Kitten in need of help – 1 ounce of life

catministrator

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Hi everybody, not very often that I need assistance, but here I am, with a kitten that keeps everybody on their toes.

I’m a student at a local college. We are here in South Texas, meaning warm weather + poor people = many stray cats. On campus we created a student organization dedicated to spay/neuter our campus kitties, we vaccinate them and maintain feeding stations 24/7. We don’t have a free Spay/Neuter clinic, so everything comes out of our own pockets, students, teachers all alike. Once in a while we host fundraiser events to keeps us running.

September 15th, so 10 days ago, a student found a tiny kitten lying on a pavement in front of a building during heavy rain. She picked up the kitten and brought it to a teacher who she knew was involved with our club. Long story short, kitten ended up with me a few hours later.

This is Chloe. When I got her she weighed in 0.91 ounces. Yes, you read that right. She was less than a handful of life. I was sure she wouldn’t make it through the night. Hubby and I took turns, we fed her every 2 hours day and night and Chloe was slowly gaining weight, she even opened her eyes. After a couple of days she became active and started to crawl around, conquering the world. This is when we noticed something was up with her front leg. It was at an odd angle. Hubby thought he might have hurt her with his big hand so rushed her to the night clinic, where the ER vet took x-rays.

Her front legs are deformed. I wasn’t there, all I heard was “missing bones and cartilage”. The ER vet recommended to get a second opinion with another vet. We have an appointment tomorrow.

Chloe gained weight. As of today she weighs 7.7 ounces, right on where she belongs. She is very strong and loud. But she feels like “special needs”. Difficult to put it in words, it’s more like a gut feeling.

Digestion: we feed her KMR, the canned milk, and it gives her diarrhea. I tried KMR – powdered- and it gave her constipation, even watered down and carefully prepared.

Drinking: I bottle fed kittens before. Not a lot of experience to look back on, but a bit. After feeding, Chloe is never satisfied. She is very angry. She is always looking for the bottle. She easily drinks 10ml in a sitting. We have to be careful not to overfeed her. After feeding she never cuddles. She is always looking for more, and she is angry, angry enough to bite on the nipple of the bottle and growling at the damn thing. Only way to calm her down is to put her in the bed (with heating pad) and a purring toy. Peeing/pooping works.

Milk goes up the nose: no matter what bottle, what nipple or what angle you hold Chloe, with or without a break, she always drinks so fast and vigorously, that milk goes up her nose. I start to suspect there might be a small cleft.

She is – however – a cute kitten, a crazy fighter, and her little cries are really eating away at us. We hope for more input tomorrow.

I’m not sure if she’s in pain or just super angry at the world.   

And now, so you guys can melt a little, here she is:

 
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Sarthur2

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Powdered KMR is superior to the pre-mixed. Constipation is the better choice over diarrhea. Every kitten who drinks pre-mixed gets diarrhea and does not gain as well. Please do not use Hartz. PetAg is excellent. Constipation is easily solved with a drop or two of olive oil in each bottle.

She's not angry, she's hungry, even with 10mL per feeding. She's growing quickly and needs more food, especially with the diarrhea.

It's possible that her front legs are not deformed. Sometimes kittens are born with weak or twisted limbs, and daily massage several times a day helps to straighten and position them while the kitten is young.

She's absolutely adorable! [emoji]128149[/emoji]
 
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StefanZ

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You could try with goats milk, especielly if you find raw - fresh or frozen.  But almost any full fat goats milk is useful, bottled, cartooned, powdered...

Im not saying they are better than KMR powdered, but if you need an alternative, here you have.

Tell me, we have a parallell thread with almost the same situation, weight below one oz, fighiting for food, now among the 7 oz...  Is it the same cat, but different posters,  or?

@Catminator
 
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catministrator

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Powdered KMR is superior to the pre-mixed.
Ok, I have the powdered formula as well. It's the one from PetAg, How many drops of olive oil do i add for lets say 15ml? I stir the mix then usually filter it to get the little knots out but she cried so much just pooping. Poor thing.
It's possible that her front legs are not deformed. Sometimes kittens are born with weak or twisted limbs, and daily massage several times a day helps to straighten and position them while the kitten is young.
 
I'm hoping for that. But it feels odd, like the paw and the joint are not connected. I was at work when the vet took the xrays so i didn't see them, but I will see it tomorrow. 
 
Tell me, we have a parallell thread with almost the same situation, weight below one oz, fighiting for food, now among the 7 oz...  Is it the same cat, but different posters,  or?

@Catminator
different kitten, different poster 
 I used to post on a different forum but it seems to be pretty silent there now.
 
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catministrator

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Are you still feeding her every two hours?
throughout the day yes, but now we are slowly stretching out the time at night. We are at an 3 hours interval for the night. At night she is not waking us up for food, I have to wake her up, but throughout the day she's quite active.  
 

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Use 2 drops per bottle. With oil in every bottle her poop will soften.

Use a whisk to get the lumps out of the formula. Filtering the lumps may deprive her of nutrition.

Let me know what the vet says tomorrow. Kittens have very soft, malleable bones and joints when young. It may be too early to say definitively if she has an issue.
 
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I have had similar issues before and my kitty made it through! The powdered gave her constipation as well even with oil added but you should try it, I added 3 drops per bottle. As far as the milk up the nose you may want to try a nipple with a smaller hole if you can my kitten got a URI from milk inhalation and it's not fun!
When you are toiletting do you run warm water on her bottom? That really helped my kitty but she used to scream while going just like yours, just don't give up trying till your kitty gets it out he/she will feel a lot better after getting it out. It sometimes took me up to 3min of rubbing gently with warm running water to get her to get it out but when she did it was always a lot!
 
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I tried all kinds of nipples: the long thin ones, the normal and the bulkier types of nipples. I tried tiny holes, medium holes or just slits. I found a decent nipple for now that works somewhat but when she gets the milk up the nose... it sounds horrible.  
 
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When you are toiletting do you run warm water on her bottom? That really helped my kitty but she used to scream while going just like yours, just don't give up trying till your kitty gets it out he/she will feel a lot better after getting it out. It sometimes took me up to 3min of rubbing gently with warm running water to get her to get it out but when she did it was always a lot!
Warm water and cotton balls is what we do. Unscented/ no dye baby wipes if the mess gets on her feet.
 
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Alright, we just came from the vet and it's worse than what we thought. Yes, both paws are deformed but that's not the problem. Major problem is that both elbows are not fused. The joint that keeps our elbow together? Not there. Can it be fixed? The vet is specialized is orthopedics, but he's never had a case like before. We cannot attempt surgery till she is grown, that's for sure. It also means she cannot jump, run, have a playmate because one wrong move and she'll just break her bones.
 
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No. There is nothing to fuse. The part that usually fuses is not showing on the X-ray on both legs. She makes use of her left front leg, she can grab pull and hold on to the bottle, that gives us hope. When we pick her up, we pick her up by the belly, if she wiggles around and you grab her underneath her armpits, you can feel the left shoulder pop. The construct between shoulder and arm is weak but seems okay somewhat, the connection between elbow and forearm is missing. But he says to wait another month and then we do another set of x-rays.

In the long run he says either elbow replacements and 1-1 1/2 year recovery or amputation. Or euthanization. If we opt for surgery, we will basically have to keep her on the floor in a dark and enclosed environment with no other cat playmates till she is a full grown cat. She needs to walk around to develop, but she cannot get to excited or will hurt herself.

In other words, we are freaking out.    
 

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Try to remain calm and give it time. I would also suggest another opinion in the meantime. Such a precious little angel deserves a chance! [emoji]128149[/emoji]
 

paulthecat

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I agree. you are doing a wonderful job with your little kitty. Hang in there I am sending good thoughts and prayers your way!
 

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Easy for me to say, but take one day at a time. The poor little darling - her mother no doubt abandoned her. She has a will to live & kudos to you for helping her. Please keep us posted & share some more photos.
 
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Alright, we are usually not the type of people throwing in the towel quickly. We basically need a large play pen to keep her protected and on the floor. She can grab and hold on to the bottle.

She is also a fast crawler.

I have the urge to put a splinter or bandage on the left leg to keep the front paw from flipping over, but both the vets that saw Chloe were against it. Alright. I got a couple pics for you all.

 

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Oh, she just melts my heart! [emoji]127868[/emoji][emoji]128062[/emoji]

You can absolutely put a splint on that leg/paw using cardboard and athletic tape. That paw may well straighten out if you do. I cannot imagine why the vet would be against it.

I'm sending you a link by PM that I think you will find interesting.
 
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Primula

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Alright, we are usually not the type of people throwing in the towel quickly. We basically need a large play pen to keep her protected and on the floor. She can grab and hold on to the bottle.

She is also a fast crawler.

I have the urge to put a splinter or bandage on the left leg to keep the front paw from flipping over, but both the vets that saw Chloe were against it. Alright. I got a couple pics for you all.

OMG, I feel like crying. The sweet little darling - her eyes are enormous. I just cannot believe how amazing you are to do this for her.
 
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