Hello,
I am new to the community here. I have been a foster mama to kittens with and without their biological mothers for a good 5 years now. However, I am having a tough time with the two I have right now.
Harry and Henrietta were surrendered to the rescue group I work with by an 85 year old woman who found them as newborns and bottle-fed them. They are approximately 7 weeks old right now and fully weaned, hooray. Harry is a plumper at 2 lb 1 oz, however Henrietta is only 1 lb 3 oz. They both eat and drink well, have good stools, and are moderately active. Harry does not eat appreciably more than Henrietta does.
My problem is that Henrietta is not gaining weight at anywhere near the rate that Harry is, which is what I am used to and comfortable with. She was 12 oz a few weeks ago and surpassed one pound about a week after that.
Normally, I don't have the benefit of assuming that my kittens are the same age, because I get them from a shelter where they are caged together if they happened to be taken in on the same day, and as space and temperament allowed. However, I am fairly sure that these two are the same age, so why the dramatic difference in weight?
Henrietta is not acting like a FTT kitten, and, at any rate, I usually lose them before 7 weeks if they are FTT. The fact that she has lived this long indicates to me that this is not the issue. Does anyone have any thoughts on this sort of weight plateau? I will be deworming them again today, just in case. In the past, it has seemed like her weight may have jumped up following a deworming, but I can't be sure.
I can try weighing her daily to see if I can establish a pattern, but I would love to hear what other kitten raisers have experienced. These guys are a bit out of my comfort zone--I rarely if ever have kittens under 4 weeks without a mom but these guys were about 3.5 weeks when they came to me. Usually nowadays I just grab whatever is 6-8 weeks at the shelter when I'm pulling because we have such a hard time placing mama cats.
Also due to size I have yet to pull blood for a FELV SNAP but I'm hoping to get that done later today on Harry, and the test results should apply to Henrietta as well. But I don't expect a positive. FELV is relatively rare in our area, thank the lord, if they were FELV + I would expect both to be experiencing issues.
The last comment I have: I know a common refrain on the internet is "consult a veterinarian". I am affiliated with a rescue group; this equates to limited funds. We consult vets when necessary; a kitten who is slow to gain weight is not a vet matter, not when it costs us $35 (our discount from $55!) to so much as bring the kitten into the exam room with a vet present. That is just the way of the world. When I lived on the West Coast, I fostered for a very moneyed shelter that would have been able to provide me with a veterinarian's opinion easily but now we're in the Midwest, so I've had to adjust to things just being different.
Sorry for being so long-winded! I look forward to any advice.
I am new to the community here. I have been a foster mama to kittens with and without their biological mothers for a good 5 years now. However, I am having a tough time with the two I have right now.
Harry and Henrietta were surrendered to the rescue group I work with by an 85 year old woman who found them as newborns and bottle-fed them. They are approximately 7 weeks old right now and fully weaned, hooray. Harry is a plumper at 2 lb 1 oz, however Henrietta is only 1 lb 3 oz. They both eat and drink well, have good stools, and are moderately active. Harry does not eat appreciably more than Henrietta does.
My problem is that Henrietta is not gaining weight at anywhere near the rate that Harry is, which is what I am used to and comfortable with. She was 12 oz a few weeks ago and surpassed one pound about a week after that.
Normally, I don't have the benefit of assuming that my kittens are the same age, because I get them from a shelter where they are caged together if they happened to be taken in on the same day, and as space and temperament allowed. However, I am fairly sure that these two are the same age, so why the dramatic difference in weight?
Henrietta is not acting like a FTT kitten, and, at any rate, I usually lose them before 7 weeks if they are FTT. The fact that she has lived this long indicates to me that this is not the issue. Does anyone have any thoughts on this sort of weight plateau? I will be deworming them again today, just in case. In the past, it has seemed like her weight may have jumped up following a deworming, but I can't be sure.
I can try weighing her daily to see if I can establish a pattern, but I would love to hear what other kitten raisers have experienced. These guys are a bit out of my comfort zone--I rarely if ever have kittens under 4 weeks without a mom but these guys were about 3.5 weeks when they came to me. Usually nowadays I just grab whatever is 6-8 weeks at the shelter when I'm pulling because we have such a hard time placing mama cats.
Also due to size I have yet to pull blood for a FELV SNAP but I'm hoping to get that done later today on Harry, and the test results should apply to Henrietta as well. But I don't expect a positive. FELV is relatively rare in our area, thank the lord, if they were FELV + I would expect both to be experiencing issues.
The last comment I have: I know a common refrain on the internet is "consult a veterinarian". I am affiliated with a rescue group; this equates to limited funds. We consult vets when necessary; a kitten who is slow to gain weight is not a vet matter, not when it costs us $35 (our discount from $55!) to so much as bring the kitten into the exam room with a vet present. That is just the way of the world. When I lived on the West Coast, I fostered for a very moneyed shelter that would have been able to provide me with a veterinarian's opinion easily but now we're in the Midwest, so I've had to adjust to things just being different.
Sorry for being so long-winded! I look forward to any advice.