Pregnant Foster Kitty no clue when she is due

CassRA said:

I took them to the humane society to get them check and they had to put down the ones with bent legs. They are going to let the very small ones go home with me and try to feed though

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Ok. You need to get more aggressive to save these kittens. I understand that you took the advice of the shelter, but those kittens could have had a chance.

Moving forward, mom needs to be kept in a room with her kittens. She needs high quality food in order to produce milk. Make sure she has kitten dry food at all times and give her meals of wet food for kittens throughout the day. She gets as much as she can eat.

Please weigh the kittens every day. You should begin supplementing them. Try to feed them every hour or two for now, around the clock. Kittens and milk must be warm in order to digest.

Do you need advice as to how to feed?

You need to act now!

CassRA said:

I foster with the humane society. They have a vet 3 days a week and they said they would ask him if I need to bring the kittens in. Momma won't feed the kittens anymore. After all were born, she perked up and just wants me to give her attention. My husband is away on business with the car so I can't even go out and get formula

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Sometimes goats milk is easier to get than formula, it may also be cheaper.  Goats milk is OK!

I agree with the previous: you must act more actively, give momma chance if possible, but its you whom must safeguard the kittens gets their minimum.

How to know they gets enough?  Its easy, if they add minimum 6 grammes a day - preferably 10 or even more grammes - its good.  If not, you must give more...

So weighting them every day is practically a must.

Ps.  Yes, its quite a some work.  But so is it.  

Those kittens did not need to be put down. [emoji]128546[/emoji]

Did the Humane Society send you home with kitten formula?

The vet I spoke to said that the legs were severely misformed and he couldn't do anything for them and since he is the professional, I let him make the call. I'm giving the 2 small ones 0.25ml of kmr each hour now. I don't have a scale so I can't weigh them. The vet said that because they made it 12 hours without me feeding them, momma must be allowing them to feed.

CassRA said:

The vet I spoke to said that the legs were severely misformed and he couldn't do anything for them and since he is the professional, I let him make the call. I'm giving the 2 small ones 0.25ml of kmr each hour now. I don't have a scale so I can't weigh them. The vet said that because they made it 12 hours without me feeding them, momma must be allowing them to feed.

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Vets don't always know about small kittens. Please do your research and ask for help here in addition to using the professionals.

Kittens with deformed legs like that often have tightened tendons that can be relaxed.

No, there was nothing the vet could do for contracted tendons. You would have had to massage and splint the legs daily until they straightened, as I described in Post #36, and in the links I sent to you by PM that included pictures.

We've had many members who have had great success with kittens with twisted legs who have followed the procedures outlined.

For general information here is one of the links:

http://www.showcatsonline.com/x/contracted_tendons_ofthefrontlegs.shtml

Perhaps if you continue fostering, you will be better prepared to deal with this issue in the future. It is the result of kittens being squeezed without enough room inside the uterus.

In the meantime, I hope the smaller kittens do well for you.

Kitten number 6 passed away during the night

CassRA said:

Kitten number 6 passed away during the night

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Did you try supplementing it at all? Is that all of the kittens?

I don't think number 5 is going to last long either

I was supplementing and I know #6 was able to drink from the mother's nipple. This kittens are just so premature. We have the grey premature, the biggest kitten, and the second biggest kitten left.

I've been supplementing since Tuesday night. Momma hardly payed attention when they were born so I think she's known since the beginning they weren't going to make it. Kitten #4 is huge though and #2 seems to be in good shape as well. Momma might not even be 1 year old yet and had 7 kittens inside her and her body just wasn't able to make that many healthy lives

Size difference between #4 & #5

I feel like the larger kitten is preventing the 2 or living ones from feeding. He is huge and kinda pushes them out of the way. I try to get #2 & #5 to feed from momma but he keeps moving in and if I move him, momma gets upset. I think she only wants him to live.

CassRA said:

I feel like the larger kitten is preventing the 2 or living ones from feeding. He is huge and kinda pushes them out of the way. I try to get #2 & #5 to feed from momma but he keeps moving in and if I move him, momma gets upset. I think she only wants him to live.

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Then you need to supplement more and make sure the small one survives. It is up to you.

It's up to you, not the mama cat, to step in and remove the bigger kitten long enough for the smaller ones to feed. You also need to faithfully supplement the small ones every hour - 1/2 to 1 mL.

They are not premature. They are just small.

I'm supplementing every hour and I come in and see the kittens nursing but they seem to just be getting weaker. Even kitten #2 which was the second largest seems super weak. The humane society thinks momma was vaccinated while pregnant and that the kittens just didn't developed correctly in the womb.

And I did remove the large kitten to let the mother nurse the others but she gets too upset when he is gone and won't let the others nurse at all until I bring him back. I come in when he is sleeping and see the others nursing though because he isn't pushing them out of the way. This is my first foster but not the first time delivering. I grew up on a farm where cats/dogs/cows/pigs/horses were popping out babies and from all my experience, this seems like just an extremely sick litter and the vet agrees.

CassRA said:

The vet I spoke to said that the legs were severely misformed and he couldn't do anything for them and since he is the professional, I let him make the call. I'm giving the 2 small ones 0.25ml of kmr each hour now. I don't have a scale so I can't weigh them. The vet said that because they made it 12 hours without me feeding them, momma must be allowing them to feed.

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This sounds not much.   As you dont know how much they really get from momma, you must take charge and give them the majority of the daily need.

Say they are 100 grams now, its 3oz,  which meanns about 25ml a day of kmr or goats milk.   If you give every hour around the clock, its 1ml per feeding.   In rough numbers.

If they do survive and  grow, the amouth will of course raise with time and weigh.  8ml / oz(30g) a day.

You can perhaps borrow a scale from a neigbour?  An electronic scale measuring in grammes helps very much, making much easier.

Some very experienced rescuers dont bother, they see and feel, alike experienced cooks.  but for everyone else going by the book is easiest.

I'm up to about .6ml hourly and they are nursing from momma. I try to do more but they won't swollow it after a point and just start bubbling from the mouth

CassRA said:

And I did remove the large kitten to let the mother nurse the others but she gets too upset when he is gone and won't let the others nurse at all until I bring him back. I come in when he is sleeping and see the others nursing though because he isn't pushing them out of the way. This is my first foster but not the first time delivering. I grew up on a farm where cats/dogs/cows/pigs/horses were popping out babies and from all my experience, this seems like just an extremely sick litter and the vet agrees.

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It may be so.  And the sickly ones are much more difficult and time consuming than healthy orphans, for example.

Another example:  At this moment we do have a batch of 10 minuscule prematures, two smallest with record low delivery weight of 47 and 49 g.  They do gain every one like champs, there was some struggle the first two three days, after it they begin their steep climbing...  So they were essentially healthy, caring momma and good caretaker.

Your position is much more difficult, as the whole litter IS  sickly, weak, more demding.  So the marigins are small or non-existent.   Its necessary to put a vigorous fight for them to have a chance.

It can be done, but its not easy!!!

Btw, you mentioned farmers:  As I know, farmers usually dont bother much about the sickly ones.  They let them go.  But they do fight on for orphans, ie those essentially healthy.   Its of course a triage of sorts.   If you dont have time, energy, love and resources to save them all, you must make your choice and concentrate on the easy saves.

But if you DO have the love and energy to try and save them all - that is great.  A deed pleasing God,"Gudi behaglig gärning"  as the old swedish proverb says.