Sorry, this is a long post because I wanted to be detailed in case it matters.
I took in 3 abandoned barn kittens a few days ago, their ages are ranging approximately between 2 and 3 weeks. Once is clearly a runt and she is TINY, with the canine teeth only starting to erupt, the other two are males and 2 and 3x her size and have a few more teeth. They may be from different litters or some were fed more by the mom.
Anyways, I was wondering if anyone here has dealt with reactive hypoglycemia in rescued kittens? It's the second time it's happened to me (first time was a couple years ago), and both times it was 2-3 days after they were rescued. I usually feed a combination of KMR and pasteurized goat milk, alternating as needed to not overfeed them at first. Occasionally I'll add a bit of something else.
These guys had a runny mix of canned cat food and goats milk at 4pm yesterday and a mix of goat's milk and rice pablum at 4am today. (Rice pablum is vet's suggestion.) Fed goat's milk between those times approximately every 3 hours.
The problem was at 8am. All 3 were noticeably altered. Two were sluggish (biggest and smallest) and didn't want to eat and the third was lethargic looking but confused when picked up. Took a few hours but the full symptoms of hypoglycemia started. Rapid breathing, 2 vomited, confusion, lethargy.
I had immediately started applying a sugar solution to their gums and have repeatedly throughout the past several hours. Unfortunately our vet is closed today (holiday) and the last time this happened our vet wasn't much help anyways. They're coming around slowly, took a while last time too.
My question is does anyone have experience with this happening? Our vet was surprised and unable to offer me any advice other than the chance it was from them not eating then suddenly having regular meals. (Reactive hypoglycemia.) Because this happened once before I THOUGHT I was reintroducing food slowly enough, but perhaps not?
Anyone here with any advice or suggestions on why the delayed response or how to prevent it in the future? Thanks in advance.
I took in 3 abandoned barn kittens a few days ago, their ages are ranging approximately between 2 and 3 weeks. Once is clearly a runt and she is TINY, with the canine teeth only starting to erupt, the other two are males and 2 and 3x her size and have a few more teeth. They may be from different litters or some were fed more by the mom.
Anyways, I was wondering if anyone here has dealt with reactive hypoglycemia in rescued kittens? It's the second time it's happened to me (first time was a couple years ago), and both times it was 2-3 days after they were rescued. I usually feed a combination of KMR and pasteurized goat milk, alternating as needed to not overfeed them at first. Occasionally I'll add a bit of something else.
These guys had a runny mix of canned cat food and goats milk at 4pm yesterday and a mix of goat's milk and rice pablum at 4am today. (Rice pablum is vet's suggestion.) Fed goat's milk between those times approximately every 3 hours.
The problem was at 8am. All 3 were noticeably altered. Two were sluggish (biggest and smallest) and didn't want to eat and the third was lethargic looking but confused when picked up. Took a few hours but the full symptoms of hypoglycemia started. Rapid breathing, 2 vomited, confusion, lethargy.
I had immediately started applying a sugar solution to their gums and have repeatedly throughout the past several hours. Unfortunately our vet is closed today (holiday) and the last time this happened our vet wasn't much help anyways. They're coming around slowly, took a while last time too.
My question is does anyone have experience with this happening? Our vet was surprised and unable to offer me any advice other than the chance it was from them not eating then suddenly having regular meals. (Reactive hypoglycemia.) Because this happened once before I THOUGHT I was reintroducing food slowly enough, but perhaps not?
Anyone here with any advice or suggestions on why the delayed response or how to prevent it in the future? Thanks in advance.