New Addition!

 We have added to our family - a young male kitten, whom we have named Finley.

S has been begging me for a second cat for nearly 3 years. I have avoided it for several reasons - expense and the fear that the cat may be sick. If you recall our first cat Coral died of feline leukemia about 6 months after we got her.  It was a very traumatic experience for S since she was only 6 years old and it was our first pet.

A few months after Coral passed, with much trepidation, I agreed to another cat. We were blessed with Lily who has been healthy so far. She is 5 years old.

I was happy with the one cat, who is an indoor/outdoor cat. But S has been wanting a kitten. My new job requires me to go into the office, now 4 days a week. As a result,  Lily is stuck inside all day alone. It started to think it may be nice for her to have some company.

After a lot if back and forth, I agreed to get a kitten and summer seemed the best time since S was home and would have something to occupy her time.

We went with the same rescue we had used for both Coral and Lily. It was a Sat and we saw the cutest little dilute orange tabby. He was 2 months old and a beautiful creamlike color. We loved him and were ready to pick him up, but he was due for his second FCVRP shot the following Monday, so they said we could get him later in the week,

During that week we made a plan to pick him up on Friday. 

On Wed, I get a call to say that one of the kittens with the foster had ringworm, so the rescue lady picked up Finley (original name Butternut) and brought  him to her house where she keeps all the cats. We still planned to get him on Friday.

Then on Thursday, I get a call to say he has an eye infection so she wants to keep him a few days. S was very disappointed but I told her its better the rescue take care of him, than us.  Alarm belles were going off in my head - I did not want a sick kitty!

On Sat, we were back at Petco and I told S she could pick a different cat. But Finley is a very unique coloring and she said she only wanted him. The rescue lady said he was doing a lot better. We decided that he may be better off outside the shelter environment and in our home, rather than getting more germs.

On Sunday, I went to get him. S had some friends over for a sleepover, and the pick up time changed. The girls were still at our house so I went by myself. Finley was cute, but had a crusty, weepy eye. I was given eye drops to put twice a day and oral antibiotics for 3 days.

I came home and we got organized by setting him up in S's room so he could be contained and away from Lily initially. We took care of his meds and eye drops for the next few days and slowly he was allowed all over the house.

A week later his eye was still very watery. So. I decided to take him to my vet clinic. The vet I use for Lily was unavailable so I took an appt with another vet at the practice. It was a mid-afternoon appt.  I had to rush back from work, take a work call and then head out. S mentioned that Finley had a small bloody scratch on his ear, which we thought was caused by Lily swatting him the night before.

We go to the vet, talk about his eye which she said was nothing to worry about, likely a virus. I mentioned the ring worm story, she checked him over I mentioned the small cut on his ear etc. She said his coat looked great and sent us home.

We walk into the house and since I had a few minutes, I looked more closely at Finley's ear. There is a small red mark but also crusty stuff. I immediately think it may be ringworm give his foster history.  I am so upset that we literally were at the vet 15 min ago and she had not seen it!!

I text the rescue lady and she says I can come by to get some shampoo and ointment. 

At this point I was spiraling!

Finely had been ALL over the house. Ringworm is very infectious to animals and humans. It would require us to disinfect the entire house, and isolate him for up to 6 weeks!! To add to all this we were leaving for a holiday that Sat, and my Mom was going to take the kitten to her house so he would have company. She would not take him with ringworm!

It was a Tuesday. 

We rushed to the rescue lady's home and I prepped S that I will likely give Finely back or ask them to keep him and cure him given we were headed out of town. At the rescue, they checked his ear with a blacklight his skin glowed green indicating ringworm. They kept saying "its not a big deal", "don't get too worried" etc. My biggest worry was Lily getting it - not so much us. Plus who will take care of him during our upcoming trip???

Luckily, one of the ladies who works at the rescue lives near my home and we know each other. She very kindly offered to come to our house and take care of both the cats while we were gone. It was actually good because she fosters kitten herself so I knew Finley would be in good hands.

That evening (and night) was spent cleaning and disinfecting the entire house, as best we could. We isolated Finley in S's room. laying down blankets to cover the carpet etc. Ringworm can live on soft surfaces for almost a year!

So the next few days, Finley is isolated. S moves to the guest room to sleep, and we begin a cycle of shampooing him, putting ointment and basically not touching him with bare hands, disinfecting our clothes, etc. It was awful. The skin lesion that was on his ear,  then appeared on his cheek which became black and scabby. It was getting worse.

The Friday before our trip I was working from home but also washing all the blankets, clothes etc in hot water. I did so many loads of laundry I lost count. 

I felt I was at a breaking point with stress - the upcoming trip, work stress, going into the office which adds a whole layer of additional time constraints, ringworm, laundry, worry about Lily, etc....then...

 Sweet relief! 

We left on our 4 day trip.

The trip was great and a much needed respite from all the drama. While we were gone, the lady switched Finley to a prescription antibiotic. 

We came back to him still having issues with his ear and his cheek. We continued the ointment etc and also began using some antibacterial wipes on his cheek which was looking really raw.

I finally decided to take him to Lily's vet, so he could get oral medication. We were back from our vacation on Tue, and I made an appt for Friday the same week. The vet took some skin samples to send for culture and PCR test for ringworm ($200!). She said to continue with the antibacterial wipes which I happened to have from when Lily got in a cat fight with a neighbors cat in Dec. She did not prescribe the oral meds until she got back the PCR result.

I was disappointed but we came back and continued with the wipes and ointment. And spending Sat washing and disinfecting his blankets, toys, and all of S's room.  The following Wed I get a call from the vet saying the PCR was negative for ringworm!! 

WTF!  

She thought it was a bacterial infection. Now it started to make sense because since we began using the antibacterial wipes, Finley's nose was getting better. We then stopped the anti fungal ointment and only did the wipes. Knowing it was NOT ringwork reduced the anxiety a lot, plus it had not spread to any other part of him which was also a good sign.

We continued to keep him isolated, and the weekly marathon disinfecting and laundry sessions.

Now he is doing so much better. His cheek is 80% healed and fur growing back. His ear is also a lot better. Today I got the culture test results back, which are also negative for ringworm.

So it was never ringworm. Thank heavens.

As of this past Friday, we removed him from quarantine, and he is happy to have the run of the house. I still do not allow him in our sleeping quarters. 

Tomorrow I will take him to get his vaccines. I will WFH during the morning since I got a ridiculous 10:45am appt time. The vaccine clinic is only open until 4pm and not on Saturday. 

We had to hold off a bit on his vaccines, so he could get over his skin issues. His eye is fully healed, but is still having discharge. I think it may be dust allergies. Once his vaccines are done, I will have him looked at again,

Given we now have 2 cats, I have decided to take Finley to the Petco vet clinic since its much cheaper than where I take Lily.

Just hoping that after this skin thing is fully resolved , we have no further issues.