6 week old fading kitten syndrome?

[LilyandFosters]

Hello, currently I’m fostering a 6-7 week old kitten from Humane Society. She was about .8 pd when I received her and absolutely covered in her own poop. After two days she’s been cleaned up but still has a terrible diarrhea problem. Additionally she’s been dropping weight since this morning despite her near perk up yesterday. I’m incredibly worried as I’m kind of a newbie to fostering.

She’s almost completely lost her appetite since this morning and her last meal was almost 100% syringe-fed, which she was pretty upset about. Right now she’s at about 340g and lost any desire to drink KMR by herself or have KMR/wet food gruel through the syringe. Her energy seems to have dropped since this afternoon and now she seems very sleepy and just goes back to her hot water bottle.

Does anyone have any advice on how to help her pull through this? I’m not sure if forcing any bit of food through a syringe would help or hurt. The Humane Society I’m fostering with offers a clinic to give her a checkup but they’re very about an hour away and overloaded with kitten season and seem to have very limited resources. I have a private vet I could visit but until then, what works best with this kitten?
Thank you in advance for any replies

 

[LilyandFosters]

A bit more info:
She used to purr almost constantly since I picked her up three days ago, now she only mews when I pick her up or try to syringe feed her. This plus her just wanting to sleep and refusal of food makes me worry about fading kitten syndrome, where I fear she may be ending up.

As of now, she doesn’t seem to be swallowing any of the gruel mixture I’m trying to syringe feed her, definitely not eating on her own either. She sometimes goes for the KMR but seems to dip her nose in each time and stop to huff it out, she seems cautious of it now too? She’s completely disinterested in the bottle and nipples I got for her yesterday.

She’s also been on Panacur and Benebac under direction from shelter.

 

[StefanZ]

Hello, currently I’m fostering a 6-7 week old kitten from Humane Society. She was about .8 pd when I received her and absolutely covered in her own poop. After two days she’s been cleaned up but still has a terrible diarrhea problem. Additionally she’s been dropping weight since this morning despite her near perk up yesterday. I’m incredibly worried as I’m kind of a newbie to fostering.

She’s almost completely lost her appetite since this morning and her last meal was almost 100% syringe-fed, which she was pretty upset about. Right now she’s at about 340g and lost any desire to drink KMR by herself or have KMR/wet food gruel through the syringe. Her energy seems to have dropped since this afternoon and now she seems very sleepy and just goes back to her hot water bottle.

Does anyone have any advice on how to help her pull through this? I’m not sure if forcing any bit of food through a syringe would help or hurt. The Humane Society I’m fostering with offers a clinic to give her a checkup but they’re very about an hour away and overloaded with kitten season and seem to have very limited resources. I have a private vet I could visit but until then, what works best with this kitten?
Thank you in advance for any replies

Reading, shall write soon. stand by

 

[StefanZ]

Did you supplement her salts, because of the diarrhea? for example, flavorless pedialyte?
she needs it.
If you dont have this at hand,
you can make your own. Say, take some rice, much water, and a trifle salt (so the end product is barely salty). You can use common kitchen salt, but if you do have; use a mineral salt, containing more salts than the usual NaCl.
You boil the rice thrice the usual lengh.
The fluid is a good homemade pedialyte, especially suitable for diarrhea (both kittens and humans).

Second, you can give glucose sugar / dextrose. In USA it will typically be white caro sugar or honey. You put a droplet on the gum inside the lip (you can smear it out a little too). this gives some quick energhy...

Third, when they are that weak, the digestation doesnt always work longer. but they need some nourishment.... In this situation, you can give them bought pedialyte and or this homemade. And also, the karo under the lip. They wont thriwe on this alone, but it will buy you time.


Fourth. Can you get raw goats milk? Its often a good alternative, with some potential healthy properties.
Also, it has a different flavor, and kitten may perhaps be more willing...
If you cant get raw goats milk, try with some other goat milk product. For example, Meyenbergs makes an OK powdered goats milk - you can usually find in on the baking shelf...

Keep her warm (you mentioned warm water bottle, good).

Pray. If prayers actually do help, may be discussed. But if nothing else, they will help YOU to endure, to have courage and patience...


Good luck!

 

[Sarthur2]

StefanZ has great advice! Unflavored pedialyte is best right now to restore electrolytes lost from the diarrhea, but I suggest that you stop the panacur and benebac immediately and get her to your private vet for immediate medical attention.

The diarrhea is key here. My guess is that she has a bacterial infection in her gut that needs treating with antibiotics, and your vet can give sub-q fluids and other meds (such as an anti-diarrheal), to help her. They can also ascertain if she has a fever.

Whatever is wrong must be treated immediately to get her well, and at present she is not thriving. She has clearly been suffering since before you got her, and with proper treatment she will hopefully begin to improve over the next few days.

Panacur is for worms but can make her feel sick, and benebac doesn’t appear to be helping either.

Thank you for fostering and let us know what the vet says!

LilyandFosters

 

[LilyandFosters]

StefanZ has great advice! Unflavored pedialyte is best right now to restore electrolytes lost from the diarrhea, but I suggest that you stop the panacur and benebac immediately and get her to your private vet for immediate medical attention.

Thank you both for the advice! I’ll be sure to pick up some unflavored pedialyte—is what I was going to say but as I was typing this she was taken to be placed with one of the Humane Society’s vet’s for the next few days.
I’m a little upset how quickly it happened and with so little explanation but she’s not in my care anymore. Truly, thank you for the helpful replies, if she’s able to get the care she needs and we get her back in a few days, I’ll definitely put it to good use. Now I’m just even more worried though, the last kitten I had taken and sent to a vet’s home for overnight care we got a call late afternoon next day telling us she had been euthanized that morning. So. I understand they’re overloaded though, but it still feels very bad and sudden.
I’ll update here either way, fingers crossed we’ll see her again though.

 

[Sarthur2]

You did what you could!