8-9 Week Old Kitten Is 1 Lb 2 Oz. What Can I Do?

[Ruby3440]

About 7-8 weeks ago we got 5 bottle baby kittens to Foster from the shelter. They all did really well except we struggled with fleas at first. Then at about 4-5 weeks we discovered they had tapeworm. The problem with that is that the shelter wouldn't do anything without proof, so because we didn't have any they wouldn't do anything until we were able to bring them in almosr 2 weeks ago when we found one on one of their butts.

Now because of all of this most of them are a little underweight, but the main problem is our runt Rocket. He hasn't really gained much since he was 4-5 weeks old. He was about 1 lb then and he is only 1 lb 2 oz now at about 8-9 weeks old now. He constantly has Purina kitten food in a bowl and he has wet food at least 3-4 times a day. For the hard food though he barely eats and maybe sometime picks at it.

Right now him and his brother Quill are separated from the other 3 because the others sucked on his private parts and Quill is the only one that hasn't. Last night and once tonight I woke up to both of them throwing up. However it might be because they were just switched to a new flavor of wet food, but it's still there same brand we have always given them.

Is there anything else we can do? Or is there anything possibly wrong that we should with about? We sometimes give him some formula when we have some extra because we also have another separate bottle baby at 3 weeks.
He has also already been noticably smaller then the others, but now the gap is just getting bigger.

Sorry for the long read! I could have just asked what we can do, but I felt it was best to give the whole story so far. My family has been fostering kittens for about 17 years now. (I am 18) So its not like we don't know stuff. It's just we have never had a kitten like this that just hasn't grown. He is at least maintaining weight though.

 

[Jcatbird]

Keep giving formula to supplement solid food. Some need it longer. Goats milk might help. Kitten glop might too. @catsknowme (sorry to tap you twice in one night but can you advise?)

 

[Sarthur2]

Continue giving the formula if he likes it and keeps it down. You can even wet the kitten chow with it to soften it. Stick with the same flavor wet food that he does eat. Some kittens are just picky! Sometimes runts take awhile to catch up.

If the vomiting continues they need to be seen. It could be from parasites and would require metronidazole.

It’s good he’s been separated due to the genital suckling. That’s not healthy. You can give the kittens who want to suckle a cloth with the corners soaked with formula. Sometimes this helps.

I hope it’s nothing too serious! Thank you for your family’s continued fostering.

Keep us posted!

 

[Ruby3440]

Ok. We will try to supplement more after we go to get more! He is so hit or miss with it though because we can't use the bottle because he freaks out when your giving it to him like he pushes it away. Once you finally get him on he starts chewing it. So because of that we put it on a small edged plate so he can lap it. He doesn't drink it all the time even.

Then with the soft hard food no one in the littler liked it all of them would turn their noses up to it. Even if we mixed it in with the wet food. They would rather eat the wet food with the non wet hard food for some reason.

Also the wet food it pate and is very similar to what we were giving him before, but I am not sure it is this wet food that makes him throw up or just every wet food because the throw up now on the towel in the cage looks a lot like the diarrhea that I thought they had before, but maybe it was throw up.

They should be going in for shots next week so hopefully we can do something about his weight then. Although it might take longer just because the shelter we are involved with right now has pretty bad staff and board members that are taking it down more. In the past it took probably a month longer then it needed to be before we could get kittens in for shots. Hopefully we will get a call about when we can come in though. If not we will call them.

 

[Sarthur2]

If the kittens are not at least two pounds they should NOT have any vaccines, regardless of age.

I’m concerned they may have parasites, which can cause some of these problems.

I’m sorry you are having difficulties dealing with the shelter.

Ruby3440

 

[Ruby3440]

The shelter we Foster for vaccinates at 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 8 weeks they also used to stay/neuter at about 2 pounds, but I think they moved it to 3 pounds now.

We were a week behind so they are being vacinated at 5, 7, and 9 weeks now. As long as they are at least a pound they will deworm and vacinated them.