2-3 week orphaned kitten care

[laurainthesky]

I tried to find the answer to my question before posting and I didn't see anything about it so I'm sorry if I missed something.

I came into taking on a 3 week old kitten on weds afternoon. We've been using Kitten Lady and other resources to try to keep this baby alive. This is not my first orphaned kitten but this is the youngest one I've ever tried to save.

She went to the vet on Thursday and was treated for conjunctivitis and possible upper respiratory although there weren't really any symptoms of that. Just bad eye infection. She's been on antibiotics and eye drops since Thursday and has a follow up scheduled next Thursday. Lots of improvement in that area.

My question is regarding the weight. I am way to neurotic for this line of work. Here is a history of her weight gain progress.

Weds 3p upon arrival at my house: 197 grams
Weds evening 199
Thursday morning 192 - vet appointment made
Thursday on the way to the vet 188
Thursday afternoon after subq fluids 215
Friday morning 230
Friday evening 240
Today 236

Weight fluctuates a little with every pee and feeding of course but this is pretty much where we are at. In the past 24 hours she's had about 5 tbl of formula but she seems to have slowed down on being hungry (she ate 8 tbl total just yesterday). Up till now she hasn't gone more than 2-3 hours without eating a little.

We are now at the 3 hour point and she only seems interested in sleep. I'm about to try to get her to eat again but am I forcing her to eat too much?

She did a good BM this morning around 9a, looked healthy. I'm sorry for the rambling just trying to get all the relevant info in.

So my main question: is her weight just stabilizing from the subq and I don't worry too much about it dipping back down a bit?

I feel like this whole situation is a medical emergency until she's 8-10 weeks old. Just 5-7 weeks to go .

 

[shebaa]

She definitely needs to gain a bit more to be on the normal range. Have to try introducing wet food yet? Try getting a pate type and adding water to it. Baby food might be helpful to. Chicken or turkey flavors only that doesn't have any spices to it.

 

[Sarthur2]

Her weight, at just over 8 ounces, correlates with a two-week-old. But, given her obstacles, this is not unusual, and as her infections clear, she should begin eating more and gaining weight.

What are you feeding her? Pre-mixed or powdered formula? How much and how often?

Are her eyes fully open yet? How are her poops?

Based on her weight, she should get a minimum of 64mLs of formula over a 24-hour period. At 6 feedings per day (every 4 hours including overnight) she should get 10-11mls per feeding, or more if she wants it.

However, if she is not up to that much due to her issues, you should feed less every 2-3 hours and see how she does. She may need time to heal and catch up. How are her eyes doing now?

So, bottom line, she is on meds and healing, and her appetite may not be as robust as it may become when she is off the antibiotics. Give her what she’ll take for now, more if she wants it, and play it by ear, but definitely offer every 2-3 hours.

Things should get better as she gets better, but definitely feed through the night and be patient. Never force feed. Keep us posted!

 

[laurainthesky]

We are feeding KMR powder. We've been offering every 2 hours but sometimes she just rejects at 2 hours. She's only eating about 7 ml average per feeding. She has canine teeth and incisors so I'm thinking she's between 3-4 weeks now? She is super tiny. She wants to play and she's acting normal. I didn't consider that the antibiotics are making her not want to eat. That first day from the vet she ate 8 tbl of formula and now we're fighting (no force feeding!) to keep her at the minimum. The last time she ate was 3 hours ago and she is just not having it, but we also just gave her more antibiotic so maybe that's why? I'm letting her nap for another hour.

Is she old enough to try a pate food mixed with formula?

Her eyes are MUCH better. I think they are fully open. They were cemented shut with puss when we got her. The vet says to keep her on the antibiotics for 7 days. We are on day 3? 2.5?

She's only pooped once a day for us so far. The first one was weird, I don't think she had gone for a while at that point. The 2nd one was with the vet so I didn't see it but I asked him if she was constipated and he said no. This morning she went and it seemed healthy. Solid, brown, about an inch? We just tried to see if she needed to #2 again and it doesn't seem like it. We tried for a while.

Between my son and I, she has had round the clock supervision. We are just too nervous to take our eyes off her.

 

[shebaa]

Yes she's old enough for pate with kmr. I've had fosters who were eating pate mixed dry at 4 weeks old
Did the vet give anything for nausea? Or appetite stimulate meds?

 

[laurainthesky]

No meds for nausea or appetite but we looked back on our logs and sure enough every time we give her the antibiotics she has an extra 1-2 hours between wanting to eat again. We just got her to eat 7 more ml so she is still in the safe zone for now. We are going to try to be more intentional about timing the antibiotics and I will call the vet on Monday morning about appetite stimulants and/or nausea meds

My son is fighting me about offering her the milked down paté cause apparently Kitten Lady strongly suggests to wait but I'm sure that's a general rule and not necessarily advice for underweight kittens. He is too smart for his own good so I'm going to have to find some good evidence to convince him. Too bad there's not a "the-teenage-son-site. com"

 

[Sarthur2]

Antibiotics can upset tummies. I would wait to try mushy pate mixed with formula until after her course of antibiotics is finished, especially as tiny as she is.

 

[shebaa]

Maybe give antibiotics right after she eats so she can feel herself again by the time of her next feeding

 

[laurainthesky]

Maybe give antibiotics right after she eats so she can feel herself again by the time of her next feeding

This is what we did today and she had a really great day! She is up 23g and she was ferociously hungry. Now we're struggling to get her to poop again. She went at 9a Saturday morning so at this point it's been 39 hours. She just gobbled 16 ml of formula so hoping that helps move things along. We're going to try again in 2 hours. If she doesn't go by the morning I'll call the vet.

I was wondering if the antibiotics could be making her a little constipated but Google doesn't seem convinced that constipation is a symptom of amoxclav.

 

[laurainthesky]

Is it at all possible that she just doesn't need to go yet? We are starting to freak out because we've tried the triangle method and extra water and a few drops of olive oil. We are coming up on 45 hours with no BM. The one the other day came so easily.

 

[Sarthur2]

Buy infant glycerin suppositories, shave a kitten-sized piece off with a point, and insert in her anus. Wait 20-30 minutes and stimulate her to poop. This often helps elimination.

 

[laurainthesky]

Just an update in case anyone else is in a similar situation. After we talked the vet the suggestion was to increase her water intake and if she hadn't gone by this morning we would take her in. Because of her size and condition he wasn't willing to recommend any home remedies that I brought up. We diluted the formula and continued to massage her and try to get stimulate her to go. We also increased play time since she has a lot of energy. She ended up going on her own on her little puppy pad at about 4a which was 67 hours. She must be into her 4th week if she is going potty on her own?

Now we are wondering if we still need to be trying to stimulate for #2s? We figured we would just continue to stimulate for potty but while she's on her puppy pad and will set up a litter box tomorrow and then just be diligent about putting her in it at potty times.

Anyways, much stress is relieved now and I'm going to get some sleep!