Kittens!

My female cat had 4 kittens they were born the size of a newborn mouse. This is the first time her being a mother she is about almost a year old. 3 of them sadly did not survive one survived for a couple of hours after his birth. 3 days later one passed away after another one did She left them the day they were born. Also just when they were born they wouldn't eat at all except for one. Another female cat had kittens on my porch she has a collar on but no tag. I gave her the little kitten to her he is now about 3 almost 4 weeks old and is the size of a newborn kitten is it because he was born too small he has opened his eyes eats a lot of milk is very chunky. But the other kittens 6 of them hurt him so bad a week ago they stabbed there little nails into his neck and side of eye. When I check on them they are always hitting him only him. Also won't let him eat I have to watch him so he could eat. Today I gave the kittens solid food so he could eat and the other kittens were attacking each other and growling what can I do with these problems? 

Can you bring the little fellow inside your house and take care of him yourself now? It sounds like it would be safer for him since the other bigger kittens are bullying him.

You'll need to keep feeding the porch kittens, but they will need to be handled and socialized so they can be adopted.

I think your little guy sounds very sweet and like he needs to be hand-raised in your house now that he's almost 4 weeks old.

Can you post a picture of him?

Is his mom still gone?

sarthur2 said:

Can you bring the little fellow inside your house and take care of him yourself now? It sounds like it would be safer for him since the other bigger kittens are bullying him.

You'll need to keep feeding the porch kittens, but they will need to be handled and socialized so they can be adopted.

I think your little guy sounds very sweet and like he needs to be hand-raised in your house now that he's almost 4 weeks old.

Can you post a picture of him?

Is his mom still gone?

Click to expand...

I took care of two kittens myself which are ones that passed away. The mother does not even care about him it looks like she never had kittens. So sad to hear that there bullying him I think i will raise him myself or distract the kittens with wet food. Another thing the mother cat has some kind of skin infection which kinda made they lose some of there hair bald spots. They also gave him eye infection. Ill post a picture. 

These kittens were apparently premature.  This surely added the hormones and the maternal instinct didnt kicked in on the biological mom.

Having a foster mom was apparently easier - HER milk and maternal instinct were on.

These whom died - dont have bad conscience.  Premature kittens are ALWAYS a fight uphill, and many dies, even if the fosterer is experienced and they arent that much too early...

But now its surely time for you to take charge again, and take him in to porceed with raising.   You can perhaps lend the foster momma sometimes, so she can give him some quality time.  Im not sure if it is practically possible, but if...

Anyways, you can proceed  on your own now.  You can use some good kmr as addition together with the beginning of kitten foods.  If you can get raw goat milk its always a good supplement for the weak ones.

Be sure the litter you use is non clumping litter, and do kitten safe your inside.

As said above, good if you begin to socialize the older kittens - but its another story.

About the bald spots could this be ringworm? I'm unsure about how to treat this as I've not had any experience with it myself, maybe another user can chip in on that? Also, have you checked for fleas? Check around the neck and turn the kitten on its back very gently and check between it's 'armpits', remove any small black bugs you see and put the bugs in water to drown them. Repeat this for all the kittens, as well as the Mum. Don't bath them or use any flea shampoo on the kittens, they're too small.

Also have you got a vet you can take them to because of the eye-infection or skin disease? The eye-infection could very well cause him to become blind if it isn't treated -- it also sounds like it could possibly be a URI. He'll need antibiotics for that.

I hope everything goes alright!

I just looked at the pictures properly and that looks like a bad case of conjunctivitis :-( He'll need eye ointment for that I /think/, though you can also give him antibiotics (I think they go throughout the body, but they are taken orally, so) Don't use any human ointments on him! You can use human baby amoxicillin though, and give him that for 10 days. It's 5ml per pound of weight for the suspension (a 250mg/ml suspension) I would give him 0.1ml, that's how much I had to give my rescued kitten.

Though, if it's possible PLEASE see a vet, if it's not then I'm sure lots of users here, including myself, will be happy to help :-)

Also have you got a weight for him yet? Buy a scale if you haven't already and weigh him every day to make sure he gains about 7-10g a day.

You can also make him some home-made kitten milk, this is the stuff I used (though if you can get Royal Canin KMR do get that instead!)

goats/buffalo's milk

a little yogurt

a drizzle of honey (you can put some on his gums to give him an energy boost too)

You can also blend some boiled chicken/liver up in the blender with some water. You can add the juices from this into the milk that you're making him, seeing as he's roughly on weaning age now.

You'll also need a syringe to feed him with (or a bottle if you can find one). If he doesn't eat, don't force him too, just wait a little and try again later. The kitten should be on it's stomach with it's head at a slight upwards angle (like they'd be when they're drinking from Mum). Slowly put a little bit of the milk drop by drop into his mouth, wait for him to swallow and repeat. I'd give him about 3ml to begin with and see if he downs that and then try again with another 3ml about an hour later.  Also you'll have to stimulate him to urinate and do a poop, too, you can do this by gently rubbing at his butt with a warm, damp cotton ball :-)

It looks to me like it could be mange. Can you bring this baby and the whole foster family to the vet? They need treatment for their skin and eye conditions.

Also, if at all possible, these mama cats need to be spayed. They will keep having litter after litter if left outside intact. It's very sad.

What will happen to all of these kittens? Maybe you can work with a foster network?

Thanks to everyone for the great response. Talkingpeanut we asked a vet about the hair loss and said she didn't know anything of that. We will have to check with another vet. The female cat looks like she is someones pet. I have had this problem for a while stray cats having kittens at my home. This is the 4th cat who has had kittens looks like different cats at my house. Then they leave me 4-6 kittens. I can never stop this problem.

Since I have kept 3 male fixed cats from previous litters what I do is let me grow to 8-9 months and get them homes. Indie-n-button we got him eye ointment just today from a vet. I always keep back up formula from two brands since the mother cat leaves for a while. These brands are KMR and GNC. He eats a lot from the mother cat but just in case i keep it here. Thank you for the homemade formula recipe!  Also I have not seen fleas on him since he rarely has hair because of the hair loss. Stephanz I will feed him KMR every moment. The goat milk sounds like a good idea for him. Once again thank you to everyone who responded back.

I think even if the cats are someone's pet, they are becoming your problem. I would consider getting them spayed as a public service anyway. Their owners don't seem to mind that they are gone for weeks at a time...

True it is becoming a problem for me not them. I will see what I can do with these cats. I am going to keep the kitten who was born premature since he was the only one who survived he's special. After he/she gets older I will fix her/him.  But for now I must spay this female cat asap.

I agree. They need help, and no one else seems to be taking responsibility. It would be really wonderful if you could help.

I will try since I can't afford to spay many cats the most I could probably spay are 3. Maybe I can see where the cats live and ask there owners I know they live around here. 

Do what you can comfortably. You can also ask vets to work with you at a discount since these aren't your pets. There may also be shelters around that can help.