So many questions!!!!!

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  • 6 June, 2018 at 4:29 pm #868373
    Marcie
    Participant

    Hey everyone, I am so happy to have found this site! I’m going to give a little background first, then my questions. My fiance and I are animal lovers. We currently have a dog, Kenzie, and four cats, Noble, Bernie, Nikola and Jasper. We have talked about fostering, but down the road as I have some health problems that sap my energy.

    However, two weeks ago tomorrow a stray cat had five babies on the patio where my fiance, Ali, works. The director said that had to go, so she brought the home along with Mama cat. Unfortunately mama wanted nothing to do with the babies, and after a couple of days ended up busting out a screen and taking off.

    We took the kittens to the vet, and they were all doing well. Since then we have been feeding them KMR, stimulating them and keeping them warm with snuggle safe discs. We are weighing them daily and they are gaining weight consistently.

    Now for the questions. The kittens are all quite constipated. I’m getting some poo, but it’s hard and seems difficult for them to pass. Two of them have pretty big bellies and I’m worried. What can I do to help them? Also, we are feeding 10ml every four hours for kittens that are on average 265 grams. We are waking them to eat. Should we wait longer until they wake up to feed them? That would be awesome, considering how tired we are! Is there a dewormer that we can use prior to six weeks? We have been keeping them separate from our pets, but we have a cat that loves to play mama and she knows they’re in there and she’s having a hard time not being allowed to see them. But we don’t want to risk our pets getting worms. Lastly, when are they out of the woods? The worry has been more exhausting than the lack of sleep. We almost lost one last week, but she pulled through.

    Okay, I think that’s it. I know this post is so long, but we’ve felt all alone in this for the past two weeks. Thanks for reading!!

    6 June, 2018 at 7:22 pm #868378
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Thank you both for taking the wee kits in.

    1) It’s possible they have hard stool and can’t poop. This is not unusual in newborns. If that’s the case, the vet (NOT YOU) will have to give them an enema.

    2) Normally, kits will wake up when they’re hungry. You could go awhile longer without waking them. However, keep an eye on your kits because they can crash without regular feedings. If it appears one is crashing put a bit of honey or Karo syrup on its lips. This will give the kit an energy boost. After that, you can feed them.

    3) DO NOT use an OTC dewormer. They are not as good as the one vets. use and because of that, you could overdose them.

    We’re not vets. but have a lot of experience raising kits.

    Here a very useful link:

    http://www.messybeast.com

    Good Luck and keep in touch,
    PG

    7 June, 2018 at 12:30 am #868391
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Good job in raising these kittens! I agree with what PG above says about the dewormer and an enema. You can however, add some olive oil to their formula and it will help soften the poop and help to move it through. You can also use goat’s milk which I have done on my last two kittens. It’s in the refrigerated milk section of the grocery, or in the baking aisle in cans as condensed, or powder. It helps with constipation and is a complete food for them and contains probiotics for their gut..it also has less lactose than cow’s milk which is NOT a good food for felines. I used both KMR and goat’s milk with my last kitten and just alternated them every other feeding. I didn’t have problems with him pooping. I have found that powdered KMR seems to cause constipation in kittens.

    As long as they are peeing, pooping, eating well you are doing a great job! You are also doing the right thing by not introducing them to the rest of the cat family just yet. It would be good to get them to the vet to make sure they don’t have anything communicable (besides worms) before you introduce them.

    Helping a kitten to eliminate

    http://www.2ndchance.info/orphankitten.htm

    Bottle Babies

    7 June, 2018 at 1:00 pm #868399
    Marcie
    Participant

    Thank you both so much. It’s great to not feel so alone in this! The kittens have reached the age where they are getting playful and wanting to interact. So much fun, and so worth all the work!

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