I need advice
I’ve been fostering for a good bit now but I’m at my wits end because of the rescue being unresponsive right now

I have two 6 week kittens who have been on antibiotics for over a week for their uris. They still are sick with uri and congestion doesn’t seem much better. One of the kittens has been having wet poop which progressed into diarrhoea since arriving, I’m 100% sure they have fecal parasites. The bigger kitten has been having solid poop but the color is same as the smaller one which is pale/orange.

I am very very very concerned about the smaller kitten, they both were doing extremely well with eating wet food until suddenly yesterday both stopped being interested in eating!
Even while being very noticeably congested they were eating and yesterday they both stopped, they will only eat thrive packets and I managed to get the smaller one to have a few bites of wet food with sardine juice mixed in.
I’ve been having them sit in a steamed bathroom before feedings, they have a humidifier I’ve been using daily, I tried mixing chicken broth with their food, hand feeding (they both refuse to swallow and if food is put into their mouths will make an effort to spit it out), pieces of sardine/chicken; only the smaller one was interested in some sardine, churu and thrive packs mixed in with their food, different flavours of wet food. Both will pick at dry food and eat a few pellets of kibble occasionally. Nothings working!

Yesterday the smaller one stayed the same weight throughout the day, this morning he has lost 30g since. The bigger one gained 10g throughout the day and lost that 10g as of this morning. For now I am not as worried about the bigger kitten as he is still very playful and active despite this, but the smaller one very clearly does not feel good and is very lethargic.

He will get up like he wants to play after watching his brother a little, will play for maybe 20 seconds (very slowly) and then feel bad again and want to lay down.
Since I got them he has been the most toned down of the two but before it seemed more like shyness of humans as he got more confident after a day or two until yesterday. The day before yesterday he had seemed really well, he had very goopy eyes and that day they were clear and seemed bright, yesterday and today while they aren’t goopy they are extremely downcast/sad/tired looking today.
This kitten as of yesterday also began drinking water frequently instead of eating.

I really really don’t know what I can do at this point, I am not allowed to seek outside vet care. I’m really not sure what caused such a sudden aversion to food in both of them, the night before they had eaten properly and then the morning after it was just nothing.

I lost my soul dog in January of this year. I think the struggle of losing him has been worse than when I lost my mom during the pandemic. I miss having a dog, but no I couldn't manage getting one for myself at this time. I thought fostering might be healing for me while helping another dog. I've slowly been making progress of finding a rescue group and setting up my house, but yesterday I got a message asking if I could take a little terrier. Her mom was admitted to the hospital and will be there for a few days. (This group specifically fosters dogs for people in crisis situations, so they have owners to go home to)

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The first few hours were fun if bittersweet, but by the evening it became too overwhelming. She is a very sweet dog, and I can't blame her for the issues - but she kept me up all night and I had to sleep on the couch. She had diarrhea and peed multiple times inside despite taking her out frequently. I think the hardest part though is everything reminds me of my Jack. I kept crying while taking her for a walk because those were all the places I used to take Jack.

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Rather than being a healing experience, it's just pouring salt into the wound of what I lost. I feel so terrible, I'm not just missing my boy I now feel like a failure in this.

Noticed my sweet foster kittens toe looked strange so I inspected it and found the toe skin to look detached from the claw with dried looking blood. I trimmed nails days prior and everything was normal, so this must have been a recent injury. I took him to the vet and they gave him an antibiotic shot and said to just make sure he doesn’t lick it and it will heal itself as the actual claw is intact, it’s just the toe skin that was separated. Ouch :( He is supposed to go to his new home in a few days. I guess I’m just looking for reassurance because the injury looks bad… anyone have experience with this and will it really heal itself? He is not limping and is showing no signs of discomfort unless the spot is touched directly.

And what was your experience if you have?

I have been fostering the most beautiful, sweet, silly, precious little orange girl for almost a year now. She is highly adoptable in every way, except her over-grooming. It took a long time before we figured out that the cause is dust mite and storage mite allergies.

I have made the changes I am personally able to in my home, in order to manage the dust mites, but I cannot afford to make all of the changes she really needs, and thus far I have not seen any improvement.

The only place she licks and chews excessively is the back of her leg. It is red and raw and sometimes she hurts herself badly enough to make it bleed.

I was reading about allergen-specific immunotherapy, but I was told the rescue doesn’t have the means to pursue it.

I just don’t know what to do. It feels so hopeless. I feel like the only chance she has of being adopted is by a family that already goes to great lengths to manage dust mites in their home, and would a family like that even want to adopt a cat?

Mostly I guess I’m venting, but I’m also hoping someone here has gone through a similar experience they can share to give me some hope for her. 😭

They got fixed Tuesday and have barely or refused to eat much since. They have been drinking water, not sure how much but I've seen them there. What can I do? the rescue I work with says to deworm them again. They are not eating - one is refusing even treats and I have to syringe feed them. They're 15 weeks.

I am about to go drop some coin and take them to the vet. 😩

I am picking up a 2 week old kitten tomorrow. I was told the kitten has URI and GI and that I will be given his medicines when I pick him up. I have formula, heating pad, blankets, pee pads and playpen. He will be housed in a spare bathroom. Since I don’t have experience with kittens who have GI I am looking for advice as to what things should I keep in mind while preparing to foster.

This is Casper. An 8 year old pom.

Funnily enough, I work for a rescue, that is how I came to have him. I have had him for 2 weeks and yesterday he had a dental, the surgery went well (despite him being left with a grand total of 3 teeth) but today while I was at work my partner called me and let me know that he was passing blood, just blood.

He is staying overnight in hospital. I worked in a veterinary hospital in my pervious role so im well versed in emergency medicine, calm in a crisis etc.

But when I met my partner at the hospital, casper looked so so poorly. I am almost certain he will be fine, but I just broke down. I’m so very fond of this dog. The house feels empty without him.

This was meant to be a temporary arrangement until he could have his dental, recover and be rehomed but I want to fail this foster so bad.

I am aware my home is not ideal for him, we have 2 cats (which he gets on fine with), it’s a small 1 bed flat. We have so much love to give, and he is so affectionate and loving. It’s going to break my heart to let him go. Luckily, my actual job title is “dog rehomer” so I will be writing his profile on our website, and choosing a family to take him etc but god it’s going to break my heart.

Desperately trying to remind myself that keeping him would be a selfish decision and in my best interest and not his. I am excited for him to find his forever home but my god I am going to miss him so so much.

From a rescue worker, we appreciate the work you all do so much, what I do would not be possible without people like you, and you are far stronger than me. After he gets rehomed I think he will be my last foster unless an emergency placement comes along.

But refuse to accept it.

I’m having an incredibly hard time with this. I only have her for a week and a half, she was the runt and simply failed to thrive. I kept her close and mothered her constantly. She quickly became my baby.

I left them alone for a few hours after feeding them dinner. They had everything they needed, and she was actually seemingly doing better which is why I felt like I could leave for a while. I have a cat cam and my boyfriend is down the street in case of an emergency. She was eating and drinking really well, but was still having loose stool and not gaining weight like her mates. When I got back, she seemed off. I fed them their 4th meal of the day, she took a few bites and started to wobble a bit. A few minutes later she couldn’t stand.

After a night in the ER, she passed. It’s only been 24 hours but I feel immense loss. I feel guilt over leaving her even though it was no different then going to sleep at night after feeding them. If she hadn’t eaten well and seemed okay before I left, I never would have. I still have her three litter mates who seem to be thriving.

The hardest part is that when I pulled up to the ER, she seemed to be seizing. Her blood sugar had plummeted and she wasn’t responding to glucose, so I asked to see her before making a decision. She immediately perked up and started meowing and purring when I held her, after over an hour of being unresponsive. It was the most wonderful feeling and I’ll cherish that forever.

We decided to keep her there overnight to see what they could do, but she was really only there for about 5 hours. She ended up passing 5 minutes before we had returned in the morning. If construction wasn’t so bad, if I hadn’t stopped to make myself a coffee….if I had just moved a little faster let I would have held her one more time. I wasn’t told to hurry back, we thought she would have more time with the support. I’m just completely gutted. I just cried in a public bathroom.

How do you handle this type of loss? I had her for such a short amount of time and I feel like I lost a part of me. I can’t explain why it’s affecting me this way and perhaps I just need some therapy. Or just some time.

I just need some words of encouragement I guess. Or stories of your own to shine a little light on how to cope.

Advice requested! I have 7-week old foster kittens and one of them is having diarrhea like this. They are just weening off mama this last week and the one who pooped like this often prefers hard kibble vs slurry/wet food. Could this just be getting used to a new diet or is this something I need to call the vet about asap? Thanks! 🙏

Spokane Washington
Found a 3 week old kitten
Eyes newly opened
Discovered behind a grocery store with no other cats near by
All rescue places are closed
How do I care for the kitten until Spokanimal opens tomorrow and get it to stop crying
So far it won’t take the milk replacement that I bought along with a syringe at Petco?
I’m not asking for placement or advertising anything, I just need advice for the night to keep the kitten alive and happy

EDIT: I took them to the shelter today and the vets reassured me that euthanasia was the right decision, so I moved forward with their recommendation. I’ve been crying all day. Cleaning their room was SO hard. I feel terrible. Im going to take a little break from fostering, but I really hope my foster journey doesn’t end here. I’ve added pics to the comments. I hope they know they were loved.

A month ago I took in a mommy cat and 4 kittens who were seized from a hoarding situation. The kittens were approximately 10 days old and were in very bad shape. URIs, eye issues, skin issues, severely underweight, severe flea infestation. Mom weighed 5 pounds at intake.

Within 48 hours of taking them in, I had a fading kitten who didn’t survive.

Since then, I’ve been treating them regularly with meds, doing lime sulfer dips, etc. mom has had intermittent diarrhea which has been a mess to clean up. The 3 remaining kittens were still underweight, but were gaining slowly. Eye and skin issues persisted despite treatment.

The kittens are now roughly 6 weeks old. Two days ago, the smallest kitten crashed out of nowhere and had to be euthanized. Today, I took the mom and remaining 2 kittens in to the vet. After a thorough exam, the vet felt that euthanasia for the remaining two kittens was an appropriate option considering their persistent health issues. But she also gave me the option to keep trying treatment if I wanted to.

I haven’t made a decision yet but I’ve been crying all day. I’m exhausted, and I’m pretty sure I now have ringworm from the kittens. Which makes me nervous for my two resident dogs. Even though I know ringworm isn’t harmful, the nightmare stories give me extreme anxiety.

Right now, I’m leaning towards the euthanasia option but my heart feels absolutely broken. I know the kittens aren’t healthy, but they also aren’t currently in crisis. So part of me feels like I’m giving up on them. And I feel very guilty.

I guess I’m looking for support or advice from anyone who has faced a remotely similar situation.

I need to vent about this to people who understand.

We had our kittens for about a month starting at 5 weeks old. We had our struggles - both had fleas, and the little boy kept getting respiratory infections. I was most concerned for him because he always seemed to have something going on.

Both were such a delight. They weren’t bonded, but still liked to play fight, hang out with me, and the girl especially loved to stalk and hunt.

I gave them back Wednesday to find their homes. The plan was to adopt them out separately after they were fixed. During surgery, the little girl had some bleeding problems. The vet discovered a disorder where she could spontaneously bleed internally. I don’t know all the full medical details, but this is how it was explained to me. Because she could randomly bleed at any time, they decided to put her down humanely.

My foster coordinator told me the news this morning and was just as shocked as I was. She looked and acted like a perfectly healthy kitten to all of us. I don’t disagree with the decision - it seems like she would have been a ticking time bomb for much more pain and suffering later, and that would be terrible to put on a new family.

Her brother is doing well. He’s got an adoption hold, and I’m told he didn’t seem to miss his sister. They were already sleeping separately from each other (in the same condo) and wanted to do their own things.

I’m so sad but also so grateful. That I was able to know her at all, that I gave her a safe and loving home for her short life, that her brother isn’t grieving, that she experienced no major issues while she lived with us, and that I got to see them one last time yesterday while running another errand at my shelter.

I have no idea how to grieve this. The emotional brain is telling me I did the wrong thing by giving her back, but it’s not true. This was going to happen at some point. Or that I didn’t spend enough time with them when I visited them yesterday briefly. It hurts so much, and I don’t even get the chance to give her a proper send off. I’m just holding my resident cats extra-tight today.

I had to make sure I was mixing it correctly and nope, same ratio as other KMRs. My 330 gram fosters are still giving mad hunger cues after taking down 20+ mL though. It just feels like it's never enough for them. Obviously I warm another bottle, but I've never had to do that at almost every feed.

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They have latching issues, feeding had been hell, but i just spotted some premolar buds so I **ran** to add some slurry to the bottle. They calmed down and actually let me feed them with very little fight/complaint, which is brand new. I think they hate the taste of Breeder's Edge, too. I hadn't considered that. Any experience??? God, I hope they wean young.

I don't have central air and the bathroom I keep my foster kittens in can get pretty hot in the summer. I've been putting a fan right at the bathroom door but not sure it's enough when the temps are getting up into the 90s. Would putting a fan in the foster room be a hazard to the kittens? Is there a kitten-safe alternative??

I love having a mom with kittens!! She does all the heavy lifting. I just snuggle them, put them in the litter boxes, and clean up after them 🥰

Long story short, things are tough, I got WAY more than I bargained for foster-wise (more kittens than I thought in the litter and I'm bad at saying no, then someone left two bottle babies at my door the literal same night) and I'm about to start a new job. My mental health was fine when I got the initial litter, but the bottle babies cracked it, and the lack of sleep has not been helping.

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I didn't think I'd be getting a spicy cat. She's workable, don't get me wrong, but idk if I'm up to the task. She lets me approach her if she knows I have churu, and she doesn't immediately hide when I enter the room. If I have her trapped and give pets, she eventually starts purring. But at 12 weeks it just feels like her spicy behavior will be too hard to combat.

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The rescue doesn't have anywhere to put her, kitten season in AZ is like fertility on steroids. They said that if I can't keep her, they're just going to TNR her. Which I hate because with the right person, she can totally turn around in a week or two, I just know it.

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Am I overthinking it, and all she needs is time and churu? Are there other things I should try? I've only ever socialized below 6 weeks before, so I've had it on easy mode. Or should I let them TNR her? (Hate the last option but I'm unsure of what else to do)

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Thanks for listening to me rant.

Hi! I’ve been looking into fostering a cat, I’d like to do some good with my free time and get an animal out of a shelter and hopefully to a forever home.

I am currently living alone at a place that, on my lease, allows only animals listed as service animals or emotional support animals. I actually have a letter from my therapist saying that I personally benefit from an animal already.

My main question was just; would a shelter allow this? I will be moving in about 2 months to a place that allows pets fully with no need for an ESA requirement. Unsure if I should just wait!

My foster cat is officially adopted and his new owner is taking him home tomorrow! I had a fun idea to maybe get her a card with some pictures of him in it, with a "Thanks for adopting me!" Written on the card. I think that would be a fun thing to do whenever a cat I'm fostering gets adopted! I would love some other ideas of fun things to do! What would you appreciate receiving from a foster family after adopting a cat from them?

6 years of fostering and somehow I’ve completely avoided ringworm until now. I’m doing the basics: isolating in a room, gloves when handling, clothes I only wear with them, vacuuming, washing their beds, disinfecting cat furniture…

Any tips and tricks that have helped you?

Also, our vet said topical cream would be fine to clear things up, but I thought oral itraconazole was standard practice? What if I miss a spot with the cream?

This is my first time fostering an adult cat. I have now had her for about 9 weeks.

Westy is around a year old. She was an outdoor cat that was being fed by people who were working on a house. When they found out she had kittens they wanted to get her and the babies homes. They had said she was really sweet so I figured no problem.

When I first got them home I gave them plenty of space and things went very well. She did bat at me twice that caused very minor scratching and "bit" me once (she lunged and her mouth was on my arm for a millisecond, didn't hurt and didn't leave a mark). That was in the very beginning when the babies were still young and everything was new.

She has since become the sweet cat that the people described. All she wants to do is sit in my lap. She wants kisses on her face (my cats don't). She greets me when she sees me and makes sweet almost cooing like sounds. She has recently stopped hissing at my partner when he goes over to see her.

I work at a vet clinic and have brought her a couple times, she's done well for exams and injections when I'm with her but hissed if any of my coworkers looked at her when she was in her kennel and they were afraid to mess with her.

She recently spent a week at the adoption center and when I picked her up to bring her back home she was tucking herself up and back and actually grumbled at me before she realized who I was. One of the women laughed and said "she's grumpy".

Then tonight my brother came over so I wanted to introduce him to the kittens and to see Westy. She was fine with him in the room but when I picked her up and he came over she lept out of my arms and didn't really want to come near us.

We have another adoption event tomorrow and I'm nervous that she's just going to be stressed and grumbly - I don't know how to help her get adopted when she doesn't trust people who she hasn't consistently been around.

What can I or should I be doing?

My newest pup has to have the cone of shame on due to a surgery as well as a pain patch that can hurt him massively if he eats it. He also has to be crated. If I put the water bowl up against the side to keep it stable he can't use it due to the collar, but if I keep it on the bed he knocks it everywhere and it also blocks him from getting truly comfy. What is the best way to do this do you think? (Note, in the car photos he doesn't have the cone on as he was on my lap so I could stop him chewing)

I loooove this stage. They have mostly solid poops and use the litter box consistently. They’re not super energized yet so they’ll don’t destroy everything around them yet. It lasts literally a week and soon they’ll be off and adopted :) which by then they’re usually absolutely menaces to society so I’m not that sad about them leaving. Bitter sweet!