Failure to Thrive Syndrome

I brought a foster kitten home from a local rescue with what their vet called "failure to thrive".  She is approx. 7 weeks old, has teeth, and was eating dry food in the rescue.  She stopped eating and drinking and began to weaken.  The rescue has lost 2 other kittens to this in the last week.  Including my foster kitten's crate-mate.

When I brought her home her third eye was showing and she had faded to 14.2 oz..  She has only had very small droppings and those are bright yellow and completely liquid.  I have started her on Clavamox, given her small amounts of canned food (she won't take much) and given her injections of lactated ringers solution to rehydrate her.  She won't drink at all.  She has a heating pad in her crate.  The rescue vet couldn't pinpoint anything specific wrong with her or with the ones that died in the same way previous.

What do you folks make of it?  Any advice would be much appreciated.  It's not that the rescue doesn't care, but they don't have the staff to baby her along.  If I know what to do I'll do it, but the rescue vet didn't have any recommendations.  If there's medicine she needs the rescue will probably be able to get it for me.  But the fact that 3 kittens have died of this (But not always crate-mates, and that's of about 30 kittens in the maternity ward, so not all or even close to all contracting it.) makes me worry that it's not just a fragile kitten, but something she's contracted.  I don't know if I'm doing the right things, or enough of the right things.  Would appreciate the voice of experience. 

Kitten is responsive, but very, very weak.  Not completely limp, but very frail.  Her third eye emerges periodically, but never as much or as badly as before I brought her home.  She is a fighter, but I'm afraid I'm running out of time.

Bless you for taking this little one. 

Are you able to syringe feed? will she be able to swallow it? 

She is so tiny.. I do not know what else.. how about getting the KMR kitten formula? and pedialyte (unflavored)... you can try mixing it in with the KMR powder. 

I do not have any experience with kittens, but a lot of people here do. 

I will try to page them

@StefanZ  

@talkingpeanut  

From what I read, she needs to be fed every 2-3 hours round the clock, and hydrated also. Is she too small for fluids? 

Sorry, my mind is not very sharp right now. 

I would think, hydrating her with syringes of pedialyte and the KMR round the clock would be helpful... other than that, I do not have any other ideas...

Keep her warm. Get a heating blanket, wrap it in a towel and put it in her bed. Or a sock filled with rice that is heated in the microwave...

Wishing you the best....

Sometimes when it is listed as 'failure to thrive' it could be anything. A virus, etc...so it is tuff to find the cause of it. 

Going to add in a few others!

@sarthur2  @catwoman707  

I agree with syringe feeding her a mixture of the canned food and kmr for now.  Every 1-2 hours, just to keep fluids and calories in her. It could be enough to get her over this hurdle.  Pedialyte is also a great idea, as is the sub-q fluid.

I would syringe KMR mixed with pedialyte for now and wait on the canned food. Give as many mLs as you can every couple of hours. Gerber turkey or chicken can be mixed in or offered on your finger. Keeping the kitten warm is excellent.

I'm hoping the clavamox will fight the bacteria that is causing the yellow poop. It sounds like coccidia. The best, quickest medicine for that is Ponazuril. Ask the rescue about it and keep us posted. Prayers for the little one.

Thank you to everyone for your advice.  I was able to begin a new regimine with her, but she lost her fight a short while ago.  She was just too weak to continue to fight I think.  But your information will still help.  I can intervene faster and more aggressively with the next case if there should be one.  Maybe getting her out of the rescue at least protected other babies.  Thank you everyone.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Thank you for trying.

crowinghen said:

 
Thank you to everyone for your advice.  I was able to begin a new regimine with her, but she lost her fight a short while ago.  She was just too weak to continue to fight I think.  But your information will still help.  I can intervene faster and more aggressively with the next case if there should be one.  Maybe getting her out of the rescue at least protected other babies.  Thank you everyone.

Click to expand...

Im deeply sorry to read this.  Tx for trying to help her, tx for this quick report.     RIP little one.

I was just reading the posts, planning to write  you had got good advices so far.  My addition would be to try with raw goats milk, preferably as fresh as possible, but frozen could possibly do.   This could possibly make a change. 

I would also add a sheet on different recipes for pedialyte.

I hope you arent discouraged to helping weak orphans in the future.  Its a difficult task, weak / sick orphans often doesnt  make it, even if the rescuer fights on.  But some do.  And if the rescuer fight vigorously as you do - quite a few does!  

Also, the orphanage you cooperate with seems OK to cooperate with.

I want to thank you in the name of The Cat, and wish you all the best.

Warm hugs.

So sorry! Thank you for trying. She sounded very ill. RIP little one! [emoji]128149[/emoji]

And thank you for fostering!

You did all you could but sometimes Nature intervenes. It sounds as if she was doomed before you got her. Sadly, we cannot save them all. I shall now close this thread out of respect for the little one. If you take another one in I hope you have better luck and we look forward to hearing about it.