Found 4 newborns, need help and advice !

Hi all,
I googled this site and it looks like I can meet all the right cat people here !
A brief story, please bear with me ...
I am this kind of people all the injured/orphaned/hurt/lonely animals seems to go to, I bet most of you here know what I mean. So this morning, a friend called saying that she found these 4 newborn kittens and she was bringing them to me... ok ! I already have a cat loving boxer dog, an adopted 5 year old fat cat, and a rescued and now missing for 26 days cat.And my 9 year old daughter. So I said OK ! Bring them in. They are 4 beautiful kittens, no idea what happened to mom. I am feeding them milk replacement, and they seem to be around 8 to 10 days old, eyes opened except for one. Two of them have their genitals swollen, and one of them is bleeding, and it's not looking good. I will take them to the vet tomorrow morning, no question. However, I will also be moving on Sept 14th , so you have an idea how my life/home looks like now. This will be my first night feeding them, and I know how it goes. So, I came here to hear some insights about my quest to save these 4 lives, and any , ANY ! suggestions you might have. I do have a friend who is willing to help, but she is so scared of feeding the little ones... I will take pics tomorrow and post them, and maybe I can get their weighs in the vet, will post that too.
Sorry about the long post, I just had to vent and look for support !
Thanks to all !!!
Ana

Bless you for doing this - you sound as if you have it all under control!

As for the swollen genitals, gently try making them defecate - warm water and cotton pads will do the trick.

Do get them to the vet asap!

You didn't put your location so I can't help you there - I would presume you're too far away from me anyway.

Bless you again and good luck!

Thanks for the reply...
I just came back from the vet, the news are not good ... the 2 smaller ones had a bad case of worm (forgot the name now) and had to be put to sleep, the poor little ones. The night was very difficult, only one is suckling well, and it was such a hard thing to watch the two sick ones suffer that way and being unable to help. Well, they are in cat's Heaven now, no pain, fun only. The vet will tell me what to do with the surviving beauties, I am willing to keep them but just can't for the next 3 or 4 weeks. I wish I could find someone to foster them until then, but I know that's not easy. I am in Miami, FL. If anyone knows a foster nursery, please let me know !
Thanks
Ana

Welcome to TCS! How wonderful of you to help these little babies. Yes, those two are in kitty heaven running around and chasing toys and eating lots and lots of yummy food.

I too seem to be a magnet for kittens and cat help. I am fostering (or maybe keeping) an orphaned kitten. I am helping my friend TNR the cats in her neighborhood and we found him in the bushes - so not knowing if we had taken his mom to be spayed or not, we picked him up and he's been living with me for two weeks now. Healthy as can be. Mom did a good job for this little guy.

And I am in Miami as well. hahaha. Unfortunately, I don't have room in my one-bedroom apartment with two adults cats, this small kitten and my fiancee. Try to contact The Cat Network for foster help. They are a group of volunteers who foster cats in their own homes, feed feral cat colonies and help TNR the colonies as well. Their website is http://www.thecatnetwork.org/.

Let me see if I can contact a few people in other groups to see if I can help you find a foster family for the next few weeks. Good luck with them either way.

I hope you can post pics soon!

Thanks merlynn's mom,
Yes, I know The Cat Network, but I also know they don't accept cats or kittens to foster. I left them a message anyway, since I am decided to keep the 2 surviving ones. I need a good person to take care of them for about a month or so, then I can get them back.
Thanks for the tips and the help !

Yeah, I know they don't take in people's kitties but like you said you are keeping them...so you never know. Fingers crossed. Also contact A Country Cat House and see if she has any good advice...her name is Josie and she's super sweet. Also if you ever need to leave your babies in a cattery or need to get their nails clipped or any grooming, she's GREAT!! 305.279.9770.

GOOD LUCK!!!

PM me, I might be able to find someone. The swollen testicles can be because the kittens are suckling each other. Keep them separated and keep them warm as you can. At any rate, PM me

Originally Posted by hissy

PM me, I might be able to find someone. The swollen testicles can be because the kittens are suckling each other. Keep them separated and keep them warm as you can. At any rate, PM me

Click to expand...

YES. My litter had a girl in it with swollen toes, knee and genitals and we susspect it was because they were all suckling on her when momma ditched. She had scabs on her feet and inside of her "knee" joint, and lost her fur when they came off (checked for ringworm, it wasn't, it was just the healing process). It's finally starting to grow back now.

After I took them in, just keeping them well fed stopped the larger ones from suckling on the weakest. A few occasions I caught them but redirected them and they were fine. However, if it's continuous, it may be best to seperate them completely as stated above.

Bottlefeeding is a full time job, I just weaned a litter of 5, so I sympathize with you and the time commitment required. I am working from home, so I was able to do it, but not without walking around like a zombie for weeks from lack of sleep.

Good luck finding foster or rescue help. They are so luck you found them.

merlynn's mom, thanks, I'll keep her number handy. That name is familiar to me... Country Cat House... I think I've been there once. Is it in Kendall?

Hissy, I sent you a PM, can't thank you enough for your help!

Fenleebe ,I read about kitties suckling on their siblings genitals and toes, but unfortunately that was not the case. The worms did that to them, the poor sweet souls.

Well, a little update...
I have a best friend who is keeping them for tonight and maybe tomorrow with her, so I can rest a bit and my daughter too... She asked a coworker about fostering the 2 brave survivors, but I don't know the answer yet. If she says no, I will call someone that Hissy knows. So I guess it's getting a bit better tonight. I really want to keep them, they are dark grey with orange " flames" around their necks and some white socks. Adorable creatures. Last night I was sitting on the floor and both of them could climb my leg to join the one I was feeding in my lap ...Doc says they are around 10 days old, no older than that.
I will have them for the weekend, probably in much better shape than yesterday, so I will take some pics and post them here.
Again, thanks to all for your support !

Ana

Did you ever find out what type of worms the doctor said they had? Poor little things, glad the others are doing better. Good luck finding a foster situation.

I guess it is maggots, I don't know much about this and I may be saying something wrong...

Today's update...
I got the beauties back, and they are fooling even the vet's technician! No one can tell for sure so far the sexes... We want girl and boy for Romeo and Juliet, but we still can't tell. Maybe one Pavarotti ? Both are doing fine, they spent the last 2 days under vets supervision and they look fine. She removed 4 more maggots out of one's ears, and she told me that one instantly acted more calm ... no wonder!
They are back with me and I will try to keep them here until the critical 3 or 4 days around my moving date, but that will be a much easier thing to do than finding someone for a whole month. Let's see how we deal with this until Monday, then we'll see.
I also introduced them to my boxer dog, who imediately fell in love with them. Can't tell the same about Theodora, my big grey spoiled tabby, her magesty the queen of the house. She looked at them inside their little cage, then sniffed, then gave a biiig hiss and left, tail up. Ok, it's gonna take her a while.
Well, we are moving next friday, and I was already concerned about how to make her feel safe and confortable in the new house. Now with the kittens she will have one more reason to be upset. Any suggestions? If possible, I will keep them in separate rooms for a while, but I don't see a way to unbox and store a whole house without having to open doors and keep them open. Hmnn.
Here they are !


and this is the smaller one :



The pics are bad because I took them at night and didn't want to hurt their little eyes with the flash light. Will take better ones soon !

Maggots aren't a death sentence for kittens nor are worms (as a rule). Maggots eat only dead and dying tissue and bacteria unless they are a certain type of maggot that eats everything. The kitties are cute, I hope Nancy can help you and that the kits pull through.

That is sad that they were PTS for worms, I never heard of that having to be done before. Most kittens are born with worms. I wonder what happened to mom cat? if they survived 7-10 days then she was caring for them. Have you gone back to the area where you found them to see if she is hanging around? Maybe she is thinking she forgot where she put them

Anyways, that is great that you are caring for them! They are very cute and by their coloration I would say you have two females there. All tortis and calicos are female and those look like two tortis to me

Hi Jen,

Yes, the same ocurred to me too, coming back to where they were found. It was my friend who found them in her backyard, she kept an eye for about 2 days but no sign of mom.
About the worms, I think it was not the only thing. The 2 that were put to sleep were in very bad condition, a lot smaller than the others, barely able to suck. They had swollen genitals, and one of them had deep bad wounds in the same area. I am not a vet and have little experience with kitties this small, but when I saw them suffering that much, I thought that it would be really the best for them.
Do you think they are both girls ?
Hmm... Gotta change those names again !

Awwww, they are so cute. Sorry about the loss of the other two.
I agree, two girls and very cute at that!!

Sometimes the mom does bail. That's what happened with mine. I have 5, they were found spread all around my back yard. 2 in one corner, 1 way across the other side in a bush and 1 in another corner in the open sun.

We never saw the mother again. Hours after finding the others we found what we thought was the last one - much smaller than the others with scabs all over her and swollen feet. A few days later I found a 6 kitten in my front yard that didn't make it. It was like she just dropped them all over the place and disappeared. Even set up a havahart trap with food and tried to lure her by bringing the babies outside, but nothing.

They are soooo cute.

It amazes me everytime I read about 'found newborns'.

This is the site to be for advice as they get older like litter training and weaning. My kitties have mum for that so I wouldn't really have a clue.

I'd say two girls aswell, Ziggys tortie and has a tortie daughter. They really are adorable.

Well Done

It's amazing how fast we deeply fall in love with them, right?
Our two babies ( girls ? boys??) are getting stronger by the hour.
I am feeding them every 4 or 5 hours, temp around them is kept high, and they seem to finally have found a home. I am soooo glad I can take them, I only will need big help during my moving days, but I will figure it out.
When they are fed and satisfied, they play a bit, roll their round bellies up, look at us with those unbelivable blue eyes and unconditional love. God bless them !
I am still struggling with some issues though.. they haven't pooped in 24hours, and one of them is sneezing. Vet told me to wait a bit cause if she needs antibiotics we'll have to give it a few days. What do you all think?
They are very active when awake, are learning fast how the bottle thing works, and I have the impression they are just having to adapt to a momless life, but with lots of love coming from us too.
And they purr.... and how these cuties purr !!!
I am about to purr myself when they start !

I was thinking 2 cute little torty girls. I bottle fed Blossom from 3 weeks when my son found her to 5-6 weeks. Do you burp them after each bottle. Blossom had trouble going to the toilet, so after 2 days the vet gave her an enima. I had to rub vigorously to get her to go. For a few feeds I put liquid parafin in her bottle. She had no trouble weeing so I used to put folded tissues under her whenever I held her, or I would hold her over a small litter tray. When she started on solids, at about 5-6 weeks, mixed with KRP or water she used to sneeze a little bc she would swim in it & get it up her nose & all over herself. I introduced her to using the litter tray when she was around 4-5 weeks. www.kitten-rescue.com has a lot of helpful info on raising orphan kittens & their stages.

Definitely little girls, and very adorable babies!!