My First Bottle Baby Foster!

[Dinosnores]

Hi all, you're the experts and I'm looking for advice on this journey of fostering my first-ever bottle baby. He's extremely young, less than a week for sure, and although I've done a lot of reading and watched tons of videos, I know that can't be substituted for real experience. There's one person at the rescue I'm fostering through who is experienced, but I can't call her for every minor question (she'd never sleep!). That's why I thought I would make this thread, where I can document the baby's progress and get some expert feedback.

I just received the baby an hour ago, in a bucket... He's 155 grams and the woman who had him said she was able to feed him but couldn't get him to poop, and she had him for 3 days. I have him in a carrier with a snuggle safe and I was able to get him to pee for me, but no poop. He wouldn't eat either, just crying and wiggling and thrashing his little head away from the nipple. The woman didn't know how recently he was fed, but I'm hoping it was very recently and that's why he's not interested. He's nice and fat so I'm going to try again in an hour.

What are some home remedies for constipation in such small babies? I was going to add a drop of olive oil to his bottle but I have to get him to eat for me before I can give him that.

Poor little thing, I just want to do everything right for him. He's all alone with no mother or siblings and I know the odds are stacked against him.

EDIT: First random question, I can hear him suckling away on the blanket in his carrier, does that mean he's hungry even though he was refusing a bottle? Do kittens less than one week old suckle for comfort or only out of hunger?

 

[Sarthur2]

Dinosnores

He may be suckling for comfort, but he also may be hungry.

You'll need to wrap him in a towel like a burrito, and feed him with a needleless syringe.

Go drop by drop in the side of his mouth until he learns to suckle the syringe. Tummy down, head up. Many kittens will not take a bottle.

The formula needs to be warm.

You need to weigh him daily. He is fed based on weight.

At 155 grams, he needs 3.5mLs per feeding every 2 hours, or a total of 43mLs over each 24-hour period.

You'll be feeding him around the clock, every 2 hours. Set your clock. This will be tiring!

Which formula are you using?

What happened to his mom?

Please post a picture of him.

 

[lavishsqualor]

Pictures!

 

[Dinosnores]

Sarthur2

Yes, I've read up and I'm prepared to not sleep for four weeks, haha.

I've been testing the temp of the formula on my wrist and heating it by giving the bottle a hot water bath. I tried feeding him from a bottle and a syringe, I was doing it drop by drop but he was fussing so much I was afraid I was overfeeding him.

His current weight is 155 grams, I plan to weigh him at every feeding.

I'm using PetAg's KMR at the recommendation of the rescue.

Not sure what happened to his mom, the woman who found him said she saw him in her backyard crying and that he was out there for hours, no mom ever came back for him. He's extremely young, probably only a few days old.

I've attached a pic, he's currently twitching in his sleep so I didn't want to disturb him until I'm ready to feed, I can get a better one once I wake him up.

 

[Sarthur2]

Re-read my post above. I adjusted what I wrote based on his weight to advise you how much to feed.

Continue feeding him with the syringe.

Pet Ag is excellent!

Keep us posted!

 

[Dinosnores]

Just tried again, more pee, still no poop. I was able to get 0.5 mL into him just by dribbling it into the sides of his mouth but every time I did it, he would scream at the top of his lungs, slap the nipple away with his little paws, and start running for the hills. Oddly, though, he was sucking on my hands when I was holding him and now that he's back in his carrier, he's sucking on his own toes. The formula is definitely warm enough, I'm measuring it with a thermometer.

I even tried to sneak the nipple into his mouth while he was sucking on my hands and no go, just screaming and running away. At least he's energetic - that's a good sign.

 

[Dinosnores]

More pics, he's so insanely small.

 

[Sarthur2]

This is why I suggested that you wrap him in a towel like a burrito to feed him. Only his head should stick out. He won't be able to use his paws.

You control things, not the kitten. He'll get used to eating from the syringe very quickly. Stick with the syringe for now.

He will poop eventually. You need to get more than .5mL in him at the next feeding, or he will begin to lose weight.

Did you see how much he needs at each feeding in my original post to you?

 

[Dinosnores]

Yeah, I'm not giving up. I 'm just giving him a 10-minute break so he doesn't get chilly and then I'll try again. The woman I got him from said he was eating fine for her, but she was giving him goat's milk. He was getting 1 mL per feeding with her, but still no poop. I'm calling the vet for sure in the morning if I can't get one out of him.

 

[Sarthur2]

How long did she have him?

He may not need to poop yet. It does not sound like he's had nearly enough food to need to poop.

 

[Dinosnores]

HOUSTEN WE HAVE A LATCH!!! Got 3 more mL into him, I'm so relieved. With the little bit I dribbled before, that's a perfect 3.5!

The woman I got him from had him for 3 days, that seems a little long to go without stool.

EDIT: In case anyone is following along for advice, I convinced him to latch by pressing the nipple against the roof of his mouth and very slowly and gently sliding it back towards his throat until he lunged forward and latched on.

 

[lavishsqualor]

He's tiny! How fortunate he is to have found you. Thank you for saving this poor kitten's life.

 

[Dinosnores]

Thanks so much everyone for the moral support and great advice. I'm very nervous but also so happy.

Second feeding was a huge success! 4 grams gained and he now latches like a champ. I'm a little concerned about his anus, it looks like it's sticking out a little. Could it be from straining and trying to poop? Or do newborn baby butts just look like that? I've attached a pic so you guys can see what I mean.

Also, any help sexing? I thought male at first but now I'm not so sure. He looks like a tortie color and aren't all torties female?

 

[ashade1]

Female! Good luck with your bottle baby!

 

[Sarthur2]

Yes, female.

And yes, she needs to poop. Begin adding a couple drops of olive oil to each bottle.

You can also purchase infant glycerin suppositories on the baby aisle, shave off a tiny sliver, and insert it in her bum. In 10-20 minutes, with stimulation, she should poop.

You can also massage her belly in a downward motion, then put her bum under warm running water at the sink, and stimulate. Sometimes this helps kittens to poop.

Or the vet can help you.

Great job so far!

 

[Dinosnores]

Update time, thanks for the gender corrections!

I tried the olive oil and massage but still no poop, so I called my vet for advice and he suggested I bring her in. Once in the office, he used the tip of a thermometer to remove the poop, and it was totally healthy. No hardness or anything, she just couldn't pass it with just stimulation for some reason. He thinks she might have some sort of abnormality or neurological damage, hopefully she starts pooping on her own soon but she might never be able to. For now, I need to use the same method he did to manually remove her poops when I can see her trying to pass them.

She made it very clear that she did NOT enjoy the rough treatment. Screamed her little head off. She's so feisty and spirited, it gives me good hopes that she'll make it through whatever this issue happens to be.

 

[Sarthur2]

Hopefully things will become normal. Try stimulating her before using the tip of the thermometer, and be VERY careful when you do use it.

 

[Dinosnores]

Sarthur2 Yeah, I'm very nervous to do it but having the vet show me was very helpful.

In my spare time between feedings I have devised this little chart to keep track of all the necessary info and let me easily plot it into graphs so I can recognize developing trends. Have any of you made anything similar? Does it look okay?

As you guys can see, she barely gained at all in the beginning when she was figuring out the syringe, but now that we have a routine going she's steadily increasing. I was basing the feeding amounts off the stomach capacity chart from Maddie's Fund and the fact that she would cry and search for the nipple if I tried to cut her off at 3.5 mL.

 

[Sarthur2]

Your chart is fine!

It's not necessary to weigh at every feeding, as weight will fluctuate. If you weigh at the same time each day you'll get the overall picture.

The kitten is welcome to eat more than 3.5mLs at each feeding. In fact, the amount needed will increase as she grows. However, 3.5mLs is the minimum needed per feeding to thrive.

As you work with the kitten you'll see that some feedings will be more and some less throughout a 24-hour period.

 

[Dinosnores]

Oh, so it's normal for her to not gain weight during some feedings? Thank goodness, I was starting to worry. I suppose I should be looking for an overall gain each day instead of a gain every single time she feeds.

Thank you so much for following along with my progress and answering all my silly questions!