Advice needed to help with low birth weight

A week ago today we took in our first pregnant mom through the Humane Society that I work with (I started our bottle baby program a year before and we have done moms and babies starting the day after they were born... but never one that was still pregnant), it was very clear that she was highly pregnant with what we guessed to be 5 kittens. She went into labor on Easter after having NO signs of labor until the true contractions and when those started she was sitting on my lap on the couch. We had the first baby in under 10 minutes from the first contraction and within an 70 minutes we had 5 kittens. However, she wasn't done yet, about 2 hours later three more babies had arrived. Mom did great and cleaned and fed all of the babies right off the bat. The entire litter was small in size but fully developed. I had a kitchen scale ready to weigh them immediately but for about the first 24 hours mom wouldn't let me take them away long enough to get a weight on them and would get very distressed if she heard them make a noise and they weren't in her "nest." That being said, I have been able to weigh them everyday since then and mom just watches me as I do it because she knows I will put them back immediately.

The one that I am very worried about was an extremely low birth weight little girl that we are calling Monarch (after the butterfly). On top of the low birth weight she is solid white in a litter of all different colors of tabbies (I will post the best picture I could get of the litter, which I took while mom ate her soft food and we were also changing the blankets). I was initially weighing them all in ounces but I switched yesterday to weighing her in grams to get a more accurate result. Tuesday she weighed 1.75 ounces, Wednesday she weighed 2 ounces, and yesterday she was up to "2.25" ounces (63 grams), so she is definitely putting on weight but is very small. I honestly have not expected her to live this long, but I want to help her fight because I know that she will have an up hill battle.

I have PetAg KMR and Karo that I can use but mom wants to nurse her and have her with her. Mom is on a Merrick grain free kitten food and is getting Weruva canned food and Fancy Feast Kitten cans several times a day which I am adding L-Lysine to (something that my shelter does for all of its cats/kittens).

What else can I do to help her? Obviously, I feel as though time with mom and litter mates is the best option for now but that she also needs to be closely monitored.


The whole litter at 2 days old.


Monarch next to her three brothers as mom was bringing them back into the nest

So you have a co-holder of the record on our forum.  Your precedessor had a worse start, weak and an orphan.  The rescuer fought gallantly, with our advices to help.

And after several weeks she won...  That story ended badly, but it was a different cause.

Exactly what KMR do you have, powder or premade liquid?  This in powder is more reliable.   Can you get raw goat milk? Fresh or frozen, is often a good alternative.

That said, as long as she gains naturally from mommas natural milk, keep up with it!

If necessary, take away some of the biggest healthy sibling, and supplement this guys instead...

So be sure SHE and the other small kittens gets the most of mommas quality time and milk.

So, either do arrange some sort of rotation - make an extra nice and comfortable nest, with heating pad and everything. The siblings whom have eaten and are sleeping, you lay inte the nest, say, 3 a time.  And the smallest / weakest are with momma.

OR if necessary, you handraise the most robust of them, one or two - perhaps these whom bullies most.   And the smallest, most in need, are with momma.

Having a good momma with you whom also has plenty of milk is a GREAT advantage.  Dont throw it away if you arent forced.

Being that small, she doesnt must gain the magical 10+ grammes a day (0,3+  oz).  6+ grammes may be enough.   0,15 oz -

which she at this moment is better than that, no?   And thus, so far it goes excellent, and we do have the best hopes.   Even if the yellow flag is on.

Being solid white, she is probably a point to be.

rescuedfamily said:

The whole litter at 2 days old.

DSC_0824.JPG

• rescuedfamily
• Apr 1, 2016

Monarch next to her three brothers as mom was bringing them back into the nest

Click to expand...

We have the powdered that I mix up each time. I also usually add a little bit of karo to the bottle, especially when they are first learning to bottle feed.

I really like your idea of pulling the largest sibling(s) out to have fewer kittens for her to compete with for the food and supplementing them if need be. I am very thankful that Honey is a good mom and wants all of her babies. Since she has such a large litter I have been giving her any sort of soft food I can get to keep her nourished and hydrated. I am going to try to pull the kittens out a little bit, but I have a feeling honey will be too upset by having some missing to lay down and feed the ones that need it more.

The KMR already has some form of sugar in it and the Karo syrup may be too much for the kittens.  @catwoman707 has cautioned against additional sugar in kittens getting KMR.

Another trick is to put the smaller kittens to mom when the bigger kittens are asleep.

You can help mom with cleaning and toileting duties.  She is going to be overwhelmed.

True.  Karo isnt necessary in the kmr as such, there is already some added sugar.   But karo is very useful with lethargic or otherwise weak kittens. Perks extra energy in them.  With kittens fading because of low blood sugar it does marvels.

A true  glucose sugar / dextrose sugar is even better, if if glucose sugar proper is difficult to find, Karo is a  good substitute.  Or honey if you dont have anything else.

Ok. I will keep that in mind!
I just did her daily weigh in and she is up to 74 grams (11 grams more than yesterday!)

rescuedfamily said:

Ok. I will keep that in mind!
I just did her daily weigh in and she is up to 74 grams (11 grams more than yesterday!)

Click to expand...

So she is gaining an excellent amt of weight daily! There should be no reason for her not to survive, be sure to rotate them, all smallest together and biggest together, 4 and 4.

Just watch that weight, that is the best thing you can do for her and all, even the bigger ones can be more passive with nursing, and all are vulnerable of failing as you know, this is a great litter!

No worries on the color/lack of. As long as she shows the will to live she should catch up and come out a feisty one! )

Just dropping in for a moment and saw these lovely babies.  You don't know the parentage, but she reminds me of a little Siamese in a litter of big strong tabbies.  I'm wondering if mama doesn't have some Siamese in her and there may have been more than one father, and that one carried a Siamese gene.  Time will tell if she develops point colors, but she is gaining weight and the mama cat is not rejecting her, so I believe she is as healthy as the others, just tiny and small boned.  What do you think, @StefanZ?

Red Top Rescue said:

 
Just dropping in for a moment and saw these lovely babies.  You don't know the parentage, but she reminds me of a little Siamese in a litter of big strong tabbies.  I'm wondering if mama doesn't have some Siamese in her and there may have been more than one father, and that one carried a Siamese gene.  Time will tell if she develops point colors, but she is gaining weight and the mama cat is not rejecting her, so I believe she is as healthy as the others, just tiny and small boned.  What do you think, @StefanZ?

Click to expand...

I agree, I even mentioned it in passing in one of my posts her. "Being solid white, she is probably a point to be.".

If both momma and daddy are carriers of the point gene, the statistical outcome should be 2 kittens.  But the statistics arent not iron clad, The  lile is no automato.

Raise of 11g in one day is marvellous for our tiny heroine.   Its a nice rise for a full weight kitten.  Tiny she could be contend with 6+...  now being 74g she has really a normal weight...

With that excellent momma, and your good care,  rotate as Catwoman suggested, its the easiest,

And be sure the momma gets enough of nourishments (and perhaps some help with elimnating too).  A litter of 8 is big.  And observe the demands will get bigger and bigger on her, because the kittens will eat more and more every day...

I gave her a morning weigh in today and she is up to 78 grams. She is a little fighter! She pushes all of her larger siblings out of the way to get to the better, back nipples even though some are almost double her size (120-150 grams).
I definitely will continue to monitor their weights and moms milk supply as they continue to grow.
That is a thought that never occurred to me about her being a point! Somehow every litter that I have had (7) have all been tabbies or solids. This mom is a beautiful orange tabby herself. When do they start to show their colors if she is a point?

rescuedfamily said:

I gave her a morning weigh in today and she is up to 78 grams. She is a little fighter! She pushes all of her larger siblings out of the way to get to the better, back nipples even though some are almost double her size (120-150 grams).
I definitely will continue to monitor their weights and moms milk supply as they continue to grow.
That is a thought that never occurred to me about her being a point! Somehow every litter that I have had (7) have all been tabbies or solids. This mom is a beautiful orange tabby herself. When do they start to show their colors if she is a point?

Click to expand...

At about one week of age.  May be somewhat later, especielly if they are creme point or even red point. but at one week you can usually see it.

Monarch is a week old today. In her weight in last night she was up to 83 grams. I am still beyond shocked how quickly she is growing! She is still smaller than her siblings but is growing as fast or faster than they are. They currently range from 4.625 ounces to 5.625 ounces.

I was studying her coat last night and noticed that the very tips of her ears are getting a grey tint to them! Is that typical for points? Everything that I see for points says their nose changes first. I am very interested in where her coloring will go!

Point color is controlled by temperature, and the cooler the skin temperature, the more color shows up, which is why it appears at the tip of the tail, tips of ears and sometimes nose first.  Any kitten that is nursing as much as Monarch is probably does not have a very cool nose, so yes, the tips of the ears, tail and toes may be the first place that color shows up.  They are al born pure white because inside mom, their temperature is even all over.

She has continued to get more and more grey on the tips of her ears and a little smudge on her nose.
I am a little concerned about her eyes. They have opened on their own but they keep getting crusty and stick a little. They also appear to be very hazy and red tinted, I know when adult cats have blue eyes their eyes look red instead of gold, but is it normal for kittens?

I think the reddish color is normal in points.  I would keep an eye on the crusty stuff.  Use a warm clean cloth to soften the crud up before wiping it away.  If it continues you may need to get

terramycin ointment from the vet.

I agree with Handsome Kitty.  The pointed kittens eyes tends to be reddish, by natural reasons.

But look out with these crusties - this has no connection with them being points, just the usual nuisance to take care off - and watch out with.

Get some terramycin eye ointment from your vet or online and use some two or three times a day.  It works really well on these sensitive newly opened kitten eyes.  It also keeps the lids from sticking together -- usually eyes are fine within a week after opening using this.