Help! Having Trouble with 5 orphaned kittens!

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

Hello, first time posting here. My family and I found 5 orphan kittens on the 21st of June this year, ( we know the mother is dead btw :,( ). They must be at around 3 weeks old as of now because when we found these babies their eyes and ears were open. Their names are Red, Whitey, Blue, Violet, and Green.

Recently, Red had been taken into the vet for low blood sugar and is doing slightly better, but is the smallest kitten. Two days ago, Whitey was acting lethargic and weak too; that day we took them all to the vet and they gave him an IV. Whitey and Red are the weakest kittens of the bunch, compared to the other three who are in better condition than them. I'm very worried for those two.

ALSO, They have ALL been having diarrhea this past week than when we first found them( it was previously more solid). We thought we were overfeeding them, so we extended their feeding time from every 2-3 hours to 4 hours. Yet they still had diarrhea; so the other day we put small doses of Pedialyte in their formula to help but nothing seems to be working. How can we fix their diarrhea? I've looked everywhere and tried but with no luck. I want these kittens to live so badly.

In addition to dehydration/diarrhea worries, they are VERY small for 2-3 week old kittens. I can post pictures if necessary. I'm wondering if they were born prematurely or is it some sort of trauma from being orphaned and alone( in the days before we found them. It's a long story). I can try to elaborate on anything mentioned above if there is confusion.

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED

handsome kitty · Jul 1, 2015

What are you feeding the kittens? Name the brand.

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

We're feeding them PetAg KMR. It is the liquid kind.

StefanZ · Jul 1, 2015

Gmoda said:
Hello, first time posting here. My family and I found 5 orphan kittens on the 21st of June this year, ( we know the mother is dead btw :,( ). They must be at around 3 weeks old as of now because when we found these babies their eyes and ears were open. Their names are Red, Whitey, Blue, Violet, and Green.

Recently, Red had been taken into the vet for low blood sugar and is doing slightly better, but is the smallest kitten. Two days ago, Whitey was acting lethargic and weak too; that day we took them all to the vet and they gave him an IV. Whitey and Red are the weakest kittens of the bunch, compared to the other three who are in better condition than them. I'm very worried for those two.

ALSO, They have ALL been having diarrhea this past week than when we first found them( it was previously more solid). We thought we were overfeeding them, so we extended their feeding time from every 2-3 hours to 4 hours. Yet they still had diarrhea; so the other day we put small doses of Pedialyte in their formula to help but nothing seems to be working. How can we fix their diarrhea? I've looked everywhere and tried but with no luck. I want these kittens to live so badly.

In addition to dehydration/diarrhea worries, they are VERY small for 2-3 week old kittens. I can post pictures if necessary. I'm wondering if they were born prematurely or is it some sort of trauma from being orphaned and alone( in the days before we found them. It's a long story). I can try to elaborate on anything mentioned above if there is confusion.

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED

reading will write something soon

handsome kitty · Jul 1, 2015

Switch to the powder form of the Pet AG. Kittens do better on that for some reason. The kittens need to be fed every 2 hours. Have you been weighing them? @StefanZ @sarthur2

You can mix the powder w/the pedialyte.

StefanZ · Jul 1, 2015

Handsome Kitty said:
Switch to the powder form of the Pet AG. Kittens do better on that for some reason. The kittens need to be fed every 2 hours. Have you been weighing them? @StefanZ @sarthur2

You can mix the powder w/the pedialyte.

Agree, the powder form is better.

Another good alternative if you can get it, is raw goat milk. Bottled goat milk is OK too, but not better than this PetAg KMR in powder. But RAW goat milk is possibly better, or at last, an excellent alternative if you want to test something else.''

Supplementing with the probiotic BeneBac is useful. There are many useful probiotics, but BeneBac is especially made for orphans. The same manufacturer, the PetAg.

How much ml are you giving at every meal, and totally amount ml, during the 24 hour?

Weighting them every day is useful, to see clear and plain how much they gain... Although I understand they dont gain much here...

I agree, before you have stabilized them, dont minimize their food, keep it at every two hours. And if necessary, dilute a little more.

Although, diluting is a standard weapon against constipation, so I myself dont understand why dilute good kmr against diarrhea.

What is, a good pedialyte is a good weapon against diarrhea, and they do need more fluids and electrolytes. But its better to give some few drops inbetween feeding, so they are still hungry when feeding time comes. Than de facto giving pedialyte instead of KMR...

Some thoughts and proposals.

Good luck

handsome kitty · Jul 1, 2015

The kittens and formula must be warm for the kittens bodies to digest the food. sorry, I don't know what you are already doing.

Here a link w/the an article to the basics http://www.thecatsite.com/a/hand-rearing-kittens

Keep us update and ask any questions you have.

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

I was thinking of switching to the powder but I didn't know how much it would help. I'll try it and update this thread with the results. Are you sure every two hours isn't too much. They are still very small; for 2 1/2 week old kittens they look like a week old. Their weight is the following:

Red- 3.75 oz.

Whitey- 4.30 oz.

Violet- 4.65

Blue- 4.90 oz.

Green- 5.35

Also, do you think try to give them solid cat food would help out their diarrhea?

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Jul 1, 2015

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Jul 1, 2015

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gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

They currently eat 3-4 ml per serving and 6 times a day. So, approx 24 ml a day. When we took both Red and White to the vet, they gave us supplement for them since they had low blood sugar; we give those two a finger tip of the stuff. My family and I have very very little experience with kittens this size and age, and I can't help but feel we're doing it all wrong.

handsome kitty · Jul 1, 2015

No I wouldn't try the wet food they are too young. Try the

Supplementing with the probiotic BeneBac is useful. There are many useful probiotics, but BeneBac is especially made for orphans. The same manufacturer, the PetAg. And/or

What is, a good pedialyte is a good weapon against diarrhea, and they do need more fluids and electrolytes. But its better to give some few drops inbetween feeding, so they are still hungry when feeding time comes. Than de facto giving pedialyte instead of KMR...

per @StefanZ He is one of the site advisers and very knowledgeable.

The rule of thumb for how much to feed is 8ml/cc per ounce of kitten weight over the course of the day.

A good weight gain (weigh at same time of day or every 12 hours for kittens in crisis) is a minimum of .2 -.4 ounces more is better.

Re: low blood sugar, you can wipe a tiny bit of glucose or liquid honey or karo syrup on the kittens gums. It will go right into the blood stream and give instant energy.

You are doing something very right! We've seen kittens die in hours, so keep up the good work.

@sarthur2 do you know how much they should weigh at this age? Well we know they are too small so just aim for some weight gain.

Do you have a heat source for the kittens? they cannot regulate their body weight for the first 3 weeks.

did your vet check for fleas?

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

Thank you for the info! I'll definitely try to regulate their feedings. They have gained very little weight, esp Whitey and Red. The others are fairly bigger but they seem the same size as they were last week which is very worrying. We have a heating pad( heated to the first level) beneath a soft blanket for the to sleep on; they sleep in a box on the other half of the box is cool so they can go there if it gets to hot. They do have fleas as I've seen a couple. We have a flea comb and we brush out a good amount of flea poop. However, the vet said they were too small to receive any medication to take care of the fleas.

handsome kitty · Jul 1, 2015

Gmoda said:
Thank you for the info! I'll definitely try to regulate their feedings. They have gained very little weight, esp Whitey and Red. The others are fairly bigger but they seem the same size as they were last week which is very worrying. We have a heating pad( heated to the first level) beneath a soft blanket for the to sleep on; they sleep in a box on the other half of the box is cool so they can go there if it gets to hot. They do have fleas as I've seen a couple. We have a flea comb and we brush out a good amount of flea poop. However, the vet said they were too small to receive any medication to take care of the fleas.

You have a very good vet. The fleas are problematic. Wash the kitten with dawn (google it for the water to soap ratio). Make sure they do not get cold and dry them thoroughly. the dawn will kill the fleas. The fleas can cause anemia and even kill tiny kittens due to blood loss.

handsome kitty · Jul 1, 2015

You should still use the flea comb in case the dawn doesn't kill all the fleas. you may need to repeat the washing in a week.

catladyvettech · Jul 1, 2015

You might try adding some canned pumpkin to their KMR. Make sure it's just plain canned pumpkin, not the pumpkin pie filling. That seemed to help a bit when my Fernando was having soft stools. He really liked to eat it too.

Also, have they been dewomed? I apologize if you already said so in your first post. Lots of kittens come with worms so I'd recommend doing that if you haven't already.

Kudos to you for doing so much for these babies. You're truly a good person.

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

Someone actually suggested that we use canned pumpkin for their diarrhea. We may have to try it as well. I'm honestly willing to try anything if it will stop it, I want them to stay healthy and hydrated. Thank you all for the help, I'll post an update as soon as something pops up. What a great site, I'm glad I came here! If there's any other suggestions feel free to share them

Also, these kittens have little baby teeth now (they came in a couple of days ago). I was wondering if that was an indication that they should start a different diet or something. We gave them wet food mixed with formula once, and they loved it, save for Red( they still had diarrhea). Each kitten is unique and has preferences.

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

Also, no. They are too small to be de-wormed. At least that's what the vet told us.

handsome kitty · Jul 1, 2015

Gmoda said:
Someone actually suggested that we use canned pumpkin for their diarrhea. We may have to try it as well. I'm honestly willing to try anything if it will stop it, I want them to stay healthy and hydrated. Thank you all for the help, I'll post an update as soon as something pops up. What a great site, I'm glad I came here! If there's any other suggestions feel free to share them

Also, these kittens have little baby teeth now (they came in a couple of days ago). I was wondering if that was an indication that they should start a different diet or something. We gave them wet food mixed with formula once, and they loved it, save for Red( they still had diarrhea). Each kitten is unique and has preferences.

If they will eat the wet food mixed w/formula you can try alternating feedings. But start slowly w/1 or 2 a day.

Pumpkin does work. Many people swear by it and not just for kittens.

Teeth don't have anything to do with food choice. Kittens raised by mom don't begin weaning until they are around 4 weeks. Some people hand rearing kittens so start to introduce it earlier.

here is a link to NikkyKay's thread. She has been raising this kitten since birth - now 6 weeks old. http://www.thecatsite.com/t/297529/found-abandoned-kitten

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

Alright thanks! Their feeding time is coming up in a bit so I'll try all these suggestions. As always, I'll post updates asap.

Sarthur2 · Jul 1, 2015

G gmoda

Your kittens are not gaining weight because they are not being fed enough formula.

They each need 8mL's of PetAg powdered kitten milk per ounce of body weight.

Therefore, the smallest kitten weighs 3.75 ounces - let's round that to 4 ounces. 4 x 8 = 32 ounces over a 24-hour period divided by 12 = 2.7 mL per feeding. Every two hours! You can round that up to 3 mL every 2 hours.

This is to thrive and grow! As they gain weight, you up the amount. Right now they are starving.

They will gain weight if fed the proper amount more frequently, unless they have another health issue.

After feeding, hold each kitten to your shoulder and burp him by patting gently on the back.

Each kitten is then stimulated to go wee and poo by tapping its bum gently with a forefinger, or by gently rubbing the bum with a warm, damp cotton ball or soft cloth.

The kittens need a heating pad set on low under their blanket. They must be warm to eat and digest food.

Your biggest kitten needs 46 mL's of formula a day in 24 hours, so close to 4 mL per feeding every 2 hours!

Are you using a bottle or syringe?

Kittens are fed tummy down, head up. They should be able to suck the bottle.

I will shortly post the amounts your other kittens need.

gmoda · Jul 1, 2015

Thanks for the info and calculations. The one issue with feeding them frequently is their diarrhea issue, since a cause of diarrhea is overfeeding( so we spread the feeding times). I'm sure your answer are correct since I have little experience on the matter. They constantly get hydrated by the KMR only to have it come out in the form of diarrhea. Also, we have been following the feeding protocol as far as how positions and stimulating them goes. They feed with a syringe, they don't take to the bottle very well.

Help! Having Trouble with 5 orphaned kittens!

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