Abcessed Mammary Gland

My momma cat came home this morning with a huge wound on her tummy, thought she had been attacked and it scared me to death. Have already lost 3 cats this year and my kids and I are not up to any more losses. The vet said to start feeding the kittens 2% milk and kitten chow (which I can't get here) so I had to buy Science Diet instead. I have to blend it so it's a liquid rather then chunks. He also told me to feed the same to momma since she is rather thin (she disappeared for 3 weeks, I think she was trying to find one of the cats that disappeared). I've been nursing her back to health and thought she was doing pretty good till now. I adopted her when friends who had been feeding her (she was a wild kitty) had to move out of state. Anyway, the vet also told me to make sure I give her some alone time away from the kittens and I wondered if anyone out there has nursed a sick wild kitty with kittens back to health? Any pointers they want to give out? She is a really nice cat, just a little afraid of humans I think. I hope she learns to trust us again, it always takes so much time to get her trust back after taking her to the vet.

Well, I am allowing the kittens in with mom for about 20 minutes 2 at a time and then giving her about 2 hours to recover from that. She looked really bad last night, but we gave her the antibiotic and cleaned the wound and then separated her from the kittens for the night. Tried to feed the kittens but they didn't want what the vet told me to give them... Science Diet kitten food and 2% milk. Think I will try baby rice cereal and canned milk, maybe a little corn syrup in it to sweeten it. At 3 weeks old they need more then she is able to give them, but she keeps trying. Never done this before, trying to feed such young kittens, I'm not making a very good Momma cat. They will lick a little off my fingers, but don't really want anything to do with really eating some of it. Just hope they are getting enough from mom to keep them going till I get this figured out.

Joanne,

Most of the information I can find is caring for abandonded kittens, so you will have to modify accordingly to your situation. It sounds like you are doing pretty well considering the circumstances.

Caring for Newborn Kittens

Here is a thread with some really good information. Take a look at the 2nd post by Hell604 (Helen), as she gives some great information Help with Newborns!

Here is a thread with a recipe for Kitten Glop, and further down the page are more recipes for kittens. Kitten Glop isn't the most appetising for us humans, but it is great for kittens, and for your mama cat.

Kitten Glop

Wow, thanks for the link to the recipe's I am going to the store to buy the ingredients to kitten glop in a little while. They loved the evaporated milk and Karo syrup I gave them this morning, but I wasn't sure how much to give and didn't know they had to be massaged either! I actually put them all in with momma for a little while after finishing feeding them this time and she was busy licking them and cuddling them. I think what I will do is feed 3 put them with momma for grooming, wait 2 hours then feed the other 2 and put them in with momma for grooming. I wonder how long is long enough, cuz she really needs a break so that she can recover herself. I thought maybe an hour after the feeding would be plenty of time for her to groom and cuddle each set and that would leave her an hour to herself in between each set. What do you think? Since I don't want her to totally stop feeding them, (she does have some milk) I have not been totally filling them up when they drink from the eyedropper. I hope I am doing the right thing, she really seems to want them to come to her when I put them in her dog kennel. She's a really good momma.