You are doing really well here. My goodness your learning curve on cats and kittens has been a steep one! Glad you are getting some help for Mum and babies. She doesn’t want to be this way but she has Fear, maternal instincts, hormones, feeling poorly and lots of other stuff going on. You are...
A bath towel is good too. You need to be super quick, this is pretty urgent now. how do you get a feral cat into a carrier - Google Search I personally go from the side and quicker!
What an awful experience for you, I’m sorry you’re having to go through this and all you wanted to do was help this poor family. To be honest what I would be doing now would be the blanket approach over her head to stabilise her. There will be videos on YouTube I’m sure, just a small blanket...
If the Mama cat senses that the kitten is not one that can make it she might just leave it to one side in the nest, put it somewhere outside of the nest (under a bed) or ease its passing. She could be laying on it to hurry it’s passing or to warm it up
The cat in my profile is proof that they can with the right input. That said if there is something congenitally wrong with the kitten which means it can’t sustain life there is little that can be done. It is always worth the try though
Do you have a neighbour who has some honey or Karo syrup, also a kitchen scale? The fact Mama wanted to know her kitten is positive but you need some energy into that kitten as fast as possible
Sounds like her latent Mummy instincts have kicked in which is most helpful. Good you have started weighing already, especially with one tiny baby. Hope all continues well and Congratulations:)