Hello, so we have a stray cat that showed up on our porch a year or so ago, and she's had multiple litters of kittens which have all been healthy except for the first litter that she moved here with. They got sick and we took them to the vet and got medicine but none of them made it. We've tried to take her to the local humane society or find her a home, but she disappears for the entire day if she even gets a glance of the carrier. Anyway her last litter of kittens is three weeks old yesterday, and they seem to be underweight and not taken care of very well unlike her previous litters. There were seven kittens and one of them was having problems breathing, we tried to look something up online, but eventually her breathing slowed down and she just stopped. (Thinking it might have been a respiratory infection, or malnutrition?) Well I went out yesterday and used the flea comb on them and tried to get them all to go potty. (Their nest is on our porch where we made a tent of blankets to protect them from the weather.) I switched out the blanket on the ground with a fresh one, it looked like they had been doing their business on the blanket, almost like the mom hasn't been getting them to go potty like she should've been. The smell was attracting a lot of flies so I tried to wipe them off with a slightly damp washrag since it looked like they had been sleeping in their own urination and feces. I weighed them then, one around 7 ounces, four around 8 ounces, and one was around 10 ounces. I looked up approximately how they should be growing and a weight scale and it looks like they are underweight. I go outside fairly often, and I couldn't name the last time I actually saw the mom taking care of her kittens. She did really good after they were first born, but I'm wondering if she's backing off since she's seen me out there so much recently. Should we get some KMR? and is there something that I can do to take care of the fleas without spending too much money? We are on a very strict budget right now and anything that is going to be an extra cost will probably not happen. The kittens don't seem to be as active as they used to be, and they've been sleeping in the same spot since yesterday, whereas they usually explore a little and at lest move around some. I checked to make sure they were all breathing but I don't know what else to do. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
KittyCuddler14
Thanks,
KittyCuddler14