Feral Kitten Prolapsed Rectum, Vet is Closed

[emmaandaria]

Long story as short as I can make it, I've been trying to earn the trust of a feral momma cat and kittens and then started working on trapping them. I caught four of seven kittens over the past couple days, and then last night one of them started having intense diarrhea, and then phantom diarrhea pushing to the point that now its prolapsed its rectum. I've been keeping it moist and clean, but I can't get into a vet until monday at the minimum, if they will even see me then (for some reason most of the vets around here are booked out to mid October, which is wild. My dog had an allergic reaction a week ago and the soonest our regular vet could offer us was october 7th. Luckily I know how to handle things like that, or it would have been awful for my pup). I read a lot online about keeping it clean, warm rinses, keep it moist/use vaseline, and some suggested honey, sugar, and preparation h.
Does anyone have experience with this? Its a bit too much for me to massage it back in at the moment, its very inflamed. I've been offering (and on occasion syringe feeding to avoid dehydration) a mix of KMR and Pedialyte but I would like to help this kitty better. I honestly don't even trust my local vets much, they really screwed over my senior diabetic cat last year. There are two vet clinics/hospitals in my area and both cater more towards dogs and have been very poor at dealing with cats. I will take this one in if I can, but I don't have high hopes. I am planning to deworm and vaccinate them myself (I'm familiar with giving shots, thanks to the senior cat I mentioned. These vets don't offer any kind of discounted services for bringing in a litter or for TNRing as far as I know. The plan is to socialize, get fixed, and adopt out and TNR mom). Going to TSC to get dewormer and anything else I can in a few hours. If there is anything I can get or do to help this little baby get through the weekend I would appreciate any and all advice.

 

[fionasmom]

Thank you for trying to help this family. Your frustrating experience with trying to find a vet is the same out here. Last weekend I had a cat emergency and three ERs and one vet told me that they could not possibly do anything for hours. The last one I called was able to take us.

Get into a vet on Monday. Going to a ER this weekend will be a bigger bill, but you might have to consider it if the kitten appears to bein distress. A prolapse cannot be handled at home and it sounds like you have come across all the standard home treatments, so called. As you have found, the general recommendations are to keep it clean and moist, and possibly try to shrink it a little bit. However, the vet will have to decide what the best way is to help this kitten depending on the severity. Even if it can be pushed back in, it will probably need sutures to hold in place. There can be complications from prolapses, like necrotic tissue, which will be life threatening. Is the diarrhea still continuing?

 

[emmaandaria]

Thank you for trying to help this family. Your frustrating experience with trying to find a vet is the same out here. Last weekend I had a cat emergency and three ERs and one vet told me that they could not possibly do anything for hours. The last one I called was able to take us.

Get into a vet on Monday. Going to a ER this weekend will be a bigger bill, but you might have to consider it if the kitten appears to bein distress. A prolapse cannot be handled at home and it sounds like you have come across all the standard home treatments, so called. As you have found, the general recommendations are to keep it clean and moist, and possibly try to shrink it a little bit. However, the vet will have to decide what the best way is to help this kitten depending on the severity. Even if it can be pushed back in, it will probably need sutures to hold in place. There can be complications from prolapses, like necrotic tissue, which will be life threatening. Is the diarrhea still continuing?

I'm most worried they won't even get us in on Monday, they have been booked solid . Its been distressing, I've been considering moving just to be closer to better vet access, but I'd have to move around an hour and a half from where I am now. Its tough. At the moment the diarrhea has stopped, the kitty has been slowly eating Pedialyte KMR formula (was refusing food for a wee bit) and isn't having the phantom spasms and strain as far as I can tell. Considering its a feral kitten I caught only a few days ago, today its more responsive, didn't put up a fight or hiss, leaned into the pets, and purred for the first time. So I think its starting to feel a little better. We started the home remedies today to see if we can give it relief til Monday at least. I just got home with dewormer and some other supplies and checked on it. The prolapse seems to have shrunk a little.

 

[fionasmom]

Some options are to see if any hospital will accept the kitten as a drop off to be seen during the day. I have done that, but it is up to you to decide if that seems right to you with this kitten. You might also leave the word "feral" out of the description. This is a tiny, manageable kitten, not a ferocious unneutered street fighter male. One ER around here won't take ferals. Stress how much of an emergency this is and how you have done all that you can at home.

 

[emmaandaria]

Realized I forgot to update this. The Tuesday after the weekend this happened a vet hospital told me I could drop her off when they open and would fit her in when they could and call if there need for any tests or surgery. They called me that afternoon about an hour before close to pick her up and that it was back in, and advised that if it started acting up I could use absolutely plain lubricant to massage it back in. It was good until the next morning, when it was entirely back out again (I think due to her eating some of her siblings food). I contacted them again and they said I could drop her off again or try to manually get it in on my own but had little additional advice. With all my research I decided to try again to manage it on my own. I picked up preparation H cream (not ointment) and I couldn't find a regular bottle saline (like wound wash but ONLY saline) but did find out that Vix Sinex Saline ultra fine mist nasal spray was free of any additional ingredients, was straight saline and a pretty ideal percent. I kept her separated in a large carrier with a pee pad for cleanliness and comfort, and every few hours cleaned up the surrounding area and etc with Earthbath hypoallergenic cat wipes (I had these from my late diabetic senior kitty that passed end of last year) and then did a cleansing gentle "rinse" of the area with the spray saline. After, I very gently applied a light coating of the prepH cream (vet said the main concern was them licking it, and luckily she had no interest but I kept her next to me to monitor just in case) and let it be. Since she was with me all day I actually visually witnessed it shrinking back in while she napped. By the next day it was back to normal. I continued this routine until all backside inflammation had gone away to avoid it coming back out again. During all this I started shifting her from formula to plain chicken or plain turkey baby food (good ol gerber) mixed with some pumpkin. To which we then slowly transitioned her back to kitten food.
She now is playing like a healthy normal kitten, I no longer need to apply anything, and I think the prolapse is behind us with no risk of return. If this ever happens again I plan to skip the honey/sugar solutions I originally found and use the saline and prepH cream approach. It reduced it the fastest and most effectively, and has earned its way into my pet first aid kit. All in all I am just immensely grateful that she is doing well and didn't need surgery.

 

[catsknowme]

Wonderful update - I was initially apprehensive to read it. For saline solution, I would use eye wash because ophthalmic preparations are sterile and the eye wash is a simple saline solution. You did a great job saving that kitten!

 

[emmaandaria]

Wonderful update - I was initially apprehensive to read it. For saline solution, I would use eye wash because ophthalmic preparations are sterile and the eye wash is a simple saline solution. You did a great job saving that kitten!

Thank you . I did read eyewash was an ideal option, but I got incredibly unlucky in that the store I was at was out of stock in a lot of them and I could only find ones with additives for cooling and whatnot. If I hadn't found the mist, I had intentions to ask my vet to call in a prescription for saline after consulting with the pharmacist about my options. He really tried to help me find a good OTC option, we just struggled a lot thanks to supply issues.

 

[fionasmom]

This is wonderful news! You are a real hero for having seen your way through this. We appreciate the update, which is hopefully the conclusion to this whole episode, as members do read threads and often ask how they turned out.

 

[emmaandaria]

This is wonderful news! You are a real hero for having seen your way through this. We appreciate the update, which is hopefully the conclusion to this whole episode, as members do read threads and often ask how they turned out.

I'm just happy she's okay. That is part of why I wanted to make sure I came back and updated it, because looking at old threads was part of what I did trying to see if others had similar situations and what ended up happening for them. I didn't want to leave mine without conclusion in case anyone else is ends up in my shoes hoping to see good news or understand outcomes.