Advice for a large litter - 9 kittens!

[Sarthur2]

laceyloowho

If she gets lethargic, or you think she needs it, give her some honey or sugar water. Put a sprinkle of salt in it. Sort of homeade pedialyte, to restore her electrolyte balance. Honey works better if you have it. Use a syringe.

That and the warm compresses are about all you can do until morning.

What time does your vet open?

 

[laceyloowho]

He opens at 8am

 

[laceyloowho]

I am doing my normal feeding and weighing of the kittens right now and their gains so far are all low. 2g, 4g and -3g. This concerns me. How much and how often should I feed them? She is not going to be able to do much and is ignoring their cries. I will set my alarm and feed them overnight, I just need to know how often.

 

[Sarthur2]

laceyloowho

They range between about 11 and 13 ounces each, which means they each need between 88 and 104 mLs each per 24-hour period.

Feeding every 3 hours, this means they need between 11 and 13 mLs each per feeding, more if they want it. More is always better.

Mom needs to rest, and her milk is probably not good right now.

 

[laceyloowho]

Here are their weights and gains/losses

#1- 334g (+13g)
#2- 310g (-3g)
#3- 271g (+3g)
#4- 362g (+15g)
#5- 301g (-9g)
#6- 355g (+4g)
#7- 323g (+2g)
#8- 366g (+9g)
#9- 344g (+2g)

 

[laceyloowho]

Ok... I will set my alarm and feed every 3 hours. Just when everything was going so well *sigh*

I wish I would have taken her to the vet earlier.. I feel terrible

 

[Sarthur2]

laceyloowho

Looks like some of them have not been getting enough since yesterday. You can see how quickly they can go downhill at this age.

Go with what I wrote in my above post - between 11 and 13 mLs each kitten every 3 hours for now.

Are the kittens eating well? I wish I could help you feed them. This is a big job for you.

 

[Sarthur2]

laceyloowho

Don't beat yourself up. Cats mask feeling badly very well. You had no way of knowing!

Her first symptom was diarrhea. It appeared to be a mild upset tummy, nothing more.

The kittens will be fine! Just don't run out of formula. It will go quickly at this rate with 9 kittens!

Once mom has antibiotics she will begin to feel better. It could be 2-3 days before she's nursing again fully though.

Hang in there!

 

[Sarthur2]

The reason there were suddenly so many pee and poop stains on their blanket today was because mama kitty was too sick to clean her kittens! [emoji]128533[/emoji] (Though you will begin to see more of that in general due to their age.)

 

[laceyloowho]

I am trying not to feel guilty but I do. I have really been watching them so close. They are eating pretty well. I was able to get 9-12ml in each just now. They definitely seem hungrier than usual. I am having my 16 year old help me some. He was able to hold a compress on mama for about 15 minutes.I got their bed changed and they are sleeping so I am going to try to get some sleep while I can. I will pick up some more kmr in the morning but I have enough to get me through till then. It is definitely going fast. Unless something major happens, I will check in in the morning.

 

[Sarthur2]

How are mom and kittens this morning? How are you holding up?

 

[laceyloowho]

Ok... here is an update. Mama is doing better this morning. She is not looking so sick and is drinking water and ate some treats. She is still nursing the kittens in between my supplementing. I feel like the situation is not quite as emergent as it was last night. We have a vet appointment at noon (they wanted me to wait till 5:45pm and I would not) and I feel comfortable with that at this time since she is drinking water and it is almost 10am here already. I will just take mama since the kittens are looking bright and energetic and I do not want to expose them to germs there if it is not necessary. I will check in when we are done and let you know what the vet says. I am doing ok... tired but relieved that mama is acting more like herself and is staying hydrated.

 

[Sarthur2]

This is good news! [emoji]128077[/emoji]

I'm glad you insisted on the earlier appointment. Hoping they give her antibiotics for possible mastitis. Perhaps the compress offered some relief last night.

Glad the kittens are chipper! I agree that they need to stay home while mom sees the vet.

Thanks for your excellent care of everyone, and I'll look out for your next update.

 

[laceyloowho]

Ok... we are back from the vet. It was a new young vet and she was great and gave me an emergency number! Mama started eating and drinking before we even left the house. She was acting normally but I am still glad I had her seen. No mastitis! Yay! No fever today. She is slightly dehydrated and they offered to do IV fluids but since she thought she looked healthy and she was already eating and drinking here at home, I opted not to leave her there and stress her out more. I will keep monitoring her and take her temp again this evening and if it goes back up or she gets sick again, I will call and she will just let me pick up some antibiotics. I showed her my kitten weight log and she thought they looked like they were doing well. We will just see how things go but I feel much better right now

She did mention trying to up her calcium but she will not drink kmr anymore. Is there anything else I can do to boost her calcium intake? She hates yogurt, will eat small bits of cheese but not a lot. I will still pick up some probiotics, it cant hurt and might make her tummy feel better.

 

[handsome kitty]

You can crush up an egg shell after removing the membrane.  Make it a powder consistency and mix it with her wet food.  You can also offer full fat goat's milk, carton or powder is good.  Have you tried mixing some of the KMR with her wet food?

 

[Sarthur2]

So glad to hear that she's okay! I'm also relieved that there's no mastitis, and that you now have an emergency number.

The crushed egg shell is some of the finest calcium there is. A tiny amount mixed into her wet food regularly will provide quite a bit of calcium.

Is she back to fully nursing now?

 

[Primula]

I've heard of egg yolks for cats, but never using a crushed shell. Interesting.

 

[laceyloowho]

Yes... she is nursing normally. I will try the eggshell

 

[laceyloowho]

You can crush up an egg shell after removing the membrane.  Make it a powder consistency and mix it with her wet food.  You can also offer full fat goat's milk, carton or powder is good.  Have you tried mixing some of the KMR with her wet food?

I have tried mixing kmr into her food but she just leaves it to sit there and eats dry instead. She really is not into kmr at all.

 

[DreamerRose]

So glad everything turned out well. You're a good cat mommy.