- Joined
- May 21, 2019
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About two weeks ago, my roommate brought in a stray we'd seen for a while, and she was very pregnant. We got her to a vet for some care and have been keeping her isolated from the other cats since then in the bathroom. Sunday morning she gave birth - pretty easy labor, ate all the gross stuff. Midday I started thinking the kittens were being awfully loud and active for that age, and after watching for a while, decided to take them to a vet because I didn't see the kitten nursing well.
The news was good/bad - she does have some milk, but it's very, very little, and most of her nipples don't seem to be producing. The kittens did manage to latch and nurse enough to get that first batch of milk, but she's not producing enough. She is doing her best to be a good mama though, engaging with them and grooming/stimulating/trying to nurse them.
So for now we're supplementing with kmr. Every couple of hours I go try to feed everyone. Some are better about nursing from the bottle than others, but I feel like I'm still struggling with getting the technique right. I've been going off the kitten lady's info but it seems like even when the milk should be flowing through, it will suddenly stop for no reason I can see, and then the kitten stops nursing on it and doesn't want to try again. It's the canned stuff, not powdered. Sometimes their bellies feel full, but other times they don't, and they still won't nurse. They do latch onto mom and I think must still be getting something from her? But it's very hard to tell. One in particular seems to spend a lot of time screaming and crawling all over mom which makes me worry she's too hungry, and she's the worst at bottle feeding. I am weighing, but not sure how accurate the numbers I'm getting are - they seem to be going up and down on the same kitten?
A lot of the info out there seems to be for orphaned kittens or kittens that are fine with mom, and this is in between, and I'm not sure how much I should be doing or quite what to watch for - I've seen mama licking their butts like she's supposed to, but haven't seen any evidence of elimination ... but then I'm not sure what I'm looking for either. They're getting some food in them for sure, but I don't know how to measure if it's enough/timing, with how they're still getting some from mama as well. I've been trying to check and feed throughout the night, but some people are telling me that's unneeded? (Gosh I'd love to sleep, but would feel awful if they went downhill.)
The worst news was that one kitten had a severe cleft palate, and we ended up putting her to sleep. The vet didn't seem optimistic, and the extra level of work for so long until an expensive surgery that might not work - it was awful, but we didn't think it was something we could handle, and no one local was willing to help. Better to let her go while she's ok than wait until she's in poor health and hurting. Still really second guessing that as it was incredibly heartbreaking.
I'm working from home due to the virus stuff, so I can be checking and feeding every few hours at least. I've dealt with kittens before, but they were all either with healthy moms or above five weeks. Mama cat is very high strung too and needs a lot of coaxing to eat and drink. I feel like maybe I'm freaking out overly much, but I'd also hate to underreact, and losing the one kitten has me extra freaked out as well.
The news was good/bad - she does have some milk, but it's very, very little, and most of her nipples don't seem to be producing. The kittens did manage to latch and nurse enough to get that first batch of milk, but she's not producing enough. She is doing her best to be a good mama though, engaging with them and grooming/stimulating/trying to nurse them.
So for now we're supplementing with kmr. Every couple of hours I go try to feed everyone. Some are better about nursing from the bottle than others, but I feel like I'm still struggling with getting the technique right. I've been going off the kitten lady's info but it seems like even when the milk should be flowing through, it will suddenly stop for no reason I can see, and then the kitten stops nursing on it and doesn't want to try again. It's the canned stuff, not powdered. Sometimes their bellies feel full, but other times they don't, and they still won't nurse. They do latch onto mom and I think must still be getting something from her? But it's very hard to tell. One in particular seems to spend a lot of time screaming and crawling all over mom which makes me worry she's too hungry, and she's the worst at bottle feeding. I am weighing, but not sure how accurate the numbers I'm getting are - they seem to be going up and down on the same kitten?
A lot of the info out there seems to be for orphaned kittens or kittens that are fine with mom, and this is in between, and I'm not sure how much I should be doing or quite what to watch for - I've seen mama licking their butts like she's supposed to, but haven't seen any evidence of elimination ... but then I'm not sure what I'm looking for either. They're getting some food in them for sure, but I don't know how to measure if it's enough/timing, with how they're still getting some from mama as well. I've been trying to check and feed throughout the night, but some people are telling me that's unneeded? (Gosh I'd love to sleep, but would feel awful if they went downhill.)
The worst news was that one kitten had a severe cleft palate, and we ended up putting her to sleep. The vet didn't seem optimistic, and the extra level of work for so long until an expensive surgery that might not work - it was awful, but we didn't think it was something we could handle, and no one local was willing to help. Better to let her go while she's ok than wait until she's in poor health and hurting. Still really second guessing that as it was incredibly heartbreaking.
I'm working from home due to the virus stuff, so I can be checking and feeding every few hours at least. I've dealt with kittens before, but they were all either with healthy moms or above five weeks. Mama cat is very high strung too and needs a lot of coaxing to eat and drink. I feel like maybe I'm freaking out overly much, but I'd also hate to underreact, and losing the one kitten has me extra freaked out as well.