Ruminating about seeing kittens with eye infections

Tiggerman111

I am ruminating about something that happened years ago and sometimes I just can't get my mind off it. I really love animals and one day I was at a friend of a friend's house and we went into their shed for something, and there was two kittens, both kittens looked like he had really bad eye infections, when i commented on this the man said 'don't touch them', or something of that nature, he hadn't mentioned anything about bringing them to a vet, and seemed to want to keep them in the shed. The mother of the kittens was sitting on the inside of the window with the of part opened.

Something about the way he spoke, quiet sheepish or not wanting to alk about it made me wonder about whether they were being looked after, also he had hunting dogs that looked very depressed which according to my neighbour 'prob hadn't been out of their pens for months'

What does people think? Sometimes I just feel really bad that I didn't do anything to help the kittens or dogs, and I get stupid ideas about what happened to them after that.... am I being silly to think the worst??

The Sweeper

Tiggerman111, you can't beat yourself up over it. You sound like you might have been quite young at the time but even if you were 50 years old, there's no point berating yourself over something that happened a long time ago.

The kittens probably had something like a cat flu, or an upper respiratory tract infection, or possibly herpes or chlamidya, or possibly just conjunctivitis. They may have shaken it off themselves, they may not have. He may have taken them to a vet, he may not have. His dogs may never have been walked, or they may have.

So here's what you can do - if you see kittens like that again, and you're in a position to help, take them in yourself. They will need to see a vet - they're probably full of worms and possibly fleas and they need to be built up with good food, and they need to see a vet to assess the infections and see if they require medicating.

If you see dogs like that again, consider giving their owner a Kong toy as a present to help alleviate their boredom. If you think they're really abused, report it to your local SPCA. Unfortunately, however, the provision of adequate shelter, food and water, in a clean environment, is sufficient animal care - there's no law that says you have to entertain them too.

If you're feeling really down in the mouth about it, try contacting some of your local shelters, especially no-kill shelters (ones that don't put animals to sleep unless medically necessary), and see what you can do to help them out. They're always in need of old blankets and towels, or a bag of dry food or some tins, or even some toys or a help out with cleaning out cats and handling them, or taking dogs for a walk. It doesn't take much to help these guys out, and the reward in wagging tails and purring headbuts is usually worth the effort expended. :-)

mathepac

Bad eye infections in cats can be a sign of inbreeding.