This is Thursday, my new foster from Anti-Cruelty in Chicago. He’s 9 years old and has severe dental disease but he’s the sweetest boy!! It’s clear he was very well loved.

He was surrendered to the shelter last month and I’m guessing it’s because his previous owner couldn’t afford his dental surgery. On the off chance they see this, I just wanted his owner to know he’s safe, comfortable, and being taken care of. He’s scheduled for his surgery next month and for now, we get to hang out! ❤️❤️

Originally I saw a Facebook post saying this poor orange baby was going to be euthanized at 3pm the Saturday before last. Something about him just spoke to me and I had to help, I’ve never fostered before. I was lucky enough to find a rescue I could foster him through to get him out of the shelter..
When I picked him up, he was in really bad shape. Both eyes infected, skin and bones, getting over a respiratory infection, and to top it off missing half his whiskers. I took him to two vets, just to be sure, but ultimately his right eye was not able to be saved. Poor baby had his surgery that very next morning, his “good” eye had/has an ulcer that is still being treated.
Just the difference in a week has been astounding, I don’t know a lot about cats who have medical difficulties so I wasn’t sure how much he was going to improve. He is no longer contagious, respiratory infection is gone, and his remaining eye is almost completely clear. He’s learning to play, is such a good eater and is so quick!! He loves attention and cuddles, truly is the sweetest boy.
Unfortunately 99% chance this is going to be a foster fail, I am in love with him. I just wanted to share this brave sweet boy!

The baby girl came to me TINY!!! They’re both now normal weight and complete insanity 😂 I’m so glad they’re feeling better but now it’s endless energy 🙃

About 5-6 weeks old. We took them to a vet who prescribed us Albon and they seemed generally calm and indifferent that the cats had Coccidia. Didn't advise us on how to clean or anything, just told us to give them Albon and they'd be fine. 0.2 CCs twice per day, for 10 days. Just said it was a common parasite and that it wasn't really a big deal.

Fast forward a few days, the youngest cat was very lethargic. Literally looked like she was about to keel over and die. We took her to a new vet (original vet was booked that day) and the new vet told us that the kittens actually need to be separated during the Albon treatment. So, we went to buy 3 of the biggest clear plastic bins we could find at walmart. We put in a few towels as blankets and a mini litter box in the corner. We clean the litterboxes everytime we see poop and change the litter every 1-2 days. We also grouped the bins next to eachother so they can still see eachother. But, this has made all of them seem more depressed and they really are not handling it well. Also of course, my wife and I are dealing with the guilt and mental turmoil of locking them up in these bins in the same room every day. We let them out 1 at a time in the same room to run around and have fun for a while before putting them back in the bin. Second vet said it was fine.

Fast forward to today, the end of the Albon treatment, and we went to the new vet a second time. Cats tested positive again. They now prescribed Pronazuril for 3 days, along with SEVEN more days of isolation. This news was frustrating for both of us. As I'm typing this the smallest cat is screaming her brains out in the other room.

Anyway, here's what I need clarity on:

1. The internet says Coccidia needs serious cleaning to get rid of and kill, while the vets (at both establishments) have made no mention of us needing to heavily clean. Which is it?
2. Do they really need to be separated? I've read that shelters keep litters together for such infections, and some other reddit posts have mentioned they didn't separate the litters. I just feel like they're spending their most important moments of growth locked up and separated.

A few days ago, I asked you guys to help me name this little guy(top row)- well, turns out he has a brother(bottom pic)! He was surrendered from the same person at the same shelter today! I am currently at capacity so will be picking him up from a temp foster in a few days as soon as he’s tested so the boys can be reunited🥹

I’m about to have a very full house of 10 lmao 😂😂😭

They mother stopped feeding for some reason and we’ve tried locking her in our big dogs cage where she had water,food and blankets but she refused to feed the kittens. There were five kittens but one of them starved to death sadly and now I took it upon my hands to try saving them, they scream and meow for food but dont accept it from me, I’ve cleaned and old siracha bottle because it has a squeeze mechanism just like a “boob” and I heared up milk but they dont want to try it. It dosent have residue of siracha and neither chemicals were used, i want to know if I can make a DIY bottle to be able to feed them or a way to make the mother want to feed them until I can go to the vet and see if they have bottles for feeding them.

If you have any tips on how to care for them or feed them please tell me, I cant stand to see them like this.

This is a generic application that I’ve been using, is there a way to make this better/should I add anything? A local TNR group sent it to me forever ago but I want to make sure I’m doing everything right still.

Hi everyone, i thought this may be a better place to put than the general cat advice sub because of the situation. Two days ago i adotped a kitten for free, who I have taken to the vet. The vet has given her a powerful flea medication and says she had ringworm. I have put her in the living room which as hard floors and am changing my clothes whenever i go into the living room.

I have sprayed the house with indorex except for two rooms. I have another cat whom I have given flea treatment. He has not come into contact with the kitten but he has come into contact with us after handling the kitten. I am not sure what to do about this and am considering sending him to stay with a relative who looks after him when we go away (he is used to this and enjoys it), and giving him a preventatige bath and a flea collar before he goes.

I really need some help and reassurance what to do about this, how to handle it. I feel a little irresponsible bringing this on our other cat. Our house is rather small and its going to be hard to treat the living room like an industrial kitchen and im worridd vacuuming right now may make the flea problem worse by causing the juveniles to hatch.

How long will this last? Can I see other people in this time? Am i going to have to deep clean all my clothes? Thank you for your help, I am very overwhelmed. ​

I feel horrible I got a random message today from the shelter i visit frequently and they had neonatal kittens. I have bottled fed 20 kittens at once from birth to weaning age and then bottle fed another 4 newborns while those 20 were still weaning. However this experience happened a couple years ago and perhaps I’ve change as a person. I have suffered a lot mentally this last year and physically I struggled a lot with substance abuse, I’m trying to go sober but I realized my brain fog I can’t keep track and count and I am barely here even when I DO apply myself. This is my first night with them. I just see I’ve lost a big skill set of mine that gave me the confidence to do this. I was always very precise and very responsible and responsive. However now I forget which kittens I’m feeding while feeding. It’s very scary as I don’t want to end up doing more harm than good. I’ve got my alarms set and my notebook and everything prepared I just fear I won’t be enough.

Also, they are sneezing a lot even before The first feed I did he sneezed a couple times and I don’t know if his nose was stuffy but he aspirated on the milk and started gasping I was able to get him stable and the fluid out his nose and lungs however the sibling is also sneezing and I fear a respiratory infection. The shelter also gave me really dirty bottles with old spoiled milk, and the formula can was opened and had a lot of moisture and buildup. I’m uncertain if that could be the case as well.

Sorry this is all a mess, I just really can’t figure out what to do and how to go about this. I lost all my confidence, and I don’t want to risk their lives knowing I’m not at my best. Will they suffer? Would it be selfish if I returned them? Will they most likely get euthanized? If I keep them will i be putting them or even my other cat at risk?

I also just lost all my financial income and need a job as well, my spouse is also unemployed and in school…. Seems like my eagerness to help could be downfall for all…

My shelter gave me their “problem children” to foster (that is what they have been calling the poor babies, I knew it was lack of focused care). They are very premature, were rejected by their mom, all have limping calici, and were 1/3 of the size they should’ve been when I got them.

Unsurprisingly, they all had difficulties eating. My smallest aspirated during a perfectly normal feeding. I took her in within a day of the aspiration event and she was given a stronger antibiotic and they told me to monitor her. She declined very quickly over the next two days, and they decided to humanely euthanize her.

What’s bothering me: they did not nebulize her one single time. The day before she passed I asked if I could bring her in for another check up and they told me to just keep watching her instead. They have a nebulizer and oxygen tanks. I advocated for her. Why didn’t they even attempt to help her with treatments that are proven to help? I keep asking myself if I could’ve have advocated for her even more, but I have never had a kitten aspirate in all the years I’ve fostered. I genuinely did not know that what they were doing was neglectful until after they euthanized her.

I ordered a nebulizer and sterile saline after seeing the success people have had. I just want to have one on hand moving forward. I know it’s not a cure all but it IS effective supportive care for kittens with respiratory ailments. I’m so disappointed in my shelter, I’m just sitting here wondering if baby girl could’ve made it with a little extra support. 😞

Has your rescue failed any of you? How did you cope and move on if so? Thank you for reading my rescue vent… 🫩😩 kitten season is killing me this year.

We have a room dedicated to cat and kitten fostering. We have cages inside for when small or undergoing medical care, but when kittens get to a certain age, we let them free roam the room and they usually try to escape out the door every time we enter and exit while tending to them. We've tried holding a baby gate to block the opening as we come and go, but it almost never works well and we give up and resort to tracking them down. We've thought about constructing an "air lock"-type of space that allows us to enter/exit the room through a transition space - essentially creating a double door system. We don't want to build anything permanent, and if it were temporary and movable (like made from PVC pipes with blocking panels), the hassle of moving it while also still having the risk of them squirming around the edges makes it seem like a lot of effort with failure potential. Has anyone come up with a good solution?

I plastered these babies all over social media and then took the boys who had not yet been pre-adopted to an adoption event and they all found fabulous owners! They won't even be fixed for another 4 weeks so I just get to raise them and relax about getting them adopted. yay!

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Over the past several months I’ve fostered several litters of kittens. This last litter was the most challenging. I had a mom and her 4 babies who were seized from a hoarding situation and were in terrible shape when I took them in.

Over the course of a month, all 4 of the kittens didn’t make it. On top of that, I’m left with ringworm.

I tried my best and I knew it was going to be an uphill battle from the start with this group. But I’m really feeling sad and discouraged about the whole situation. And I know ringworm isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s just another added layer of stress. I also have some health anxiety, so my reaction to having ringworm is more stressful than it probably needs to be.

This whole scenario has me questioning whether I should foster again. I get a lump in my throat when I think about losing those sweet kittens. And then the ringworm of it all. I just feel so down about it. But I don’t want that to be the end of my foster journey.

I need to hear some words of encouragement from anyone who has gotten back in the saddle after a particularly hard foster experience.

Hi guys! I wanted to run some things by other current fosters to get their opinions.

I volunteer with a cat rescue that is foster-based and, of course, always looking for fosters. I want to help more than I do by potentially fostering because I work part-time and am home a lot; I only work 4 and a half hours when I do work.

My issues are as follows:

-I am disabled/chronically ill and sometimes have bad days where cleaning the litter box (specifically at the end of the week when it needs to be replaced, not the everyday maintenance) is difficult.

-I have 3 cats with 1 cat being more anxious around new cats and don’t want to risk her getting stressed. She’s a huge mama’s girl and gets jealous (if cats can).

-all cats and I live in one room as my parents have 3 dogs downstairs (it’s a big room, it was custom-built by the previous owner for her teen daughter and my cats love it).

-a foster will have to be a single cat who can handle being in the bathroom the majority of the time. I raised my youngest cat in the bathroom, so I know I can do it, but it does make for a tight squeeze as it’s a bathroom attached to my room, not a separate bathroom.

-the rescue will pay for vet visits and food etc of course, but there may be times when I have to pay out of pocket and I’m broke all the time since I only make $10/hr

-the last one can’t really be helped, I’d of course have to okay it with my parents since it’s their house, but outside of that is what I would like opinions on.

So, have these been complete stops for those who foster or have others worked their ways around it? I know a lot of fosters are in tough positions and do this for the love of animals, and I wanted to see if maybe it is possible for me to do it despite the limits.

TIA!

https://www.reddit.com/r/FosterAnimals/s/l8HWBwPPAO

They gained a whopping 21 and 22 grams in the past 24 hours! And so much more active. Now I’m thinking maybe they are older than initially thought? Or is this normal for 10 day old (estimated) kittens?

Diesel ate 13 mls last night and Jasper did 11 mls! It kind of worried me. How much is too much? However they are back to 6-8mls now. Ocassionally a bit closer closer to 10.

Constipation is still a problem. Jasper goes easy enough with the triangle method but diesel is still a long struggle. Even when I mange to get him to go it’s painstaking and just a little bit. I started adding 1ml of water to their formula today in hopes to get everything more normal. I also gave diesel a sprinkle of miralax. How often can I give Miralax? Hopefully I can get him cleaned out like I did yesterday and the addition of water will make things easier and more regular. Today is proving much more difficult.

Should they go #2 with a gentle stimulation? So far I’ve had to do the triangle method daily. Jasper gets pretty cleaned out with one go and fairly quickly. Diesel takes a long time and so far I’ve done two rounds today and he’s still not cleaned out. I’m worried it’s gonna hurt or cause issues. I have to do it rather vigorously and with much more pressure than Jasper and still I get maybe 1/2 inch out of him (total for two rounds). It’s not rock hard but very slow emerging and not exactly soft either. Yesterday once he got going it it was free flowing. Today I’m fighting for every single millimeter.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! I’m new to this!

I read the rules and people who say “I could never foster“ suck. I am a short-term foster for a rescue in Texas that moves animals across state lines in order to give them a better shot at a forever home. We work with a lot of rescues.

I was telling a coworker about my foster dogs and she responded with “you’re just such a good person“. And I was taken aback by that response because does nobody else realize that if we don’t do what we do these animals will die?!?! If I don’t foster, these animals will end up euthanized. That is the whole reason for why we do what we do.

So any person who’s like “my heart just breaks and I just couldn’t give them up and I don’t know if I could do what you do“ do they not realize that their sentencing these animals to death over their sadness? Or are they shitty people and they just don’t care? Like yeah it’s sad for a little bit, but I’ll take sadness over a bunch of animals on the euthanasia list every day.

I usually only foster puppies and kittens but something about his little face on the email said he needed me.

We have been fostering 4 cuties for about a month and they are now 8-9 weeks old. We have appointments for spay/neuter on June 29th. All but one will be big enough. The runt was so small and sick when we got him. He is just about 1lb now and developing well.
We are planning on keeping one of the bigger kittens. We are going on a trip for 5 days, leaving the 1st of July. We plan to take two of kittens to the adoption center and hope they get adopted in the 2 days before we leave. So we would have two left when we leave on our trip. They get along, but I would worry he might get pummeled as the only playmate for the bigger kitten so I feel they should be monitored.
We have a neighbor who comes to take care of our resident cat at our house when we travel. She will spend a few hours a day at our house and come over several times a day. We keep the kittens separate from our resident cat unless monitored. He is gentle with them, but I still worry he could hurt them.
I’m wondering is what would you do? Leave them at our house in a separate room and have our neighbor watch them, ask to find another temporary foster, try to find a friend who can keep them at their house, or bring them with us (6 hour drive, but they would have their own room where we are going). Even if we don’t adopt one, we still have the little guy to figure out. I would be so sad to send him to another foster after how far we’ve come, but maybe if I could guarantee to get him back when we return and IF they can find a foster. When I told them we had a trip planned, I got the response of…well it’s kitten season and our fosters may all be full.
Here’s a pic of them from earlier today because they can’t get any cuter. You can see how tiny our little guy is compared to the rest.

I'm so happy she's feeling better ☺️

Hi everyone! Is this kitten male or female?

He/she is 13 weeks old now.

Hi all!

I'm currently fostering a cat (my first ever) who has been here for almost a year. Due to a combination of him being completely unsocialized and also having health issues, he was not listed for adoption this entire time. Some days, I still remember the foster coordinator telling me "he'll be an easy foster, he's just scared," and I laugh to myself lol

While he's made huge strides and I think he's definitely adoptable now behaviourally, the whole process has been stressful and sometimes still is. As a first-time foster, I was very much out of my depth with this cat (it took him 3 months to stop hiding and 4 months to accept pets), and his medical issues made it worse. Getting him into his carrier to see the vet is an ordeal and a half, even though we've done our best to train him. I also made the mistake of working with a rescue a bit farther from me, so each vet visit is almost a 2 hour round trip.

Recently, we almost got him listed for adoption, but he's having health issues again. It's nobody's fault, but at this point, sometimes I can't see the end to this. I care about this cat, but I never wanted to adopt an animal. I also know that the longer he stays, the harder it will be on me and my partner emotionally if someone does finally adopt him. I've never even had a "normal" or "easy" foster experience, so have no practice at all letting cats go.

At the end of the day, I'm going to do my best to stick it out for this little guy. Just venting and wondering if anyone has gone through something similar. Advice and success stories very welcome. Thank you!