Advice please abandoned kitten

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
Post Reply
Gill
New Cat Chatter
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 7:37 am

Advice please abandoned kitten

Post by Gill »

Hi my cat had 7 kittens 6 weeks ago. All healthy apart from one. She is the smallest and mum has pushed her out. I've been taking mum aside to feed the small one so she gets something. However when they all came out of basket on Monday the other kittens had been lying on top of her. she was very weak and floppy. I've been hand rearing her she goes from being floppy then disorientated and scrambles up me at any movement or noise to being like a normal kitten for a few hours then back to floppy. Any advice please
User avatar
Lilith
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 3600
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 8:00 pm
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: West Yorks

Re: Advice please abandoned kitten

Post by Lilith »

Hi Gill and welcome.

Good on you for getting this kitten to the stage she is at, as her mother has clearly decided she wasn't worth rearing; mother animals (and some humans too!) can be very ruthless in this respect I'm afraid and cats are notorious for favouring the biggest kittens (survival of the fittest) and pushing the runts to one side. I've only ever seen one exception to this rule and that was when my (then) feral Emily brought me her month-old kittens from their hiding-place, and brought me the runt first. He was on his last legs too, but recovered, bless him.

Has this girl started to take any interest in solid food yet? Emily's boy was the first to be weaned and came on very well after that. (Also Emily was permanently in the house instead of dropping in for a snack...permanent food = more milk. With little Michael it was just a matter of feeding.) But this 'floppiness' of your girl's...personally I'd want to get that checked out by a vet; it may be summat and nowt, maybe even a vitamin deficiency that can be simply rectified (I'm not an expert btw, just conjecturing.)

At 6 weeks she's old enough to be taken to the vet alone; it ought not to be too stressful for her (I once took a 5 week old and she was fine.)

I do hope she goes on ok and other people on here will have advice too. Let us know how you go on :)
Meandmymunki
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 178
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:25 pm
No. of cats in household: 5
Location: Bedfordshire

Re: Advice please abandoned kitten

Post by Meandmymunki »

It's sounds like the kitten is fading from dehydration. The vet may be able to save with fluids, it's common in such a large litter for one to always not get enough. I run a rescue and have had many a similar kitten come along.
User avatar
Ruth
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:14 pm
No. of cats in household: 8
Location: Kent UK

Re: Advice please abandoned kitten

Post by Ruth »

Hi Gill, you don't say how much she weighs. I had a rescue mum who had 7 kittens and the same thing happened to her smallest kitten, even to the siblings laying on top of him.
He was put on fluids for 24 hours at the vets but even though he was 6 weeks old he only weighed 4 ounces so needed feeds every 2 hours 24 hours a day.
This went on until he was 12 weeks old when he hit a kilo in weight.
If your little one is OK after a feed and slowly goes floppy over time it sounds like you need to shorten the time between feeds. Overnight as well I'm afraid. I walked around like a zombie for 6 weeks, it was worse than when I had kids.
My little boy made it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that your girl does too x
Post Reply