Hello, I found this forum while trying to google for help for kittens and was hoping maybe someone on here can help me.
My sister's boyfriend's cat had 3 kittens on September 25th prematurely. I'm positive they're premature because they were 57 grams, 64 grams, and 82 grams, with very fine fur and Riley (their mom) was not producing milk. We lost the first kitten (57g) 3 days after he was born. I had been trying to bottle feed them and the two smallest had been dropping. Riley's milk came in on the 3rd or 4th day after the first kitten passed away.
From that point on, the largest kitten grew like a weed (lovingly nicknamed Chunk) and the now smallest kitten began growing faster until almost gaining the same as Chunk. I named this kitten Hiccup.
Today, they're 11 days old and up until two days ago, everything was going great! Both gained beautifully but the evening of the 9th day, Hiccup's weight gain slowed from 10+ grams a day to 6 grams. Yesterday he gained 4 grams. So far today, he's LOST 6 grams.
I weigh the babies constantly but only use the evening 10pm weights to compare to see how much they've grown in 24 hours. I keep track of everything, record and write things down constantly.
In the last few days, I've noticed Hiccup's chest feels different from Chunk's. After googling, I think he might have something called Flat Chested Kitten Syndrome or something called Pectus. I've tried massages but I'm to scared to try a splint incase it makes things worse since I can't tell if the splint would cause the thorax to push into him or move out the way it should be.
He also seems like he has something similar to swimmer puppy syndrome. I didn't think much of it at first because he's just a kitten so splayed legs wasn't a huge surprise but while Chunk's began to try to figure out how to walk, Hiccup's back legs (by his hip area) seems turned a bit out.
However, that could just be me worrying to much and panicking.
Hiccup went from 140 grams last night at 10pm to 134 grams as of 4:40pm today. I've tried all throughout today to get him to nurse from a bottle using KMR. I have the liquid can (freshly opened today and the can's experation date was April 2016. I also have the powder form of KMR which I was using when I was trying to bottle feed the first baby that passed. I've had no luck with bottle feeding him. I use the towel to prop his head area up to imitate how he'd be positioned if he was nursing from his mom, I've tried gently pushing the nipple into his mouth and dropping a drop or two in their and he just rolls the end of the nipple on his tongue before moving his head away.
I've tried just setting him in their with mom to make sure he's able to nurse from her and it seems like as soon as Chunk's not nursing, she bails out of the box. She takes care of Hiccup, cleans him up the same as Chunk but nursing-wise, if she were to lay there and Hiccup finds a nipple, he seems to fall asleep when he's on it? He doesn't nurse the same as his brother.
I'm panicking like crazy. His eyes have just started to crack open at the corners this morning and he purrs and it would absolutely break my heart if I lost another kitten. He moves around ok, he can lift his head up pretty good and when I set him down on the towel to bottle feed him, he likes to snuggle between my arm and the towel. I want to do everything I can to give this little fighter a better chance at making it.
Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
My sister's boyfriend's cat had 3 kittens on September 25th prematurely. I'm positive they're premature because they were 57 grams, 64 grams, and 82 grams, with very fine fur and Riley (their mom) was not producing milk. We lost the first kitten (57g) 3 days after he was born. I had been trying to bottle feed them and the two smallest had been dropping. Riley's milk came in on the 3rd or 4th day after the first kitten passed away.
From that point on, the largest kitten grew like a weed (lovingly nicknamed Chunk) and the now smallest kitten began growing faster until almost gaining the same as Chunk. I named this kitten Hiccup.
Today, they're 11 days old and up until two days ago, everything was going great! Both gained beautifully but the evening of the 9th day, Hiccup's weight gain slowed from 10+ grams a day to 6 grams. Yesterday he gained 4 grams. So far today, he's LOST 6 grams.
I weigh the babies constantly but only use the evening 10pm weights to compare to see how much they've grown in 24 hours. I keep track of everything, record and write things down constantly.
In the last few days, I've noticed Hiccup's chest feels different from Chunk's. After googling, I think he might have something called Flat Chested Kitten Syndrome or something called Pectus. I've tried massages but I'm to scared to try a splint incase it makes things worse since I can't tell if the splint would cause the thorax to push into him or move out the way it should be.
He also seems like he has something similar to swimmer puppy syndrome. I didn't think much of it at first because he's just a kitten so splayed legs wasn't a huge surprise but while Chunk's began to try to figure out how to walk, Hiccup's back legs (by his hip area) seems turned a bit out.
However, that could just be me worrying to much and panicking.
Hiccup went from 140 grams last night at 10pm to 134 grams as of 4:40pm today. I've tried all throughout today to get him to nurse from a bottle using KMR. I have the liquid can (freshly opened today and the can's experation date was April 2016. I also have the powder form of KMR which I was using when I was trying to bottle feed the first baby that passed. I've had no luck with bottle feeding him. I use the towel to prop his head area up to imitate how he'd be positioned if he was nursing from his mom, I've tried gently pushing the nipple into his mouth and dropping a drop or two in their and he just rolls the end of the nipple on his tongue before moving his head away.
I've tried just setting him in their with mom to make sure he's able to nurse from her and it seems like as soon as Chunk's not nursing, she bails out of the box. She takes care of Hiccup, cleans him up the same as Chunk but nursing-wise, if she were to lay there and Hiccup finds a nipple, he seems to fall asleep when he's on it? He doesn't nurse the same as his brother.
I'm panicking like crazy. His eyes have just started to crack open at the corners this morning and he purrs and it would absolutely break my heart if I lost another kitten. He moves around ok, he can lift his head up pretty good and when I set him down on the towel to bottle feed him, he likes to snuggle between my arm and the towel. I want to do everything I can to give this little fighter a better chance at making it.
Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!