Weigh-in time!

Day 61

In preparation of this week’s vet visit and health check, we decided to weigh the kittens. The first time I did that, I did not get my hands on all of them, but the ones I did weight were between 300 and 400 grams at the time. On August 22 I weighed them all so with today’s results I have something to compare.

Quick shot with the phone to capture the starting of the weigh-in…

I am happy to report that in the last two weeks they all gained roughly 40% of weight. Looking at the individual results, we were kind of surprised. The little twins are not so little anymore, according to our scales. And the big and fluffy kittens, Kabiri and Spooky weigh much less than we thought! Spooky being the only one that seems to be under the 1 kilogram mark. Which makes sense because she is the bambino. She might need a bit more time with us before we can have her adopted. We are not sure if the kittens’ weights are at a level that allows for vaccinations yet, but the focus of this vet visit is just the health check that they need to qualify for adoption. And the vet-scales are probably more reliable than our cooking scales, so there might be different results…

Cracked the twin code…

I am proud to also say that I have finally cracked the twin-code! I have looked closely at my photography and I finally know who is Sipke and who is Stipke. Phew. What a relief. Just imagine having twins and not being sure which is which… Have a look at the Nursery homepage to read about the characteristics that help us identify both cats…

Passports

Due to Covid-19 we will not be able to enter the practice, so we will do a drop-off and pick-up. For that reason I have created a passport with photographs and details for all cats, including Mitsy. She too will be checked. If there are no problems handling her (with or without some calming drugs), she will be vaccinated for sure. We might even get to know night how old she is approximately and what the condition of her teeth is. These days that is always an issue with domesticated cats, or so it seems.

Dental issues

I had so many cats in my life and none ever had serious teeth issues. Do manufacturers put sugar in the food without us knowing it? The other thing that they might be able to do is take some blood to see how her general levels are. Mitsy looks very healthy to us, there is a nice shine on her coat, her eyes and nose are clear and we just heard this week that the hookworms are gone as well after two treatment rounds. Her poop is clear, so no additional worm treatments are needed. Which is quite something for a cat that lived outside.

Renal issues

We are interested as well in her kidneys. That’s another thing that seems to go wrong these days with many cats. My last 2 cats both suffered from renal disease, and actually died from it. One from acute renal failure, the other from secondary ailments to do with chronic renal disease. I am not sure what that is about. Do we just test and know more these days, or did cats in the past simply did not suffer from it? I have always had rescue cats, never pedigrees. Maybe inbreeding plays a role there? Who knows!

Gender reveal is imminent

So this week we will know how right / wrong we were in our gender assumptions…