Seems it ain’t over till the fat lady sings.

Yesterday I got a call from the Defensa Felina volunteer (Livia) who has the kittens in her house. She said that she was taking them to the vet’s for a check up and to get the chip put into Tapita so I could take him home this week. And although I had already decided (or so I’d thought) that I couldn’t take him because of the FHV, I decided to at least go and talk with the vet and ask her advice. Afterwards I checked with two other vets and it looks like I might still be able to adopt this little cutie, just not as soon as I’d wanted to…

The vet was honest and told me that all three kittens had had some sort of virus, probably a combination of Feline Herpes and Feline Calicivirus, and also said that they had been in pretty bad shape when Livia first brought them in. The two larger kittens are totally cured of their symptoms now, it’s just Tapita who is still a bit congested and still has slightly weepy eyes. The vet said that within a week he should be fine. Of course all of these kittens will remain carriers for the rest of their lives, but unless they have an outbreak they won’t become contagious. And even then, it wouldn’t necessarily mean that any cat they had contact with would end up infected.

Where does that leave me and Azar? Well, all three vets I talked to said that before I even think of bringing another cat – any cat – into the house I’d need to get Azar vaccinated first. Duh. I’ve never vaccinated my cats because they never left the house, but in retrospect it really should have been the first thing I did before even starting to look for a kitten. So I am taking Azar in for a vaccination today because, even if I don’t end up taking Tapita, it is the prudent thing to do.

And so … Tapita is now chipped (I watched the vet doing it – eep!) and will stay at Livia’s place with his siblings for another week or so. The other tests (for leukemia and auto-immune) can’t really be done till Tapita is at least three months old, as the results wouldn’t be reliable until then. And he also won’t be able to be vaccinated for a few weeks. But there’s no real risk of him catching anything from Azar – it’s the other way round – so after Azar gets his shots then the risk factors go down considerably.

This is good news. Especially after holding Tapita again yesterday at the vet’s and he immediately curled up in my arms and went to sleep (just like Indira – what is it with me and kittens?), and after seeing his little face again. So this is what we are going to do. And okay, if another perfectly healthy and amazing kitten shows up in the next week or so, maybe I’ll feel safer going that route. But I think I’d like to give Tapita a chance, especially now I know that having him at home won’t pose a scary health risk to Azar.

Thanks again to zoomer for pointing out the risks involved with FHV and FCV. It was stupid of me not to immediately get Azar vaccinated when I decided to look for a little friend for him. But that will be taken care of today. Soooo not looking forward to taking him in. Ever tried putting the Tasmanian Devil into a cat carrier?

Stay tuned…