It’s been almost a week since the boys and their mum visited the vet.
On that visit, the kittens & their mum were vaccinated, and the chaps had their microchip implants. At home, the chaps and adult cats were all wormed. ✔️ ☑️ ✅.
Over the last few days however, the appetites of the lads has dropped quite significantly & while they are still drinking & feeding from mum (when she will allow them) and though at times I’m energetically run in front of as I head towards the kitchen when given their food they are either just picking at it, or completely walking away. To go from 8-10 pouches hoovered up in a day to eating almost nothing is of great concern. Since yesterday I’ve been mixing up kitten milk again, offering that as well if they’ll take it.
They’re bright eyed. Inquisitive. Playful. But less so.
I wanted to see the vet with them before anything got out of hand and so rang earlier to ask to see them and get some recovery food. This is a food in a mousse that is calorie dense meaning they can eat less but still get all of their needs met.
Each lad was examined & weighed & each has lost a little weight. A slight oss of weight can happen when weaning from mother’s milk occurs and we know of course that Prune is trying to discourage them from suckling her so this could have impacted them.
Another possible is that the worming over three days may have associated the nasty taste of that with their food thus making them refuse it. And again, this could have merit.
However, bearing in mind that they just had their first exposure to the outside world, plus the 3 day worming , their vaccinations and add in mums vaccine booster and worming which is likely crossing over slightly into her milk - the combination is likely to be affecting them in some way. Any of this should wear off and they should pick up but I didn’t & don’t want to take chances with these precious babies.
The vet was pleased that there was no other physical signs of concern (other than weight loss). She liked that they were alert and bright eyed. She has given me the recovery food I asked for plus 5 days of a broad spectrum antibiotic to cover them just in case they have picked up anything from being outside or even from being in the vets surgery when we were there last week.
I’m giving the antibiotics from later on this afternoon evening as it’s to be dosed to them twice a day. She says I’m to continue to offer their usual food, and I can continue to offer the kitten milk as well and now I’ve the recovery food and if necessary can give that by syringe.
Things to watch: The sudden change in diet (different food) & antibiotics are likely to cause them some diarrhoea so I’ll also give a kaolin paste called Pro-Kolin which will help with that aspect of things. Pro-Kolin btw is a useful standby product to have around for cats/kittens to give if they ever suffer diarrhoea symptoms (and it doesn’t require a prescription, Amazon sell it even!). Some vet supplier stores offer their own (cheaper) take on this too!
I hope that a day of the recovery food will perk them up and reinforce their appetite again getting us over this slump. This is not uncommon & I’m ever watchful of my little beauties.
I’m sure that I’m being overly cautious & that tomorrow will bring positive news (apart from diarrhoea!)
{little update: Basil & Humphrey came asking for food but declined the offer of their usual food, however, they hoovered up half a tub of the recovery food! Grogu & Vincent were offered it, sniffed it and declined. Each of them have now been syringe fed a few ml of kitten milk replacer & they will be topped up every couple of hours this evening. All kittens have also now had a first dose of the antibiotic cover. As whatever has upset them dissipates, I’ll look to see a definite upturn in their appetites}.
On another subject:
I had a viewer /new overnight subscriber to my you tube channel who left a comment on yesterday’s video which read “I love that one of these little raisins is named Grogu!” She hadn’t of course picked up that Vincent is Vincent Poe from the same film - but it did make me smile because it’s such a coincidence that two kittens in this litter have names given them that are inspired by the same film and that Vincent’s big brother is also named Gilbert Grogu. I also loved them being termed as Raisins. Raisin would be a good name for a Sphynx -maybe I’d consider using it one day if I didn’t detest that particular food !
