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Underweight 3 week old kittens
- Thread starter HeyKat
- Start Date
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- #22
Thank you.
I can't get her to swallow any of the prolyte. I don't think there's anything I can do for her.
Sorry, Im not sure what prolyte is. Do you mean pedialyte? Solution of water, salts and sugar? If yes, its tough, and the end nearing.
If its some kmr, try with pedialyte or even just water. its easier for them.
Try to give her comfort, she will pass sooner or later.
Or if you have say, an experienced hunter as neighbour. He will know how to do the last service.
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- #25
Prolyte is an electrolyte solution for animals. It also contains glutamine and probiotics. I got her to drink a tiny amount but I don't think it'll make a difference.
She keeps doing these little jumps/jerks forwards. I hate that she's suffering and the wait til the end is unbearable, but I'm not strong enough to do the "last service".
Thank you for your quick replies. Knowing there's nothing else I can do, and that there's somebody out there listening, makes it a little bit easier
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- #26
Just got back from feeding the other kittens to find her walking around on my bed. She can't lift her head and walks really unsteadily, but she's moving. I have no idea what to make of it. She's clearly searching for food though. Do I give her the electrolyte water, or milk?
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- #28
Is that something she could recover from? Is she likely to take a nosedive again tonight? She's purring up a storm and I'm terrified she's self-soothing because she's about to die
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- #29
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- #31
Thank you. She is absolutely going to the vet first thing in the morning, and I'll be elbowing my way to the front of the queue! I'm just praying she doesn't crash again before that.
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- #32
The little kitten who almost died last night is doing well now. In fact, she gained about 15g today! I took her to the vet this morning, and she says it sounds like hypoglycemia.
The honey on the gums and electrolyte solution saved her life. If it weren't for this forum and especially StefanZ and Sarthur2, I wouldn't have known to give her that, so thank you, truly. You saved a life last night!
Vet says kittens who dip like that are often prone to drops in blood sugar again, so I've upped the frequency of her meals to try keep her blood sugar level stable. I suspect I'll be a bit of a helicopter mom for a while!
The honey on the gums and electrolyte solution saved her life. If it weren't for this forum and especially StefanZ and Sarthur2, I wouldn't have known to give her that, so thank you, truly. You saved a life last night!
Vet says kittens who dip like that are often prone to drops in blood sugar again, so I've upped the frequency of her meals to try keep her blood sugar level stable. I suspect I'll be a bit of a helicopter mom for a while!
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- #33
So the vet was right when she said that kittens whose blood sugar drops are prone to having it happen again. Despite eating well and regularly, my kitten has crashed 3 times in the last 24 hours. Each time it takes longer for her to recover. The last time it took 4 hours for her to start moving again.
It feels like just a matter of time before she crashes and doesn't recover. Vet says there's nothing she can do; the kittens are just too small. The hypoglycemic one is only 200g.
This is heartbreaking. I feel so helpless.
It feels like just a matter of time before she crashes and doesn't recover. Vet says there's nothing she can do; the kittens are just too small. The hypoglycemic one is only 200g.
This is heartbreaking. I feel so helpless.
Give the electrolyte solution as often as possible.
Her liver is probably underdeveloped due to being premature, making it harder for her to access glycogen stores or perform gluconeogenesis. A stomach tube might need to be inserted to give her a more regular supply of glucose. IV is another option.
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- #36
I really hope not. I don't have the skills to do that and the shelter is already overwhelmed with kittens. All I can do is keep her warm and fed regularly. Fortunately she's at least gaining weight well.
All the kittens were dewormed yesterday after they started getting diarrhoea over the weekend, and they are expelling dead worms, so I'm cautiously optimistic that things will improve now.
These poor little guys really have had all the odds stacked against them.
Can you add some heavy cream to their formula? Fat can help keep blood sugar levels steadier.
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- #38
The kittens are now 5 weeks old (I spy premolars!) and still severely underweight. Here are their weights 12 days ago when I got them, and their weights now:
Kitten One: 112 -> 141g
Two: 123 -> 232g
Three: 158 -> 189g
Four: 153 -> 241g
Five: 160 -> 330g
As you can see, most of them aren't gaining very well. They've been struggling to eat well, with bottle or syringe (kittens 3 and 4), refusing to eat (kitten 4), hypoglycemia (kitten 2) and diarrhoea (kitten 5 severely, the others to a lesser degree).
They were dewormed on Monday and did expel some dead worms, but the diarrhoea is still there (they are on meds for that, which contain electrolytes, probiotics and glutamine).
Their energy levels are fine, though they act more like 3 week olds than 5 week olds. They're not lethargic.
I tried adding a little kitten mousse to their formula on Saturday, but it made their stool very oily (as in, one was even dripping oil from her bum), and their previously mild diarrhoea worsened. I know some diarrhoea is common when introducing new food, but with them so tiny and fragile I didn't want to risk it, so I went back to plain formula after about 4 feeds and increasingly oily stool.
Should I try adding the mousse again? Should I first wait until the diarrhoea stops?
I'm so worried about how underweight they still are. Has anyone had any experience of successfully raising such underweight kittens?
Kitten One: 112 -> 141g
Two: 123 -> 232g
Three: 158 -> 189g
Four: 153 -> 241g
Five: 160 -> 330g
As you can see, most of them aren't gaining very well. They've been struggling to eat well, with bottle or syringe (kittens 3 and 4), refusing to eat (kitten 4), hypoglycemia (kitten 2) and diarrhoea (kitten 5 severely, the others to a lesser degree).
They were dewormed on Monday and did expel some dead worms, but the diarrhoea is still there (they are on meds for that, which contain electrolytes, probiotics and glutamine).
Their energy levels are fine, though they act more like 3 week olds than 5 week olds. They're not lethargic.
I tried adding a little kitten mousse to their formula on Saturday, but it made their stool very oily (as in, one was even dripping oil from her bum), and their previously mild diarrhoea worsened. I know some diarrhoea is common when introducing new food, but with them so tiny and fragile I didn't want to risk it, so I went back to plain formula after about 4 feeds and increasingly oily stool.
Should I try adding the mousse again? Should I first wait until the diarrhoea stops?
I'm so worried about how underweight they still are. Has anyone had any experience of successfully raising such underweight kittens?
I'm really reluctant to give them anything that isn't specifically formulated for kittens... Especially dairy.
Treat them as the age their weight indicates, which is formula only for now. They are gaining, just slowly. With time and patience they should grow into normal kittens, but for now they are behind. I would hold off on the soft kitten food for at least a couple more weeks. Their systems sound delicate and can’t handle it yet.
I did raise some very underweight kittens once. They were only 8 ounces (~250 grams) at 8 weeks. One had died before I took the litter, and one died a couple weeks after I took them, but 2 lived, and one is still alive now, at age 14. It took a while for them to grow---I wasn't sure they were going to hit the 3-pound cutoff for spay/neuter at 6 months old, and I referred to them as the mini-cats. But they eventually grew to normal cat size.
They were eating canned food mixed with KMR, and plenty of it, and I even had a mama cat at the time who allowed them to nurse (this is originally why I was asked to take them) but they still didn't grow, so I think they had some kind of absorption issue due to the early malnutrition (they had been bottle raised on overly diluted KMR, and only fed twice a day). I'm not sure what would have sorted them out earlier, if anything. Maybe enzymes or probiotics would have helped.
So yours are already doing better than my bunch, that's a good sign! Keep doing whatever seems to work for them, keep fighting. You're doing great!
They were eating canned food mixed with KMR, and plenty of it, and I even had a mama cat at the time who allowed them to nurse (this is originally why I was asked to take them) but they still didn't grow, so I think they had some kind of absorption issue due to the early malnutrition (they had been bottle raised on overly diluted KMR, and only fed twice a day). I'm not sure what would have sorted them out earlier, if anything. Maybe enzymes or probiotics would have helped.
So yours are already doing better than my bunch, that's a good sign! Keep doing whatever seems to work for them, keep fighting. You're doing great!
