Savannah Kitten Fell Into the Bathtub

[katnoir]

Hello,

My new Savannah kitten (15 weeks old), fell into my daughter's bath with her tonight. He got very excited when he saw her in the tub and leapt up onto the tub and slipped right in. I was able to grab him and get him out, but I have no idea if he inhaled any water. He did snuffle and sneeze a few times after I got him out. I dried him off and gave him cuddles, but he sure complained about it for a while. About an hour later, I gave him a small amount of wet food and within about 15 minutes, he had thrown it up. I looked closely at the food he threw up and did not see any hairballs or any foreign matter. I have never seen him throw up before and we have had him for 9 days now. Should I be worried? Could he just be upset because of the slip into the tub? He's been quarantined in our bedroom/bathroom for a full week and we have just opened up our doors so he can explore one other bedroom and the bathroom on the floor we are on; I was pretty careful not to leave anything small on the floor that he might eat, but with my daughter's room, you never know if he might have found and eaten anything there.
He is sleeping beside me and I do not hear any rattling in his chest; he is not coughing or sneezing.

So here are things I am questioning:

1. Is he just upset about the incident?
2. Did he inhale water and that is that the issue?
3. Did he manage to find and eat something he should not have in my daughter's room?

My daughter starts school tomorrow and I would like to be able to go to bed without worrying myself to death about what might be going on with this little fellow; he has been doing so well!

Thanks in advance for the advice!

kat

 

[Trish Allearz]

Just keep an eye on him, Kat He is probably 110% fine.

 

[katnoir]

Just keep an eye on him, Kat He is probably 110% fine.

Thank you Trish...I just love the little guy so much, and I'm so mad at myself that I didn't just lock him in the bedroom while I was giving the bath! Who knew that he would be so interested in water already!

Kat
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Legalize-Our-Pets/338468569572433?ref=hl

 

[NikkiA]

Jarvis falls into the bath tub on a pretty regular basis and is fine. Diablo has fallen in before and he does not like water so he gets a bit upset but no long term issues.

 

[Patti]

I suspect all the activity with the new, unknown territory to explore on top of the dive into the bathtub was a bit much for the little fellow, and he was offered food a little too soon after that. I would just watch him - I'll bet he will be perfectly normal by morning.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I think everyone else is correct...don't worry too much, keep an eye on him but likely he'll be fine by morning!

 

[katnoir]

I suspect all the activity with the new, unknown territory to explore on top of the dive into the bathtub was a bit much for the little fellow, and he was offered food a little too soon after that. I would just watch him - I'll bet he will be perfectly normal by morning.

Thank you for the advice Patti. I just fed him a tablespoon of his wet food about 1/2 an hour ago and he has kept it down. He is playing with his favorite mouse now, so hopefully all is fine and you are right about a bit too much activity for him. He is such a tough little fellow; I sometimes forget that he is just a baby in a brand new situation, without his mommy and his littermates. I will surely keep an eye on him to make sure nothing develops because of the unexpected dunking. At least it answers my question about whether he might be a water-baby....at least whether he WOULD have been a water baby...who knows if he will ever want to go near it again!

 

[katnoir]

I think everyone else is correct...don't worry too much, keep an eye on him but likely he'll be fine by morning!

Thank you Brigitte. I feel exactly like a new mommy again, worrying about every little thing! Knowing I can come to Savannahcatchat for advice is so VERY reasurring!

Kat

 

[katnoir]

Hello again; just an update on kitty. He is as playful as ever, but has been sneezing off and on since I got him - only maybe a few sneezes a day or so. After the bathtub incident noted above he vomited once after I fed him, but seemed ok after that. For the last couple of days, he has not been as anxious to eat his food right when I bring it like he usually is, but he usually ends up eating it. He is not coughing, to the best of my knowledge and has gained 1 lb since I got him two weeks ago - he is going to be a big boy, and is growing like a virtual weed. His nose is wet and cold, he is not discharging any kind of mucous and his eyes are not running but his ears do feel kind of warm. But last night, he vomited several times in his quarantine room (sounded like he was trying to cough up a hairball, but no hairball) and when I woke up, my bed and pillows (I was sleeping there!) were covered in little poop pawprints and there were signs that he had vomited. As I got up, I watched him walk over to the litterbox and have a very noisy diarreah. My vet does not open until 9 a.m. here, and I have already called to bring him in, but just wondering if you have any advice. He comes from an FeLV/FIV, parasite etc. negative cattery, and I have all of the his previous vet's paperwork to show that.

We ARE starting to let him into another couple of rooms, now on the lower, or main floor of our home. (Just the past couple of days). When we bring him down, we put our other two domestic shorthairs out on our deck in their cat tent. We only let him down for 1/2 to 1 hour at a time, and we also let our other two cats in on occasion so they can start to learn to be in the same space. We had soft claw covers put on our two domestics (at the vet's office) so the kitties would not be able to hurt our Savannah if they took a swipe at him. The meetings have gone pretty well, and our two domestics, for the most part, are just trying to avoid Zuri, rather than confronting him.

Could he just be stressed?

Kat

 

[Patti]

I'm guessing you've probably already been to the vet and back by now so am interested to hear what he has to say. As for the sneezing, if it is only a few times a day and there is no discharge from the nose or eyes I would not worry about it. If you want to be very thorough you can run an upper respiratory disease (URD) PCR panel to confirm he has no infection, but that is a lot of money to spend for just a few sneezes.

As for the vomiting and diarrhea, my first thought was possible bowel obstruction. A kitten will vomit if that is the case and can also have diarrhea as the stool tries to get around the obstruction. I have found in my experience that this is often missed by vets unless we advocate for further evaluation (e.g., a barium swallow). Having said that, I would not jump right to that conclusion unless the vomiting persisted and/or he went off his food. As you said, it could easily be stress, although it doesn't sound like he is being exposed to t a lot of stressful situations. He could also have picked up a little GI infection as well - of course there is a Diarrhea PCR panel you can run for that also, but I would probably try an antibiotic first if that is suspected, before spending a lot of money on tests.