1 day old kitten - need help please

Hi i volunteered to raise a 1day old kitten. i have no experience but have been reading up. he/she weighs 34 grams. feeding is getting better - volume about 0,5 milliliter at a time every 2 hours max. im in south africa so not sure about the measurements in some of the posts. any help will be appreciated!!

janalogtenberg said:

 
Hi i volunteered to raise a 1day old kitten. i have no experience but have been reading up. he/she weighs 34 grams. feeding is getting better - volume about 0,5 milliliter at a time every 2 hours max. im in south africa so not sure about the measurements in some of the posts. any help will be appreciated!!

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Welcome!  This with 34 grams must be some fault, its at least half of what is possible to survive.  Are you sure its in grams?  Can it be Oz / ounces? 3,4 ounces is big, but fully possible...

Re feeding, they need 8 ml / 30gram a day, so a kitten weighitn normal 90 gram, will need about 24 ml of  kmr or goat milk every day.  Exactly how much every time depends in part on how often you give it..

What you write at this moment sound very little, if your  numbers are correct...

Its also useful to have a scale, and measure every day, so you see if he gains good, or not...  they shall gain minimum 6gram a day, but prefeerably 10.

Exactly what kmr - kitten mother milk replacemnt   are you using?   As said, goat milk is OK - raw - fresh or frozen is best, bottled, cartooned and even powdered are OK.

Hi

Its "kittymilk" produced by Kyron laboratories in south africa. i purchased it at the vet, they use it all the time. Im 90% sure it is 34grams and not in ounces. Dont have my scale here but will weigh again when im home. the kitten (iv named him/her snowy) just had 0,5ml again. im using the 1ml syringe. In total so far snowy drank 1,5ml in total in the past 8hours.  iv been burping him and his breath sounds are clear. His umbilical cord is still attached so im guessing he is 1-2days old. from the tip of his nose to start of the tail, he is about 10cm. about 14cm if u include the tail!

Thanks for your help! 

janalogtenberg said:

 
Hi

Its "kittymilk" produced by Kyron laboratories in south africa. i purchased it at the vet, they use it all the time. Im 90% sure it is 34grams and not in ounces. Dont have my scale here but will weigh again when im home. the kitten (iv named him/her snowy) just had 0,5ml again. im using the 1ml syringe. In total so far snowy drank 1,5ml in total in the past 8hours.  iv been burping him and his breath sounds are clear. His umbilical cord is still attached so im guessing he is 1-2days old. from the tip of his nose to start of the tail, he is about 10cm. about 14cm if u include the tail!

Thanks for your help! 

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Ok, so its in grammes.  Still, it must be some fault, he is prob around 90grammes....   good you have scale, so you can follow up the development, by weighting daily. Even twice a day if in crisis and not stablized.

The food amounts sounds little, if its correct milliliters....  Unless they are small, alike the grammes...

OK, lets presume the kittymilk is OK so far. Its perhaps even really good!  But if you have possibility to get goat milk, its always an alternave, both now and later on during the cats life.

We dont recommend cow milk - even if I know examples when kittens did survived on cow milk... At least, unpasturize cow milk - which is a little better than pasturized and processed cow milk.

You dont need to do anything with the rests of the cord, it will dry out and fall by itself.  But if it bothers you, you can cut it off, if its very long.  It will not bleed more now, so you can use normal, clean scissors.   (fresh cords use blunt scissor or nails)

A kitten this age and weight needs to eat every hour around the clock. It will not survive without feeding through the night. Because it is so small, you need to weigh the kitten every 12 hours to see if it's gaining.

Are you gently stimulating the kitten to go pee and poop after each feeding?

As soon as possible the kitten needs to eat 1 mL each hour. As it is so small it really must be fed each hour for the first week until it reaches a healthier weight.

You are doing exactly what you should be doing!!
Do you have kitten formula? If not goats milk is best. and make sure you are wiping his /her tummy with a warm wet cloth after eating.

I was wrong. she weighs 84grams and not 34grams. feel so blonde! she is doing well, didnt have time to weigh her this morning. last night we tried to get a mommy cat to accept her, but she wasnt interested. her kittens are already 8weeks old so it was a long shot. snowy is drinking better and more milliliters than yest. im so scared of being responsible for her breathig in milk and getting pneumonia. she doesnt feed when lying on her tummy, i have to lift her up. 

janalogtenberg said:

 
I was wrong. she weighs 84grams and not 34grams. feel so blonde! she is doing well, didnt have time to weigh her this morning. last night we tried to get a mommy cat to accept her, but she wasnt interested. her kittens are already 8weeks old so it was a long shot. snowy is drinking better and more milliliters than yest. im so scared of being responsible for her breathig in milk and getting pneumonia. she doesnt feed when lying on her tummy, i have to lift her up. 

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Good you found the fault, and good things are improving. 84 g isnt a lot, but its fully normal.  And if your local breed is smallish cats, it may even be good for that breed.

Yet, try to weigh her every day - its the easiest way to know if its going the right way, or get an early larming sound.

Experienced rescuers do sometimes manage without, they go by looks and by touch / lifting, but for all others, the scale is a wonderful device.

Yeah, breathing liquid into lungs is the danger which you must look up with, but so it is.  Willy-nilly.   Its one of the reasons its better and safer if the mom cat does it.

But if its an orphan, or mom rejects it - there is not much choice.  You grab the chance there is, no?   You do your best, and the rest rests in Gods hands.

Its ok ot lift them 45 grades up, ie diagonally up, its even quite common.  Main thing the tummy is still downwards, not upwards alike a baby - or some of the sweet films on you-tube....   Although the kittens on you tube are usually a little older, 5 weeks perhaps, as they themselves can hold the bottle in all four paws.

Good advice so far here!

Baby is extremely fragile as you can clearly see, and needs 3 things.

Warmth, needs a small box with a towel on the bottom and a heating pad on low under half of the box, so if the baby gets too warm it will scoot away from the heat to the unheated side.

NEVER feed a cool baby, paws/body/ears should feel the same temp as your hands are, meaning you won't feel any coolness at all. This is the right temp.

When their temp gets below 95 degrees or so the organs go dormant and the milk will not be processed, it will sit in tummy and grow bacteria, which is deadly.

So warmth is first.

The formula sounds fine if it is from the vet.

You are inexperienced so the scale is your best friend right now.

Baby must gain at least 8 grams per day to survive and grow healthy. Very minimum for a day or 2 is gaining 6 grams, but if this happens you will know you must feed more.

Keep the milk warm while feeding with a cup of hot water and a small dish that floats on top of the water where you keep the milk when feeding.

You will only want to use a syringe for the first several days to get baby regulated and doing well, then you can try to start offering a kitten bottle. The nipple is tricky to cut, and a baby so young, it can easily drop out milk too fast and baby will inhale and get pneumonia easily.

So using the syringe, just a tiny drop or 2 at a time, let swallow and take a breath, then repeat.

Drops are ONLY put in to the cheek area, never the throat.

Feeding position is on tummy with head up, if you need to, prop the front of the baby up with a small towel so it's still on tummy but tipped up a bit. NEVER on back like a human baby.

The third is pottying, before and after feeding, simply use a warm damp paper towel or cotton ball and pat the bottom areas, just slightly rubbing, baby will go potty.

That's it!

It's very time consuming at this young age, but so rewarding!!

8 mls per ounce of weight per day, which means you really need to feed more asap. When baby is fed, it only takes 2 hours for the milk to be digested and tummy empty again, so this is important that you feed every 2 hours.

Burp baby as you would a human baby. 

Glad to hear the baby weighs more than originally believed, but she's still small. How is she doing today?