Very Little Newborn Persian Kittens

[Sereny]

Hi.

My persian queen gave birth for two kittens on friday about 6PM. First one is very little one, only 60g when it was born. The second one was 80g. The queen didnt care about the kittens so we started to give those kittens RC babycat milk with bottle. The little ones weight went up to 66g and other ones to 86g. I called for a vet to ask what he thinks about the situation. He told us to go for a examination. Vet took a x-ray picture and there was two more kittens coming up. Also he gave the queen oxytocin and some other injection that should help with the milk production.

So we went back home and the third kitten was already out when we got home. It weighted 82g. We started also bottlefeed it and he/she started to gain weight also.

The fourth kitten came out about 7hours later and it was too late for the kitten. It was born dead.

So anyways, the oxytocin helped the queen and she started to feed the kittens and she rushes to litter box whenever they are making noise.

Allthough queen aint licking them to make them pee or poo we have to do it for kittens.

The most important and worrying thing is that while other 2 kittens have gotten weight over 90grams, smallest one have stuck to 66g. Actually now when i checked it has lost weight 2g. Im not sure what to do anymore.

It is sucking queens nipples, but im not really sure if theres any milk coming up. From time to time i can squeeze a drop or two from queens nipples but dont know if thats enough.

After the queen started to feed them the little one is refusing to feed from the bottle.

Im exhausted, sad and worried. Any advices what to do?

 

[kashmir64]

I'm not sure if RC has a colostrum replacer like KMR does. Check this out. If the baby doesn't get anything from mom, this is critical.
Start with a needless syringe, laying baby flat on tummy and put drops into the side of it's mouth. Giving time for it to swallow between drops. Wrap it up like a burrito if necessary. Make sure they are all kept warm.
This will get you started, until the pro Sarthur2 can give better advice.

Try to get at least 3 ml (cc) into her.

 

[Sarthur2]

Why did the vet give oxytocin? Was your cat in distress?

If not, a few extra days of pregnancy may have allowed the other 2 kittens to get bigger before she delivered them naturally.

When was the third kitten born? Yesterday? If so, don't panic. It's good if the kitten is nursing mom. This will bring mom's milk in.

All 3 should be nursing mom. She will also begin cleaning them.

You can continue supplementing until they are gaining weight well from nursing mom.

Kittens with a mom will not always take a bottle. Then, as mentioned, you will use a syringe.

Are the kittens fully furred all over their body? They sound premature by birth weight.

One mL per hour or 2mLs every 2 hours is enough for babies this tiny right now. Encourage them to nurse mom.

 

[kashmir64]

Why did the vet give oxytocin? Was your cat in distress?

If not, a few extra days of pregnancy may have allowed the other 2 kittens to get bigger before she delivered them naturally.

When was the third kitten born? Yesterday? If so, don't panic. It's good if the kitten is nursing mom. This will bring mom's milk in.

All 3 should be nursing mom. She will also begin cleaning them.

You can continue supplementing until they are gaining weight well from nursing mom.

Kittens with a mom will not always take a bottle. Then, as mentioned, you will use a syringe.

Are the kittens fully furred all over their body? They sound premature by birth weight.

One mL per hour or 2mLs every 2 hours is enough for babies this tiny right now. Encourage them to nurse mom.

See, I knew you would have better advice. This is why I called you the pro and called you in.
Thanks

 

[KatsPurrrsians]

Congrats on the beautiful Persian litter! I'm so sorry to hear that you lost one & that you're having a rough time. KMR would be my suggestion just as kashmir64 suggested. I've used RC babycat in the past but it was when my babies were being weaned at 5 weeks per doctors orders because mom was having a hard time keeping up with nursing a litter of seven kittens weighing in at nearly 2lbs each.

Update: Yep, Sarthur2 is the pro! Glad you were able to point OP in the right direction

 

[Sarthur2]

RC Babycat is fine if it's all you have on hand today.

Can you post a picture of the kittens for us please?

 

[KatsPurrrsians]

Are the kittens fully furred all over their body? They sound premature by birth weight.

From the pic the OP attached it looks like they have fully furred, but can't be certain since I can only their little faces. Hopefully OP will be back soon with more pics. I'm curious about all your questions as well.

 

[kashmir64]

Just an FYI. I looked up milk replacer with colostrum and could only find Nutri-vet and KMR. If RC milk is one, it's not listed.

 

[Sarthur2]

I meant a full body picture. I can only see the heads in the earlier picture.

 

[KatsPurrrsians]

I meant a full body picture. I can only see the heads in the earlier picture.

Yes, I noticed that too. And what cute little heads they have

 

[Sereny]

The oxytocin was given to wake queens maternal instincts. Although the queen was gasping a lot while giving birth.

Third kitten came out at friday 10-11PM right after we got home from the vet. The fourth dead kitten came out backwards at saturday 6AM.

Today my fiancee came to wake me up to see that all 3 kittens were nursing from the mother.

Will definetly continue to supplementing them. I just used syringe and the smallest kitten took 1mL of babycat milk. The other ones did not want any milk after feeding from mother.

The 2 bigger kittens are fully furred only the smallest one is missing some fur from legs and a little bit (barely noticeable) from face at the top of eyes.

I did some research about that KMR. I have never earlier heard about it. And I see that its barely available at all in Finland. There's some online store that sells KMR, it takes some days to arrive for me tho.

And thanks for all for quick responses.
kashmir64 Sarthur2 KatsPurrrsians

 

[Sereny]

There's full body picture of the kittens, the smallest one at the top.

They love to sleep on the SnuggleSafe Heatpad.

Here's the picture of full bodies Sarthur2

 

[kashmir64]

I'm glad to hear they are all nursing. That's a big load off. However, continue to monitor them and check weights daily to make sure they are gaining and thriving.

 

[StefanZ]

You had already got most of what Im going to write, but still.

The little one, apparently he doesnt sucks strongly enough. So you must supplement him; YOU taking the main charge. 2OZ gives minimum of 16 ml kmr or goats milk a day.
Hopefully he gets some from momma, including colostrum. Also, momma is nicest, so he will always try to suckle momma, even if he is decently satisfied with kmr / goats milk.

NOW when he has momma, he doesnt like bottle. So you must use a needleless syringe (you know the techique?). You MAY try with a sponge, for example such used for make up. Drench it with kmr and let the kitten suckle, fill in with a dropper more kmr... Works nicely for some. The drawback you dont know really how much they got, so you must controll tighly with the weight....

KMR (RC babycat is OK); raw goats milk if you can get it is a good alternative.

Be sure the kittens are warm enough - you write momma rushes to them as soon they become noisy. So momma sint with them? Also a heating pad is necessary. - and or, if its vry hot at your place, perhaps some chilling off...

An IR-heating lamp is useful, so the little one wont get chilled down when you supplement him. Many rheumatics has such, and also people having terraries with lizards, or raising chickens and birds.
Perhaps you can lend from a neigbour?

Oxytocine helps with milk productions, but it also helps up the labors. So its not sure it was the best to give her that.
But Scylla and Charybdis - whom can tell it was wrong decision by the vet? Anyways, done is done, its just to go on and fight.
Chances are big the fourth died because of X, not because his delivery was delayed. Unless of course, momma had a rough delivery time, fruitless long pushing, or similiar...

Ah, by sure the little one istn pushed off by the stronger sibs. He shall not need to misuse his few strengh to fighting off the others nor be bullied by them.
Rotate if necessary.

S Sereny

 

[Sereny]

Thanks for your answer StefanZ there's good information and advices in your text. But sorry my bad english, I dont know what you mean with "momma sint with them?"

Also im worried that mother cat is gonna choke the kittens alive because sometimes it just lays right at top of them.

Luckily my fiancee owns a corn snake so we have couple of heating lamps at our own apartment.

Smallest one is also the one who moves the most and i guess thats a bad thing for him to misuse his energy for that "for fun" moving around.

Btw, I gave the babycat milk for mother cat. Hoping it would affect for milk production from her own nipples for someway.

 

[Sereny]

So the another injection that was given for mother cat with oxytocin was Primperan to help with the milk production

 

[KatsPurrrsians]

You definitely need to keep mom from sitting on the kittens! If she is an inexperienced mother you may want to keep a very keen eye while she's in the box with them. Mom will usually rearrange herself quickly if she accidentally lays on one but not always. Make sure the kittens are in the center of the box. This helps ensure she doesn't accidentally squash or smother them. I believe Sarther2 was asking how often mom stays with kittens? She should be spending 80-90% of her time with the babies at this young age.

Update- meant Stefanz lol. You both are pros at this stuff and I accidentally confused your names

 

[Sereny]

These are her first kittens so yes, very inexperienced :| That's the reason why I cant leave the room where kittens and mother is. Too afraid that when I get back the mother have laid someone to death :/

 

[StefanZ]

Sorry I meant "isnt" - the letters come easily wrong when trying to write quickly - or on Iphone.

 

[KatsPurrrsians]

Well it sounds like you're doing a great job! Keep up the good work and we're here to help if anything else should arise . I'd love to see a pic of mama cat if it's not too much trouble. Persians are one of my favorites , if you can't tell by my screen name