I am very worried about my approximately 3.5 week old kitten. We rescued him from the parking lot last week on Wednesday (May 12) and took him to the vet right away. The vet gave her a clean bill of health on that day and so we decided to keep her.
Buttons is an adorable little kitten who spends most of the day sleeping, eating very well, and being active when she is awake. We're feeding her KMR and stimulating her to pee and poop just like we were taught. She pees when stimulated no problem as well as the occasional accident, but is not pooping at all! We took her to the vet again yesterday and at first the vet couldn't get her to poop either. So the vet then took an xray of Buttons and came back to tell us that it looks like she does have hard stools in her intestines. She also told us that after some very vigorous stimulation as well as insertion of a long q-tip she was able to get Buttons to poop. She then suggested that perhaps it would be better if they keep her until Monday with one of the vet techs who is probably more comfortable being so vigorous with the stimulation. We agreed and since yesterday we've gotten a couple updates from the vet tech. She said that Buttons is peeing on her own but only sometimes pooping when she stimulates her. We're both really worried and scared that she'll still have the same problem when we pick her up tomorrow. Buttons seems so healthy otherwise so hopefully it's not some sort of birth defect that she can't poop on her own!
I've looked at a lot of websites and really don't know what to think! The vet said Buttons can't have an enema because it could damage her on the insides because of how small she is, and we don't know anyone who has a mother cat with kittens that could perhaps foster Buttons for a little while until she gets better and older.
Well any advice or information would be greatly appreciated! What are some options we have if she can only poop sometimes with stimuation tomorrow? Sorry about the really long post!
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Cats & Kittens
3-4 week old kitten not pooping each time with stimulation
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Posted 3 years ago by buttons923 #
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Hello & welcome to the daily kitten! There are a few things about babies & not pooping: in my experience it only happens about every 2-3 days. If you think she might be constipated, you can ad a few drops of vegetable oil to her formula to help loosen things up. I have had a few cases where kittens in the 4week-range didnt want to poop when stimulated, and it turned out that that was because momma-cat had already potty trained them. So you could always try putting her in a box with some non-clumping litter, simulate some scratching motions with her paw for her, and wait & see what happens?? Usually I find that the kittens get very 'excited' when there is a poop on the way - they start meowing loudly, digging furiously . . . Just see what happens? Good luck!
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Buttons, I wish I could help but I think you really need to talk over your options with the vet and vet technician when you pick her up tomorrow. It may be that the vet tech needs to show you how vigorous to be with the stimulation. If you check the pink tags, 'poop' and 'constipation' in the top right hand corner, you will see many previous threads on this subject, with advice such as adding a drop or two of vegetable oil (olive, canola, soya bean etc) to her formula and a video on how to stimulate her. Powdered KMR does seem to constipate some kittens slightly, and little kittens don't need to poop every day when they're on formula. But your vet is your partner in getting your little girl through this and can tell you much more than we can. Best of luck tomorrow and let us know how she is getting on.
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Thanks, everyone! We picked her up today and were told to continue the vigorous stimulation. No enema until she gets bigger. I'll be sure to try the vegetable oil thing!
Posted 3 years ago by buttons923 #
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