Orphaned kitten update - constipated

Well I have got the kitten back for the weekend, he is 10 days old today. He went to stay with one of the doctors during the week while I was working and seemed to be thriving. However today he has become very constipated. We were able to get him to produce a small amount of some pretty sticky stool but not enough to make much of a difference. We gave him a warm water enema before I left work today about an hour and a half ago and still no poop. Any suggestions?

I am worried about him...he is obviously uncomfortable, his little tummy is really tight and his little bottom is very distended, and now his anus has begun to bleed a bit from straining and stimulating He cries and cries when you stimulate him. We switched from canned KMR to powdered about 3 days ago because he was eating so much, the doc didn't think this would have anything to do with his constipation but I wonder?

Any tips or suggestions or even prayers would be awesome..it would really be a shame to lose the little guy now...

When I first learned hands on with my orphaned boys, a rescuer told me that karo syrup would soften the stool. She was also a nurse. Do check this info out as I would not want to rely on this being correct.

I had to switch the KMR milk to the Just Born brand because of digestive problems and it helped tremendously. I thought if they drank too much of the milk they would get soft stools.

The Just Born brand is/was sold at Walmart.

Have you checked out www.kitten-rescue.com ? It helped me.

Hang in there.

Poor Baby. I'm not sure what to do.... but I'm sending by best.

Keep us updated!

We had a very similar situation with Gus. We found him at 10 days old, and he was very dehydrated, but once he was back on track we went through several episodes of constipation while he was bottle feeding. We were told about the karo syrup thing, along with a few other remedies to help him. The one that I felt most comfortable with was buying a tube of hairball medicine and giving him small doses every day to help get him moving. It worked wonderfully. We still had to work with him a little in helping him use the bathroom, but it was no where near how bad it had been.
I hope everything works out for you!!!!!!!

Hello and thank you for the replies! We finally got him to poop yesterday morning after 3 enemas The poor fellas little tush was so irritated it was bleeding. But he obviously felt much better afterwards and is doing great today. It has been 24 hours now and no poop, I am trying not to get too worried as I know these little fellas sometimes aren't super regular anyway. If he still hasn't pooped by tomorrow then back to the vet we go.

He is eating like a champ and growing like a weed! He is 12 days old today and his eyes still aren't open??

Also he is very restless today..he does not want to sleep in his box, only with me. I don't want him to grow up thinking he needs to be held all the time..what is the best thing to do here??

I had two orphaned kittens and I kept them wrapped in a piece of fleece material and stuffed inside my shirt so they could feel me breathing and my heartbeat. They would crawl to my neck and snuggle there to sleep....I let them as they seemed comforted.

Fast forward 16 months later and they could care less about sitting in my lap let alone sleeping with me! They grew up secure and comforted. Now they are well adjusted and no longer need that comfort.

I know personality and temperament of the cat plays a part also. You just never know. I tried to give them everything I could learn that a mom cat would give, on a human level of course. They are awesome independent boys and I do miss those days when all they would do was sleep on me.

In my opinion, I think he NEEDS to snuggle with his mom like he would if she were here. You are that surrogate mom now and have to fulfill those needs. Things will work out fine. It would be great if he did come to be a lap cat. None of mine are. Some will sleep on the bed and play with me but they will not waste their time in my lap.

I would worry less about him wanting to be with you than about keeping him hydrated and things "moving along..."

I am going to assume you are stimulating him to "go" by rubbing his bottom (needs this to pee and to poop). The only reason I bring this up is so many kitten raisers think they only have to do this for pee when it is necessary for both. If I am preaching to the choir, please ignore me and I apologize.

If he is happier with you all the time and you can do that, I would do it. It might actually help him to stay regular. At ten days his eyes are open or opening and his sight is not developed so it can be a confusing time for the little guy. With you is safe.. as would being with mom or siblings or both.

Originally Posted by TaraRose

Also he is very restless today..he does not want to sleep in his box, only with me. I don't want him to grow up thinking he needs to be held all the time..what is the best thing to do here??

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If he is uncomfortable, then he probably feels much better next to you. You could put a dab of Vitamin E on his bottom to soothe the irritation.
And please don't worry about holding him all the time - my most confident, outgoing cats were those who were "carted about" when young. My most outgoing kitten, JC the First, stayed in my pockets or my shirt during my daytime job ( I was very lucky that my boss was Japanese-American and deeply respected the value of cats) and in the afternoon, my older daughter was home from school & took over. As a result, JC was socialized by going to the bank, the video store, the library, etc. and loved car rides & travel. He was comfortable in staying in hotels & with new relatives. He understood dogs and horses & would accompany me to the riding stables. He loved going to the courthouse & socializing in the halls - a wonderful cat ambassador

Thank you for all the replies. I am stimukating him to poop also...however after no poop all weekend yesterdat morning he produced a little, rock hard poop. Constipated again! So we went back to the clinic for another enema, this time he produced a little more hard stool and a huge amount of soft stool. However this time he was pretty lethargic after so I stopped off at walgreens and got a jug of pedialyte. He had two bottlews of pedialyte before bed yesterday and is a bit perkier this morning, although he had a bit of diarrhea this morning so I am mixing a bit of pedialyte in with his
KMR. I have also switched back to canned KMR in case the powdered stuff was the problem.

He is pretty clingy this morning which is a good sign, and I even got a bit of a purr out of him this morning keep your fingers crossed for the little guy...he's had a rough couple of days...

PS excuse my typing i am doing it with one hand as he sleeps in the other

sleeping kitten in one hand = way more important than accurate typing!!!

I don't know if anyone here does this, but when I had a litter of kittens I had to raise by hand I fed them with a French Catheter and a syringe. I never had a problem and all 4 kittens lived to be adults (Queen had a C-section that became a spay). I also never had a constipation issue but I had the advantage of the queen caring for the kittens and allowing them to nurse her non producing nipples.. so she was stimulating them and they were doing the suckling. I also have raised a few kittens without benefit of Mom being there to help out with no issues.

All were fed with the french catheter.