Our Beautiful Mia Having 3-5 Kittens In 1-2 Weeks !!

[Sarthur2]

They are doing beautifully!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I am so thrilled that this litter, and especially little (or not-so-little-anymore) Survivor are doing so very well!

 

[sunshineclare]

Hey guys, wondering if you could help, Sarthur2 Mamanyt1953 @DeweytheLion anyone else reading this daisyd

So we took the whole family to the vet a couple of days ago to check ginger 2's eyes and just generally check the whole family out.

It's literally about a mile to the vet (we live in Central London so most things are close) and even so I've been and Mia was sick twice, lol, she hates the car, but anyway we made it there with no puke, luckily the kittens keep her busy!! And we made sure not to feed her an hour or so before leaving...!

ANYWAY. Vet looked at them, said they were all healthy, they were nursing from Mia in the box on the vet table which was great, vet used a needleless syringe and dropped some saline solution onto Ginger 2's eyes, she said it didn't look infected at all but seemed a bit stuck shut, so she dropped the saline, and then took a clean cotton wool bud and gently rubbed it, and she got it to open.

She didn't really check the others only to briefly pick them up and then put them back to nurse. And said all was good. so we have these things I'd love some advice on:

Survivor still has about 1cm of wizened umbilical cord attached to her belly. All others have fallen off from the other kittens. Will this fall off naturally? Vet said it would just wondering why it hasn't already?

Ginger 2 when we got back from the vet that day, his eye still looked shut and he was one eyed again. but later that night and I posted a picture here, his eye was starting to open. But now, it's shut again. His other eye is wide open and we can see they are starting to see us and respond to our fingers and hands and big figure as we approach the nest standing up before we kneel down etc.

So we have saline solution - we tried dropping some on his eye and on a cotton bud and gently wiping his eye but then trying to gently open it it doesn't open.

Same with Big Sister, and a little bit with Big Ginger, Survivor's eyes are both beautifullly open and she is the only one who's are. Called vet again today and they said don't worry and try doing it ourselves, we have, but it's not made any difference.

We don't want to be putting too much water and rubbing too much as they are so small and fragile still - my bet is for £40 to take them all back to the vet and ask her to do it, they said they had appointments tomorrow - get her to do a more thorough job than before, and she can open their eyes naturally gently, but then last time she did it we have ended up with it shut again

so we don't want to worry poor mia taking her in the car she hates, and disrupting them, but also we want them to open their eyes, if Survivor the smallest kitten has both eyes open fine then the others should I think, and the fact that ALL their one eyes and fully open and checking things out and ALL their other eyes, aren't, that's weird!!

Honestly if I knew they'd be fine I'd much rather just leave them be and hopefully things will happen on their own - we've tried to gently move the skin on their faces to see if their eyes will open even a little bit and the shut one, seems stuck shut somehow - seems a little crusty -

As I've said I've gently rubbed it with a wet cotton bud, makes no difference. Vet said she had a mild antibiotic but nervous about doing this as they don't seem infected just stuck shut somehow...

Honestly vet seems reluctant to see them, of course they will if we want them to but I think they think we are jumping the gun, if they weren't growing so fast and their other eyes were totally open and wide and Survivors eyes were both open and good, I wouldn't be thinking about it, it just seems they are stuck shut, think I've repeated myself lol, if anyone has any advice please let me know as if they aren't any different in the morning I think we will take them to the vet to be sure and see if she can help..

don't want to give them antibiotics unless they really need it... thank you for any replies xxx

 

[Sarthur2]

I think it's time for you to use Terramycin on their eyes, which I suggested a while back.

Please do not force the eyes open though. Use a warm, damp cloth on the outside of the eye to loosen any crust. Sometimes it can take leaving the cloth on for a little while to soften the crust.

You would then apply terramycin across the eye.

Can you pick up the tube of terramycin without dragging everyone back to the vet?

The umbilical cord stump will fall off on its own.

 

[sunshineclare]

Hey thank you Sarthur2 i just googled it and found people saying it hardens easily and keeps the eyelids shut and they have to hold a damp cloth on for a while to open which is kinda where we are now!

I asked the vet last time we were there about it and she didn't say that's what she had, she said there was some milder antibiotic stuff she could put on if things didn't improve but she didn't think it necessary then... We've not held a warm cloth to their eyes, only wiped so maybe we should try that, will update tmrw thank you so so much for the fast reply xxx I'll defo ask her about it again. My google search didn't bring up any purchase options so guessing it's vet prescription only?? Xx

 

[Sarthur2]

Here in the U.S., terramycin can be ordered online without a prescription, or purchased at farm supply stores.

It's an opthalmic antibiotic ointment that is easy to use. Your vet should have it or something similar.

 

[sunshineclare]

OK great thanks, Sarthur2 I'll try with a warm cloth for a minute each with the saline solution and see if that brings anything, not quite yet time to weight them, they've been suckling LOADS so excited to see their weights today!

LOL, we had a fridge freezer delivered yesterday. The bedroom where Mia and the kittens are in the big new nest (yes she's still there, thank goodness!) is right by the front door to the flat and the delivery guys left both the front door to the flat open AND the front door to the main entrance as well. We thought Mia had bolted out and were really worried,

LOL we finally found her, "hiding" behind a clear plastic exercise ball, you know those big ones that you can sit on?! But when I noticed her it really wasn't a good hiding place at all, lol, as you can see through the ball to, well, a cat behind it. We were just relieved to see her! She always gets scared with New People but warms to them quickly once she realises they are Non Threatening LOL.

And another weird thing, when we woke up she was miaowing for food, I checked and she had a full bowl of the Orijen dry, and some lamb mince still AND some other food.

We stirred it around in the bowl, put it down in a different location and she lapped it up!! Why do cats do that??!!

She was miaowing at me the other day and then my partner chopped the mincemeat up into smaller chunks and she then lapped that up too LOL.

And Mojo pushes a full bowl of food eating the first bits, into the outside bit of the bowl, and then walks away, hahahahaha, if you get a fork and push the food into the centre in a nice arrangement, like a central food reservation with a empty bowl moat around the outside of it, hahaha, he then recommences eating, they are so funny!!!

 

[sunshineclare]

Thank you so much for your good wishes Mamanyt1953 and all the help @DeweytheLion and Sarthur2 xxxx

 

[Sarthur2]

It sounds like Mia is a princess! A princess needs her food just so, don't you know? .

Seriously, cats are notoriously finicky. I had a cat for 21 years who had a big set of rules, and she was the ruler of the house!

You can use a warm, wet cloth. You don't even need the saline. It's the wet plus the warm that will soften the crusted shut eyes.

 

[daisyd]

Hahah tell me about it ! I spend a fortune on my kitten's food as she is so fussy ! I hope the warm water works on the eyes ! They sell Lubrithal ophthalmic eye gel on Animed Website which is one I use to buy Gracie's food !

 

[sunshineclare]

It sounds like Mia is a princess! A princess needs her food just so, don't you know? .

Seriously, cats are notoriously finicky. I had a cat for 21 years who had a big set of rules, and she was the ruler of the house!

You can use a warm, wet cloth. You don't even need the saline. It's the wet plus the warm that will soften the crusted shut eyes.

LOL definitely Sarthur2 , she is sooooo super picky, she does eat lots of different things but needs variety bless her!!

Hmm, I WAS using a warm wet cloth and then the vets said best to use Saline as using a normal cloth can more easily get infected. I guess in *some homes they can but we take great care to wash stuff and when I was wiping them it was a fresh pillowcase just as it's cotton, figured that would be OK. Good to know warm is better as the Saline was cold when we used it,

All 4 of them have one eye shut now, even Survivor, they don't look infected just a little crusty like sleepydust or something!!

We booked a vet apt at 3.30 pm today so leaving in about 10 mins, we are just worried to put too much water or too much pressure, sure if you've done it loads of times before and the vet wasn't so super close we could figure it out, they are just so sweet and tiny we don't want to do anything wrong when the vet knows exactly what to do. if it was a Sunday or something we'd probably try ourselves but since they squeezed us in and since it's all of them now, we thought we'd grab the apt. If it's just crusty sleepydust sure it won't be a problem for the vet just will ask how to stop it happening again!

Mia is OK in the car now with my partner stroking her if we open the front of the box thing, xx

 

[sunshineclare]

Today's weights are the least spectacular yet!!

Friday 30th 11.30am

Big ginger 1 - 302g - a mere 1 gram from yesterday, funny as they were all feeding LOADS - I've read that they plateau at some points, maybe he is being kind and letting his siblings try to catch up to him!! He is SO round, his little tail looks proportionately too short for the rest of his rotundness hahaha! he is so affectionate as much as they can be at this age xx

Ginger 2 white neck - 251g - again only up 1 gram - maybe they are levelling out or developing in some other way??

Black and white 1 - 268g - Big Sister REALLY wants to catch up to Big Ginger, she managed to put on 12 grams since yesterday xxx

Black and white Survivor no5 - 260g - another strong 24hrs from Survivor haha, she put on 7 grams, so all good I think.

Just want their little eyes to open and close properly xxx Will definitely ask the vet about the gel and whether we can order it or buy from her etc or whether it's just warm water that will do the trick. We bought these little saline sachets, so could always put one in warm water first before we open it, to get it warmer or just use warm water like you said Sarthur2

Hope all goes OK, have a great day everyone xxx

 

[Sarthur2]

sunshineclare

If all 4 have a shut eye then something is not right. I had 4 kittens and this never occurred at all.

Eye infections are routine in kittens though. They clear up quickly and it's not a big deal. They just need treating and it's over with. Not treating prolongs it and can damage the eye.

 

[sunshineclare]

Wow so we are sooooo glad we went to the vet today.... Sarthur2 so poor Big Sister had pus in her eye, quite a bit, the vet was quite surprised, it was a different lady to the lady we saw there earlier this week (and they only looked at Ginger 2 then and thought the rest were OK) - but they have loads of vets who all seem to move around the different practices as they have about 6 branches in our local area. Vet cleared it all out and we saw her doing it just with warm water and cotton wool so we have that, that's easier than the saline, she took quite a while wiping them all, and they ALL have 2 eyes open so we have ALL 8 eyes open, yay!!

So glad we went in, as I've read awful things about if they get infected, vet said the rest of their faces aren't sterile so it's not super crucial we use saline for wiping it with, so we have to put one drop from this stuff she gave us, antibiotics, twice a day in their eyes and make sure we wipe them morning and night as well and get any crust / bits / pus out of them, she said it's super easy for kittens to get infections in their eyes - was mad that for all of them it was all the same eye!!!

So she treated all of them and we have this stuff and she said if we run out we can go get more, have to do this twice a day for a week and should be good then.

LOL, survivor has a REALLY loud piercing shrill miaow, lol she isn't shy about coming forwards to let you know she doesn't like being separated from her siblings and having her eyes cleaned out!! LOL even though they did it right in front of Mia and babies bless everyone!! The vet and her assistant both said, wow how can a little thing so small manage to make a noise so loud!!

 

[Sarthur2]

Thank goodness infection has now been identified and is being treated. This is what I suspected.

They will all be fine soon with clear eyes opening each day!

 

[sunshineclare]

sunshineclare

If all 4 have a shut eye then something is not right. I had 4 kittens and this never occurred at all.

Eye infections are routine in kittens though. They clear up quickly and it's not a big deal. They just need treating and it's over with. Not treating prolongs it and can damage the eye.

yes thank you so much Sarthur2 - definitely, it's a shame it's common but I'm glad it's not a problem, she said it can happen very easily, probably even due to us not wiping them every day only as they are so small and being told they will open on their own up to 16 days, it was just their good eyes were so good it was strange they all had one shut!! well not all at once but come this morning they all did hence thinking vet was the best option!! you said pretty much verbatim what the vet said, would expect nothing less you give great advice thank you so much again for taking the time to write to me and everyone else needing help on this site -

we are SUPER glad we took the time and spent a bit of extra money taking them in as she did a very thorough job of cleaning their sweet little eyes out and we know a lot more how much we can do now, how long, how much pressure, cotton wool is OK, etc, which is brilliant, so it was worth it for that plus now they are ALL looking out of both eyes, hurrah!!

 

[sunshineclare]

Thank goodness infection has now been identified and is being treated. This is what I suspected.

They will all be fine soon with clear eyes opening each day!

Yes thank goodness!! We are both so relieved, we will use the stuff, I'll just post a photo of it from my phone, they don't seem to have Terramycin here but guess we have a european equivalent xx

 

[sunshineclare]

This is the eye antibiotic stuff they gave us xxx

 

[sunshineclare]

OK found it here looks like it's prescription only, that's fair enough Isathal Eye Drops - 3g - Animed Direct

 

[daisyd]

I'm so glad they are ok !!! I always think best go to the vet if you can ... Can't wait to see them in person in a few weeks