First Kitten Born Three Hours Ago, No Milk.

cjs233

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Hello,

I've got a young queen who has given birth for the first time.  There are five kittens now, the first born three hours ago.  She is not producing any milk at this point and I'm concerned.  I've not had this happen before, as they usually seem to let their milk down before labor.  Thoughts?
 

StefanZ

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You can try to massage her up, her tits...   What time is it by you? I suppose a vet could give her some hormone to quicken the milk up.  It is certainly possible with humans.

Otherwise, you must quickly prepare to give them something yourself, time is running for you now...

Goat milk, or some good kmr or something...   difficult to know what you can and what you cant do, what is open...

A couple of links may be

http://www.messybeast.com/handrear.htm

next is, google:  fabcats, handraising   (kittens if need be)

third is   www.kitten-rescue.com

Good luck!
 
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bigperm20

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I would call the vet immediately. While u are doing that if you can have someone run out to a pet store and get some kitten formula or KMR I would do it right now. They are incredibly fragile right now, and need nutrition.
 

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Make also sure she mom has plenty to drink; is not dehydrated in any way,

the temperature is nice,  they are unstressed...  No barking dogs, howling toms nor shouting children nearby.

If she usually manages well milk diary products, part of the drinking may be youghurt or low lactose milk, or goat milk.

With with milk diary products wont give her milk in a hurry, but doesnt not harm and may help some.

Good luck!
 
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cjs233

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Mama (Lulu) and the kittens are well.  Lulu did eventually begin lactating, though I had bought some KMR just in case.

-Thanks so much to you and bigperm20 for replying.  
 

StefanZ

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Mama (Lulu) and the kittens are well.  Lulu did eventually begin lactating, though I had bought some KMR just in case.
Splendid! Puh!.... :)   Tell more how it went, what you did and what went by itself...  So we do learn by your experiences too.

Do weigh them every day at the same time. Use a kitchen scale in grammes, or 1/10 of ounces.

So you will see if they gain every day as they should, - or not.

The mom needs good nourishment with these 5 kittens, you do surely know it. Kitten food is OK.

This kmr you bough is no waste.  You can use it either to give the mom a little extra, or giving them kittens as extra, when the weaning begans in about 4 weeks.  Dissolwing the baby kitten dry with kmr.

You can also have it in reserv, just IF.  Thus buying yourself peace of mind.

Good luck!
 

orientalslave

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Weight gain should be 10g per day or more.  There might be the odd hiccup, they might not gain in the first day or two, but otherwise they should grow at a pretty steady rate.  The average for the first three weeks for my last fosters (5) was 15g per day but I feel that was better than expected.

I have also never found the need to feed KMR-equivalent (Cimicat in the UK) to a mother cat, or indeed any kittens with any of the fosters I've had over the years.  I have always let them wean themselves - mum's food is put down in shallow dishes, they paddle in it, clean themselves up and start eating.  (that also worked for a friend whose BSH had a litter of 8!)

I worried a little about not seeing one of the kittens eating solids last year, until the day I put some raw mince down and she was straight into it stuffing herself.  I must simply not have seen  her eating - she was clearly already an expert at it!  They also got the odd treat of cooked white fish whcih was very popular as well, but it really is a treat - it's not good to feed that regularly.
 
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cjs233

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The birthing itself went very smoothly, with all kittens + placentas delivered about 25 minutes apart, and minimal help needed from me.  I just sat by and left Lulu alone for the most part, since I didn't want to add to her stress.  I had to break open one kitten's sac, and clean it's face, since Lulu wasn't showing any sign of doing it.  After that, she did everything on her own.  She did eat the placentas.  Lactation started 4-ish hours after the first kitten was born.

One thing I did notice, is that the kittens look big for newborns, and that Lulu looked particularly run down.  I'm guessing, but this could be the reason for the delay in lactation.  Yesterday afternoon, (the day after the birth) I gave Lulu about 15cc's of KMR because she wasn't getting up to eat, and still looked really run down.  She drank it right up with -ZERO- struggle.  Last night, I added some canned food to her dish to induce her to eat, since she didn't seem to be doing so.  (I had seen her drink deeply, though.)  This worked. 

Today she looks -MUCH- better, and I'm planning to give her another portion of canned food in addition to the dry that she has access to all the time.

I hadn't thought to weigh the kittens, but I have a very accurate postal scale that will weigh out small increments, and I will start weighing out the lil' cuties each evening.  Also, once I get the pictures out of my camera, I'll post those here.

Again, thanks to everyone who has replied! 

 
 
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cjs233

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Pictures!


Lulu with the kittens.  There are three black ones and two grey.
 



One of the tinies.



A teeny, tiny paw...

 
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