Desperately seeking advice for my foster kitten

Hi all!  I am new here and will just give a little bit of background info.  I am a cat foster for a small rescue group here in a small town in Utah.  It's a non-profit organization that focuses mainly on TNR but also fosters feral cats and kittens and prepares them for adoption.  We have 2 vets here, but they deal mostly with big livestock, so we are often "flying blind" when it comes to diagnosing smaller animal's health problems.

I have a "cat room" set up in my basement, and I generally have between 3 and 7 foster kittens/cats.  Right now, I have a big number, as it is kitten season!

So here is the story on one of my current litters.  The head of the rescue brought me a litter of 4 kittens (2 weeks old, bottle babies).  We don't know what happened to the poor feral momma, or what their living conditions were like.  At 4 weeks old, 2 of the kittens started to go downhill.  They would get severely dehydrated, even with regular feedings, and they would go completely limp and lethargic, barely breathing.  Only sub-cutaneous fluid injections made any difference.  One of the kittens' abdominal cavities filled with fluid.  He saw two different vets (One said hernia, the other said "I don't know").  His body temperature dropped to 94*, and I did get it back up to 101* but he died the next day.  We are guessing it might have been FIP, but we really don't know.

The other sick kitten is NOW 7 weeks old, and has been on a health rollercoaster for the past three weeks.  We will separate him from the other cats and he will be active, playful, jumping and running for a few days.  So I take him back downstairs to join the rest of the kitties in the nursery, and he will CRASH within 4-12 hours.  (And by crash, I mean limp, barely breathing, usually dehydrated, too weak to even move his head.)  His body temperature always drops down between 95-98* as well.  He shivers sometimes and  makes awful groaning noises.  So I take him back upstairs, sub-cu fluids, wait a few hours, and he will be back up bouncing around and happy again.

Other symptoms are: Watery eyes, extremely skinny, poor coat.

I am not skipping any meals, because he only just barely started eating wet food, and I know he depends on me to make sure he stays hydrated.  This has been going on for 3 weeks, and we are just devastated and exhausted at this point.  He enjoys life SO much when he is feeling well; he is so active and playful.  It is really difficult to see him suffering this way.

So here are the ideas we are juggling around (Please keep in mind that he has seen both of the vets out here, and their answers have been: "Keep doing fluids; we just don't know what happens to these stray cats.")

1. FIP?  The vets won't test him for it, because they say there is no test (I have read otherwise, but if they won't, they won't).  His sibling's abdominal fluid made us think about this as a possibility.

2.  Diabetes?  Many of his symptoms match this possible diagnosis, and his high activity level could possibly be from spikes in blood sugar.  If so, is there a way I can test for it?

3.  Unable to regulate body temperature?  Maybe this is why he crashes within the day of being moved back downstairs.  It is cooler in the basement than in my tiny bathroom upstairs, and his body temperature does drop when he crashes, but this doesn't explain the dehydration.

What do you all think?  I have just bawled my eyes out over this poor baby for weeks, and I could use any advice or thoughts.  I would give anything for an answer beyond "I don't know; just give him fluids and wait it out."

Thanks for reading all of this!!!!

Hi there,

I'm sorry your little guy isn't feeling well and I'm so sorry the other one didn't make it.  Does this little guy have a name yet?  You're awesome, by the way, for being a foster parent  .

The first thing that comes to my mind after reading your post is hypoglycemia.  Check out this page http://pets.thenest.com/hypoglycemia-kittens-7470.html .  I also think that dehydration, hypothermia, and hypoglycemia can all be related which is why it's the first diagnosis that came to my mind.  I'm definitely no expert though - just a long time cat owner. 

Did the vets do any blood work?

Natalie

No blood work, just a quick exam both times.  Our vets here are so awesome about doing surgery with the TNR program, but they don't seem to feel like the sick babies are "worth it," as our area has a massive feral cat population.  We generally just get brushed off, which is hard to swallow with the $40 exam fee.  I know that as the rescue gains momentum, donations and support, all the rescuers will probably be taken a little more seriously, but it is really discouraging right now.

Thank you for the info about hypoglycemia!  It does make sense that the sub q's would help that too.  I am going back to setting alarms for his feedings like when he was younger, and I will try that for a few days upstairs and then see how he does with scheduled feedings downstairs too.  If he still crashes, then I can narrow it down and start looking at it being a temperature issue.  

I can't tell you how relieved I feel to just have something new to try!  I was feeling so helpless!  Oh, and this baby's name is Star.  He is all black except for a tiny white star on his throat, and he is a total sweetheart. 
 

Aw, that's such a cute name!  I would love to foster kittens but I know I wouldn't be able to give any of them back lol. 

That's too bad about not being able to have the blood tests.  It makes finding a diagnosis so much harder. The other things I was thinking was maybe it's a kidney issue causing an electrolyte imbalance or a nutritional deficiency caused by an intestinal issue.  Hopefully, his glucose is just out of whack and he just needs to eat more.

Good luck!  Let me know how it goes.  I'm rooting for him!

I experienced something quite similar with a litter of bottle fed babies a few years ago, unfortunately it was determined that they did have FIP (diagnosed when they were about 6 months old) but they experienced the EXACT same episodes as you are describing.   They would crash, and sub q fluids would bring them back.  It is so hard to foster kittens.  I currently have 2 for the vet I work at, one is 8 weeks old and one is 6 weeks old, been bottle feeding the one for 4 weeks now and the other has always eaten on her own. 

Thank you both for your good thoughts, LvNoah and cprcheetah!  Star is still hanging on, though his symptoms continue in exactly the same pattern as before.  I do have some new info today.  The lady who runs our rescue organization took Star out to the city yesterday to see a new vet.  He was very interested in Star's condition and said he had never seen anything like it.  He said that he was pretty sure that it is a congenital condition (Star was born with it), either in the brain or the heart.

Star had an "episode" while they were drawing blood.  He had been active and alert, but as they started the blood draw, he went limp with glazed eyes, slow breathing - just like at home, except that his episode there only lasted about 10 minutes before he got back up on his feet (instead of several hours here).

The doctor said that he is going to do more research, but he believes that there is something causing Star to "crash" when he is overstimulated or stressed.  This would explain why he crashes every time he is put in the room with the other kittens who are so active and playful.  The doctor wants me to film about 15 minutes of the next crash, so that he can see exactly what it looks like when Star is having a full "episode".

His blood tests look normal so far; they don't think that it has anything to do with high or low blood sugar at this point.  I am so glad to have somebody taking it seriously, but I am scared to take Star back downstairs and risk another episode!  On the other hand, we do need to figure out what is happening, because he has to be able to survive the stress of a neuter surgery at some point in his life too!  This sweet little baby is a real conundrum!