Hi Everyone,
I'm very new on this site and have not taken the time to carefully read and look through everything since I wanted to get some advice on this situation ASAP, so if I'm missing something important, please let me know.
My family and I have just taken in a foster cat and her 4 kittens, who are now 5 days old. They came into our care exactly 2 and a half days ago. When the shelter first handed them over to us, the kittens were in pretty poor shape, underweight and dirty with matted fur and stool stuck to their bellies. They have improved a lot since then as I have been cleaning and toileting them as well as bringing them to their mother every two hours since she seems to have no interest in or bond with the kittens (although she still grants them access to her teats on occasion). If I didn't do this, she would probably have simply forgotten about them.
She has had a very tough start to life: she is only 10 months herself and currently very sick with cat flu. On top of that, she had to have a cesarean to birth the kittens. She is extremely underweight, there is no sign of any fat on her anywhere and she is barely eating (probably because the flu makes it difficult for her to smell the food). She is also not taking any care of herself (grooming etc) or the kittens at all.
Unfortunately, she has infected the kittens with the flu and they are sneezing (slightly worse today than yesterday).
On the upside, in the first 24 hrs in our care, things were looking up. Mumma cat had about one small tin of kitten wet food, was drinking a lot and allowed me to put the kittens to her belly every two hours. All the kittens gained between 10 and 12 grams within that day.
Today and last night was a completely different story. She barely ate a spoonful of food and almost every time I tried to put the kittens with her, she would curl up so they couldn't access her belly or walk away altogether. In the last 24 hrs, the kittens have nursed about 6 times and only briefly - less than 10 mins each time. Luckily, 3 of them are still gaining weight, the strongest having gained 10 grams and the other two about 7 grams.
However, the 4th kitten (the only girl) has lost 2 grams since this time yesterday. I have tried putting her with mum alone as she is also the weakest but she barely tries to suckle. Even when she manages to find a teat, after less than a minute, she gives up on it, falls off and starts crying. It seems as though she is too weak to keep going for longer (?) unless something else is wrong.
To me, the logical thing to do is to get my hands on some KMR as quickly as possibly and start bottle feeding her alongside the nursing sessions with mum. However, this foster is shared with two other adults, and they think I should keep trying to get mumma cat more involved and keep giving the weak kitten alone time to feed (although it hasn't been very effective so far). They seem to think there is still a few days to figure this out but I want to act NOW to avoid it getting much worse. They know very little about cats compared to me but their arguments and insistence is making my doubt my instinct which is why I am seeking advice here.
One of them is also saying that we shouldn't bottle feed the kittens without going back to the shelter first to get permission and supplies (though in the agreement it says the foster home is to provide the necessities and even gives advice about which bottles and KMR to buy) but the shelter is an hour's drive away. When I bring it up, she simply insists that I shouldn't do anything like that yet as "a mother's milk is the ideal" and we should "wait and see".
My instincts are telling me to get nutrients into this kitten as I am very afraid that we might lose it otherwise (the kittens are underweight already as well - at about 100 g yet already 5 days old).
Do you think my fellow foster parent has a point? Or should I go behind their backs and start the kitten on KMR? What is best for this litter?
Sorry about the long post, I just want to include as much useful information as possible. Please help if you can!
And Thanks for taking the time to read!
I'm very new on this site and have not taken the time to carefully read and look through everything since I wanted to get some advice on this situation ASAP, so if I'm missing something important, please let me know.
My family and I have just taken in a foster cat and her 4 kittens, who are now 5 days old. They came into our care exactly 2 and a half days ago. When the shelter first handed them over to us, the kittens were in pretty poor shape, underweight and dirty with matted fur and stool stuck to their bellies. They have improved a lot since then as I have been cleaning and toileting them as well as bringing them to their mother every two hours since she seems to have no interest in or bond with the kittens (although she still grants them access to her teats on occasion). If I didn't do this, she would probably have simply forgotten about them.
She has had a very tough start to life: she is only 10 months herself and currently very sick with cat flu. On top of that, she had to have a cesarean to birth the kittens. She is extremely underweight, there is no sign of any fat on her anywhere and she is barely eating (probably because the flu makes it difficult for her to smell the food). She is also not taking any care of herself (grooming etc) or the kittens at all.
Unfortunately, she has infected the kittens with the flu and they are sneezing (slightly worse today than yesterday).
On the upside, in the first 24 hrs in our care, things were looking up. Mumma cat had about one small tin of kitten wet food, was drinking a lot and allowed me to put the kittens to her belly every two hours. All the kittens gained between 10 and 12 grams within that day.
Today and last night was a completely different story. She barely ate a spoonful of food and almost every time I tried to put the kittens with her, she would curl up so they couldn't access her belly or walk away altogether. In the last 24 hrs, the kittens have nursed about 6 times and only briefly - less than 10 mins each time. Luckily, 3 of them are still gaining weight, the strongest having gained 10 grams and the other two about 7 grams.
However, the 4th kitten (the only girl) has lost 2 grams since this time yesterday. I have tried putting her with mum alone as she is also the weakest but she barely tries to suckle. Even when she manages to find a teat, after less than a minute, she gives up on it, falls off and starts crying. It seems as though she is too weak to keep going for longer (?) unless something else is wrong.
To me, the logical thing to do is to get my hands on some KMR as quickly as possibly and start bottle feeding her alongside the nursing sessions with mum. However, this foster is shared with two other adults, and they think I should keep trying to get mumma cat more involved and keep giving the weak kitten alone time to feed (although it hasn't been very effective so far). They seem to think there is still a few days to figure this out but I want to act NOW to avoid it getting much worse. They know very little about cats compared to me but their arguments and insistence is making my doubt my instinct which is why I am seeking advice here.
One of them is also saying that we shouldn't bottle feed the kittens without going back to the shelter first to get permission and supplies (though in the agreement it says the foster home is to provide the necessities and even gives advice about which bottles and KMR to buy) but the shelter is an hour's drive away. When I bring it up, she simply insists that I shouldn't do anything like that yet as "a mother's milk is the ideal" and we should "wait and see".
My instincts are telling me to get nutrients into this kitten as I am very afraid that we might lose it otherwise (the kittens are underweight already as well - at about 100 g yet already 5 days old).
Do you think my fellow foster parent has a point? Or should I go behind their backs and start the kitten on KMR? What is best for this litter?
Sorry about the long post, I just want to include as much useful information as possible. Please help if you can!
And Thanks for taking the time to read!
