4 week old kittens possibly fighting distemper. please help.

Home The Daily Kitten Cat Chat Forum Cats & Kittens 4 week old kittens possibly fighting distemper. please help.

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  • #806241
    Brittny
    Participant

    My grandma had a stray cat show up and have kittens. She got bit by a spider or some thing and got sick so she had to leave them. I took the kittens in at two weeks old. They are now 4 and a half weeks old. I had taken them to the vet at 3 weeks old to make sure they were healthy, and they appeared to be. I noticed yesterday that I’ve was dehydrated, lethargic, and refusing to eat. I started him on pedialyte and gave him honey to help his blood sugar. He crashed so I called the vet and they got him in. They gave him subcutaneous fluids, b vitamins, and an antibiotic. He was so limp and so close to death that I didn’t think he would make it. The vet said he was pretty sure it was feline panleukopenia (distemper), but we couldn’t give him a blood test because he is so tiny. He’s done much better today. He is actually moving around and being vocal. He still won’t nurse from a bottle though. I’ve been giving him subcutaneous fluids (the vet showed me how and provided the supplies) and I’ve been giving him pedialyte, baby food, and nutrical. He isn’t resting very well. He is whimpering nonstop..also he just passed a bloody stool. It wasn’t diarrhea, and as far as I know he hasn’t had any diarrhea or vomiting. I just wanted to know if anyone has helped kittens through this and had success and if you were successful if you had any pointers for me. His brother started showing the same symptoms this morning and we took him to the vet immediately instead of letting him crash and get dehydrated so he’s just fine besides not nursing from the bottle. I have them separated from the other 4 kittens also. Any advice or suggestions would be great. Thank you so much!

    #806244

    Hi! do whatever you can to comfort them. it’s wonderful that he’s doing better, so sad about the other kitten. hope they all get better, and bless the poor mother.

    #806259
    jcat
    Participant

    I’m so sorry, no, I don’t have experience fighting this, it sounds like you are doing everything right and I pray that with the vet’s help, you will be able to bring these babies through. This is a virus so basically, with the vet’s help, all you can do is provide all the care and support for the kittens you can to give them a fighting chance to combat the virus with their own immune systems, so keeping them warm, hydrated, fed, comfortable and having antibiotics on hand to fight any secondary bacterial infections is really all you can do, as far as I know, but it sounds like you are doing all that wonderfully. But this is a very nasty disease.

    #806260
    jcat
    Participant

    Adding tags

    #806271
    Brittny
    Participant

    ll Randy, the second kitty to get sick, has started acting fine. He is nursing from the bottle again a little bit, chasing the dogs around the house like a mad man, and playing with me. Chessy, the first kitty, is still quite pitiful. He fought me this morning when I gave him his fluids so that is a good sign that he is stronger. He isn’t so much interested in eating yet, but I have been able to get a little of my pedialyte, KMR, honey, and baby food concoction down him. He’s the sweet guy I’m hoping to keep. Hopefully he will forget all of the needles I have had to stick him with after this is all over. 🙁 He is getting to where he crawls around a bit, but he tires quickly. He never seems to rest well, and he is constantly whimpering. I feel so horrible. He used to purr nonstop no matter what as long as you were touching him, and I haven’t heard him pur in 3 days. 🙁 His little back hurts to stroke after all of the injections he’s had to have. I think having Randy here has helped him feel a little better too. It is going to be a long, hard recovery. The vet told me if he lived longer than a day or two that he should be okay. Some times I feel optimistic, and others I’m expecting bad things to happen to him. 🙁

    #806303
    jcat
    Participant

    Brittney, just to alert you, in case you haven’t checked the pink tags yet, that feline leukopenia is a virus that can survive in the environment for a long time (in bedding etc) and can re-infect other kittens that come into the home later but that bleach will kill the virus. Click on the pink tags to find out more about this. I hope your little one makes it through. Don’t give up hope, keep loving him and cuddling him, I know it helps them to fight. (But also be careful about hygiene and quarantine.)

    #806437
    Brittny
    Participant

    We lost the first guy. The second is doing perfectly fine. I’m beginning to wonder if I was just paranoid and he was never sick at all.

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