Six rescued kittens

My daughter rescued six kittens from a hot car, they were not in there too long, thank God. She brought them home and we guess they are about 4 weeks old, there is no mother. We have been feeding them formula and dry kitten food. They have diarrhea and the smallest one is very weak and not eating much formula or water. We took them to the vets and he said that they are not doing to badly except for the little one. He gave us antibiotics and something to balance their gut, he took a stool sample and found no parasites, but their gut systems are unbalanced. He did give the little one fluids, she was dehydrated. We got them last Saturday. We will take the little one to the vet on Thursday for more fluids. What can I do to get food and fluids into her? I am so worried about her, I don't want her to die. She just wants to sleep on us. Any help would be grateful. Rescues around here (Mich) won't help and humane society is a joke.

How much are you feeding the kitten and how are you feeding them?

the best way to get fluid into the kitten is to use a kitten bottle or a small syringe 1 - 2 ml/cc.  See if you can get her to eat at least 2 ml every hour increasing the amount if she will take more.

@sarthur2

@catwoman707

Exactly, the key is to be sure to get formula in to them all as much as needed according to their weight.

I would stop the dry for now, they need to catch up and stabilize on KMR first.

They must take in 8 mls per ounce they weigh, per day.

At four weeks they should be able to lap KMR and eat wet food watered into slush with formula. If not, as Catwoman said, bottle feed each the 8 mL per ounce of body weight. If they won't suck you use the syringe. Never feed on the back. Always tummy down head up, side of the mouth, couple drops, swallow, breathe, repeat.

The weak one MUST be syringe fed, and I would suggest mixing the KMR with clear pedialyte instead of water. This baby needs a little bit every hour whether she wants it or not.

Give us their weights if you can please, and pictures.

Thank you for taking them in, and come back with any and all questions.

P peanut1

I am sorry to say that the little one (we called her peanut) did not make it. Two days after my post she passed. We did everything we could. I miss her. The other ones are doing great. Getting fat and sassy. We have discovered they have fleas. We had homes for two of them, but can't let them go with fleas. They are too young for flea stuff. They are kept in our bathroom upstairs where there is no carpeting and it is a large room, but it is getting harder to keep them contained in there. Will get pics, my daughter will have to do it. I'm not tech savy.

Thanks to everyone for your help. I will continue to update you.

P peanut1

I'm sorry the little one did not make it, but happy the others are doing well.

Have they transitioned to solid food now?

They are presumably about five weeks old now, so you can give them a bath in blue Dawn, taking care not to submerge their heads and to dry them off thoroughly so they do not get cold. If you soap up around their necks quickly, the fleas will not crawl up to their heads and faces.

You can also dip a cotton ear swab into Advantage and apply this small amount to the back of each of their necks. It will not harm the kitten but will be effective in killing fleas.

peanut1 said:

 
I am sorry to say that the little one (we called her peanut) did not make it. Two days after my post she passed. We did everything we could. I miss her. The other ones are doing great. Getting fat and sassy. We have discovered they have fleas. We had homes for two of them, but can't let them go with fleas. They are too young for flea stuff. They are kept in our bathroom upstairs where there is no carpeting and it is a large room, but it is getting harder to keep them contained in there. Will get pics, my daughter will have to do it. I'm not tech savy.

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Do not leave them out too early, they do have great advantage of socializing with their siblings.

So unless the adoption home does has friendly cats home, let them be say 8 weeks.  They learn much from each other.

Congratulations on saving the other two kittens.  Salt water is an effective way to stop the fleas. I sponge it directly onto fleas which immobilizes them and then comb them out and squish them. A warm salt water dip followed by a clear rinse works well but kittens are very prone to catching a chill and also developing dry skin from bathing.  For excellent kitten tips, please go to www.kitten-rescue.com which is the website created by TCS's very own Hissy.

Bless you and your daughter for rescuing those babies from a terrible fate in a hot car and for giving them such an excellent home