a litter of near-dead kittens flea baths, flea drops, and picking fleas out of their fur, and crying. I had the plastic shoe boxes that I use in my hatchling racks, and we were using those like bathtubs, changing the water after each kitten. The water was BROWN after EACH kitten because of all the flea dirt(processed blood) that covered the poor things.
All of them were skin and bones, so dehydrated that when I held one on it's side and pushed the skin of it's belly up, it STAYED there. On it's BELLY.
I got some KMR into them, but it's doubtful that half of them made it through the night, they were SO bad. I scheduled an appointment with my vet this morning for later today. It's kind of funny, he said not to bother bringing in the kittens, so that he won't have to charge me for an exam fee, but to just bring in a fecal, and he'll send me home with the stuff to do intravenous fluids for them to get them hydrated. Methinks my vet knows me too well. LOL
I sent my friend home with the kittens last night, with a kitten bottle, half a tub of KMR, and a bunch of flea meds and syringes for force feeding if she needed it, and explicit instructions. She's going to bring the kittens, and the mother, back to me tonight, and they'll be in my care for the foreseeable. I just... grr... Sorry for venting, but in my opinion, that is the WORST kind of cruelty.
This woman (not my friend, but the woman she confiscated the cats from) has no job, smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish. She is home ALL day, day in and day out, with this indoor cat and her litter of kittens, watching them die for WEEKS. And what does she do? Whine and complain to her ROOMMATE about HER OWN cats not having flea meds, and how her ROOMMATE should get flea meds for her cats. >.< Her roommate doesn't even HAVE cats!
Other than that, does nothing. Nothing.
How can you do nothing? How can you watch KITTENS die, and not even be willing to go without smokes or booze, to get them at the very least, some flea shampoo, or advantage? How can you not DO anything?
So, now I'm at work, fretting.
The kittens are cuter than can be, too. They were all born without tails, and with short stubby little legs. I've gone and fallen in love with the sickest one of them all, and I'm going to cry for a very long time if he doesn't make it.
I'll post pictures of them tonight, sometime after 8pm PST after they get dried off from their last bath. Now I need names for them. >.< Good gravy.
Will couldn't even come out to help us bathe and dry the kittens... he took one look at them and had to leave the room he was so upset by the whole thing. You could feel all their bones through their fur(half the litter is long-haired) and SEE their bones when they were wet.
Frustrating. So, so frustrating.
Is anyone working on a device that will allow me to smite everyone who does things like this to their poor cats? I want someone working on that, STAT! As payment, I will allow you to press the button first. Chop chop! I want that device by the end of next week. Pronto, people!
Venting(kittens)
