Kitten having trouble breathing?

I'm planning on calling the vet, but it's early in the morning now and I can't at the moment, and I just thought it'd be good to make a thread anyway for advice. My kittens are about 12 days old now and I noticed one of them seems like he wants to have some milk, and I kept trying to help him find a teat while his sisters were all finding the teats themselves. He just would not start sucking. I sat down for at least 10 minutes, maybe closer to 15 and tried to help him, but he wouldn't do it. He seemed to be crying a lot too. But instead of getting a teat, he'd continue crawling all over the test and over his mother. I picked him up to look more closely at him and he seemed to be having trouble breathing, like his meows were coming out rather rhythmically with his breathing and each time he breathes, it looks like his lungs or his stomach is contracting very visibly. I know that doesn't seem normal. That same thing was happening to one of the other kittens for just a minute or so, except she was acting normal otherwise and wasn't meowing/crying or anything. Now he's sleeping, but he didn't get to have some milk like the other kittens did. I am kinda worried because one of my other kittens already died from something congenital and I want to prevent something bad happening as much as possible, but I could just be overreacting. Idk. One weird thing is that he was the eldest and the biggest, but he seems now to be as light as the runt of the litter. That could just be my imagination as we don't really have a kitchen scale to weigh them, so I was only using my own senses...He may even be a bit lighter. I'm just worried about him.

Its surely no imagination.  He is going down.   I hope your vet is good with sick weak kittens.  Quite many arent!

Keep him warm.  Ie you must give him active warmth, its not enough he has say a body  sock.  Carrying at your chest is a good tip.

You can perk in some energy in such a weak kitten by smearing some glucose on his gum.  Brand name may be Dextrose or Dextropur.  If you dont have, honey or white caro syrup may be used.

If he is too weak to suck from teats, you must try and give him  kmr or goat milk yourself.   Use a dropper or a small syringe.  In the corner of the mouth, slowly, so it doesnt come into wrong throat.   Let him be on tummy, head up, like he would nurse from mom...

Be sure he is stimulated and eliminated.  Does mom do it?  If so good, if not - you must try and do it.   Lack of eliminating may by itself give a deadly crisis...

I suspect he has pneumonia or such, and just antibiotics from vet may heal him.  But you must fight on vigorously if you want he has any chance.  As he is going downhill at this moment you describe.

*vibes!*

StefanZ said:

 
Its surely no imagination.  He is going down.   I hope your vet is good with sick weak kittens.  Quite many arent!

Keep him warm.  Ie you must give him active warmth, its not enough he has say a body  sock.  Carrying at your chest is a good tip.

You can perk in some energy in such a weak kitten by smearing some glucose on his gum.  Brand name may be Dextrose or Dextropur.  If you dont have, honey or white caro syrup may be used.

If he is too weak to suck from teats, you must try and give him  kmr or goat milk yourself.   Use a dropper or a small syringe.  In the corner of the mouth, slowly, so it doesnt come into wrong throat.   Let him be on tummy, head up, like he would nurse from mom...

Be sure he is stimulated and eliminated.  Does mom do it?  If so good, if not - you must try and do it.   Lack of eliminating may by itself give a deadly crisis...

I suspect he has pneumonia or such, and just antibiotics from vet may heal him.  But you must fight on vigorously if you want he has any chance.  As he is going downhill at this moment you describe.

*vibes!*

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Yeah, the mother helps with stimulation. We've never had a problem with that. I'll keep him warm as best possible and I'll get him to a vet as soon as I can Thank you. The funny thing is, he was moving around and everything, he just would not start sucking. I'll get some kmr too. It's a shame it's so early in the morning. I'm really worried about him, but I'm gonna help him as best as I can, thanks again

warringecstasy said:

 
. I'll get some kmr too. It's a shame it's so early in the morning. I'm really worried about him, but I'm gonna help him as best as I can, thanks again

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During the time, you can give him some water, so he doesnt get dehydrated at least.  It will buy him some time.

Is also possible to make some sort of basic home made pedialyte, its even better if he cant have kmr or goat milk several hours. 

But begin with common water.

Dehydration takes forces from them too.

ps, the water, alike the kmr, should be body-tempered.  Exactly like you do with human infants.  @warringecstasy