Beatrice is a seal point Siamese!

I’ve just received the result of Beatrice’s DNA test. She is a seal point, (and a carrier of chocolate and dilution). What contrasts! Amazing. The contrasts between points and body color like she has are not so common for seal points (in the US the seal point Siamese in general have better contrasts than here).

She will darken with age, even in her body (all Siamese except for the white ones do) but you can see already this early which cats will have better and which worse contrasts.

Beatrice, a seal point Siamese

The kittens got their first vaccine and exam today at our veterinary dr Buba. They did not yell at all in the car, and they were not that scared at the vet. Leroy was in the same soft cage as they were and he is the best nanny ever. A big, calm, confident and caring cat. Leroy. 🙂

Now they are fine, a bit swollen at the places they got the vaccine. Bea is sleeping a lot, I think that she got a reaction to vaccine that I hope will go over the night. She ate and drank some water. The others are running around, but they are a bit less enthusiastic than usual. It is their first vaccine and the first trip outside the house. It is not easy!

One more picture of Belle, the blue girl:

Belle, a blue point Siamese

Aftermath

Archimedes has recovered completely and he is on his way to weigh as much as his siblings. He eats a lot and runs and plays. He has been an active healthy kitten again, for about a week now.

Archimedes against vaccine

It is a bit hard to type, since Archimedes is lying on my left arm and I cannot use it. He is resting on his pillow next to us right now, but he was sleeping next to his siblings in the afternoon (both he and they were very upset he was not there with them, so we put him back when they are resting. When they are running around and wrestling, we have to get him out of there, or protect him).

Here is he, to the right, sleeping next to Alfred (looking at the camera) and Ada this afternoon:

Archimedes’ body temperature goes up and down, and he is still tired, but we’ve managed to feed him regularly, so he got all the nutrients and water he needs. He weighs 30 gr more than before we went to the vet (saline certainly helped a lot). Leroy is licking him here, while Archimedes is resting on his pillow that we put on the sofa in the living room:

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Vaccine reaction

The kittens got their first vaccine on Monday, and they felt fine after that.

But, Archimedes started sleeping more yesterday, while the others ran around, very active, as usual, and when that happened again this morning, we weighed him and saw that he went down in weight 26 g since Sunday. He had a higher temperature than the other kittens, but still not high enough to qualify as fever (38.6 C). We managed to get the time at our veterinary within 30 minutes after our second call (we were very worried) and we drove there with him.

Archimedes behaved as if he were fine there, of course, he protested and yelled at the vet when the he was measuring his temperature (we have an ear thermometer, and the vet used the bad one, that goes into the rear end).

Archimedes’ condition (being tired, decreased appetite, higher temperature) is a reaction to the vaccine, as we thought.

The vet gave Archimedes an injection of saline under the skin, and an injection of antibiotics, just in case, but he will get no oral antibiotics, not to disturb his stomach flora (he is not that sick, he does not have fever. If he had fever, he would have gotten oral antibiotics as well). We also got special canned food, a/d® Canine/Feline Critical Care, to give him a little bit every few hours, diluted in water.

Poor Archimedes. The vet said it is because he has a strong immune system, so the body is fighting and he got a stronger reaction than the others.

I am so worried in spite of what the vet said. Archimedes is sleeping next to Jocke on a pillow now, isolated from the others, so they would not wrestle him. We fed him once, he did not like the food that much, but he got it in the mouth and ate it anyway.

I hate vaccines. Necessary evil. It is not the half-dead virus, it is the additives that most cats get reactions on, like people and human vaccines. It was Nobivac Tricat he got. I hope he gets better fast. The veterinary said he should.