Hello everyone! First time poster here.
A little over a week ago, I realized one of the feral cats I regularly feed gave birth in a neighbour's vegetable bin (mostly empty) so we've been keeping close eye on them. Unfortunately a couple days later the bin tipped over, possibly as mom was trying to jump atop and we found one of the kittens trapped under one of the drawer parts. He must have gotten very lucky, because even though he was chilled pretty badly, he mewed and seemed to be fine. We offered him to his mom, who is a experienced mother, but she wasn't that interested. He seemed very weak, so we warmed him up with our body heat first, then with a hot water bag. I knew this could cause the mom to abandon him, but it seemed to be his best bet. Then we brought a wooden box and put the kittens in it. Mom cat settled in and accepted the nest. But she didn't accept the little one, because the next day we saw that she had separated him from his siblings Feeling sorry and guilty for this, I took the kitten to my house.
Sorry for the long introduction! I find it wrong to separate kittens from their mothers so young, so I felt the need to explain. Anyhow, he has been doing fine so far (14 days old today) apart from his feeding habits. He's very greedy and very active, making it impossible for me to keep him still on his belly and lift his head. He mostly eats "floating" in my palm. Also, I need to be extra careful not to give him anything more than enough to fill the nipple, or he goes in a sneezing fit and worries me for at least until his next feeding, googling aspiration pneumonia symptoms! This is my main concern. I went to my vet clinic and asked for a detailed explanation of the condition, twice! They told me I would notice an immediate difference if any milk got in his lungs and also stated that it was only called "pneumonia" because of the similarity of symptoms to pneumonia and that it wasn't actually pneumonia. They then went on to advise feeding him on his back like a human baby though, and that cancelled all they said. Is there any reason why it could be okay to feed a kitten that way? I didn't feel like I could correct them on it but that didn't sit well for me because I take my adult cat to that same clinic. I then visited another vet, who gave kitten's lungs a listen and informed me that he was fine. The problem is, kitten has done this sneezing thing a few more times after that, and I feel like I could only be certain if I took him to vet after every single feeding!
When it happens I hold him upside down and gently pat his back until he stops sneezing and starts mewing again. There is no visible deformity of the palate. He's fine if I feed his formula in little chunks (I keep the formula in a syringe and put 1 cc in his bottle, feed, put 1 cc and so on - he squirms way too much for me to confidently hold the bottle otherwise), he swallows some air because of this but I burp him every time and he doesn't have much problem letting out the gas. It's just that he's a fast eater and he can't swallow fast enough if I don't pull back the bottle before formula fills the nipple for a second time. I feel like I'm affirming his greediness by doing this and that makes me worry he'll try eating just as fast when he's moved on to lapping his food from trays, when I can't control if he inhales any food or water, although I admit that it is a little too early to fret about that already
To sum up: I'm a neurotic first-time foster mom, and I'd like to hear anyone who's had experience with aspiration pneumonia. Is it immediately obvious if a kitten is developing it? Would I notice any rattling? If a kitten sneezes while feeding, does that mean he's definitely aspirated? (I use surgical gloves to handle him as I don't want to put my adult cat at any risk before I get the kitten dewormed and vaccinated - maybe he doesn't like the smell of them? We basically "wrestle" each feeding - maybe it's just the formula on his face that irritates him? I haven't seen any milk come up his nose so far.) I would also appreciate any bottle-feeding tips. Don't hesitate to tell me off if anything I described sounds wrong! I've learned a lot from this forum, foster care or otherwise. I apologize for the lengthy post, but I had no idea on foster care until last week... And I would definitely give him over to someone experienced if I could, but there's no such community where I live.
Thanks in advance!
A little over a week ago, I realized one of the feral cats I regularly feed gave birth in a neighbour's vegetable bin (mostly empty) so we've been keeping close eye on them. Unfortunately a couple days later the bin tipped over, possibly as mom was trying to jump atop and we found one of the kittens trapped under one of the drawer parts. He must have gotten very lucky, because even though he was chilled pretty badly, he mewed and seemed to be fine. We offered him to his mom, who is a experienced mother, but she wasn't that interested. He seemed very weak, so we warmed him up with our body heat first, then with a hot water bag. I knew this could cause the mom to abandon him, but it seemed to be his best bet. Then we brought a wooden box and put the kittens in it. Mom cat settled in and accepted the nest. But she didn't accept the little one, because the next day we saw that she had separated him from his siblings Feeling sorry and guilty for this, I took the kitten to my house.
Sorry for the long introduction! I find it wrong to separate kittens from their mothers so young, so I felt the need to explain. Anyhow, he has been doing fine so far (14 days old today) apart from his feeding habits. He's very greedy and very active, making it impossible for me to keep him still on his belly and lift his head. He mostly eats "floating" in my palm. Also, I need to be extra careful not to give him anything more than enough to fill the nipple, or he goes in a sneezing fit and worries me for at least until his next feeding, googling aspiration pneumonia symptoms! This is my main concern. I went to my vet clinic and asked for a detailed explanation of the condition, twice! They told me I would notice an immediate difference if any milk got in his lungs and also stated that it was only called "pneumonia" because of the similarity of symptoms to pneumonia and that it wasn't actually pneumonia. They then went on to advise feeding him on his back like a human baby though, and that cancelled all they said. Is there any reason why it could be okay to feed a kitten that way? I didn't feel like I could correct them on it but that didn't sit well for me because I take my adult cat to that same clinic. I then visited another vet, who gave kitten's lungs a listen and informed me that he was fine. The problem is, kitten has done this sneezing thing a few more times after that, and I feel like I could only be certain if I took him to vet after every single feeding!
When it happens I hold him upside down and gently pat his back until he stops sneezing and starts mewing again. There is no visible deformity of the palate. He's fine if I feed his formula in little chunks (I keep the formula in a syringe and put 1 cc in his bottle, feed, put 1 cc and so on - he squirms way too much for me to confidently hold the bottle otherwise), he swallows some air because of this but I burp him every time and he doesn't have much problem letting out the gas. It's just that he's a fast eater and he can't swallow fast enough if I don't pull back the bottle before formula fills the nipple for a second time. I feel like I'm affirming his greediness by doing this and that makes me worry he'll try eating just as fast when he's moved on to lapping his food from trays, when I can't control if he inhales any food or water, although I admit that it is a little too early to fret about that already
To sum up: I'm a neurotic first-time foster mom, and I'd like to hear anyone who's had experience with aspiration pneumonia. Is it immediately obvious if a kitten is developing it? Would I notice any rattling? If a kitten sneezes while feeding, does that mean he's definitely aspirated? (I use surgical gloves to handle him as I don't want to put my adult cat at any risk before I get the kitten dewormed and vaccinated - maybe he doesn't like the smell of them? We basically "wrestle" each feeding - maybe it's just the formula on his face that irritates him? I haven't seen any milk come up his nose so far.) I would also appreciate any bottle-feeding tips. Don't hesitate to tell me off if anything I described sounds wrong! I've learned a lot from this forum, foster care or otherwise. I apologize for the lengthy post, but I had no idea on foster care until last week... And I would definitely give him over to someone experienced if I could, but there's no such community where I live.
Thanks in advance!