Daxter, the only kitten in a litter of nine that was not an orange tabby, obviously wasn't feeling good. While all of his siblings played there little hearts out, Daxter would just sit and watch. Underneath all of Daxters' long brown hair, he was a very tiny kitten. At 8 weeks old he weighed in at less than 1 lb. Daxter was separated from his siblings to better monitor his eating habits (that's when he came home to the foster care coordinators house for special monitoring and treatment). Daxter wouldn't eat at all and he was always so cold. The day after I brought him home, he couldn't even hold up his own body weight!

Daxter was so sick that all he did was lay in his crate, on his heating pad, underneath his fuzzy blankets. I was force-feeding (syringe-feeding) him a/d (a prescription appetite stimulant) every four hours or so and giving him subcutaneous fluids to keep him hydrated. All the food he ate came right out of him looking exactly the same. He had to get "butt-baths" every time he pottied because he couldn't hold his back end up, he just wasn't strong enough. This lasted for almost two weeks.

One day, as I was giving Daxter his routine bath, I noticed a long skinny worm hanging on his tail. I immediately took it to the PAWS clinic staff for them to take a look. Daxter had tapeworms. The tapeworm that was living in him was basically eating him alive. After Daxter received his tapeworm medicine (a shot of Droncit), he began to act like a normal kitten! (Please be aware that tapeworm is generally diagnosed when segments break off of the worm and are seen in the stool. Tapeworm eggs are extremely difficult to see under a microscope.) All of a sudden he began to eat on his own and didn't need so many baths. Then he got Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) so he was on two different antibiotics in one month. But after that, he was healthy enough to get neutered.

In case you haven't figured it out... Daxter is a very sensitive man. He will have his one-year birthday in February and he still has to have the occasional "butt bath". But he is so worth it. Of course I kept Daxter, my sensitive, little Maine Coone man! Who else would put up with his occasional, explosive diarrhea?