Abandoned Kitten - Help!

[TheLovelyFinch]

Hi everyone. I woke up Wednesday morning to find a newborn kitten on my kitchen floor. It seems a recent rescue whom we captured about 4 weeks ago was pregnant. We had no clue. She had just this one baby. Baby was cold when I found her. But she was clean and dry, so mama cleaned her up before leaving her.
I put her on a heating pad and set up a box. I've got a sheet folded a few times on one end of the heating pad in case she gets too warm.

I've put baby and mama in a bathroom.
Mama cat was initially uninterested and was hissing at the baby. I believe she's had one litter previously according to another stray caretaker in my neighborhood, so this is an experienced mum. Her nipples are totally flat. She ignored the baby so I started hand feeding after a few hours.
She has never nursed. Mama's nipples are still totally flat/un-enlarged. So she never even got the benefit of colostrum.

I was a licensed wildlife rehabbed in MA and I've cared for orphaned kittens and puppies, but never a kitten this new and in this situation. I had a couple questions and hope someone can help.

QUESTION 1 - Baby hasn't gained any weight. She is stuck right at 89/90 grams. I feed every 90-120 minutes. She is eating eagerly and very active/vocal. We're using formula, with L-Lysine and probiotics powder added. She will be 72 hours old around 9 AM on 1/13/2018. She is eliminating properly.
She did seem a tad dehydrated, so I gave her a sub-Q injection of lactated ringer's solution with an insulin syringe. I turned down the heating pad from medium to low this afternoon in case it was too warm, as I know that can cause dehydration.

Any ideas why she's failing to gain weight? She shows no obvious signs of infection and I'm hesitant to start antibiotics but I know from rehabbed experience that this can signal an infection. Any ideas or recommendations?

QUESTION 2 - Is there any chance of mama nursing? She has started acting more motherly. Last night she took the baby out of the box with the heating pad and put the baby in her own bed. I also see her sitting in the baby's box. She cleans the baby and helps her eliminate. Just an hour ago, she got into the box with the baby and was sitting on her side as if she was going to nurse (of course, I'd just fed baby so it didn't happen.)

I don't believe she's nursed the baby at all. Again, we're coming up on 72 hours as of 9AM Saturday, 1/13/2018 and as I mentioned, her nipples are flat. Is there ANY chance she can start nursing/produce colostrum/milk? Or has that ship sailed? I'd love for her to take over and I'd love to give her the chance (i.e. Let baby cry and hopefully, mum sits in the baby's box and let's her figure out the nursing thing.) But without any weight gain in baby, I'm afraid we'll have a fatal backslide.

Any thoughts/advice? I'm really at a loss as I've never encountered a situation like this before. (And here I was thinking I'd seen it all in terms of fostering/rescue!) I'm also wondering if baby even would try to nurse since she's only had the bottle? I tried to switch nipples on her bottle today and she wasn't having it. (The one she likes has a rather large hole in the tip and it's rather long, so not ideal...but it was the only one she would use at first.) With this in mind, is it likely that she'd start to nurse if allowed to get hungry enough? I know from experience that babies are very picky over nipples and getting bottle fed babies to breastfeed and vice versa can be difficult.

My theory is that she likely has really low hormone levels since there was just one baby. That's the best I've got. I'm not a breeder; my only experience with pregnant mums has been via rescue/fostering.

Any thoughts/ideas are SO appreciated!!!

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

Oh I should also add that mama is not at all stressed. She seems happy as a clam. Purrs and talks to me when I come into the room, eating/drinking like a champ, etc.
So I'm confident stress is not a factor.

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

"Rehabbed" = "rehabber" in the above posts. Sorry. I didn't notice the autocorrect

 

[dustydiamond1]

Yikes! Isn't that just like a cat, just when you think you've seen it all they come up with something new! Hopefully @ashade1 will drop in with some advice. @Mamanyt1953 may be able to help too. I can only offer moral support and good wishes.

 

[ArchyCat]

Is there a reason you are not using Kitten Milk Replacement (KMR)? I thought that was supposed to be a complete replacement for the mother's milk. How confident are you the the kitten is getting enough calories?

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

Is there a reason you are not using Kitten Milk Replacement (KMR)? I thought that was supposed to be a complete replacement for the mother's milk. How confident are you the the kitten is getting enough calories?

I AM using KMR kitten formula. Sorry if that wasn't clear. :-) I've also added a tiny bit of probiotics and L-Lysine.

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

Is there a reason you are not using Kitten Milk Replacement (KMR)? I thought that was supposed to be a complete replacement for the mother's milk. How confident are you the the kitten is getting enough calories?

Oh, to answer the second part. I'm reasonably confident she's getting enough calories just going by the frequency of feedings and the amount she's eating. I've seen other kittens gain weight using the same food and comparable amount/frequency. But none of those other kittens were this young AND had never had colostrum/breastmilk.

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

In case it's at all helpful....
I just checked my records and she's eaten 12 grams in the past 24 hours. I determined that the food we're using works out to 1 gram = 1 mL.

I should also add that she wasn't a great eater for the first 16-18 hours of life. It took her a while to figure out how to suckle, so I used a pipette. But the amounts she was eating were super small. I'd say she got around 5 grams on the first day, so we got off to a slow start. (Unfortunately, my scale konked out so the first few feedings were done without weighing the bottle and baby.)

 

[dustydiamond1]

In case it's at all helpful....
I just checked my records and she's eaten 12 grams in the past 24 hours. I determined that the food we're using works out to 1 gram = 1 mL.

I should also add that she wasn't a great eater for the first 16-18 hours of life. It took her a while to figure out how to suckle, so I used a pipette. But the amounts she was eating were super small. I'd say she got around 5 grams on the first day, so we got off to a slow start. (Unfortunately, my scale konked out so the first few feedings were done without weighing the bottle and baby.)

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

Oops I just realized a typo above 1 gram = 3 mL of food.

 

[StefanZ]

The rule of thumb is 8 ml goats milk or kmr / oz a day. So she being 90 grammes shall have about 25 ml a day.

Also you may give her even more often down to every hour.

Lotsa work on you but may be decisive in touchy situations.

 

[StefanZ]

Can you get raw goats milk? What you give is really excellent top of the art. Raw goats milk may be as good - it comes from an alive mom.

Proceed with the feeding. Fully possible mommas milk will kick in. Her maternity instincts has come, no?

When her milk come she will encourage the kitten to nurse.

 

[StefanZ]

Oops I just realized a typo above 1 gram = 3 mL of food.

Do you mean she got 12*3=36 ml of kmr a day?

If so its well enough for a 90 grammer.

 

[StefanZ]

Ps its not really a typo 1 gramme of dry powder gives 3 ml of ready made kmr with the typical dilution.

If you want to dilute with goats milk instead of water the ratio will be 1kmr 3 goats milk.

 

[Sarthur2]

How is the kitten's weight today?

It sounds as though you are doing everything correctly. Are you feeding through the night?

It's great that mama kitty is helping to care for the kitten now.

It's always possible that mama cat could get milk and nurse, but I agree that her hormones sound low. However, if the kitten should attempt to suckle, it might be for comfort only. I would not count on any milk at this point.

Do you have the heating pad under a blanket? The kitten should never be directly on it.

Hopefully the kitten will begin to gain soon. Sometimes a kitten gets off to a slow start. Since the baby is not losing weight it sounds hopeful!

Thank you for taking this cat in and your commitment to her kitten!

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

Hi everyone!
Thanks for your thoughts!
Baby is doing well. (Knock on wood!)

She is at 91 grams as of the last feeding, but I gave her a tiny injection of lactated ringer's solution as she seemed a bit dry again. So that would account for the 1 gram gain. I'm going to add a humidifier to the room and see if that helps the moisture situation.

To answer a few questions:
- Yes, 1 gram = 3 ML of KMR formula
- Yes, the heating blanket is under the sheet. One half is covered with just 1 layer of sheet, while the other half has a few layers in case she gets warm. She seems to prefer the area with just 1 layer. Her body temp feels normal to me. Not too hot and not too cold.
- Yes, I am feeding through the night. Every 2 hours. During the day, I've been doing every 90 min, as she seems hungry. That's about when she starts to fuss and cry (and I know that fussing and crying utilizes energy and calories!)
- Over night, she's gone from consuming 1 gram to 2 grams per feeding. She's feeding a lot longer too. So I'm hoping that's what we need to see some gain!!!

That's good to know that we can go to hourly feedings if necessary. I'm going to give her a few more feedings to see how we do since this larger amount per meal should theoretically result in some gain....but you know how theoretical things often work out! LOL

I should also note that I warm her formula prior to feeding, so she shouldn't be having any digestive slowdown due to cold formula.

That's interesting to hear that mum's milk could potentially come in still. I feel like it's unlikely with her nipples still flat and small, but I know that having the baby around should help her hormone level up to some degree. I'm not sure how much their hormone levels depend upon successful nursing (vs. exposure to the baby.)

Sarthur2 - That's exactly what I was thinking - Don't count on it coming in, though she could suckle for comfort.
The new scale I bought only goes down to grams; it doesn't do fractions of a gram so I'm hoping to get another one with fractions of a gram so I can better determine if she's getting any milk from her mum.

 

[dustydiamond1]

Hi everyone!
Thanks for your thoughts!
Baby is doing well. (Knock on wood!)

She is at 91 grams as of the last feeding, but I gave her a tiny injection of lactated ringer's solution as she seemed a bit dry again. So that would account for the 1 gram gain. I'm going to add a humidifier to the room and see if that helps the moisture situation.

To answer a few questions:
- Yes, 1 gram = 3 ML of KMR formula
- Yes, the heating blanket is under the sheet. One half is covered with just 1 layer of sheet, while the other half has a few layers in case she gets warm. She seems to prefer the area with just 1 layer. Her body temp feels normal to me. Not too hot and not too cold.
- Yes, I am feeding through the night. Every 2 hours. During the day, I've been doing every 90 min, as she seems hungry. That's about when she starts to fuss and cry (and I know that fussing and crying utilizes energy and calories!)
- Over night, she's gone from consuming 1 gram to 2 grams per feeding. She's feeding a lot longer too. So I'm hoping that's what we need to see some gain!!!

That's good to know that we can go to hourly feedings if necessary. I'm going to give her a few more feedings to see how we do since this larger amount per meal should theoretically result in some gain....but you know how theoretical things often work out! LOL

I should also note that I warm her formula prior to feeding, so she shouldn't be having any digestive slowdown due to cold formula.

That's interesting to hear that mum's milk could potentially come in still. I feel like it's unlikely with her nipples still flat and small, but I know that having the baby around should help her hormone level up to some degree. I'm not sure how much their hormone levels depend upon successful nursing (vs. exposure to the baby.)

Sarthur2 - That's exactly what I was thinking - Don't count on it coming in, though she could suckle for comfort.
The new scale I bought only goes down to grams; it doesn't do fractions of a gram so I'm hoping to get another one with fractions of a gram so I can better determine if she's getting any milk from her mum.

You are doing a very wonderful job taking care of this little miracle baby. Thank you for sharing the experience with us.

 

[TheLovelyFinch]

Well, the good news is we've gone up to averaging around 93 grams, so that's a good thing!

The bad news is she's got a bit of blood in her urine (it's coming up tinged pink on the cotton pad.) I don't have any evidence of trauma, so I think we have an infection. I've started her on the world's tiniest dosage of amoxicillin. Hopefully we caught it soon enough. The bummer is now I've got to continue with the periodic injections of ringer's solution as that will help flush the bladder. (She seemed pretty good on hydration the past few feedings so I was going to discontinue.)

 

[Sarthur2]

The amoxicillin should clear it. If not, clavamox will - it's broader spectrum than amoxicillin.

Perhaps this is why she has not been gaining. I agree that she needs the fluids for a bit longer.

We'd love to see her picture!

 

[dustydiamond1]

Well, the good news is we've gone up to averaging around 93 grams, so that's a good thing!

The bad news is she's got a bit of blood in her urine (it's coming up tinged pink on the cotton pad.) I don't have any evidence of trauma, so I think we have an infection. I've started her on the world's tiniest dosage of amoxicillin. Hopefully we caught it soon enough. The bummer is now I've got to continue with the periodic injections of ringer's solution as that will help flush the bladder. (She seemed pretty good on hydration the past few feedings so I was going to discontinue.)

You are such a great kitty momma Poor little Miracle is such a fighter I sure hope she will pull through this latest hiccup quickly.