Bottle feeding day old kittens

[Julie1760]

I have a cat that came to live at our house last summer as a kitten. Her brother and mother did too for a while then they went away. She is a inside/outside cat. We have a extra garage that we fed her in and she had her bed, but most of the time she came it the house. She goes outside in her cat box, so that worked for us. She was hit by a car when she was about 6-7 months old and we brought her in the house and nursed her back to health.

So spring time comes and I tell hubby, she will wind up getting Pregnant if we don't have her fixed. He says, he didn't think she would be able to because of her ingeries from the car hitting her. Low and behold, she did get pregnant. So we were keeping a close eye on her and I notice her going into labor. She had her nesting box and was looking/acting normal. I went to do my noon bus route and came home and she had had one kitten, but it was dead. It was still warm and she was cleaning it up like she is suppose to. So I stayed with her and she started to have another about 2 hours later, but it is breech, and she wasn't really pushing...I got on the phone to the vet and he said to see if I could gently get it out when she had a contraction...and hubby tired too. It wouldn't come out...so we rush to the vet. They removed the dead kitten and gave her shots of oxytocin to help her with the rest of the litter. They wanted to keep her over night, but I brought her home with me as they don't have anyone there working overnight. If she had anymore problems, I wanted to know right away and not have her die by morning.

So morning comes, and still no kittens and me with no sleep. I called the vet and they said we better bring her in and they did a c-section. We have 2 surviving kittens, but mom had no milk so I have to bottle feed them every 2 hours. We are hoping she gets her milk in as the kittens don't like the bottle at all. They weight 2 1/2 oz and 3 1/8 oz. They seem to be nursing, but we don't know how much they are getting.

The vet said that her insides were all messed up and it was amazing that she got pregnant at all. Her uterus is attached to her bladder so everytime she had a contraction, the bladder stopped the progression. So after 2 days of no sleep, we are just glad we have the 2 left and mom is doing wonderful with them. She is doing all the normal things she is suppose to do. I just pray they make it.

Sorry this got so long..I just needed to get this all out, I've been a basket case. And so this doesn't happen again....she was spayed, too.

[Diego]

You are a wonderful person .

[MIZBROWN]

Hi there... I recently had to take care of a very small kitten (1-2 wks old). I ended up buying an eye dropper that I'd found at RiteAid... and it worked sooo much better than the bottle... Hope this helps, congrats and good luck with your kittens

[Julie1760]

Originally Posted by MIZBROWN

Hi there... I recently had to take care of a very small kitten (1-2 wks old). I ended up buying an eye dropper that I'd found at RiteAid... and it worked sooo much better than the bottle... Hope this helps, congrats and good luck with your kittens

Just a regular eyedropper? I have one around here maybe I'll try that. Thanks for the tip.

[bchgirl]

Ahhh...poor sweet momma and her babies. I hope all grow and thrive.

[cataholic]

That is great of you to do this. I am bottle feeding an orphaned litter myself. They are about 4 weeks old now. It is really hard to get such young kittens to live. It is so upsetting when they don't make it. You can make the holes in the nipples larger on the bottles too. They are never big enough. Weigh the kittens everyday to make sure they are gaining weight. You can buy Benebac at a pet store. If they didn't get any mother's milk they should have this. You can also call your local shelter to see if they have a nursing momma cat that has older kittens and don't need their momma anymore. Most nursing cats will take orphans. Good luck and keep us posted.

[jrsygal37]

I don't have any advice for you but wish you luck. I did bottle feed a young kitten about a week to two weeks old and he did very well. He is now about two years old or so and lives with a wonderful family indoors. I have pictures of us feeding him and of Bella cleaning him. Bella is our Yorkie and she took Scooter as her own. He did well though with the bottle. He used to roll on his back, grab the bottle like a baby would with his paws and suck and his little ears would twitch it was the cutest thing to watch. I'll see if I can find them and post them here. Good luck to you.

Elaine

[Julie1760]

So far so good!! The kittens are gaining weight. The bigger is up to 3 7/8 oz. The smaller is 3 1/2 oz. Momma kitty seems to have more milk now which is good. The vet called to see how the family is doing. The only concern I have right now is the little one has a sore on its leg and it looks infected. Not sure how it got there and I've been applying a warm cloth to it and can get some pus out of it. I forgot to ask the vet about it and will call in the morning.

All in all they are doing a lot better than thought.

[cataholic]

How are the kittens doing?

[Julie1760]

Just a update....
The kittens are doing wonderful!!! We have moved them out to the extra garage where mom was living. It has warmed up and they are growing like weeds. Mom has been taking real good care of them. They were 3 weeks old last thursday. One does seem to have a rear leg problems..but that could be because they are still so small. We'll keep an eye out for any problems and will be taking them in for a check up next week.