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- May 3, 2021
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Hi, I am fostering a mom, her three babies, and an extra baby (we'll call him BB for clarity) from another litter. BB was born to another momma and had two siblings, but they all died, so they gave me BB to add to my litter. Prior to being added, he was being hand-fed with a very experienced foster and he fought tooth and nail with that foster, so they thought it'd be best if he's with a momma cat.
My momma and her three babies are all super healthy -- all eating well and within the perfect weight range with full little bellies. BB on the other hand, is about half the size of them, despite being roughly a week older. BB is latched onto momma all day and we see him kneading and suckling -- but he never gains weight, and in fact is dropping weight. We believe he may be physically attached to momma but is not actually nursing. Momma is producing milk and other three babies are fine.
As such, we've decided to supplement BB with KMR, hoping he will gain the strength to perhaps suckle stronger. Just like with the other foster, he hates the bottle no matter what we do. We have to slowly drop the formula into his mouth with a syringe, which is arduous and risky because of the risk of aspiration (we've seen bubbles and immediately stop). Despite being tiny, lanky, and usually lethargic, he fights for his life as soon as he sees a bottle nipple, kicking, screaming, and wiggling away. We're barely able to give him 4mL/feeding, and each feeding we sit there with him for over an hour or more to slowly dribble it in. He now has diarrhea too, and so we feed him every few hours to prevent dehydration.
With our most aggressive feeding attempts, he manages to float around the same weight. If we decide to cut down on even one attempt (to allow him to feed with mom or something), his weight drops, sometimes dramatically.
I'm not sure what to do. I've reached out to the foster coordinator about having someone who specializes in singletons taking him in but I know his best chance is with a mom. But at the same time, it's clear he's not eating with mom, and his leaky diarrhea covers the other kittens in poop and he always fights for the same nipple as the runt of the biological litter (we try to move them to different nipples but both of them insist on this one only), and I worry that this will bring down the little runt too.
I wondered if it was cleft palate but apparently there was a point in time with the old foster that he did latch and suckle from a bottle -- but only once! So she says that wouldn't have been possible with cleft. Everyone is so swamped right now with all these kittens so I don't think I can place him with someone else even if we wanted to. I don't know what else to do to keep him alive (I won't even ask for healthy right now, just alive enough that we can work to healthy later). Does anyone have any ideas? I've never handled a baby who hates the bottle so much that he would spit out the milk and use his little energy to wiggle away. Please help!
My momma and her three babies are all super healthy -- all eating well and within the perfect weight range with full little bellies. BB on the other hand, is about half the size of them, despite being roughly a week older. BB is latched onto momma all day and we see him kneading and suckling -- but he never gains weight, and in fact is dropping weight. We believe he may be physically attached to momma but is not actually nursing. Momma is producing milk and other three babies are fine.
As such, we've decided to supplement BB with KMR, hoping he will gain the strength to perhaps suckle stronger. Just like with the other foster, he hates the bottle no matter what we do. We have to slowly drop the formula into his mouth with a syringe, which is arduous and risky because of the risk of aspiration (we've seen bubbles and immediately stop). Despite being tiny, lanky, and usually lethargic, he fights for his life as soon as he sees a bottle nipple, kicking, screaming, and wiggling away. We're barely able to give him 4mL/feeding, and each feeding we sit there with him for over an hour or more to slowly dribble it in. He now has diarrhea too, and so we feed him every few hours to prevent dehydration.
With our most aggressive feeding attempts, he manages to float around the same weight. If we decide to cut down on even one attempt (to allow him to feed with mom or something), his weight drops, sometimes dramatically.
I'm not sure what to do. I've reached out to the foster coordinator about having someone who specializes in singletons taking him in but I know his best chance is with a mom. But at the same time, it's clear he's not eating with mom, and his leaky diarrhea covers the other kittens in poop and he always fights for the same nipple as the runt of the biological litter (we try to move them to different nipples but both of them insist on this one only), and I worry that this will bring down the little runt too.
I wondered if it was cleft palate but apparently there was a point in time with the old foster that he did latch and suckle from a bottle -- but only once! So she says that wouldn't have been possible with cleft. Everyone is so swamped right now with all these kittens so I don't think I can place him with someone else even if we wanted to. I don't know what else to do to keep him alive (I won't even ask for healthy right now, just alive enough that we can work to healthy later). Does anyone have any ideas? I've never handled a baby who hates the bottle so much that he would spit out the milk and use his little energy to wiggle away. Please help!