Need help with a kitten - rescued from wild monkeys

Hi there,

it is a strange story but I need some advice with a kitten I rescued yesterday.

I am on holidays in Thailand at the moment. Yesterday I went to one of the monkey temples and saw one female monkey with something strange in her mouth. I took a closer look and recognized it: a kitten ! They are wild monkeys and they can become quite aggressive when you get too close so I had to wait. The monkey dragged the kitten along, uphill, downhill, trying to treat it like a monkey baby but the treatment it looked very abusive to me. The kitten was screaming.

When the kitten almost stopped moving and screaming the monkey lost interest for a second and that's when I took the chance. I started yelling, ran towards the monkeys and grabbed the kitten from the ground. I had to run away as the monkeys tried to attack me.

Kitten mommy could not be found.

There she is now, sleeping next to me in my bed. "Lucky" is probably 5 weeks old, eyes open, walks very slowly, sleeps most of the time.

Surprisingly she suffered no major injuries from the monkey attack.

I organized cat-babymilk and a feeding flask for kittens.

My major concern is: she does not eat or drink by herself. Se starts screaming when I try to feed her from the flask, I have tried many times, gently.  I manage to get some drops of milk into her mouth when she is half asleep every now and then. I offered boiled rice, pieces of sausage, pieces of boild shrimp but she's not interested except for the rice - she chewed on it a bit.

She defecated 24 hours the last time after the monkey attack.

She was in a good mood today playing with my finger and biting me for fun but I worry about her rejecting all food. I understand everything has been very traumatizing since yesterday but I don't want to lose this little surviver now.

I found a good home for Lucky with some lovely Thai ladies already but the cucial next days I will take care of her.

I read kittens usually feed every few hours. Mine has not had a main meal for more than 24 hours now. Should I take her to the vet ?

Any advice is welcome

Thanks

Guenther,

Pratchuap Khiri Khan, Thailand

Yes, take her to the vet. She may have internal injuries. Congratulations on the rescue and finding her a home. I hope she makes it.

If you can find goat milk, it may be a good try, her perhaps better recognizing goat milk than cat substitute milk.  Some stimulating before and after (push gently with your finger on her tummy and around the behind parts.  Or even better, a wet cloth. If you dont have warm water you can wet it with your spit. ) I mean, if Im needy to got the bathroom, Im not hungry.  Probably so with kittens too.

Drinking.  A home made pedialyte which works and easy to do in Thailand, is, well cooked rice water, + some kitchen salt.

1 litre rice water (from a well cooked rice)

3 gram (1 teaspoon) salt.

That pedialyte is not instead of food, but can buy you some time, and you dont risk dehydration.

Also useful if cat or you get diarrhea.  

A vet check up would also be good, as you yourself suggest.

Tx a lot for caring, esp as it demanded quite some fysical courage.

Good luck!

Thanks guys.

It will be very difficult to find goat milk here. It is a small town and no goats in this region.

Can I use a drink made of rehydration salts from the pharmacy instead of this pediolyte ?

I have no stove and no fridge, no dishes...

I have read about pushing the tummy and do it frequently.  She seems to enjoy it - it stimualtes her; she always starts licking her paws when I do that

She seems to be looking for her mother's teats but does not recognize the flasks rubber tip as such. But she frequently gives up quickly and falls asleep again.

She refuses to open her mouth when I try to feed her from the flask, even when I put drops around her mouth.

I manage to feed her every now and then when she is half asleep or starts licking in her sleep.

Can I expect a kitten at this age to be able to lick milk/water from a cup when she is hungry/thirsty ?

I don't want to force her to drink...

It's already night in Thailand. If things don't change by tomorrow morning I will take her to the vet.

EDIT: wow, we are making progress. Miss Lucky just drank milk from the flask for 2 minutes!
 

buddha2013 said:

Thanks guys.

It will be very difficult to find goat milk here. It is a small town and no goats in this region.

Can I use a drink made of rehydration salts from the pharmacy instead of this pediolyte ?

I have no stove and no fridge, no dishes...

I have read about pushing the tummy and do it frequently.  She seems to enjoy it - it stimualtes her; she always starts licking her paws when I do that

She seems to be looking for her mother's teats but does not recognize the flasks rubber tip as such. But she frequently gives up quickly and falls asleep again.

She refuses to open her mouth when I try to feed her from the flask, even when I put drops around her mouth.

I manage to feed her every now and then when she is half asleep or starts licking in her sleep.

Can I expect a kitten at this age to be able to lick milk/water from a cup when she is hungry/thirsty ?

I don't want to force her to drink...

EDIT: wow, we are making progress. Miss Lucky just drank milk from the flask for 2 minutes!
 

Click to expand...

Pity about the goat milk. I mentioned it not only because it is good, but also because I though It would be easy for you to get it.  

Yes, you can surely use this bough pedialyte too. Take some unflavored variation.   You must be prepared to more or less forcefeed her - if you have any way.

Perhaps a straw in the side of the mouth, and drops flowing down...She must almost swallow down. She shall be on the tummy, head up, like when they nurse mom.  Same position too when you give her the milk flask.

She shall also be warm enough, but I supposed it is not a problem in Thailand.

As being dehydrated is a major danger for her, draining her forces from her.

She hopefully knows how to drink water, she is big enough, but if she had just milk from  mom...

Yeah, her not recognizing what is food is a main problem.  Yours giving her a little as often as possible is the trick. Well done!

Splendid she discovered the trick, and began to drink herself!  NOW she has a real chance.  

Good luck!

Yeah I was worried already about forcefeeding her but gently though (I dont want anything to end up in her lungs).

I used a syringe too to place milk in her mouth when she was tired.

Can I give her normal water as well or is it better to add salts?

I will try my best to keep her in the right position when feeding. She starts trusting me now and calls less and less for her mom.

One thing you mentioned was very important. I took a wet tissue to clean her private parts.

Well, stimulating them for a while led to a step by step major relief - she urinated for the first time since at least 24 hrs.

(now i remember monkey moms also lick their babies' genitals to get them to pee/defacate)

She looked a lot less stressed after this and it immediately led her to fall asleep deeply in my lap !

I think we are slowly getting there...
 

Many thanks for your help guys !

You can give common, clean water, but having at least a little salt in is best.

Some use bottled water, these do usually contain different salts.  If it is "gased" water, make sure the coldioxide bubbles had disappeared entirely.

If you get hold of dextrose sugar (glucose) and blend in with this bottled water, you will again get an excellent pedialyte.

Other sugars  like honey or even common sugar do works, but dextrose is best.

Anyway, I see the worst crisis seems to be over, it goes better and better.  To early to shout  Whoa, Tallyhoo...   But now is the ship on the way, with enough speed to steer.   

Well done!

Good luck!

I think I did a good job.

Kitty drank again from the feeding bottle. When she is completely covered/underneath my hand that seems to get her into drinking mode.

I will get sugar and salt tomorrow and get a few mixes ready.

Yeah too early to relax for me but at least she's fast asleep now.

She will keep you updated...

Yeah, this pic illustrates this nicely.  Warmth and cozy, practically just like with mama...

Dads bare hand is almost as good!   

You can also bear her and carry against your chest if you wish, under your shirt. Make a little nest from a handkierchief or something...

Ok now I even know more. Putting slight pressure on her upper tummy gets her to actively search for teats (I mistook that earlier today as "cleaning herself" when she started licking her paws and took them in her mouth; there where no teats available, thats why - my fault . She just had her 3rd drink now.

After that comes "cleaning her private parts" with a wet cloth which gets her to pee, drop by drop. Takes about 10 seconds.

And then comes the deep sleep part again.



We always had cats (and I always loved them) when I was young but I never looked closely. It's fascinating to find those things out.
 

Congrats on a job well done -the rescue and aftermath! ! Thank you so much for caring and giving this wee one a chance. Wow even finding a home! ! Way to go!!! Bravo!! And what a cutie she is too!!

You are so brave taking on a wild monkey like that!   on the great rescue.

Update: Last night she did not make one sound in 9 hours.

In the morning I woke her up and found her being very energetic and hungry.. i think she drank more than I did

She still doesnt recognize the "rubber teat" of the feeding bottle but once it's in her mouth she obviously enjoys and keeps muttering something to herself while drinking

After the peeing ritual (she always holds everything back until I clean her private parts with o wet cloth)  she seemed very happy and started jumping around and began fighting with my fingers.

She had another big meal at lunchtime and she also ate some boiled rice. I will buy chicken sausage tonight an see if she likes it. Now that mommy is no more it is time to grow up

Remark: she's smaller than this picture suggests,it's a compact sub-notebook about the size of an Ipad

She does now pee like a pro, but it seems she doesnt poo as yet?  Or are you too modest to even mention this, as here may be ladies and underages on this forum?

Should have been mentioned, you are right. no poo yet. How often can I expect this to happen when she drinks mostly milk ?

She defecated 2 days ago (~4 cm) which led me to think she had probably eaten something solid before. Will get some chicken breast or sausage tonight (other recommendations ?).

I hope she's not obstipated. Does a cat mom assist in such a case ? Rubbing the belly or similar ?

Lucky becomes very demanding (meowing non stop) when she is hungry or needs to pee.

When those 2 requirements were met she seemed pretty happy overall.

Most do it every day, and it is what you hope for, but I have seen examples here when they didnt poo in a week and the consulted vet wasnt too anxious. Went on soon after.  

Yeah, it is stimulation as for peeing. Licking, rubbing... 

Do you have warm water there?  Some forumites set their behind under running warm water (their body temperature water). It both stimules and washes off. You must of course dry afterwards, so they dont get chilled.  so is often done with small kittens, yours begin to be not so very small. 

You can  dilute the milk solution some more with water. It often helps.

If she doenst still doesnt poo, we shall think about something more potent.  

Minced meat (cow meat, not pig) is often mentioned. The mincing must be fresh, as the decay starts quite soon.

I suppose you can hack the chicken meat and sausage into small pieces, it will be like minced meat.

Good luck!

Careful with the sausage! If it has onion or garlic this is very bad for cats. And any spices might upset a baby kitten's stomach.

Chicken breast is good, but I wouldn't be surprised if she's still a little young to be chewing solid food. Mince it fine so she can sort of lap it up. And it may take a while until she gets the idea that it is actually food.

You're doing a great there buddy. Good luck with lucky

Mothers often stimulate excretion by licking the kittens bums. Can't say I recommend this, but some warm water on a piece of cotton wool or cotton bud might do the trick.

You need to clean her before and after each feed - young kittens cannot pass urine or faeces without this stimulation.

I will use warm water later to clean he a bit as she peed herself 1 hour ago. So it also seems to work without my help but I will assist whenever I can

I found out:

Meowing and running away from me "searching for something" = she has to pee ( does'nt want to wet the "nest" I guess)

Meowing and coming towards me "searching for something" = hungry

It is 33 °C here during day and 29°C at night so all water outside a fridge is already warm. It's not easy to get a cold here, it's tropical and hot all the time.

Everything runs off quickly here and I dont even have a fridge...I need to improvise.

She likes it even more hot, preferring to sleep on my laptop or next to my laptop's fan. I need to be careful she or my laptop do not overheat

I will get some low herb/salt/pepper minced chicken breast soon.

I have found a good way of feeding her now. I guess it is a bit uncommon but but she is most comfortable when she is lying on her back on my chest while feeding. It looks very human - it's similar if someone is sitting in a beach chair having a cocktail. In this position she becomes totally calm and drinks for minutes without letting go.I worried about getting milk into her lungs but no problem yet. Her joyful muttering is really cute while she's having a drink.

When I watch videos on Youtube, she wants to be part of the conversations and starts talking to the people on the screen.

I showed her some meowing cats on Youtube and that really pushed her buttons.