Helping mom feed her newborns

Kittentrouble

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We rescued an abandoned cat 6 weeks ago unaware that she was pregnant. She is not fully grown. The vet estimated 14 months but I’m not sure she was that old. She has grown in length in the six weeks we’ve had her.

she had 5 kittens 3.5 days ago. One was stillborn. One was struggling but we thought we helped her enough only to find her dead with mom lying on top of her, perhaps suffocated.

Mom had been nursing the three remaining kittens. I had been weighing them and since they weren’t gaining weight (one had in fact lost 7 grams) I had a friend take them all to the vet while I listened on the phone.

the three kittens latched on while at the vets office and the vet wasn’t terribly concerned about them. But wanted us to supplement with the one who had lost weight. But didnt present it as urgent since momma was feeding them.

Later that day one of the other kittens died. We then saw online that the kittens should gain 10 grams a day. They had not gained weight since I started weighing them two days ago. So We took both kittens and mom to the emergency room.

So now I am feeding the remaining two kitten 3 ml every two hours using a syringe. It’s not going too smoothly. Not at all like in the YouTube videos. The kittens are scared and do not readily take the kmr. When they squeal I squeeze some in till I gave them 3 ml.

meanwhile young momma, who has had a very stressful day, is being much less attentive to them. She’s in the box much less. When I return the kittens to the box though she licks them clean, but extremely vigorously because although I try to clean the kittens after the feeding they still have kmr on them.

I’m concerned about how vigorously she is licking them. Also concerned that they continue to nurse. I hope to supplement not replace momma. My priority though is their survival and I think it’s imperative that I get their weight up.

Any advice would be appreciated. I’m really winging it here.
 
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Kittentrouble

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We rescued an abandoned cat 6 weeks ago unaware that she was pregnant. She is not fully grown. The vet estimated 14 months but I’m not sure she was that old. She has grown in length in the six weeks we’ve had her.

she had 5 kittens 3.5 days ago. One was stillborn. One was struggling but we thought we helped her enough only to find her dead with mom lying on top of her, perhaps suffocated.

Mom had been nursing the three remaining kittens. I had been weighing them and since they weren’t gaining weight (one had in fact lost 7 grams) I had a friend take them all to the vet while I listened on the phone.

the three kittens latched on while at the vets office and the vet wasn’t terribly concerned about them. But wanted us to supplement with the one who had lost weight. But didnt present it as urgent since momma was feeding them.

Later that day one of the other kittens died. We then saw online that the kittens should gain 10 grams a day. They had not gained weight since I started weighing them two days ago. So We took both kittens and mom to the emergency room.

So now I am feeding the remaining two kitten 3 ml every two hours using a syringe. It’s not going too smoothly. Not at all like in the YouTube videos. The kittens are scared and do not readily take the kmr. When they squeal I squeeze some in till I gave them 3 ml.

meanwhile young momma, who has had a very stressful day, is being much less attentive to them. She’s in the box much less. When I return the kittens to the box though she licks them clean, but extremely vigorously because although I try to clean the kittens after the feeding they still have kmr on them.

I’m concerned about how vigorously she is licking them. Also concerned that they continue to nurse. I hope to supplement not replace momma. My priority though is their survival and I think it’s imperative that I get their weight up.

Any advice would be appreciated. I’m really winging it here.
also, I’m waking them up to feed them. Maybe I should wait til they’re crying.
 

poolcat

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I've had to bottle feed several neonates; a few have latched on to the bottle well but most didn't. I never figured out why. Just be careful not to squirt milk directly down their throats since that could cause them to aspirate. Are you using the flat nipples with the very tiny part that goes in their mouths? (Pet Ag makes them, too.) I'm not sure about waking the babies to eat, but doubt that would harm them. At this young age they need to be nursing every hour or so.

Can you confine the mother and kittens to a crate (with room for her litter box) so she can't go too far from the babies--just temporarily? She's young and inexperienced so it's not surprising that she isn't doing everything right.

I hope someone with more experience and knowledge chimes in soon.
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