Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Cats & Kittens

1. 

   Hello, all. I wanted to thank you for all the help you've given others with abandoned kittens and the various issues with them. We had a litter of four abandoned in our garage. We discovered them yesterday. The mother is no where to be found and none of our cats are currently lactating, so we're doing the bottle feeding thing. We lost one last night :(, but the remaining three seem to be doing well. They've taken quite well to bottle feeding and seem to have healthy appetites. I'm already worn out from being up with them all night, but if all goes well, it's going to be well worth it. T

   They are VERY young; they still have attached umbilical cords, dried of course, but still there. We are guessing they are no more than a few days old.

   I already have 8 adult cats, I guess the mother knew where to drop her babies off! ha! We swear there's a sign on our house that only cats can see that says, "suckers live here". ;)

   Of course, my question is about POOP. lol! Mine are definitely constipated. I got them to poo a little tonight, but it's very hard and they were straining. I'm using liquid KMR. I've tried to see if my female cats were interested in cleaning/stimulating them, but they gave them a couple of polite licks on their faces and walked away (I suppose I don't blame themfor not wanting to clean butts LOL) Any suggestions on how to loosen things up? :D

   Posted 1 month ago by Lady Ice #

2. 

   Hi, Lady Ice, you are wonderful for looking after these little ones. If the umbilical cords are still there, yes, I would say one to three days, maybe a little more but not much. At that age, and on KMR, I wouldn't be expecting to see a lot of poop yet but you could try adding a drop or two of olive or other vegetable oil to their KMR. You're already stimulating them with a warm damp washcloth, obviously. They're so little and tiny, I wouldn't really want to risk advising anything else. Maybe one of your other cats will come round to helping, if you keep trying...

   I hope some of our really experienced kitty foster mums will log on soon and help (the US is asleep right now) with suggestions. If you click on poop and constipation, you'll see all the previous threads on this subject. I think my next stop would be the vet. They are just so little, I hesitate to suggest anything as it might do more harm than good. Best of luck with these babies -- you're awesome!

   Posted 1 month ago by jcat #

3. 

   Aww, I'm bumping this up for fosterkit moms!

   Posted 1 month ago by jeankit #

4. 

   Thanks for the reply. They seem to be doing well. Active and wiggly lol Just got done feeding them. I'm worried they're not eating often enough, but no bones are showing and they seem content. I've been waking them up to feed, which I hate disrupting their sleep, but I don't want them to go too long between feedings.

   we've had some poop, just not like it should be lol I'm hoping if I have to take them to my vet they'll help me out a little with the cost, as I'm not working right now and we're getting by on one income. My vet is a good guy and knows I'm just such a softie for animals.

   Been reading the older threads, just aren't any on babies this little. One of my male cats tried to get in the box with them but the box is too small lol I might see if I can get a larger box so he can join them. It would at least be a grown cat to cuddle with.

   Posted 1 month ago by Lady Ice #

5. 

   I'm pleased to report POOP! ha ha. two out of three have pooped today - one still constipated, the other started out constipated and then produced a poo almost as big as she is lol The little runt seems to be adjusting the quickest to the KMR; the other two can't be far behind.

   Still would like suggestions just in case... thanks!

   Posted 1 month ago by Lady Ice #

6. 

   Lost one yesterday. :( not sure why or what happened. she was fine when we went to bed; husband went to bed quite late so only a few hours between his going to bed and my getting up and one had passed. Still have two out of the four going.

   Is it ok to bathe them in warm water and Dawn this young? From not having a mom they're getting kind of stinky and their little faces are a mess from formula mishaps. I just don't want to traumatize them or anything, but they need a cleaning lol

   Posted 1 month ago by Lady Ice #

7. 

   How about rubbing them down gently with a warmly damp cloth, mimicking the effect of a mother cat licking them clean? Then be sure to also gently rub them dry so they don't get chilled.

   Posted 1 month ago by Marnet #

8. 

   my bunch of foster babies just went off to find their forever homes with the shelter i help out for - they were premature babies, and i managed to rear them all successfully. the amount they should be eating for their age is about 2ml every 3 hours. dont worry too much about poop - when they are still this small poop every second day is normal as far as i know. the most important thing with tiny babies is temprature - they need to be kept warm, if they eat when they're cold, they cant digest the milk properly, and it rots in their tummies and they die from it. if a baby looks off to you, rather just give it some electrolytes. dont use rehydration mixes you get from chemists, the stuff i'm talking about is a white mixture (in SA we call it enterolyte - they give it to human babies who have tummy problems). also, remember to burp them after you fed them - i've lost babies in the past because i didnt know that you need to do that. and then bathing - they are still too small to regulate their own body temps, so rather rub them down with a warm wet towel - it will simulate mommy bathing them.

   Posted 1 month ago by Skyron #

9. 

   the website i used when i started out with my babies . . .
   http://www.messybeast.com/handrear.htm, or you can google 'hand rearing kittens, sarah hartwell, 2002'

   Posted 1 month ago by Skyron #

10. 

    I'm sorry you lost one Lady Ice, sometimes these things happen when they're so tiny, regardless of whether they had their Mum or not. Good luck with the remaining three, I look forward to following their progress :o)

    Posted 1 month ago by MadcatwomanintheUK #

11. 

    Thanks for the help, everyone. I'm down to just one now :(

    Not sure what I've done wrong, if anything. I'm fairly sure they didn't nurse from their mother, so they didn't get those important antibodies. I didn't know I had to burp them! I wonder if that's what happened with two of them. The first one passed within a day of discovering the litter, so not much could have been done anyhow. I wish I knew what went wrong with the "cow kittens". :(

    Our feisty little tabby is the one that's left; the runt of the litter! She started purring yesterday!! She has her little "nest" in a cardboard box with a heating pad covered by a nice thick towel. Since her litter mates have passed, she's been lonely in there; solved that by putting one of my t-shirts in there. she snuggles right up on it and goes to sleep!

    Posted 1 month ago by Lady Ice #

12. 

    awwww, she must equate that t-shirt with you with mommy :-) Good luck keeping the wee tabby alive.

    Posted 1 month ago by Siobhan #

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