Kittens soon!

bombay momma · Mar 4, 2013

Thanks! I'm so proud of my girl. She did wonderful. She's even let the other cat AND the dog sniff and lick the babies without killing them. She watched them closely but didn't freak out or get excited.

kir5tie · Mar 4, 2013

Aww bless!! :-) keep us updated on the little ones & mummy's progress! :-) xx

bombay momma · Mar 4, 2013

The little one we were so worried about just got another weigh-in. put on 2 more grams!

kir5tie · Mar 4, 2013

That's brilliant news!! :-)

bombay momma · Mar 4, 2013

Hemi (the tiny one) is up to almost 62g! She's nursing great from mama, and taking from the bottle as well when the milk bar gets too rough for her. Her brother and sisters are so much bigger than her, the second smallest is over 20g more. Any advice for this little one? Never seen two kittens from one placenta sack before, apparently usually only one makes it when it does happen? i'll post some more pictures tomorrow, of them all dry and cleaned up!

StefanZ · Mar 4, 2013

Bombay Momma said:
Never seen two kittens from one placenta sack before, apparently usually only one makes it when it does happen?

The saving you did here is WAAY above average. A real marvel worth inscribing into the classic textbooks.

I dont know if you had vet guiding you, as you mention you phoned her frequently. Or it was you own sound wits.

I mean, if you werent as active and working just so, she would join the negative statistics.

56 grammes is little weigh. I had heard about others who did make it with lotsa work of the owner, but it is surely the about the lowest limit still manageable (if lucky enough).

You seems to do it very nicely. Make sure she has it warm, but not too warm. Too warm is almost as dangerous as not enough warm. Cats body temp is a little higher than humans.

Have dextrose (glucose sugar) home, so you are ready for crises, both with kittens and human kids.

Good luck!

StefanZ · Mar 4, 2013

Bombay Momma said:
She had them at 67/68 days. Had me worried and waiting for darn near 10 days, she's been showing signs since around day 58.

Lady Luck was with you both here. Look, if the kittens are rather small now, and one is tiny, 10 days ago they would be directly premature, Probably none would survive more than a few hours.

bombay momma · Mar 5, 2013

StefanZ said:
Lady Luck was with you both here. Look, if the kittens are rather small now, and one is tiny, 10 days ago they would be directly premature, Probably none would survive more than a few hours.

I know. Even the contractions she was having four days ago would probably have been too soon for the little one. Maybe she knew and that's why she stopped them? Mother's intuition.

StefanZ said:
The saving you did here is WAAY above average. A real marvel worth inscribing into the classic textbooks.

I dont know if you had vet guiding you, as you mention you phoned her frequently. Or it was you own sound wits.

I mean, if you werent as active and working just so, she would join the negative statistics.

56 grammes is little weigh. I had heard about others who did make it with lotsa work of the owner, but it is surely the about the lowest limit still manageable (if lucky enough).

You seems to do it very nicely. Make sure she has it warm, but not too warm. Too warm is almost as dangerous as not enough warm. Cats body temp is a little higher than humans.

Have dextrose (glucose sugar) home, so you are ready for crises, both with kittens and human kids.

Good luck!

Well I knew that I had to keep rubbing her and to clear her airways, it worried me because when they both came out, she was laying there not moving at all, and mossy ignored her and started caring for the twin, so I grabbed her and started rubbing real good with the towel, had to pull a lot of mucous and slime out of her mouth but she started breathing. I bottle fed her formula but i think what helped is i actually held her in my hand up to her mama to drink for like 20 minutes, and she got a lot of goodies from the natural milk. I also had a heating pad underneath the blankets in the box to help keep them warm. I bottle fed her frequently throughout the night and kept rubbing her and kept her warm, and she just gained strength enough to suckle from mama on her own. She's doing great this morning, put on a little more weight. Will do her official weigh in this evening though to make sure she's gained enough. Interestingly I've figured out that she is extremely limber in her front legs, double jointed maybe? She can twist and grab with them like actual hands, and she has little thumbs! She's going to be a very special girl when she's all growed up.

And I don't know if every vet is a negative nancy, but they sure do pile it on thick. Despite her progress I was about convinced she wasn't going to make it her first few hours. Glad to prove him wrong!

I have corn syrup for an emergency, not sure where to find pure dextrose in my town. Walmart or a pharmacy? Can I mix a little with the formula for Hemi just to give her an extra boost?

Thanks so much guys!

StefanZ · Mar 5, 2013

Bombay Momma said:
I have corn syrup for an emergency, not sure where to find pure dextrose in my town. Walmart or a pharmacy? Can I mix a little with the formula for Hemi just to give her an extra boost?

Here in Sweden they have dextrose in the common food shops, on the bakery shelves. I suppose it is used somewhere in baking!

So my guess is you can get it both at Walmart and pharmacy.

Yes, you can surely mix in a little into the formula.

And I guess you can mix in a little of this white corn syrup too as an alternative, as many uses it for reliving weak kittens, by putting some on the gum.

But Im sure dextrose is best for all such uses.

Dextrose powder is also more soluable.

Good luck!

[edit: a little typo]

bombay momma · Mar 5, 2013

Well the formula that I have (just reread the bottle!) has a very high cornsyrup and dextrose content, so i'll keep using it without adding anymore. I'll have to send my husband to the store to find the dextrose just in case.