I need someplace to sound off about my kitten.
I'm an animal lover and I cannot say no to an animal in need. I found a feral cat in a bad way and discovered she was pregnant, I couldn't find it within me to abort the unborn kittens, so I chose to keep her and let her have her kittens. Eventually after a month passes, she gives birth to two kittens, One big healthy orange kitten and one small sickly gray kitten.
I kept watch over her in the days to come and noticed she was only tending to the orange kitten. She did not bathe the gray kitten and he was barely able to nurse. Eventually when he turned 2.5 weeks old, she stopped feeding him altogether and he was too ill to even meow. At this point I took him under my wing and bottle fed him KMR every two hours (waking up every two hours isn't an easy feat). I honestly thought he was going to die. I kept him with me at all times, taking care to keep him warm and fed. I stimulated his bowels after ever feeding, as per google said to.
He slowly became healthier but due to being the runt, has stayed extremely small and bony despite me feeding him every 2 hours. Currently he is 9 weeks old and is the size of a 3 week old kitten. He plays like a normal kitten and for all intents and purposes, lives a normal life despite looking like a P.O.W. He is now old enough to eat wet kitten food and I still supplement him with KMR (kitten milk replacement).
Flash to last Saturday: I take Mother Cat and her Orange Kitten to the spay clinic and have her spayed. All goes well with the surgery and they inform me afterwards that Mother cat has liver cancer and will likely succumb to it within a year or so. I take her home and make her comfortable. The Orange Kitten does not quite meet the 2 lb requirement to be neutered so one of the Vets on duty asks if she can take him and foster him until he meets the weight requirement (and then adopt him out). I agree to this and let her have Orangie.
While I'm at the spay clinic, I show them Gray Kitten (his name is Happy) and they examine him agree that he is too small for them to neuter., They noticed fleas on him so they whisked him off to the back room before I even know what's going on, they bring him back out and say they've given him a CapStar and Dewormed him (for no additional charge). I'm very grateful and I bring Mother Cat and Gray Kitten home. This is where things take a turn for the worst. After bringing Happy home, he acts normal for a few hours but then things quickly change, he develops a terrible case of diarrhea every hour and becomes lethargic. His bottom becomes raw and he's feeling terrible. I look on the internet and it says to give him probiotics (yogurt) so I do and he loves it. I start feeding him 1 tbs of plain yogurt every day along with his normal feedings of KMR/Kitten food.
Sunday he stops drinking water.... Monday (yesterday) he starts refusing food.
Last night I stayed up all night with him while he fought for his life. His back legs stopped working and he barely moved. He no longer wanted me to be near him and kept hiding under the bed. I googled it and his symptoms fit with a CapStar overdose... Kittens must be 2lbs to receive their first CapStar. I feel in my heart that the dose was too strong for his small body. First thing in the morning today, I take him back to the spay clinic and they whisk him off to the back room and tell me to wait in the lobby. Finally they send the Vet out to speak with me and before hearing any of what I have to say, she tells me that he's too skinny and has been neglected. I try to tell her how he is a runt but she cuts me off saying "Even runts are not this skinny." I attempt to tell her how he has not been eating since last Saturday and She's have none of it. She says that she force fed him some sugar water and he ate it "just fine" for her and asks me to explain why I have not been feeding him. I tell her that I do feed him and she says that the proof is in the kitten himself. I try to tell her that he wasn't acting right after receiving CapStar and she interrupts me and says that there's no way that CapStar caused this. She asks me what I want to do; Either surrender him to her and he lives, or take him back home and he dies with me.
At this point, Happy is my baby, I've fed him every two hours for practically his entire life... it would be like parting with a child. I'm especially not going to hand him off to a rude vet that won't even listen to his symptoms or his background health... So she gives me some syringes and tells me to give him KMR every "two hours" and to keep him comfortable.
TLDR: Nurtured a runt kitten since birth feeding him every 2 hours. Vet gives him Flea preventative and he begins dying a day later. Same vet blames me for kitten's decline in health and says I'm neglecting him.
What do I do?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/c2340f/vet_has_told_me_im_not_a_fit_pet_owner_been/
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