Sick orphaned kitten

I've been hand raising 3 devon rex kittens after their mum was killed by a bus.

They are 5 weeks old today and very sweet!

One of them is a bit smaller than the others though. One is just over a pound (she's a piggy!) and one is 13oz. The little one, Sooty, was 11.5oz yesterday. He's always been the most active and very bright! He took to solids quite happily and while small, has always been really healthy up till now.

Tonight he had his bottle and happily went off to bed with his sisters. an hour later he vomited everywhere! White curdled milk with a few granules of kitty litter (ordinary clay as suggested!). I cleaned him up and cuddled him and he just sat very quietly in my hand. Not a sound, which is very unusual for him. I have placed him in a seperate carrier, just in case, and he hasn't moved since I put him in there. Just fallen asleep. I spoke to him and he lifted his head slightly.

How worried should I be???

Edit: Just to clarify, its after 10pm here in Australia, or I would have rung the vet immediately.

Ok, he's still vomitting after about 80mins and its just white foam now. The pinch test is showing he's slightly dehydrated so I just rang the vets emergency line pager and am waiting for a call back.

Please keep him in your thoughts!

Oh my gosh! My prayers for you and the baby. Please let us know what happens at the vet.

Naya! I will send good vibes your way...I can't help, but hope someone gets back to from the vet's quickly!!
How scary!!! hope the little guy is ok..crossing fingers and toes.

Its been 35mins and the vet hasn't rung back yet. I'm thinking we might have a long night ahead

I have human rehydration stuff... (same as paedalyte) - can I use it?

Any suggestion to where we go from here?

Is there an emergency animal clinic anywhere near you that you could go to?

Until you get an answer on the rehydration, I would try either using a syringe and trying to get a bit of water at a time (careful not to choke the baby) or wetting my finger and keep trying to get some water down. I have no knowledge about the other product.

No, no emergency vet clinics... just pagers for after hours. A call out can be up to $200 too. The moneys not a problem if I go to my own vet because I am raising them for him and the medical care is free.. Not sure what to do if he goes downhill and I really have to call another vet.

I remember something about paedalyte on the kitte-rescue site... I'll go have a look.

What to feed.

I can do that.

Good luck with him! The first priority is certainly hydration and I hope then you can get him to a vet verysoon.

I just did a search, and it looks like our experts recommend adding Pedialyte to the water. I haven't seen a % mix, though. I agree with Linda about forcing water/Pedialyte with a syringe. Dehydration can be very dangerous to young kittens.

Good luck with this little one!

the milk you are giving him/her might be too rich or if your feeding by syringe it could have got into hes/hers lungs

what soilds have you been feeding it

i will ring vet up here in england and see what they say for you

The milk is ok, he's been on the same thing since he was 8 days old (now 5 weeks). The milk is Di-Vetalact which is what the vet provided. I make it up as per instructions on the can and I am scrupulous about hygiene. He's on Iams wet kitten food twice a day, plus 3 bottles. Its not in his lungs. He has no shortness of breath, no rasping or coughing. He doesn't appear to have a fever either.

I managed to get him to take 1/2cc of 50/50 water and paedalyte. He didn't even fight me which is not like him at all. As its 1am I'm heading to bed for a couple hours sleep. I shall check him at around 3.30 and again at 6 when I get up for the kids and other kittens. He's got a heated rice sock and a heat pad under the carrier. The sock is up one end, so if he's too warm he can move to the other end. It is only warm, not hot.

I will let you know what happens in the morning.

Just letting you know that Sooty is much improved this morning! He was quite lively at 3am, so I gave him him some paedalyte and went back to bed. 6am and he was trying to claw his way out of the carrier - he wanted breakfast NOW!

I'll still take him to the vets this morning and get him checked out. Thanks for all the good thoughts for him They definitely worked!