Need help with meds - 2 week old babies

Hello! Last night I picked up new fosters, a momma and her 3, 2-3 week old babies. Momma (of course) has a URI, so she's on antibiotics. She gets 1 CC 2x a day. The kittens are supposed to get .25 cc 2x a day as well. That seems like SO much to me. I'm having trouble, or maybe I'm just scared. I'm worried that I'll get it into their air ways. I gave them all the meds last night, just a little bit at a time until the dose was finished. Any tips would be great.

Also the babies have goey eyes, sometimes they won't even open. I've tried warm compresses, but that doesn't seem to be working. They're supposed to get Gent. in the eyes 2x a day as well, but sometimes one of their eyes are sorta crusted shut. Any ideas there?

The shelter I volunteer for has had over 800 surrenders in the past 14 days. I'm having trouble getting thru to a tech there.

Thank you so much!

what antibiotics are the kittens on? If it's amoxycillin(Sp?) then it will help to clear up the gooey eyes. You can also use a warm soft cloth to moisten the eyes, don't rub that can cause more damage.
my kittens hated their antibiotics, they would start screaming as soon as i picked them up for it. I would pick them up, wait for the scream and then quickly shoot the medicine into their mouth. Sometimes they made a gurgling sound, but it never harmed them.

Yes, that's the type of meds. I've been trying to get the little b&w girl's eyes open all day. She was fine last night and now her eyes are glued shut. Yesterday it was the calico's who's eyes were glued shut. The lone male, an orange tabby, seems to be the strong, healthy one. I'm really worried about the b&w girl. She's breathing heavily thru her mouth now, not all of the time, but enough to make me worry. Poor little babies haven't been in this world long enough to be sick already.

it took me about 2 weeks to get all of my kittens well. just be patient, and keep giving the meds.
they didn't really have any trouble breathing though, but they did sneeze a lot. If your still worried about her breathing, call your vet ASAP.

Everyone seems to be okay. I've been just dripping a little bit of medicine in at a time into their mouths until the dose is finished.

The b&w female has 1 eye open now, so that's an improvement. The others eyes are wide open.

Now I have a different issue...mom has not used the litterbox in over 24 hours! She is confined to my kitten proof home office (cardboard is everywhere so kittens can't get behind my desk). I haven't noticed a single spot anywhere on the carpet. The bed where the babies are sort of has a pee smell to it, but mom just came from the shelter. Everything that comes out of the shelter smells like pee...including me sometimes!

I sure hope she doesn't have a UTI. But I think the antibiotics for the URI will help with that as well.

This is typical. Always issues. She seems SO happy to have a comfortable place to raise her babies though! She seems so thankful too!

Thanks for listening!

You are giving .25 and not 2.5 right? .25 is such a teeny tiny small amount, just wanted to make sure you got the numbers right.

Originally Posted by Jen

You are giving .25 and not 2.5 right? .25 is such a teeny tiny small amount, just wanted to make sure you got the numbers right.

Click to expand...

It's .25 which is a lot of meds for a 14 day old kitten. More than one mouthful at least.

I can't find the USB for my camera...I've been taking lots of pics!

Even for a 14 day-old kitten, 0.25 cc (or mls) is not a huge amount.

The following information is so you will understand how small the amounts are, not to encourage you to use anything other than the dropper that can with the medication.

5 cc (or mls) = 1 teaspoon
So the mom gets a 1/5 of a teaspoon/dose.
The kittens are 1/20 of a teaspoon/dose. There are 16 drops in 1 cc(or mls), so it should only be 4 drops.

Without knowing the medication and the strength, there is no way to know if the dosage is correct. Typos are very easy to make on the labels.

Originally Posted by Hdizzy

It's .25 which is a lot of meds for a 14 day old kitten. More than one mouthful at least.

I can't find the USB for my camera...I've been taking lots of pics!

Click to expand...

Ya, even for 14 day old kittens, that is just a few drops of liquid...

The medication is the newborn strength amoxil. The vet tech wrote .25 cc on the label and put a black mark/line on the syringe at .25 cc. So I'm pretty sure it's not a mistake on their part. Considering I weigh 125 lbs and when I take meds, I take a teaspoon, 4 drops seems just about right to me on a kitten who only weighs a couple of ounces. That's not technical math of course, but they're getting better so I'm just happy about that.

About the litter box...she isn't eating and drinking enough. She only weighs 5 lbs herself! (My last foster kittens weighed 5 lbs at 4 months!) She's a bag of bones. She'll take some hard food, some soft food, but not what a nursing mom should be eating. She seems very comfortable here, sits on my lap when I'm at the computer. She purrs and kneads when I'm around. She even let my curious dogs come in to say hi. Today she was climbing the curtains and sitting in the window sill. So maybe she was 100% outdoor before I got her. She's been here since Wed. evening and hasn't once used the litter box (it's Friday evening now). The nest did smell like urine pretty bad today, so I changed all of the bedding. One of the babies pooped in there on their own, so maybe they're starting to pee on their own too...or maybe it was mom. I can't see a mom cat going in her nest, but who knows.

My first ever foster mom had litter box issues. I kept telling them that she had a UTI b/c she peed on soft things. Eventually she had to be put down and I was told they were pretty sure it was corona virus. That mom raised her babies before she got sick. She was about 4 lbs in the end too.

Put she's not pooping either. Pee she can hide in this room, poop, I'd see it.

Keep your fingers crosses for a suprise in the box.

What about some cat attract litter? Or putting some dirt in a box for her?


BTW, thanks for taking them in.

No more worries. I just found the biggest pee clump I've ever seen and some not so perfect stool. The boxes weren't brand new, squeaky clean. My 2 cats had used them a couple of times before the fosters came, so I figured they had that smell. I was never so excited to see a used litterbox in my life!

Thanks everyone!

BTW, you don't have to thank me for fostering! That's part of our life around here!

Don't scold me, but I gave her some tuna. She ate that right up. I know it's like kitty crack, but I just wanted her to get something and tuna usually will do the trick. She has the URI and sometimes really smelly tuna will spark the appetite.