Welcome to kitten season...boy, I didn't miss it while it was gone! --weight gain, feeding, dewormin

And another year has brought us a bevy of tiny kittens, left by mommas too soon.

5 went to another volunteer for bottle feeding, we hear they are doing well and starting to explore soft food and moistened kibbles.  Yay!

Out of 6 underaged (between 3-5 weeks) kittens from the shelter we are left with four.  Two were fading kittens that we didn't expect to live.  They had been in the elements too long (it is sunny here in Northern IN but still cool) without a mother.

I just did weights and either the shelter scale and my scale don't agree, or only one kitten has gained any significant weight.

Part of that I understand.  I've dewormed them at least twice and at shelter intake they were fat bellied with roundworms.  But still...

We feed the two bigger ones (both in excess of a pound) kitten kibble free fed, which they eat readily, and once daily a good helping of wet food, which they enjoy.  They clean themselves adequately (one is a Persian lookalike with a ton of coat to care for) and play.  The male in that group is the one that has gained weight like I'd like...up from 1.1 pound at shelter intake to 1 pound 14 oz today.  The girl, the Persian-y one, is much lighter and either they just copied the weight from the boy at the shelter (it's possible) or she only went from 1.1 to 1 lb 4 oz (1.25 lb for those mathematically challenged or working with a measurement system that actually makes sense).  Not much gain.  She was very wormy though.

More worrying are my two orangies, whose brothers were the fading kittens (found at same location as the first two, but 36 hours later).  They are eating primarily wet food still, three times a day meals with kitten kibble available but they are mostly uninterested in hard food.  They drink and use the litter box (a lot!) though.  I have dewormed them as well but they still have very round bellies and have gone from an intake weight of 0.7lb a piece to now, 10 oz and 7.5 oz each.  They are reasonably active and love attention.  Their stool as compared to the other two is copious and tends towards the loose.  These kittens are obviously younger than I'd thought initially by their development, and they really need some help in cleaning (poopy kitten butts, feets, tails).

Question here: has anyone had luck with using Revolution as a dewormer primarily as opposed to flea treatment?  Nobody has fleas (capstar'ed on intake) but I'm wondering if I use a one-time dewormer like Revolution, instead of waiting the four week course of a round dewormer like Pyrantel, if it mightn't help.  Alternatively I could start them on a multi-dewormer like Panacur and see if that helps.

I know that chemically selamectin ought to treat round and hookworms.  I haven't done a fecal exam on these kids to see what they've got.  Doesn't 'look' (or smell) like giardia or coccidia, thankfully.  Our rescue does tend to treat presumptively rather than pay the $ for an exam...dewormers are cheaper than the prices vets want to charge us and I don't have my own materials to do it at home (though I'm trained!)

I'd like to see more weight gain as well.  The first batch (big boy and Persian-y girl) should be almost 8 weeks by the math.  Is there anything I can add to food to promote weight gain and get them up to two pounds?  Not that I'm in a hurry, but actually, I AM in a hurry...I've got a waiting list for kittens to come in and my 5 bottle feeders will be back to me soon (plus 3 she was already bottle feeding).

You know it's sad when I consider my two 3.5 month old kittens from a previous group to be 'old'...they are no spring chickens any more, not to me.  I had forgotten as well that the shelter most of my kids come from tends to overestimate age by 1-2 weeks whenever they can get away with it...thus the "4 week old orange tabbies" were probably 2-3 weeks when I got them, no wonder we lost the two faders that came from same location.

Well, I guess one of the lessons learned is that I need to do my own intake weight with my own scale, to rule out that issue...

Any thoughts on the deworming?  Or encouraging weight gain?

Hi Kat,

Yep, kitten season is upon us here too.

Revolution should not be used on kittens younger than 8 weeks, or who weigh less than 2 pounds. I would go another route for now.

As far as weight goes, once they are de-wormed, gain occurs when they eat enough. Since these guys are coming from behind, they should eat as many wet food meals as they want, in addition to the 24/7 dry food. You can always add boiled chicken, chopped, hard-boiled egg, or Nutrical paste to their diets.

For the kittens with diarrhea, once they've been wormed, if it's not diet, then it's time to move on to clavamox to treat intestinal infection, which is common in orphan kittens.

I think you should always do an intake weight yourself, as well as judge age using developmental milestones.

Try not to get overwhelmed with too many rescues too early in the season!

Update:  The orange tabbies, Galahad and Guinevere, LOVE boiled chicken thigh.  They pigged out last night.  Just a minor worry that they will forego eating 'cat' food in favor of the chicken.

I am trying not to be overwhelmed, but we're down a foster family and really feeling the pain.  I chatted yesterday with a former professor of mine, who volunteers with another local rescue...we bemoaned the fact that despite the addition of a fabulous low-cost spay/neuter clinic about 4 years back, there seems to be no end in sight for our community's cat overpopulation problem.  I ALMOST feel like we're seeing fewer puppies, but not kittens.  Especially not in the county directly to the east of us--primarily rural and low-income.  Their county shelter is flooded with kittens.

Talking about weights.  I think its easiest to measure in grammes.  This way, we can immediately see what changes there is.

If not, its wise to keep to one sort.  Either Lb´s or Oz.   Changing from LB to OZ  talking about the same cat is too bewildering for us foreigners from abroad.   

Just do what you can do. Kitten season is an issue all over North America. It's very sad. Glad you are helping!