Denali - The trouble begins

Denali has arrived.

We got Denali as a friend for Gizmo. She is an 8 week old ragdoll x bengal kitten. She is absolutely adorable, as you can see by the pictures, and I am sure she will get up to just as much mischief as Gizmo does. We got her from someone interstate and assumed they were reliable when they said she would come vet checked vaccinated, wormed and flea treated. Well as you all know to 'assume' makes and ass of u and me. When she arrived, she looked a little worse for wear, but we expected that because she had just been couriered interstate.

We took her home, gave her a bath and started brushing her. Bits of hair started falling out. I figured at first it was just because she had played with other kittens and was a little scabby because of bite marks as such, but then I noticed a quite defined patch where the hair had fallen out. Hmmm not good. I suspected possible ringworm. We were planning to have her vet checked after cleaning her up, so we decided that was the most important thing now before anything else. Gizmo would have to wait to meet her until we found out if she was healthy.

Unfortunately it is as I suspected. The vet said she is riddled with ringworm, and it's probably one of the worst cases she has ever seen. So we came home from the vet armed with various medications and a special shampoo.

 Now we have to try to keep Denali away from Gizmo for 4-6 weeks, as well as prevent the spores from spreading while medicating denali, bathing both of them in a special shampoo, and ensure they dont use the same living spaces, toys, or have cuddles with us whilst we wear the same clothes as we did for Denali. Then we also have to hope that we don't get it whilst we still make Denali feel welcome to our home. Luckily we have a few spare bedrooms at the moment which means they can both have their own room and play space. Lets hope Gizmo stays ringworm free and we do too.

Gizmo knows theres something meowing on the other side of the door, and he seems curious, it's so annoying that it will be 6 weeks before we can introduce them.

Gizmo gets a bath

Gizmo has settled in well, and we are enjoying spending lots of time with him. Unfortunately, probably because he was so young when we got him from the pound he hasn't really learnt about cleaning himself properly. Unfortunately for Gizmo, it has gotten to the point where we decided he needed a bath, until he learns to bathe himself. We also wanted to make sure we had gotten rid of any possible fleas etc.

Currently Gizmo fits in the bathroom sink, so we filled it with a little warm water to wet his feet, and then left the water running gently. When we first put him near the water he didn't know what it was, but as soon as he realised we weren't going to let him out, the meow's started. At first it was more of a quiet meow, then it became more insistant, and then it was more like "get me out of here". He scratched a little, but with kitten claws, he didn't do much damage.

He looked even smaller without his fluffy coat. After the bath was finished, we dried him with a towel. He looked so forlorne and bedraggled, but yet so cute. We felt bad for him, so we gave him a heat pack to help keep him warm, and he bathed himself whilst sitting on it on the couch.

Now he is much fluffier, and smells nice and clean. Hopefully it lasts a while,or he starts to learn how to bathe himself... otherwise he might just have to get used to more frequent bathing experiences.