Abandoned litter?

[cookiesmomma]

My cat Cookie had a litter of 6 kittens on Tuesday, and they were all doing really well up until today. The mother (cookie) has no energy, she barely wants to get up, hasn't ate and isn't paying any attention to them. I noticed her laying in a totally different room away from them last night, then about noon today i noticed her out in the main room laying by her water dish. Around 1pm the babies were crying a lot and when she did finally get up she looked at them and just walked right on by, as if ignoring them? Im not sure what to do, if she can't take care of them im not sure what to do. Im really worried about her because she seems really weak but i just can't afford to take her to the vet right now. About 2pm we fed the kittens a small amount of goats milk, but i don't think shes bothered with them since, there all pretty healthy so far. I just dont know why she would all of a sudden abandon them, i know larger litters are really hard on cats, so im wondering if maybe she isn't capable of taking care of all of them. If shes unable to care for them, what steps do i need to take to keep them in health until there weaned? Keep in mind there only 5 days old. Any help would be great, thank you.

 

[p3 and the king]

Momma is sick.  Get her to the vet ASAP or at least call one to find out what to do!!  When momma is sick, she will remove herself from her babies.  Try to get some kitten formula at Walmart (it is in the isle with the cat food ask for help if you need it.)  Get them started on that.... It is the best thing for them.  Feed every 2 hours, I believe, make sure they are warm and wash them with a semi warm wet cloth... And their hind ends especially, because momma licks them to stimulate them to "go." 

 

[StefanZ]

Right, contact the vet ASAP for momma, she is apparently very ill. If you dont have money now, try to raise them. Lend from somewhere. People do help if you ask being in need, also people who otherwise arent very friendly with you.

Some vets accepts a paying plan.  You can perhaps find a low cost clinic? Look around our forums, there are links both at the Health forum and the Ferales forum.

And yes, now you need to handraise them.  Begin from NOW before they got weak. It can go fast down otherwise.

Two good links helping you are:  http://www.messybeast.com/handrear.htm

and www.kitten-rescue.com.

Goat milk you do have now should work OK, you dont need to seek after replacement milk.

You may perhaps need to water it some, but not sure.

Good luck! *vibes*

 

[orientalslave]

I would take the kittens with mum, and also ask the vet nurses to show me how to bottle feed.  It's awful easy to get it wrong with such tiny kittens.  You also need to toilet them before and after each feed - the Messybeast link that Stefanz gave is excellent, and there is a good one at the FAB as well:

http://www.fabcats.org/owners/kittens/handrearing.html

Hopefully there's nothing seriously wrong with mum and she will be feeling better in a day or two, but this is a real emergency - when she stops looking after the kittens they go downhill very, very quickly plus of course she is ill and possibly in pain.