Hello!! It’s that time of year again - kitten season.
I got a call from the shelter about 2 underweight sick orphaned kittens With URIs so I’m fostering them. They are around 4 weeks old and just learned to potty in the litter box. When they came home with me, they were filthy and riddled with fleas.
The little girl is doing well and eats out of a dish and plays, runs around, etc. She is at a decent weight (500g) and I have faith she’ll be ok. The little boy was in rough shape. When I opened the crate to take a peek at them I thought he had already passed. He was severely underweight and I could feel every bone in his body. He couldn’t even lift his head up. I gave them baths and was up every 2 hours syringe feeding him Breeder’s Edge and A/D food. Every time I opened his crate and found him alive I breathed a sigh of relief.
That was 4 days ago. He now eats the gruel out of a dish (very slowly) and has put on a bit of weight He went from 268g to 315g yesterday. But he still has no energy. He will walk to the food bowl and eat(he now refuses the syringe so I have to keep leading him back to the food dish so he can keep eating). But he won’t play like his sister. He spends most of his time sitting and looking around.
i know it’ll take time to come back from whatever he’s fighting but I’m still so worried.
- Is there anything more I can do or is it just a patience thing now? I’m feeding warm gruel with breeders edge and A/D food every 3 hours. He has a heating pad. I put him back in his playpen after every meal so he can rest and conserve energy. I don’t want to change up his diet much or overwhelm him.
- is this “normal” / common behavior for kittens who are recovering from starvation / the brink of death or should I have seen more improvement by now?
- Should I still force the syringe after he eats from the dish? He really doesn’t want it but I also want to make sure I know he’s getting enough.
He is such a sweet boy. my husband says I get too invested and he hates that I foster because he hates seeing me so desperate and anxious when a kitten is sick But I can’t help it. It calls my heart. I also have a newborn human baby and a toddler. I’m getting up with these kittens more than with my human baby But it’s worth it to see them recovering.
I am going to weigh them at their afternoon feeding and I’m so anxious!! I really hope I see progress.
I got a call from the shelter about 2 underweight sick orphaned kittens With URIs so I’m fostering them. They are around 4 weeks old and just learned to potty in the litter box. When they came home with me, they were filthy and riddled with fleas.
The little girl is doing well and eats out of a dish and plays, runs around, etc. She is at a decent weight (500g) and I have faith she’ll be ok. The little boy was in rough shape. When I opened the crate to take a peek at them I thought he had already passed. He was severely underweight and I could feel every bone in his body. He couldn’t even lift his head up. I gave them baths and was up every 2 hours syringe feeding him Breeder’s Edge and A/D food. Every time I opened his crate and found him alive I breathed a sigh of relief.
That was 4 days ago. He now eats the gruel out of a dish (very slowly) and has put on a bit of weight He went from 268g to 315g yesterday. But he still has no energy. He will walk to the food bowl and eat(he now refuses the syringe so I have to keep leading him back to the food dish so he can keep eating). But he won’t play like his sister. He spends most of his time sitting and looking around.
i know it’ll take time to come back from whatever he’s fighting but I’m still so worried.
- Is there anything more I can do or is it just a patience thing now? I’m feeding warm gruel with breeders edge and A/D food every 3 hours. He has a heating pad. I put him back in his playpen after every meal so he can rest and conserve energy. I don’t want to change up his diet much or overwhelm him.
- is this “normal” / common behavior for kittens who are recovering from starvation / the brink of death or should I have seen more improvement by now?
- Should I still force the syringe after he eats from the dish? He really doesn’t want it but I also want to make sure I know he’s getting enough.
He is such a sweet boy. my husband says I get too invested and he hates that I foster because he hates seeing me so desperate and anxious when a kitten is sick But I can’t help it. It calls my heart. I also have a newborn human baby and a toddler. I’m getting up with these kittens more than with my human baby But it’s worth it to see them recovering.
I am going to weigh them at their afternoon feeding and I’m so anxious!! I really hope I see progress.