Rejected 11 day old hasn't pooped in 4 days? Need help

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  • #846660
    Alyssa
    Participant

    The kitten was the only one of the litter, mother was smaller then the average cat so I don’t know if that was the reason. It was fed by the mother for a good 7 days. We tried to keep mom in my room, but she quickly got into heat and ended up running out a open window and left her newborn alone. We bought KMR prior and tried feeding the newborn ourselves, she put up a fight and didn’t drink much, she did have yellow pee and a tiny bit of poop if you could even all it that[very tiny dots]. About 16 hours later we found the mother and tried to show her the kitten but she hissed and swatted at it. It was very heartbreaking and she continued to do so we gave up and started bottle feeding again and stimulating. We tried calling shelters and contacting a friend who had a cat who just had kittens to see if we could find a foster mom, but both rejected us. We did notice its anus bulging out a bit but we hoped it would go down the next day. Kitten soon got used to the bottle the next day and slept all the time but when woken up she crawled everywhere and was very strong and vocal and hated getting her genitals wiped. Her anus still had not gone down, so we took her to the vet. They took her temperature, and the vet came in and saw us for about not even 10 minutes. We asked about the anus and the vet said it could be from not pooping and she was probably constipated, and didn’t offer help on that subject. We asked how to relieve the kitten’s constipation, and all he said was to stimulate. Which we have been doing and all she does is pee. Basically all he told us in that short time was that she was healthy and charged us. I’ve been desperately looking online and have tried about everything. From that triangle method[I think we did it right?] to giving her drops of mineral oil in the KMR, watering down the KMR, and running her bottom under warm water. Every time we do try to make her poop she cries and squirms around and makes it really hard to see if anything is coming out. Her anus is back to normal size again. She has farted twice since then, and her pee is no longer yellow but clearish. She looks healthy, she purrs after fed, and her eyes have opened, still very active and vocal since the day we took over. I can’t tell if she is bloated or if that’s just how they look. It’s been 4 days since we took over and switched to KMR and still no poop just pee. Are we doing something wrong? Is she even producing poop if that’s possible? Please help, I don’t want to have to take her to the vet again so soon. Sorry for the long wall of text.

    #846662
    Chaos
    Participant

    Kmr is going to constipate her. Goats milk is recommended to help reduce this as well as adding extra water to her bottle. Try using a dish towel run under warm water to stimulate her anus. Sometimes they need a rougher surface to mimick moms tongue. Monitor feedings only allowing for the slightly under the proper amount, call the vet and get her weight info to calculate that. I would call around for a different vet, one who has more experience with bottle babies and see if they will help get her to poop. They can give an enema or try to stimulate with a thermometer. I’ve had success by soaking a kittens lower half with a very dilute mixture of Epsom salt but that should be brought up to your vet before trying. My vet instructed me to do so to help swelling in his genitals.

    #846663
    Alyssa
    Participant

    We’ve been feeding her according to her weight and bought a scale to monitor, but her anus isn’t swollen anymore from what I can tell. I’ll try the towel, I’ve been using cotton, I’m pretty much desperate for anything now. Where do you go to purchase goat milk? A supermarket? But I will let her sit in some warm water since I heard that can help but won’t use epsom salt just yet. I don’t know if I can find another vet though I’ll try, I’m from a small New Mexican town, but I noticed most shelters here do cater to dogs more and know less about cats which is bothersome.

    #846664
    Chaos
    Participant

    Make sure to dry her off and have a heating pad if you do get her wet. It doesn’t need to be a lot of water at all. Goats milk is found in supermarkets, try health food stores too. This won’t solve the problem right away but will help regulate her. If you’re comfortable, you can get a soft tipped thermometer and stimulate the anus by inserting and removing just the very tip of the thermometer. Use Vaseline to do that. If you don’t see any poops after all of this then another vet trip is definitely warranted! You can also contact your local shelters or rescues to see if there is someone who has experience with kittens to help you out.

    #846666
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Hi Alyssa, the goat’s milk can be found in the refrigerated milk section of the grocery, or in the baking aisle in cans. The canned is condensed so add water 1 to 1. The triangle method for pooping a kitten has had a lot of success and I always use a warm, damp washcloth to stimulate the kitten. Yes, they fuss and squirm, but once the poop starts coming out, they relax because it just feels good. Initially, it may be a little hard since she hasn’t gone, but once it does she will feel much better. I would try the thermometer with a little vaseline. It just mimics the ‘feel’ of going and stimulates the colon to poop. I will post a link for info on constipation and enemas. Also if you have access to fresh goat’s milk, you can pasteurize it yourself.
    http://www.wikihow.com/Pasteurize-Milk
    http://www.felineconstipation.org/acutetreatment.html

    #846667
    Alyssa
    Participant

    Can you explain the triangle method in detail? All I found was a video and it was a little hard to see. And I tried the thermometer before but I pushed just a tiny bit of the way in because I wasn’t sure how far to go, but it went in easily. I’ll try to get goats milk, my vet told me to use only KMR but now I’m scared to keep trying with it. I don’t think she’s bloated either now, her tummy is soft and squishy but I still want to be able to see her poop. I tried with the running water and stimulating with no luck and using a warm wet dish rag. She pees a lot just from tummy rubbing, but other then that, still no poop.

    #846668
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Basically, just take the warm cloth and hold her with one hand while gently rubbing on her bottom like a mother cat would lick her baby clean. That’s how I did my kittens. You keep at it even though they are squirmy and fussy, you will see the poop start to come out. Do this about 15 minutes after you have fed her. I know the vet is telling you KMR, but I have raised a kitten on the goat’s milk and he did better on it than the KMR because I didn’t hae constipation problems or diarrhea with him like I did with kits raised on the formula. It is nutritionally complete with probiotics in it for their tummies. Most vets, if they haven’t hand reared a kitten, know nothing about how it’s done, or what to recommend. I’ll post a couple of links for you, even though you may have seen them, just in case there are things in there you don’t know. Keep trying–you will have success. Put a little olive oil in her formula/milk to soften things up and get things moving. Keep us posted!
    http://www.safehavenforcats.com/newborn.htm
    http://messybeast.com/handrear.htm

    Helping a kitten to eliminate

    #846669
    Chaos
    Participant

    The triangle method can be a little rough. You basically put your thumb and middle finger on either side of their abdomen, and your index finger on their belly. Then you massage her lower half while working down towards her anus. If you hold your hand up without anything In it and move it like how a squid swims, that’s the motion you’re making on her body. You’d have her back in the palm of your other hand but don’t hold her upside down. It’s a little hard to explain.

    #846716
    Alyssa
    Participant

    She finally pooped today it was really long and normal colored. A little solid but still wet, she still seems healthy and active. I noticed she is a smaller like her mom compared to other kittens, I haven’t really seen them so young so I wasn’t sure what size they were supposed to be. So maybe that led to the issue along with the KMR switch. Thank all of you so much, she is a lot happier now.

    #846717
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi Alyssa,

    Yea, she pooped and that’s a good consistency. Your wee girl may be the runt or just small. Girl kits tend to be smaller than guy kits but that’s not always the case. As long as she’s eating/drinking and active, don’t worry about her size now.

    PG

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