Horrific night

As weaning slowly continues, come yesterday I had two kittens, a black female and the blue female eating pouches meat.

The black girl took to it immediately, the blue girl began by having it from my fingers which I moved closer and closer to the dish until she got the hang of it. She does still ask for milk but isn’t that interested.

Meanwhile, no matter how I offered it to the others two kittens, meat or softened kibble was refused. As I prepared food, they were on my feet yelling “feed me, feed me’ but the teat was all they would accept, even though they had begun to bite it.

Last night, at supper time, I went to do a feed, but one kitten did not come. I walked into the lounge to find am epic ‘kitten mess’ on my chair, and a comatose kitten on the cold floor.

I picked him up. He was floppy but still there. I knew I had to act fast. He was not interested in milk, so I decided fluids were what would keep him alive and so I made boiled, cooled water and offered this. He refused to open his mouth or to swallow. Next I added some Manuka honey to the warmed water, but again, this was refused. There was nothing for it but to put a tube into his tummy before his organs shut down for good.

He did object a little but was weak.  I got the tube in and set about  injecting approx 15ml of milk, water and honey which I’d now mixed half and half. Removing the tube I laid him on my chest and very soon he was purring as he would normally do when with me. We were not out of the woods but I seem to have saved his life.

Prune came over to see us and began licking him. He proceeded to wee - on me- but it’s a small price to pay if he is going to revive & recover.

Setting a timer for two hours, I later tube fed again, this time giving a belly full strength milk to get him through the night as it was now 1am. He again objected to the tube and it was a struggle especially with those sharp teeth and a surprisingly fierce bite force. I removed the tube only to find it had become very short! He had bitten the tube. Quickly, I prized open the jaws and could see an end, so I managed to get hold of this and pull it out, but it was only a short piece. Holding these lengths against a brand new tube there is about 12cm missing. It’s inside of him and I’m waiting for it to come out.

I’m glad I caught him in time. I’m super fond of this little dude. Undoubtedly he would have died without that first tube of fluid and sugars. But I will feel worried until the tube inside has passed through him. It has a smooth surface and blunt front end so with luck he will pass it in the next 12-24 hours. I’m watching him like a hawk for signs of duress (obstruction) or of the tube appearing.

This morning, he did have milk from the teat, but he is not ravenously going for it as he normally would. As we sat slowly feeding, I was mugged by the other black sister still on milk. I fed her and once she was satiated I began to put meat into her mouth, over and over. She liked it. So I worked her slowly toward the dish, putting more food in as she seemed so keen now.

So, as of today, we are 3 kittens moved onto pouched meat, with milk there if it’s wanted, and there’s always water which I saw the little lad drink from on his own today which is a good sign I think. I’ve not seen Pru feeding any of them in days now, not even at night to settle them as she was doing.

A small victory. I will take it!

I decided to try a new tack for this weaning lark, so today I went to buy some grain free kitten pouches. Opening one, I squeezed a small amount out and made it very loose with some formula.

I placed this in the pen, and Prune was immediately interested, and while watching her closely as I noticed one of the black kittens doing so often recently, she began to inch forward. Seconds later she was noisily eating/supping from the dish. She strayed there doing so even when mum moved away.

Her siblings however were far to busy and wrapped up in their games to notice and now the family are snuggled together for their siesta!

First baths

Since the kittens are now growing up a bit, I thought it time they had a first bath, as

a) I did not want them to grow up to be as terrified of bath time as their mum is and
b) they were grubby!

I made a shallow warm bath in a washing up bowl, and beside it a deeper bath in my little ‘half-sink’ in which to give them a final rinse.

As I put them into the water they were totally unafraid, immediately putting their heads down to smell it to see if they could identify by sniffing. There followed some little sneezes as they breathed some water into their noses. Some water was tasted too.

Very quickly though they became interested in the world that is outside of the washing up bowl and just as fast I rather regretted my decision to bath all four together as each began their bids for freedom from 4 different directions. Unperturbed I took each kitten in turn and with Dove baby bath wash (other brands are available!) gave them a quick sudsing on the draining board, back into the bowl for a rinse, then a final dip into the clean water before wrapping in a warm dry towel- all done while keeping the siblings safely in place!

Back on dry land, I took each kitten in turn to prize the toenail gunk away (baby-wipes) work best for this and clip their needle-sharp claws. With the adult cats I would make ear cleaning a part of bath time but I’ve decided I will not subject them to ear cleaning quite yet.