My boyfriend is a nurse in a nursing home. One of the other nurses said there were four kittens out by a tree in the back of the facility, and it was about to rain, so they were put in a box and brought in. My boyfriend did not get off work for another six hours, and then he brought them home. We inspected them, they were so tiny. Estimates they were about a week old. One was injured in his groin area. His tail was crooked, and there was an opening in the skin, which was teeming with tiny rice-sized white maggots. He smelled really bad. We cleaned him off as best as possible, but he died shortly after.
The other three kittens all appeared to have red, inflamed genitalia. They were passing feces and urine, and they were covered in it, so we cleaned them up, fed them kitten formula, and stimulated elimination after each feeding. Two kittens were particularly vocal. The third one was listless, and we held and cuddled him until he passed away about six hours later. The two vocal ones had more feedings, but were clearly unhappy. We took them to our local Humane Society. Their genitals were becoming more inflamed and bleeding, and their ears were bleeding. It was beyond our scope of expertise. The Humane Society cat guru came out to inspect them, and she said they were being "eaten from inside out." She said that there were maggots in their genitalia, and they had ear infections. She said they were beyond help, so we had them euthanized. We were heartbroken. We didn't know that a whole litter could be infected by one injured kitten. We wanted to know if this was common, and does this happen often? Or was this just an unhappy little family who had an unusual circumstance befall them? Do mothers abandon kittens if they are sick?
The other three kittens all appeared to have red, inflamed genitalia. They were passing feces and urine, and they were covered in it, so we cleaned them up, fed them kitten formula, and stimulated elimination after each feeding. Two kittens were particularly vocal. The third one was listless, and we held and cuddled him until he passed away about six hours later. The two vocal ones had more feedings, but were clearly unhappy. We took them to our local Humane Society. Their genitals were becoming more inflamed and bleeding, and their ears were bleeding. It was beyond our scope of expertise. The Humane Society cat guru came out to inspect them, and she said they were being "eaten from inside out." She said that there were maggots in their genitalia, and they had ear infections. She said they were beyond help, so we had them euthanized. We were heartbroken. We didn't know that a whole litter could be infected by one injured kitten. We wanted to know if this was common, and does this happen often? Or was this just an unhappy little family who had an unusual circumstance befall them? Do mothers abandon kittens if they are sick?