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- Nov 6, 2003
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Saved a kitten! From a... Watering Hole (of death... aka a drain pipe that was flooding). I have no idea how many days it had been stuck. 🙁
These are all strays that fam take care of, but they come and go, so it's hard to keep inventory every night. I don't normally do any of the feeding or care, but I get fearful when not all 4 of the littlest littermates show up at night. They're always together.
Spoiler pic... I finally gained access after multiple rounds of cutting. [I safely cut into the pipe... used my left hand fingers as a guard or index after visually checking, then cut outside my fingers to ensure I could never accidentally cut the cat].
Came home from driving around yesterday evening and started doing random yard work. Heard mewing but saw no cat. It was persistent, which these strays do not do (they don't even meow except food time), so alarm bells went off.
Rushed inside and grabbed my headlamp, a shovel, aviation snips in case I need to cut the [plastic] pipe, and a Shark Carpet Expert extractor (it handles scrubbing/vacuuming wet carpets but would choke on mud...but I didn't care tbh). My initial fear was drowning since the drain pipe was completely occluded with muddy water at the opening, so I was deciding whether to grab the new $5 hand pump from Harbor Freight or the $200-300 Shark from Costco that's not designed for anything but liquid. [I bought a nice wet/dry ShopVac but it's still unopened and didn't wanna mess with that...]
Documented the whole before/during/after ordeal with video and a few pics!
Uploaded the videos and pics somewhere and was gonna post the link here but didn't want Google and the world to pick it up tbh, plus some doxxing potential. Might share in Lounge Saturday since that's protected from search engines. Lowkey went on a journey of frustration, confusion, elation after I finally got through to it and got it out, then some worry/anxiety it'd recover.
I have zero vet client experience, and I'm not asking for actual advice. I don't have any funds to do a multi-hundred (or thousand) bill, but if it's something small for something necessary, I'll figure out a way. Is there anything I can hypothetically ask that doesn't fall under any sussy advice giving but more casual? aka "It needs to get seen immediately" or "it should be fine..."?
I need sleep, so I hope there's nothing emergent.
I cannot monitor any more. I've been awake a couple days and don't want to add to the problem.
Any cleaning or bathing tips? Wish I could just put it in a warm bath. Towel is tedious and not that great for removing mud/feces. Water only? [Edit: some half-siblings are helping with the cleaning, which I'm grateful for. The mother was completely hissing and growling and rejecting at the poor kitten when it went up to her.]
I had some pics of it sleeping in a standing, 90 degree posture (as if still stuck in the drain pipe), both without support and with support (sleeping on a sibling), but SDN censored all of them and wouldn't allow the upload (I doubt sleeping kittens look like anything sus, but welp). That worried the hell out of me as if it lost all ROM or something. Then another pic of it in a normal position, so I'm probably overworrying. It's shaking left front paw like it's bothersome, but it's weight-bearing so I dunno.
Mostly overworried about the infection risk if it has any open wounds.
Again, this isn't my pet (never had one yet!) and is a stray and I can't really do much. But lowkey went through an emotional experience getting it free and I'd be super super upset with myself if it died and I knew that I didn't figure out how to find a SA GP or something with money that's earmarked for my own care.
If any of my questions were ToS no-nos and too specific, I'll happily edit them out!
These are all strays that fam take care of, but they come and go, so it's hard to keep inventory every night. I don't normally do any of the feeding or care, but I get fearful when not all 4 of the littlest littermates show up at night. They're always together.
Spoiler pic... I finally gained access after multiple rounds of cutting. [I safely cut into the pipe... used my left hand fingers as a guard or index after visually checking, then cut outside my fingers to ensure I could never accidentally cut the cat].
Came home from driving around yesterday evening and started doing random yard work. Heard mewing but saw no cat. It was persistent, which these strays do not do (they don't even meow except food time), so alarm bells went off.
Rushed inside and grabbed my headlamp, a shovel, aviation snips in case I need to cut the [plastic] pipe, and a Shark Carpet Expert extractor (it handles scrubbing/vacuuming wet carpets but would choke on mud...but I didn't care tbh). My initial fear was drowning since the drain pipe was completely occluded with muddy water at the opening, so I was deciding whether to grab the new $5 hand pump from Harbor Freight or the $200-300 Shark from Costco that's not designed for anything but liquid. [I bought a nice wet/dry ShopVac but it's still unopened and didn't wanna mess with that...]
Documented the whole before/during/after ordeal with video and a few pics!
Uploaded the videos and pics somewhere and was gonna post the link here but didn't want Google and the world to pick it up tbh, plus some doxxing potential. Might share in Lounge Saturday since that's protected from search engines. Lowkey went on a journey of frustration, confusion, elation after I finally got through to it and got it out, then some worry/anxiety it'd recover.
I have zero vet client experience, and I'm not asking for actual advice. I don't have any funds to do a multi-hundred (or thousand) bill, but if it's something small for something necessary, I'll figure out a way. Is there anything I can hypothetically ask that doesn't fall under any sussy advice giving but more casual? aka "It needs to get seen immediately" or "it should be fine..."?
I need sleep, so I hope there's nothing emergent.
Some concerns:
1. Hygiene. It was soaking in muddy filth for ... I don't know how long it's been there. 1 day? 2-3? I spent a couple hours trying to clean it with a warm soaked towel and tried a couple warm baths, but I couldn't get it to tolerate the bath (understandable, considering it's been trapped in water forever). It could be soaking in its own feces. I don't know about infection or any open wounds.
2. Any hypoxemia/stiffness from being stuck for hours or days.
3. Hypothermia (mostly addressed). It's highs in 70s or 60s and lows 50s here and there's a heating pad (set to the lowest setting) under some towels in their little temporary homeless shelters. I found that towel + space heater for a little bit helped dry off a lot of the gunk. Littermates share body heat. I was mostly concerned about it being soaking wet/dirty and losing heat fast.
4. Food and water have been addressed (as a layperson).
5. Any weird MSK wonkiness from being still for a long time. It's able to use all 4 legs, but the rear half is super degraded, which makes sense.
1. Hygiene. It was soaking in muddy filth for ... I don't know how long it's been there. 1 day? 2-3? I spent a couple hours trying to clean it with a warm soaked towel and tried a couple warm baths, but I couldn't get it to tolerate the bath (understandable, considering it's been trapped in water forever). It could be soaking in its own feces. I don't know about infection or any open wounds.
2. Any hypoxemia/stiffness from being stuck for hours or days.
3. Hypothermia (mostly addressed). It's highs in 70s or 60s and lows 50s here and there's a heating pad (set to the lowest setting) under some towels in their little temporary homeless shelters. I found that towel + space heater for a little bit helped dry off a lot of the gunk. Littermates share body heat. I was mostly concerned about it being soaking wet/dirty and losing heat fast.
4. Food and water have been addressed (as a layperson).
5. Any weird MSK wonkiness from being still for a long time. It's able to use all 4 legs, but the rear half is super degraded, which makes sense.
I cannot monitor any more. I've been awake a couple days and don't want to add to the problem.
Any cleaning or bathing tips? Wish I could just put it in a warm bath. Towel is tedious and not that great for removing mud/feces. Water only? [Edit: some half-siblings are helping with the cleaning, which I'm grateful for. The mother was completely hissing and growling and rejecting at the poor kitten when it went up to her.]
I had some pics of it sleeping in a standing, 90 degree posture (as if still stuck in the drain pipe), both without support and with support (sleeping on a sibling), but SDN censored all of them and wouldn't allow the upload (I doubt sleeping kittens look like anything sus, but welp). That worried the hell out of me as if it lost all ROM or something. Then another pic of it in a normal position, so I'm probably overworrying. It's shaking left front paw like it's bothersome, but it's weight-bearing so I dunno.
Mostly overworried about the infection risk if it has any open wounds.
Again, this isn't my pet (never had one yet!) and is a stray and I can't really do much. But lowkey went through an emotional experience getting it free and I'd be super super upset with myself if it died and I knew that I didn't figure out how to find a SA GP or something with money that's earmarked for my own care.
If any of my questions were ToS no-nos and too specific, I'll happily edit them out!
Last edited:
went with the nickname I was assigned by SDN, lol
