Mommies losing weight and diarhea after having kittens and other problems

  Hi 3 females had a total of 12 kittens.  Mothers not long afterwards a week or so got very bad gas while nursing kittens.  Next began to lose a lot of weight and having diarrhea even though being very active.  Kittens are approximately 8 weeks plus from 3 different mothers and litters and still nurse occasionally.  Now heavy flea infestation even with daily combing baths with blue dawn dish soap.  I am aware that I cannot give flea treatment to a nursing mother.  Working very hard to find no kill agencies to adopt both kittens and mothers.  I am concerned about weight loss but live in extreme poverty and am severely disabled with both pain and mobility issues. Keeping litters clean daily and more but having severe difficulty keeping up.  What besides finding homes for 3 mommies and kittens can I do for flea control that is safe? Also what may be causing the diarrhea in adult female cats?  Also now some kittens are getting loose stools after nursing.  I am without any form of transportation to get mommies to vets or financial means to pay for medical help.  Doing best from best intentions and not good enough!

pscruton1 said:

 
  Hi 3 females had a total of 12 kittens.  Mothers not long afterwards a week or so got very bad gas while nursing kittens.  Next began to lose a lot of weight and having diarrhea even though being very active.  Kittens are approximately 8 weeks plus from 3 different mothers and litters and still nurse occasionally.  Now heavy flea infestation even with daily combing baths with blue dawn dish soap.  I am aware that I cannot give flea treatment to a nursing mother.  Working very hard to find no kill agencies to adopt both kittens and mothers.  I am concerned about weight loss but live in extreme poverty and am severely disabled with both pain and mobility issues. Keeping litters clean daily and more but having severe difficulty keeping up.  What besides finding homes for 3 mommies and kittens can I do for flea control that is safe? Also what may be causing the diarrhea in adult female cats?  Also now some kittens are getting loose stools after nursing.  I am without any form of transportation to get mommies to vets or financial means to pay for medical help.  Doing best from best intentions and not good enough!

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I know for sure Advantage II is ok to use on nursing mommas.  Perhaps also other preparates, but this for sure.

Were they dewormed?  It could be other parasites too, alike giardia or coccidia. Especielyy if they are allowed to go aout, and drink water from outside.

You can also try with Diacetomeus earth DE, but make sure its so called food grade, or huma grade...  You can use the on outside, but also sprinkle some on their food - kills worms too...

OK, pedialyte is always good in all form of diarrehea.   Bougth flavorless pedialyte for babies, or home made - I will  soon paste a long essay with several different pedialyte receipts - you use the easiest for you to get.

Goats milk may make a difference, - mild and nourishing.  Especially if you can get raw goat milk. (bouhgt in fancy shops it may be pricey, but pet shops have sometimes frozen raw goats milk - its not that costly).

Otherwise you can try with some mild flavorless unsweetened youghurt, especielly if it contains extra bacterias of aciphilus and bifidus.

The promised Pedialyte receipts.

Pedialyte:

Re homemade pedialyte, Im reusing a couple of my older posts.  If it seems lenghy, the most important recipe is at the end.

You use the receipt which is conventient for you, where you can get the gears without problems.

Pedialyte:

Now, as the sugar source, I use always glucose sugar (dextrose  / dextropur ) Its easy to get in Sweden, most well equipped food shops do carry the powder.    There are also flavored sweeties, heavily used by students and  wanna be sportsmen,  made of glucose sugar.   

So for me its no big deal to use the proper ingredient, instead of using emergency replacements.

For american forumites whom have difficulties to find glucose sugar proper, there is always white caro syrup, or even honey - honey does contain some glucose, and white caro syrup contains much glucose sugar.  In some brands its perhaps even essentially liquid glucose sugar.

Common sugar works too, but much slower, as it must be digested..  While glucose doesnt need to be digested, it goes into blood directly from the stomach, yes, even from the lips and mouth.

These whom tried both, are astonished how quickly glucose works, practically instantly.

As salt source, I use  minerale salt.  Also common in shops here in Sweden.  This salt contains  several different minerales, not just the NaCl in the usual kitchen salt. Including this potassium K salt.

A nice base for salt sources is simple a bottle of good minerale water.   These do typically contain a lotsa of different salts, in suitable concentration. Look at the label!

Let the gas out, add the glucose sugar source, and voilá!  you got a terrific home made pedialyte...

Common kitchen salt is OK if you dont have anything else, but its too "poverty"  if you use the pedialyte more than occasionally.

A third recipe is,  you use water from well cooked rice.   In practice its heavily over cooked.

And add  salt to it, preferably  such a minerale salt mentioned above...

This rice water contains lotsa of glucose sugar.   This variation of  pedialyte probably extra useful in some types of diarrhea, as water from overcooked rice is in itself  one of the remedies against diarrhea.  At least, the emergency doc gave us the recipe when I was a child and sick in diarrhea...  

A nice combination should be,  a  homemade pedialyte on such an overboilded rice, in water of mineral water.

Here we get both natural glucose sugar, lotsa of good mineral salts, and the rests from rice whom are good when having a diarrhea.  After all, such rice water is a classical home remedy for humans with diarrhea...

There is of course bought pedialyte, which can be used too.  Some of the brands have too much funny ingredients, though.  But if desperate, can be used.

My recommendation for bough pedialyte is, flavorless pedialyte for babies.   This is OK for cats.

pscruton1

Finding a rescue ASAP would be best. All cats and kittens need flea meds (Advantage), de-worming (fleas lead to worms), and they all most likely need antibiotics to treat the inrestinal bacteria they likely have that is caused by parasites, in order to stop the nasty, ongoing diarrhea, which can become debilitating if not treated.

Treating for the diarrhea is imperative at this point. Probiotic powder can be sprinkled into the moms' wet food, and plain, canned pumpkin (a tablespoon) can be mixed into each wet food feeding, or given alone to help with loose stools in the meantime. But the moms need meds, and the kittens who are catching it from the moms will too.

You've done a wonderful service caring for these 3 mama cats and their litters, especially under your trying circumstaces. It's truly admirable!

Please make some calls to find no-kill shelters that will re-home the kittens and moms. The shelters will pay for meds and food even if you continue fostering for them for now.

Continue posting questions and updates on this thread.

Please let us know how all this goes. I hope you can find a shelter to work with this week.