this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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FosterKittens

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New Batch (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Got a new batch of six kittens. For the first time, they had a mother. However, she is feral so they couldn't keep her. Very hard to adopt feral cats. Once she was done feeding them, I got them. New experience, very strange.

We finally got a batch with more boys than girls, so I can use the naming theme I've wanted to use since I started! We now have an Amy, Leela, Fry, Farnsworth, Kif and Zapp. I tried to circle them around the two girls, because one is dark, the other is black and white, and there are three in each category. Split down the middle!

This is coming right off a batch of 4, so it's a lot right now. In fact, I still have the smallest of the previous batch so I could get her to a normal weight. So many cats!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How old are they? They look so young to be separated from momma.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are actually 4 weeks old. Teeth, claws retracted, all of it.

It looks to us like these are 3 separate litters and the last 2 were not fully baked.

One is having trouble now, in fact. I'm hoping he pulls through, but he's gone downhill fast.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh man! I'd be rather cranky with my organization if they knowingly separated kittens from mom that young, but sometimes we just have to make the best of the situation. Glad they're in good hands!

It's crazy just how quickly they can crash. The last one that crashed on me went from perfectly fine to almost euthanized in less than 8 hours, but somehow she pulled through. Hope your little guy pulls through.

My current batch is getting ready for "graduation" and they've been with me since they were about 5 days old, found with no mom. They've each tried to die on me at different points, but somehow all pulled through. They're getting spayed/neutered on Monday, and will likely be heading off to their new families by the following weekend.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It wasn't for nefarious reasons. The mom stopped feeding them and they are a super small shelter. They didn't have a choice. All of my other kittens have come in without moms.

Unfortunately, little Fry succumbed in the early hours. 😭

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ahh, okay. The way I read it, it sounded like they had been separated from mom just because she's feral, but if she's not feeding them, it doesn't sound like keeping them together is a good plan.

Aww, poor little guy! Hope you're doing alright. I know it can be real tough to lose them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hate that I can say this, but it gets easier each time. I'm good now. Sigh.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah, I totally get it. I've only lost one so far, but that was enough for me to realize that I can handle the loss, maybe too well.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did I block you? I was trying to back up and hit the wrong thing 😭

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope not! Haha. From my understanding of how blocking someone works here, you won't see this if you've blocked me, but I'll still see anything you've posted.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Now that we got that fixed, four of them died one right after the other, yesterday. We have one left. She's very sick, but not fading. This group had so many issues. I've never lost so many and it's doing my mental health in.

I stayed up all night with her to make her eat a little bit every 30 minutes or so depending if she was sleeping. She's lost a lot of weight but we are giving her everything we safely can to help her fight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OH NOOOO!! I'm so sorry! That must be so exhausting and soul crushing. Biology can be so harsh sometimes. I hate thinking how some of these poor little guys are born, just to suffer for a few days/weeks before dying because something just wasn't quite right, and there's nothing we can do to save them.

Have you been trained on tube feeding? I've had quite a few vets hesitant to even suggest it due to the risk of asphyxiation if done incorrectly, but finally got training and had to do it a few times with my current litter. I'm super glad to have that in my "toolkit" now for future kittens that stop eating.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very exhausting. I have not been trained on tube feeding. We don't really have anything like that here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ahh man! I'm the dumbass who can't properly respond in thread. Lol.

I definitely recommend watching some videos about tube feeding, and if you feel comfortable, ask your foster organization if there's any one who can give you a hands on demonstration. If they can't do a demo or provide supplies, but you're comfortable giving it a shot anyway, I've seen some kits on Amazon for $15-20.

As I mentioned before, asphyxiation is a big risk, along with the potential to puncture a lung or stomach, and if they have teeth, there's a greater risk of the tube getting stuck in their esophagus, so I probably wouldn't practice on an otherwise healthy kitten, but if they're fading and you have no other options, it might be worth the risk.

After watching a number of videos, I felt confident that if the tube were in their lungs, I would be able to tell while I could still correct, but I was worried that I either wouldn't be able to get the tube into the stomach at all, or that I just wouldn't be able to check all the right boxes to feel confident that it was actually in the stomach. Honestly, I learned a whole lot more from the videos vs. the demo, but having watched the videos first meant I was able to ask better questions during the demo.

Note to anyone reading: I am absolutely not a trained medical professional, just someone very curious with a strong desire to do everything I can to give these little nuggets a happy, healthy life. Please use any and all professional resources available to you before relying on the internet comments of a random stranger.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm worried enough force feeding this little girl. She's 5 weeks and dropped from healthy to 186g before her current feeding. She looks like she feels better. It seems like now we are fighting weakness due to attempted starvation. She drinks a very small amount of water but that's it. She was eating wet food but since I have to force feed her I'm afraid to try forcing wet food since she's already got issues with her stomach before this whole thing even started. They had worms so bad.

So I'm still bottle feeding a kitten who can eat wet food. And prying her mouth open for every drop. She obviously wants to live very much, but she seems to be doing everything in her power not to.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, sorry if that came across as suggesting you tube feed your current kitten now. I had a few months to learn about it and digest the concept before I had to utilize it, so I was more just suggesting it as an option for the future. Also, definitely much more complicated when you're dealing with a kitten who should be eating on their own by now.

Is she really just 186g?? I have no words. That has to be a typo? My current kittens were a bit behind schedule, but even the smallest was over 400g by 5 weeks.

Any chance you've done subcutaneous injections in the past? I wonder if some B-12 might help. Definitely won't fix anything overnight, but there's very little risk, so my foster org has given me the okay to give all of my foster kittens weekly B-12 as a preventative measure.

It's soooo frustrating when they won't eat. I really struggle with the patience to feed them drop by drop, especially when they're actively fighting it. I hope you're getting some rest and relaxation too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It wasn't a typo. The whole batch started with bad worms. We got rid of those and they either immediately caught something or had it all along. Whatever the sickness was, it wiped them out. They are all gone.

She was a healthy weight when she got sick. Then despite feeding her she lost weight till everything shut down is my guess.

So yeah, I'm getting plenty of rest now. I had to be sedated yesterday. 6 deaths in a row when one is bad enough was too much for me.