A hypoglycemic kitten comes back to life

Is Dr. Gary Berkowitz the best kitten veterinarian in the county? A subjective question, but we once again were reminded this week that he must be the top vet for kittens, or among the top 2 or 3. Any other nominations? Send em in.

On Weds. morning, a tiny kitten was in hypoglycemic shock early in the morning in a foster home. She could barely move and was on death's door. Her 4 siblings were hungry, but doing fine. For some reason, she had not gotten nutrition and was literally on death's door when her human caretaker found her.

Rushing her over to see Dr. Berkowitz around 8 a.m., luckily he was not in surgery. He used his skills and knowledge, and a bit of simple medicine (basically a sugar water mix) and a rubber glove full ot hot water to raise her temperature, to bring her back to life. I watched him work with the tiny baby for 20 minutes, bringing her attention back to the world to the degree that she tried to bite him with her little teeth when he rubbed her face with a warm wet paper towel.

I asked if I should leave her for a few hours in case there was more to do. He said, no take her back home, it's 50-50 with this one. She was still weak and limp when I carried her out to the truck. By the time we got to Center Road, she'd begun to purr against my neck. And then she wriggled. HARD. Within an hour, with more of the "dex" drops in her mouth, she'd begun to lift her head, look at me, wanting my attention. A few hours later, she wanted food, she was back to her perky self and went back to the litter.

It was an unbelievable turnaround, after seeing numerous kittens crash and die this year, this little girl decided to return to our world. And Dr. Berkowitz helped her do it.

With that, the Venice Cat Coalition and Venice Humane Society launch a new program: The Happy Kitten Project. We have envisioned this program for nearly a year, unsuccessfully requested grant funding from the local foundations, and now decided to just proceed with it, funding it with our day to day dollar donations as we can.

What is the Happy Kitten program? We realize that our work on spay-neuter is taking years to end overpopulation programs for cats, so we are tackling it from two ends. In addition to spaying and neutering adults, we aim to get as many kittens as we can from whatever unfortunate circumstances they are in and provide them with a basic start in health and sterilization. No matter if they are ferals, from the "backyard breeders," a kitten somebody got off Craig's list, or a kitten owned by a person of wealth. The program offers any kitten in our county the same medical protocal as our foster kittens, preferably for a $75 donation to defray the costs (often over $150 for a single kitten)... but often it will be done for $10 or $25 or whatever the owner can afford to contribute. The bottom line is that the kitten is dewormed, deflea'd, vaccinated, microchipped and most importantly, sterilized. We will begin now to publicize this new project and open it to as many kittens as possible this summer and fall. Call us if you'd like to help with it. It will be fun.

Work with us, and we promise you will have many more "happy kitten" stories like this one, because vets like Dr. Berkowitz do care about these kittens, more so than they care about their bank accounts. Currently, only a handful of local vets work with us to rescue cats but we hope to see more of them ask to be involved. After all, once the kitten is rescued, adopted and "happy," its owner becomes a regular paying client. We all win! Adopt a kitten for $10 and enjoy the life and love it brings you this weekend! Call if we can help the cats you know all year round....

All the bast,
Theresa Foley
Key West Cat Society, Venice Cat Coalition, and Venice Humane Society