Sad Morning

[julesapple]

It's a bit sad here today.

Our youngest cat was due her first litter of kittens in about a fortnight, but they arrived this morning far far too early. We akways allow one litter before they are neutered.

We've lost one, we think it was already dead when it was born. The second one is alive and we're fighting to keep it that way. It has the classic looks of any premature baby - red skin, hardly any fur and fairly under-developed paws & ears - but it is breathing and we're getting more and more movement the warmer he gets.

I've commandeered the barn owls' heat pad (they're big & fluffy now, so they don't really need it) and we've got the tiny baby on there in a fluffy towel. Mum isn't interested in feeding him though and I'm not sure he has a suckling reflex strong enough to feed anyway. He has had a few drops of condensed milk which is usually enough to give him a fighting start if we can get mum interested in him.

Fingers crossed....

Jules

[lainey lou]

Goodness Jules, hope the little fellas ok.

[Nicos]

Oh gosh- have you cared for prem babies before?? I imagine you might have done if you are caring for barn owls???

I used to care for prem bunnies ,newborn hoglets, and newly hatched birds - very time consuming!

If you are up for the commitment- then it might be worth nipping to the vets for some special milk and a feeding bottle with some tiny teats.
Is it actually swallowing the milk? if not you may need the vet to pop a feeding tube into it's stomach for a few days.

I've just googled- and there's quite a lot of info on the care of prem kittens- and well worth browsing through.
Looks like you are in for 1-2hrly feeds and a warmer than usual heat pad.
Have a look
Fingers crossed for you- it'll be hard work, but very worthwhile if you succeed!
Let us know how you get on!

Good luck to you and the little'un.

hope mom's OK????

[julesapple]

Had Prems Before

The little chap in my avatar is called Mousey. He was premature, but his brother Desmond was full size. We really thought Mousey was a gonner, but my gosh he was such a fighter. He's a big healthy chap now, although a little weak in the back legs - not that it stops him having fun.

I think this new wee thing is even more prem that Mousey (so called because we had mice at the time, and they were huge compared to our tiny kitten) hence I'm not holding out much hope -yet.

Going up to get out of my jamas now so I'll pop into the daughter's attic and check on our babe and his Mum. Mum seems to be fine, almost unaware, of what's happened. We don't think there were any more babies still to arrive, but I'm not looking forward to what I might find. The daughter is much better at this sort of thing (the barn owls & kestrel babies are hers) but she had to go to work.

Well, we shall see.

Jules

[shirlthegirl43]

Fingers crossed things are all okay.

[Nicos]

Here- this is an interesting site....

HAND REARING KITTENS

[julesapple]

Granny takes over....

Ok..this might seem odd, but it might be our wee chap's only chance,

The wee chaps Mum, Izzy, has abandoned him. Izzy's mum, Tilly, has taken him on with her other kittens (second litter, she had been ill and needed to recover before neutering, but recovered faster than we thought and was preg when booked into vet's) who are four weeks.

The bigger kittens have been fed and are sleeping in a separate box. Tilly is now feeding the wee chap. I can't say if he's strong enough to pull milk, but he can only take his chances.

We've tried the hand-rearing route before but it's incredibly easy to drown them if they can't suck or swallow properly. Getting them to suck before the reflex has developed is impossible.

He's warm and comfortable now so we'll watch and hope.

Jules

[Nicos]

ooo...fingers crossed then!!

[quark1]

We didn't have this problem with one of our cats years ago - but granny did help her daughter look after her babies both during the birth and by allowing her to go out whilst she did kitten-sitting duties.

A vet's visit is in order to check that she has a fully discharged uterus. It is quite possible that she has expelled these two and has retained the rest of the litter if she still has some in situ. This also might explain why she has abandoned the surviving youngster, but nature might be helping her 'move on and forget' as in the wild they would have been unlikely to survive alone. You'll also need a supply of prem baby milk if you intend to try and keep the littl'n going.

Wish you the best of luck and keep us posted as to the outcome. Sorry about the still born one - very sad.

[bobleponge]

Good luck to all involved. Hope the littl'un makes it ok

[Alison]

Hope the little one is OK but do you mind me asking what you do with all the kittens (under normal circumstances!) and how come you always let them have a litter. I've heard of people doing this in years gone by as they thought it was healthier for the cat but that has been disproved now so wondered what the other reason was? Sorry for being nosey!

[julesapple]

Good Homes

Hope the little one is OK but do you mind me asking what you do with all the kittens (under normal circumstances!) and how come you always let them have a litter. I've heard of people doing this in years gone by as they thought it was healthier for the cat but that has been disproved now so wondered what the other reason was? Sorry for being nosey!

We've always let ours have one litter. After having a female cat neutered some years ago, she turned quite nasty towards our other cats and we had to rehome her with an aunt who had no other cats. I know this practice seems out dated, but we've never had problems finding good homes.

They don't leave us until they are 12 weeks, by which time they are ready to go and the mother is ready to let them go. They also get their first injections & worming meds before they leave us. These kittens are the first we've had for 18 months as Izzy was very late coming into season and Tilly had been ill for quite a while after Izzy & her brother were weaned and we couldn't have her neutered as she wasn't fit enough.

Before Izzy & Gussie were born we hadn't had kittens in the house for about 3 years. The kittens we had then had been found abandoned in a skip on a housing estate.

We do ask potential owners if we can visit them to reassure ourselves and only one person has ever refused. Needless to say they didn't get a kitten.

We take in strays and get them fixed up and rehomed too. Although we haven't had a stray given directly to us for a few years now we did have one offered two months ago, but my niece took him on instead. He's doing very nicely now and the great niece loves him.


Jules

[Alison]

Thanks Jules, I wasn't meaning to suggest that you didn't look after your cats / kittens as the fact that you were trying to hand rear one clearly shows a great deal of care. Was just curious as people have different ways of doing things and it's always interesting to find out why. All our cats (male and female and always strays or from rescue centres) have always been done at about 6 months as we don't want spraying / kittens from them and as we're out a lot I don't think it's fair on them anyway.

[sweetiepea]

Hope everything works out for the little one Jules.

[julesapple]

Traumatic search

Popped up to the attic to check on the wee chap.

No kittens to be seen anywhere. Heart failure. The mums have decided to burrow into the far reaches of the storage part of the attic and take the kittens in there.

Took me two minutes to find three big kittens and a further hour to find the wee chap. He's freezing when I did find him.

I've got him in my bra just now. Meanwhile, the hunt is on for big kitten number 4, who's nowhere to be seen. Thankfully he's 4 weeks old, eyes wide open and they all move well (too well) so I can resume my hunt in a
half an hour when I've warmed up the prem baby. I'm desperately hoping #4 will start to make a row when he's hungry and Tilly will find him for me. Other wise I have to shift floor boards and delve about in the horible itchy insulation.

Could do with the family home to help right now, but everyone is working or at school.

What a bl**dy nightmare.

Jules