- Joined
- Jul 8, 2013
- Messages
- 110
- Purraise
- 25
Hi all.
I'm not sure what I should do in this situation, and would appreciate any advice or opinions you can offer. Sorry for the length but it's a bit complicated.
I am a foster home for a local no-kill rescue. Last week I agreed to foster and raise five 4-5 day old kittens left in a dumpster. When they were brought here, it turned out there were 8, not 5. We had an idea -- go to animal control and see if they had a lactating cat who had lost her own kittens, or one that had maybe 1 or 2 kittens. We hoped she would accept the kittens as her own, and I could supplement feeding and toileting them. And she would be saved from being euthanized along with any kitten she might have.
We found one who had only one kitten, and she accepted the kittens immediately. But I also noticed she wasn't breathing well, and we took her to the vet. Turned out she needed surgery, so now I had the 8 kittens plus her one, a total of 9.
Since she'll be out of commission for at least a week, probably more, I was resigned to hand-raising all 9, a daunting task. But then the rescue found a 2nd mother at animal control, also with only one kitten, this time a healthy one. They brought her over, and she also, thankfully, accepted the kittens. She was an owner surrender, so not feral, and seemed very sweet and nice. She let me handle the kittens, and seemed to like being pet and scratched and seemed fine.
The plan was for me to feed them and stimulate them twice a day, and she'd take care of the rest.
Although I have other cats, she was put in a room in the back by herself in a box in the corner, but after I fed them the first time, she hid all the kittens under the sofa I had in the room. I needed to have better access to them, so I turned the sofa on the side, put it against the wall, put a little playpen in the space between the sofa & wall with the box inside, and left it open so Mom could go in and out for rest, litter box, food, etc. I covered it all with a dark blanket.
It seemed to work. But last night I began to notice that even with me helping, she is already terribly red and sore and even growled sometimes when they nursed. And this morning I accidentally left my closet open and she hid the kittens in there, I had to replace them all back into their little cave, and although she didn't seem thrilled, and tried to return them to the closet as I brought them to the cave, by the time I got them all in there, she went to nurse them in the cave.
While I was doing this I tried to distract her with food. I put down a bowl with ham and turkey baby food and she almost inhaled it (figured she could use the extra nutrition as well). I, and a friend who was helping then began to feed the kittens. She was okay with that too, coming up to me and my friend, checking out the babies we were holding, but was purring and responding to us petting her and showing her we were just feeding them.
As we were leaving the room, I asked my friend to pick up her regular food bowl for me, as I was going to bring her fresh food. She suddenly went beserk, attacking my friend. I yelled at her to run out of the room, which she did, and the cat turned on me. I got out. My friend is okay (she just got her sneakers) I have a few scratches on my leg.
Not a biggie ... I've been dealing with cats a long time and expect sometimes to have problems and a few scratches. But I'm concerned about that kind of food aggression.
Especially since she had not shown any sign of it up until now and I've changed her bowl a few times. I'm also concerned about her not allowing me to put anything on her nipples that might help her feel better or being able to give her any medication if the vet wants to give her antibiotics.
So, my question is, any advice on this whole situation that would make it all better on everyone and allow me to do the best for me, for Momma and kittens alike? I am disabled and my physical ability is a bit limited.
One thought I had was taking away a few of the largest strongest kittens (including the one from the cat who is recuperating) and hand raising them in another room, leaving Mom to nurse the remainder without me having to supplement and therefore allowing her to calm down and not feel threatened. Do you think that might be a good idea?
If so, how many kittens would you leave with Momma that she could handle reasonably on her own?
I could possibly, by next week, even be able to give a few to the recuperating Momma (with the vet's okay, of course), if she would accept them. If not, I'd just keep on taking care of them myself.
Right now all the kittens have just opened their eyes, so they are all in the range of about 10-15 days old, approximately.
Or is there another approach I could take?
What do you think? I sure could use some suggestions.
I could also use some pity. In the rest of the house I have 4 other foster adult cats, 2 foster kittens about 10 weeks old (who will be spayed & up for adoption within a couple of weeks), and my own 5 cats.
So yes, pity would help too. LOL
I'm not sure what I should do in this situation, and would appreciate any advice or opinions you can offer. Sorry for the length but it's a bit complicated.
I am a foster home for a local no-kill rescue. Last week I agreed to foster and raise five 4-5 day old kittens left in a dumpster. When they were brought here, it turned out there were 8, not 5. We had an idea -- go to animal control and see if they had a lactating cat who had lost her own kittens, or one that had maybe 1 or 2 kittens. We hoped she would accept the kittens as her own, and I could supplement feeding and toileting them. And she would be saved from being euthanized along with any kitten she might have.
We found one who had only one kitten, and she accepted the kittens immediately. But I also noticed she wasn't breathing well, and we took her to the vet. Turned out she needed surgery, so now I had the 8 kittens plus her one, a total of 9.
Since she'll be out of commission for at least a week, probably more, I was resigned to hand-raising all 9, a daunting task. But then the rescue found a 2nd mother at animal control, also with only one kitten, this time a healthy one. They brought her over, and she also, thankfully, accepted the kittens. She was an owner surrender, so not feral, and seemed very sweet and nice. She let me handle the kittens, and seemed to like being pet and scratched and seemed fine.
The plan was for me to feed them and stimulate them twice a day, and she'd take care of the rest.
Although I have other cats, she was put in a room in the back by herself in a box in the corner, but after I fed them the first time, she hid all the kittens under the sofa I had in the room. I needed to have better access to them, so I turned the sofa on the side, put it against the wall, put a little playpen in the space between the sofa & wall with the box inside, and left it open so Mom could go in and out for rest, litter box, food, etc. I covered it all with a dark blanket.
It seemed to work. But last night I began to notice that even with me helping, she is already terribly red and sore and even growled sometimes when they nursed. And this morning I accidentally left my closet open and she hid the kittens in there, I had to replace them all back into their little cave, and although she didn't seem thrilled, and tried to return them to the closet as I brought them to the cave, by the time I got them all in there, she went to nurse them in the cave.
While I was doing this I tried to distract her with food. I put down a bowl with ham and turkey baby food and she almost inhaled it (figured she could use the extra nutrition as well). I, and a friend who was helping then began to feed the kittens. She was okay with that too, coming up to me and my friend, checking out the babies we were holding, but was purring and responding to us petting her and showing her we were just feeding them.
As we were leaving the room, I asked my friend to pick up her regular food bowl for me, as I was going to bring her fresh food. She suddenly went beserk, attacking my friend. I yelled at her to run out of the room, which she did, and the cat turned on me. I got out. My friend is okay (she just got her sneakers) I have a few scratches on my leg.
Not a biggie ... I've been dealing with cats a long time and expect sometimes to have problems and a few scratches. But I'm concerned about that kind of food aggression.
Especially since she had not shown any sign of it up until now and I've changed her bowl a few times. I'm also concerned about her not allowing me to put anything on her nipples that might help her feel better or being able to give her any medication if the vet wants to give her antibiotics.
So, my question is, any advice on this whole situation that would make it all better on everyone and allow me to do the best for me, for Momma and kittens alike? I am disabled and my physical ability is a bit limited.
One thought I had was taking away a few of the largest strongest kittens (including the one from the cat who is recuperating) and hand raising them in another room, leaving Mom to nurse the remainder without me having to supplement and therefore allowing her to calm down and not feel threatened. Do you think that might be a good idea?
If so, how many kittens would you leave with Momma that she could handle reasonably on her own?
I could possibly, by next week, even be able to give a few to the recuperating Momma (with the vet's okay, of course), if she would accept them. If not, I'd just keep on taking care of them myself.
Right now all the kittens have just opened their eyes, so they are all in the range of about 10-15 days old, approximately.
Or is there another approach I could take?
What do you think? I sure could use some suggestions.
I could also use some pity. In the rest of the house I have 4 other foster adult cats, 2 foster kittens about 10 weeks old (who will be spayed & up for adoption within a couple of weeks), and my own 5 cats.
So yes, pity would help too. LOL
