Tough rescue but well worth it!
Another hands-on rescue a few days ago involving a briar patch from hell(literally) and 3 abandoned, starving, sick kittens. A friend of mine got in touch with me and informed me about a co-employee of his who had found some kittens in her backyard. I went to check out the situation and could literally hear panicked, shrill, kitten cries as soon as I got close to the gnarliest briar gauntlet I've ever seen. I could tell by the cries that the kittens in the briars were super young. I was able to coax one out with wet cat food. The other 2 kittens were super deep in the briar gauntlet, but after about an hour of hedge clipping, I was able to rescue them as well. All 3 of the kitten's eyes were matted shut and extremely swollen, which are sure signs of conjunctivitis or an upper respiratory infection- both are deadly, contagious infections to young, malnourished kittens.
I brought all 3 kittens back to my house, fed them, and cleared the matted funk from their eyes, which unleashed an unreal amount of gushing puss out of each kitten's eye. Because conjunctivitis and URI are both extremely contagious, I couldn't bring them into my house due to the possible infection of my pets and Sox, who is recovering downstairs. Therefore I brought them to the Outer Banks SPCA, which has a quarantine facility separate from the other healthy animals in the shelter. My friends at the SPCA took great care of them and Feline Hope was able to set them up with a foster today, where they will hopefully make a full recovery! Please say some prayers, send some karma, and keep your fingers crossed for these little guys as they continue to hold on and fight off their infections. Also please consider donating to the Outer Banks SPCA and Feline Hope.
photo: I took this quick pic right after feeding them and clearing their eyes
I took this quick video while the little guys were scarfing down food! Watching this, they were in really rough shape. This was after I cleared their eyes as well. I don't think they would have made it much longer out there.
