2-wk old Kitten – Diarrhea, Blood in Stool, Weak

Keep that baby warm, and close to you! Are you bottle feeding? Make sure you feed him around the clock every 3 hours for now, then as soon as you feed him make sure you stimulate him to poop and pee. Mix the pedialyte into his formula (make sure you’re giving him CANNED kitten formula- KMR is best. Do NOT use the powdered mix stuff, it gives them diarrhea!) Baby that young should be drinking about 10-15ml of formula per feeding. If he’s not taking the bottle, try a baby syringe- sometimes they will lick it off the end and eat it that way. Make sure you’re feeding him while he’s laying on his BELLY- never on his back, he could aspirate the formula into his lungs and get very sick.

Bottom line is- make up a nice little nest for baby with a heating pad set on low underneath a comfy fleece blanket. Put a big stuffed animal in there for him to snuggle up to. Keep an eye on him, and don’t forget- EVERY 3-4 HOURS he should be fed for the next 2 weeks- whether he cries for food or not.

Good luck!!!! I had the same issues with my Mollie baby and she’s now a healthy, bouncy 14 week old ball of energy!!

btw- if you’re having trouble getting to poop, you might have to be a little more “strenuous” with stimulating him. The “triangle method” works wonders. You get him over a sink with lukewarm running water, put your thumb and middle finger on each side of his anus and pointer finger on the underside between his legs, then massage him like you are trying to squeeze sausage out of the casing. Be gentle- don’t SQUEEZE him- just massage him. Get his little butt under the lukewarm water every so often to help things move along. If you start to get even a LITTLE stool you’re doing it right. It might take a while. I had Mollie under the faucet for a good hour at a time when she was constipated over several days. Don’t hurt the little guy though. He’ll cry because he doesn’t like it but if he yelps you’re hurting him. Be gentle yet firm. Continue this until he goes on his own with just the cotton ball/paper towel stimulation. It works!!

God Bless and I hope he gets better!! Poor thing! I’ve been there!

You did nothing wrong, you did all you could. If there had been anything missing in your care, the vet would have told you and you would have been able to rectify it but the very very sad fact is that abandoned kittens are usually abandoned because their mum knows they are not going to make it. It is very, very hard to raise an orphaned kitten, the hard fact is that up to 40% of them die, and all of us who have tried to help orphaned kittens have had them die on us. It is devastating but you can’t blame yourself. It is sometimes called ‘fading kitten’ syndrome, a kitten that seems fine suddenly starts to fade, but we don’t know why. There are so many things that could have gone wrong during the mum’s pregnancy and birth — not enough nutrition, birth trauma, viruses, mum’s blood being incompatible with baby’s, baby not having its mother’s antibodies any more so its immune system becomes very vulnerable — and we will never know why.

But if you hadn’t found this baby, and given him love and care and food and medical attention, think how lonely and sad his death would have been. He was cherished all of his short life since he found you and though it was such a brief and tragic life, it was a happy one. Think of what you gave him. {{{HUGS}}}

Bless you and your partner, Orenji, for giving a little kitten some love. I love what Jcat wrote to you and completely agree.

I am so sorry for your loss.

You did everything you could for the little guy. It’s no one’s fault that he didn’t make it. Like JCat said, you gave him a loving home, warmth, food and security. He wouldn’t have had any of that if you hadn’t taken him in.