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Urgent, picking up 5 abandoned babies, no clue condition or age

post #1 of 14
8/30/10 at 2:59pm
Thread Starter 
I am leaving in 10 minutes to pick up 5 abandoned kittens born from a stray. Not sure of the age or how long its been since the ate, honestly not sure if they are all still alive, they have been outside all day in Ohio heat.

I have bottles and formula, but cannot bottle feed 5 babies around the clock-- I work! I have a full day tomorrow but hubby is off and can help, I'm work half day Wednesday, full day Thursday off Fri, Sat, sun, Mon this weekend only!

We have called rescues and nobody will feed them, only put them down. Which I realize may be the only option if they are unwell, and will do that if necessary.

If these babies are too hot, how do I properly cool them from being outside?

Also I have a female who is spayed but will probably help me mother them--took her in pregnant last year and she had five who all have homes. If she helps them potty, can she catch illness's from them? She has rabies and FVCRP whatever that acronym is utd.

Please help, I'm going nuts here. Pray they are not as young as the lady thinks, who found them!!

Thank you.

Leslie I'm in the Cincinnati area if anyone can help. I do have a friend and husband who will help me tonight but after that I'm on my own.
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post #2 of 14
8/30/10 at 3:29pm
look online there has been new studys showing if the only option is feeding less frequently some/many will survive less often feeds.
far as cooling them if they are overheated I would put bottles in that are cool but not straight from fridge(my vet told me for a ADULT to drop its temp to 103 and let the rest go on its own.

Good luck and try to update when you can! if not good with ages post if eyes are open and teeth in or not, also if they are walking moving around much
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post #3 of 14
8/30/10 at 3:36pm
The ONLY way to cool down hot kittens is with rubbing alcohol. You want to rub it on their flaps of their ears and their paws. If their temp is 103 or above, they need a vet pronto!

Run a craigslist ad and ask for a nursing queen or someone to help you bottle feed- be careful and very selective who you pick.
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post #4 of 14
8/30/10 at 6:40pm
Thread Starter 
They're here and praise God I think they are about 3 weeks old, but tiny. They are walking and jumping to get out of the box but I can feel their ribs and three have gooey eyes. They have a number of teeth and groom themselves, and one even groomed hubby after eating. They also have fleas, what can I do?

I bottle fed them tonight, I'm thinking with all the teeth they have that next feed I'm going to try warm formula mixed with wet food. If I can get them to eat solids I may convince hubby to allow me to keep them until they find homes. Also hoping they can learn to go potty on their own.

4 black and 1 black and white, really hard to know who has been fed and who hasn't.

I'll keep you updated. I'm going to feed them again at like 1am and hopefully feed them before I go to work, then maybe hubby will feed them at lunch time for me. If I can get them eating solids this will be so much easier.

Leslie
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post #5 of 14
8/30/10 at 7:35pm
For the fleas, use Dawn water on them. Put some drops of Dawn dishwashing soap in a glass of water and dip the comb in the water and then run the comb through their fur.
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post #6 of 14
8/30/10 at 7:42pm
Actually, just straight bathe them in warm water with a few drops of DAWN. The bath will stun the fleas but not kill them so have a jar of really hot (almost boiling water) nearby. Use a flea comb and comb them dry- drop the comb into the hot water to kill the fleas. Chase the remaining fleas on the kittens with a pair of tweezers and squeeze them to death. Check the kitties gums if they are pale, white, or bleached white get these kittens to the vet quickly for a safe application to kill fleas and also get them wormed (by the vet only) Stay away from any over the counter treatments for fleas and worms and work only with your vet.

Good luck
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post #7 of 14
8/30/10 at 10:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack31 View Post
4 black and 1 black and white, really hard to know who has been fed and who hasn't.
The most easy is prob to colour their claws. Say a different paw on each one.
Use the "colour" you use for your own own nails.
Breeders do so.

Another tip may be to set a coloured band on them, each different color. It is also more cute this way. Although I suspect they themselves find coloured claws less bothersome.

Wonderful the desperate task you saw yesterday shows to be "only" a difficult one.
Good also they ARE 3 weeks - this shows they are survivors: if very weak they would already be gone.

Tx a lot,

and good luck!
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post #8 of 14
8/31/10 at 10:48am
Oh so glad they are older!!! You need a break! They sound healthy. Luckily they should eat eat very well on their own.

Don't be overwhelmed. My daughter raised 3 orphans from shut eyes and folded down ears to lovely little girls who she couldn't give up. No home was good enough for her babies other than her own.

Good luck and keep us posted on their progress!
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post #9 of 14
8/31/10 at 4:15pm
If the fleas are extremely bad, I would take you your vet about Capstar. They say not to use it on kittens under 2lbs, but I have used it on kittens 0.4lbs in an emergency with no ill effects (under vet supervison of course).
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post #10 of 14
8/31/10 at 5:38pm
Thread Starter 
Spoke with my vet who is going to dose Revolution per each of their weights in a needleless syringe.

They will be staying with me until old enough to rehome or a shelter will take them. All shelters said no mostly because they needed a foster home still.

They ate great at 1AM 6AM 11:30AM and 6PM. Wet food mixed with formula. I'm going to go down now and give some formula in a bottle, they can't figure out how to lap it in a bowl, and weigh them for the flea meds for tomorrow.

I only work a half day tomorrow so I'll go straight to the vet after work for the meds then home to put it on and feed them.

All 5 are very active and I'm feeling more round bellies after meals. Eating about a teaspoon in a sitting maybe more depending on the kitten. I'm also going to paint nails tomorrow because I have no clue which black kitten is which. Their goopy eyes already look better from just being cleaning with a wet cotton ball.

I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks
Leslie
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post #11 of 14
9/1/10 at 1:21pm
Thread Starter 
The smallest of the kittens weighs about 7.2 oz. It was eating fine since Monday, at 6am feeding this morning it didn't eat great, ate some and at 1pm feeding today it didn't eat at all. It also throw up some, mostly mucusy kind of stuff. It's still active and was playing with two of the other bigger kittens. I offered a bottle after it didn't eat at 1PM since they have been eating soft feed mixed with formula, I thought maybe the bottle might work, but it didn't.

I'll be honest, I am not in a financial place to run this kitten to a vet. I also know that the two smallest kittens both under 8oz at 3.5 weeks old are going to have a fight on their hands. Any ideas of what I can do to stimulate his appetite at the next feeding?

I put in a rice sock for warmth after the 1pm feeding, even though the garage stays pretty warm, I thought maybe that little one just isn't able to keep his body temperature up like the others and is too cold too eat.

I also gave them some hard food and a few tried it, one really liked it. I also put some milk in a bowl and a couple lapped it up.

They were treated with Revolution today, so I also hope this helps with appetite and general health, they had a lot of fleas.

Their weights last night were 12.4, 10.2, 9.4, 7.8 and 7.2 I believe but I don't have the paper in front of me.

thanks
Leslie
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post #12 of 14
9/2/10 at 9:54pm
I wish I were closer to you (I'm in the Akron area), I'd totally come over and help with feeds.

Have you tried calling some shelters and asking if they can recommend a low cost vet? We have one around here, actually associated with/sponsored by the shelter, and they're pretty cheap. And regular vets may cut you a break if they know that they're strays that you took in. I took my rescue kitty to my regular vet today, and she didn't charge me anything for the visit.

Good luck, keep us posted!
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post #13 of 14
9/3/10 at 5:18am
Five babies is alot to hand raise, but at three weeks, they're old enought that they don't need as much attention as they do when they're younger. By this point, you can probably feed them once before bed and once as zoom as you wake up, then every 6 hours during the day.
It's going to be important to know which kittens which, so the nail colouring is a good thing to do now. Since you have a scale, make sure that they are all gaining- their weights compares to each other doesn't matter as long as they're all gaining weight.
They probably aren't quite ready to start eating solid food and using the litter by themselves, but mixing the food with formula should be fine, but if you haven't seen them go to the bathroom, you're going to have to help them go.
But, with all this in mind, we have to know that these are wild-born kittens, and they could have been born with any kind of illness- and, if one or some of them are ill, at least you're giving them a warm and safe place to die. You're giving them a true chance at life, which is more than the shelter could have done.
Thanks for helping these little guys Leslie!
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post #14 of 14
9/3/10 at 7:07am
Thread Starter 
Although Wednesday was scary, yesterday and this mornings feedings give me hope that these babies want to live, and I'm going to fight for them, even if it means sleeping in 4-5 hour increments.

They are actually eating 5 times a day, 5 hours apart except one feed is 4 hours apart--at least this is for the long weekend. Come Tuesday I'm hoping they are able to go the work day without a feed, but will come home on Lunch if absolutely necessary.

I am now syringe feeding all of them as Wednesday they all started to refuse the soft food and had upset bellies and soft poo. I am keeping accurate weight and feeding charts. Yesterday only one lost weight and I think it was still d/t a rough Wednesday. Everyone else remained the same, I'm hoping today's scales read much better!

Everyone remains active, loud and precious. No one seems to have an upset belly and poo seems to be firming up again.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we need it!

Leslie
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