I have three orphaned baby kittens in my care, they are going to be about 4 weeks old this week. We have been bottle feeding them since we got them when they were almost 2 weeks old.
We had went from pre-mix liquid formula, to powder formula but the powder formula seemed to constipate the kittens so we switched back to the liquid. One of the kittens was still having trouble pooping. When stimulated he would just cry and squirm. His bottom got very raw and red from so much stimulation and after about 10 minutes he would finally be able to push out some poop but it was very very hard and he struggled a lot with it. Saturday we bought some clear karo syrup to add to his bottle to try and help with that but it didn't seem to do much.
Sunday morning I went in to feed the kittens around 6am and the other two walked up to me and begged for food and just crawled all over me like normal but the all grey kitten wouldn't come to me. He wouldn't wake up. I had to pick him up to get him to come eat, but thought maybe he was just sleepy. We went back to feed them a few hours later and he was doing the same thing. He still ate but was barely getting up to do anything and would eat about 1/2 his normal amount.
Our vet is in a pet store, and is open 7 days a week luckily. They also take walk ins, so I rushed him there. They checked his lungs for fluid and said with bottle fed kittens pneumonia is common from the milk getting into their lungs, but his lungs sounded clear and he had no blockage in his intestines stopping him from pooping. There wasn't a clear sign of anything being wrong with him, but after my telling him that he started his life outside they thought that the best course of action was to deworm him. I was a little nervous bc he is so small (only 15 ounces) and so young (3.5weeks) but they said that they could safely deworm him. They also gave me some medicine to give him for a couple days to hopefully help him have regular bowel movements.
This morning he is actually greeting me when I enter the closet (the kittens are set up in my walk in closet w/ a baby gate in the door so they have lots of room to play/sleep and a litter box (which they are using so well!!! They all 3 pee in the litter box on their own, and 2 of them are pooping on their own!!)
I am trying to decide if I should take the other two kittens to be dewormed or wait until they are 6 weeks old like I planned. I don't want them to get as sick as the little grey one did but I still don't feel super comfortable with taking them all out of the house until they are a little older.
We had went from pre-mix liquid formula, to powder formula but the powder formula seemed to constipate the kittens so we switched back to the liquid. One of the kittens was still having trouble pooping. When stimulated he would just cry and squirm. His bottom got very raw and red from so much stimulation and after about 10 minutes he would finally be able to push out some poop but it was very very hard and he struggled a lot with it. Saturday we bought some clear karo syrup to add to his bottle to try and help with that but it didn't seem to do much.
Sunday morning I went in to feed the kittens around 6am and the other two walked up to me and begged for food and just crawled all over me like normal but the all grey kitten wouldn't come to me. He wouldn't wake up. I had to pick him up to get him to come eat, but thought maybe he was just sleepy. We went back to feed them a few hours later and he was doing the same thing. He still ate but was barely getting up to do anything and would eat about 1/2 his normal amount.
Our vet is in a pet store, and is open 7 days a week luckily. They also take walk ins, so I rushed him there. They checked his lungs for fluid and said with bottle fed kittens pneumonia is common from the milk getting into their lungs, but his lungs sounded clear and he had no blockage in his intestines stopping him from pooping. There wasn't a clear sign of anything being wrong with him, but after my telling him that he started his life outside they thought that the best course of action was to deworm him. I was a little nervous bc he is so small (only 15 ounces) and so young (3.5weeks) but they said that they could safely deworm him. They also gave me some medicine to give him for a couple days to hopefully help him have regular bowel movements.
This morning he is actually greeting me when I enter the closet (the kittens are set up in my walk in closet w/ a baby gate in the door so they have lots of room to play/sleep and a litter box (which they are using so well!!! They all 3 pee in the litter box on their own, and 2 of them are pooping on their own!!)
I am trying to decide if I should take the other two kittens to be dewormed or wait until they are 6 weeks old like I planned. I don't want them to get as sick as the little grey one did but I still don't feel super comfortable with taking them all out of the house until they are a little older.