Queen not with kitten when people not with her

So glad to hear it! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Hi all -

This kitten Small Fry is Marie's only and she is 17 days old today. She had been going good but seems to not be gaining weight in the last couple of days. The kitten had been using only one teat and that is the only one now with milk.

And also in the last couple of days I have noticed the queen has had a lot of milk in that one gland, more than in the week before. The kitten has been nursing some but it's not clear to me she is getting much and now seems less interested in trying. 

Is it possible for the teat to become blocked? Other ideas or suggestions? I have a call in to my vet but it's looking like we can't get her there until tomorrow. 

Thanks.

I should add that I have looked in to mastitis and understand the basics. But the gland and teat are not red or hot or painful to her. She is very cooperative with me touching her there. I tried to manually express and got a small drop of white milk but felt I had to squeeze the glad rather hard and didn't want to go further.

I would suggest to get a cotton bud and put a bit of warm water on it and start to rub the other nipples to get them to become active -sometimes the skin on the nipples is dry or the milk channels are blocked - this helped me to get all 8 of my cat's nipples to work, even when one was inverted. Usually if the gland is fine it takes a bit more squeezing to get the milk out. Make sure the environment is sterile as even though mastitis happens due to the milk remaining in the glands, it is caused by bacteria and therefore the presence of milk is not the culprit.

Hold the kitten to make sure it is latching, if she is disinterested then try to squeeze some milk out first leaving a drop on the to stimulate the kitten's smell senses. Uf the kitten is not gaining any weight then you should supplement immediately !let me know how the rubbing goes, i had to rub the nipples for the whole day to get them working. Btw start gentle and if thats not working then dont worry you can rub harder. Massaging the glands can also stimulate milk production

Ok thank you so much. I did just try squeezing the gland a bit again and got a bit of milk. I put the kitten on and she nursed a few seconds but wouldn't go back. I then tried again squeezing a little as she suckled but again the kitten quit. 

Will supplement as soon as I can. And I will try the cotton ball trick. 

Orange Marie said:

 
I should add that I have looked in to mastitis and understand the basics. But the gland and teat are not red or hot or painful to her. She is very cooperative with me touching her there. I tried to manually express and got a small drop of white milk but felt I had to squeeze the glad rather hard and didn't want to go further.

Click to expand...

Orange Marie said:

 
Hi all -

This kitten Small Fry is Marie's only and she is 17 days old today. She had been going good but seems to not be gaining weight in the last couple of days. The kitten had been using only one teat and that is the only one now with milk.

And also in the last couple of days I have noticed the queen has had a lot of milk in that one gland, more than in the week before. The kitten has been nursing some but it's not clear to me she is getting much and now seems less interested in trying. 

Is it possible for the teat to become blocked? Other ideas or suggestions? I have a call in to my vet but it's looking like we can't get her there until tomorrow. 

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Re the teat you have got some good advices.

Re the kitten - I think you must begin and supplement feed it - use a good  kmr or goats milk.

There is a paralell tread about a kitten gaining 3 grammes.  Some of the written there will be useful for you here too.

Ps. if the kitten doesnt have strengh enough to latch on, smear a little water solution of glucose sugar on its gum.  Paint it with a small paint brush, if nothing else.

If you dont have glucose sugar proper (brand name may be dextrose, dextropur or similiar), you can use white caro syrup or even honey.

Its surely Yellow Alert now, possibly even Red Alert.   

Please start supplementing the kitten immediately with KMR, as much as it will take with a needleless syringe. It's important to get the kitten gaining weight again and interested in eating ASAP.

How much does the kitten weigh?

Thanks as always all and sorry for the posting error - starting another thread. This all was happening as I was leaving for two days for business. My wife is handling now and will update later as I'm traveling. I have passed on the help.

We may have some errors in weighing the kitten as she has gotten bigger the scale fluctuates as she moves and sometimes my wife was doing it and sometimes I was. Today I felt like I got an accurate 361 grams. We recorded 354 two days ago but I think we had a high number yesterday at 373. But I think the trend is clear.

We will supplement and update when I can.

Sounds good! [emoji]128077[/emoji]

While you are away on business, can your wife take over  your post on this site and keep us informed on the kitten's progress?

Yay! So when my wife got home last night she saw the kitten feeding and decided to wait till this morning to see how much she weighed. She gained 6 to 7 grams overnight. Also the enlarged gland was much more like it had been in past so it was evident the kitten was feeding. My wife also reports the kitten is very active today!

My theory is this. Marie's gland had been very enlarged. When I first tried to manually express milk I had to squeeze quite a bit more than I felt completely comfortable with. But after a bit a few drops of very thick white milk came out. I tried again twenty minutes later and the milk began to come out with more gentle squeezing and was much thinner.

Do you all think it is possible she had some kind of blockage which was cleared? Am I imagining this or does it sound like this could be the case?

I have to say again what an incredible resource this forum is. You all are great. Thanks much. 

It sounds like you are correct. I'm glad to hear the baby is feeding well now! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Hi again all! Marie and Small Fry the kitten who is now five weeks are doing great. Both have been in a room of their own, separated from our two other cats. But now that the kitten is older and Marie just tested negative again for FIV and FeLV we would love to integrate them.

I have read some about trying to slowly integrate cats by feeding on the opposite sides of a door, exchanging smells on a washcloth, or exchanging spaces. We plan to do more of that.

But the other day we tried holding the kitten and bringing her out and showing the other cats one at a time. While the male, Mulligan, was in the basement we showed our female, Bell. She hissed and ran. Later we got the same reaction from Mulligan and he hissed at me again after putting the kitten in her room. And the next day he hissed at me after I came out of the room with Marie and the kitten. Previously they have been curious but largely ignoring the cats in the maternity suite. 

I would be hugely grateful for any insights or suggestion on bringing the cats together! Oh and Bell is an easy going ten year old and Mulligan is a big six year old black and white tough guy. 

Thanks!

There are a lot of steps to introducing cats.  All are important but depending on the cats some steps may go quicker than others.

 [article="32680"]How To Successfully Introduce Cats The Ultimate Guide​[/article]  

Thank you and sorry if this is partially a faq :-). Of course this site has the BEST article on the subject that I have seen. Any other input related very much appreciated though also! Thanks all!

No worries.  If you don't know where to look some of the articles are hard to find. 

The behavior forum has many people trying to introduce cats.  You may want to check out some of the threads.  The kitten should be easy but the mom may be difficult until a month or two after she is spayed.  Hormones will take a while to leave her system.  Just remember, if it isn't working out because you forgot or rushed a step, you can go back to square one and start over.