newborn kitten eyes

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  • 12 October, 2017 at 4:57 am #863367
    Melissa
    Participant

    hey all. we found 2 abandoned newborn kittens tuesday and after almost 12 hours of waiting for mom to come back i finally stepped in and brought them inside. they both still have umbillical cords attached their cries hadn’t been answered and they were getting extremely weak. both had flies on them and i couldn’t leave them to die all alone. I named them buffy and Dora. I was pretey sure that buffy wouldn’t make it but she did make it through the night but died early this morning. Dora on the other hand has been strong eating every hour and a half to 2 hours during the day and every 2 hours last night (going for a couple 3 hour stretches tonight i hope)
    my question is at the last feeding about an hour ago i noticed that dora’s right eye is already opening. i don’t know if i maybe pulled on her face while feeding her or if it just opened on its own. is this a concern? i’ve never had a newborn open eyes this early. i know this isn’t the norm but is this a cause for concern and/or is there any extra care that needs to be done.

    and last this little girl pees all over herself. i stimulate her before and after each feeding but she still ends up wet (but still warm) every other feeding. any tips on that would be great too.

    12 October, 2017 at 3:37 pm #863371
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    I wouldn’t worry about her eye for now because I don’t know what you could actually do for it. These kittens may be older than first thought, even though they still had umbilical cords attached. It’s good the kitten is peeing, even though she is soiling her bedding. This is pretty typical though doing laundry for kittens when they are tiny. At least she is peeing. If you find she is constipated, add a few drops of olive oil to her formula to keep things moving. Goat’s milk is great for kittens too, it’s cheaper and they don’t get the constipation like they do from powdered KMR.
    I bought those pads for people who are incontinent and cut them and put them in their bed. They would pee through the top blanket but it wouldn’t go through the pee pad–I didn’t have as much laundry that way. 😉

    http://messybeast.com/handrear.htm

    12 October, 2017 at 6:09 pm #863377
    Melissa
    Participant

    thank, this isn’t my first time hand rearing so we do use the goats milk (even for the ferals outside). this colony is known to have feline herpes so all the outside cats are treated with powdered lysine and goats milk which i know has the natural lysine. she actually pooped a couple hours ago it was the orangey yellow poop that i know they have early on. of all the kittens i’ve hand reared she is the strongest and best eater.
    my house is a busy cat house right now. we are fostering another liter of 4 kittens from our outside community (we are in the process of getting all the ferals fixed but i cant afford to do all at once it’s been a long process). 2 have found furever homes and i still have 2 that i’m falling in love with and wish o could keep but we already have 3 of our own. right now i feel like a mom with a newborn, toddlers, and school age kids. i am officially the crazy cat lady lol

    12 October, 2017 at 7:36 pm #863381
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Wow Melissa, I can totally relate! I know what it’s like feeding newborn kits, and having outside cats to care for too, and it IS a lot like having real human children and toddlers!! I have a 6 month old kitten inside and he acts just like my 3 year old granddaughter! 😆

    You know what you are doing, so don’t need any advice from me–good on you for the lysine and goat’s milk. Nothing is better than that for curbing the symptoms of URI’s and feline herpes IMHO.

    Don’t get me on my soapbox with local vets not cutting people a break getting their cat communities fixed–we just had a new organization come into our area with TNR help and it’s been a godsend!

    16 October, 2017 at 2:29 am #863455
    Melissa
    Participant

    update, dora is doing fantastic. her eyes were a little red and i happened to be taking my 1yr old cat to the vet for a check up and i took the baby with me and the vet had’t heard of a kit opening eyes so early but agreed with me that since she still has an umbilical cord i’m most likely correct on the age (5 days today) for her red eyes the vet told me something awesome and homeopathic that i want to share. chamomile tea! she told me to go to whole foods and get dried chamomile (not the tea bags of chamomile tea) and brew it and then dilute it and let cool and then use that as eye drops. it will hydrate the eyes, clean them, and heal them!!! i started this friday afternoon and by this morning (sunday) i can tell a major difference! she said also since she is from a community that is known to have the feline herpes this could help prevent her eyes from getting crusty later on.

    dora started tuesday evening at 3.7oz and tonight about 2 hours after her last feeding she is 4.1oz! and she has been pooping on her own in her nest. her digestive track is really working! she’s drinking 5-8ccs of goats milk at a time every 3-5 hours depending on the time of day and if i’m sleeping. i’ll submit pictures later

    19 October, 2017 at 5:29 am #863555
    Amy
    Participant

    Oh how sweet….way to go Dora! Fabulous info with the lysine and camomile tea drops. Im going to have to remember all this in case I ever end up with more wee babies. Thankfully, when we got Ellie she was a bit older, approx 4 weeks….but I love all this info!! Can’t wait to read the next update on Dora!

    19 October, 2017 at 3:02 pm #863560
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Wow, thanks for the tips on the chamomile drops! Always useful when someone comes along to share their experiences here! Glad that Dora is doing so well too!

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