Hand rearing kittens.

Mittens124 · 21 February 2009 at 4:36PM

Hiya

We are handrearing a kitten at the moment, she is the last little survivor of 8 kittens born by c-section on Tuesday, the mother Milly also died after breathing complications

so we are putting all our efforts into helping Molly (the kitten) survive. She is premature but we are not sure how early she is, she has some fur but not much, she's got a bald belly and bald legs but seems to be a little fighter! The thing I really wanted to ask is how much milk should she be taking? We are syringe feeding her at the moment as any teats we have come across are far to big for her. She is taking 2.5ml every 2.5 hours, is this normal? I have experience of feeding kittens before but only topping up mums milk, never complete hand rearing.

We are being careful not to let her take any into her lungs and are helping her wee etc. We have looked up everything and are (hopefully) doing evrything by the book but we can't find anywhere the amount of milk she should be having

Any advise would be greatly recieved.

Fingers crossed she keeps going the way she is at the moment otherwise it will seem like her mum went through all the pain and suffering for nothing.

RIP Milly

Waterfalls · 21 February 2009 at 4:55PM

its very good of u to give her a fighting chance!

what product are u using? as every product is different, but i wod say let her have as much as she wants
i usually recommend cimicat and this has a guide on the back of it

catac has some very small teats which are ment to go on their feeders but u can get spares that fit onto the syringes, if u get these u need to cut a hole in the top as they dont have one

dolally_2 · 21 February 2009 at 4:56PM

Have you spoken to the Vet and seen what he suggests?

In this situation I think the very best would be to have a surrogate mum, have you tried ringing around rescue centres to see if any of them have litters at the moment? It may be possible to get another cat to accept the kitten and some rescues may have experience of this so they would be top of my agenda if I were you.

Failing this I would speak to your vet about how much she should be having and how often and taking her for regular check ups. I know it isn't exactly money saving but I don't see any other option. I also presume you will need to make sure she is kept warm.

Best of luck with her, and sorry for your loss.

Waterfalls · 21 February 2009 at 5:14PM

is this any help?
http://www.cat77.org.uk/articles/rearing.htm

the teat on the left is what i would use and ur vets should be able to get hold of them, the feeder that it is ment for can be rather complicated to use, and its far cheaper and cleaner to use disposible syringes
http://www.catac.co.uk/

Waterfalls · 21 February 2009 at 5:59PM

Mittens124 · 21 February 2009 at 6:16PM

Thanks for the advise, I will call the vets on monday for some further advise but I thought it would be better asking people with hands on experience.
We are using Lactol and she seems to be thriving on it but does anyone have any views on Lactol Gold Kitten Milk? I have looked it up and it seems to have a few more things in it then normal Lactol and I thought that sticking to the same brand may not risk a stomach upset.

lowis · 21 February 2009 at 6:38PM

you really should call an emergency vet - monday is along way away, kittens are very fragile, even more so if they are premature. good luck with everything x

Sagz_2 · 21 February 2009 at 7:28PM

I've only hand-reared 2 litters so have had little experience but it sounds like you are doing everything ok. One litter were 2 days old and I started off by feeding them every 2 hours with 2ml of cimicat and gradually increased the food and the time between feeds. They were fully weaned at about 4 weeks - although I did give them a feed during the night until they were about 7 weeks.

The biggest problem I had with them was constipation, but a trip to the vets for an enema soon sorted that out.

Good luck with little Molly xx

Sagz_2 · 22 February 2009 at 8:36PM

Hows Molly doing today Mittens?
and how are you doing with feeding through the night?

RacyRed · 23 February 2009 at 12:40PM

Waterfalls wrote: »

Aaaaawwwww!!!

Mittens, well done for giving little Molly a fighting chance. I hope she is doing well - almost a week old now

RIP Milly and the kittens she has with her.

Mittens124 · 23 February 2009 at 3:12PM

Quick update, Molly is fighting fit at the moment and thriving on the Lactol, not sure how much she weighs as I haven't got any scales yet but she is bigger in my hand now and is a very hungry girl. She is having 3.5ml every 3 hours and would take so much more if her belly would let her.

I will post a pic of her as soon as I have one on the comp.

I still haven't let myself get my hopes up but you can't help but get attached when there is just one, my other half has already made up his mind that Molly isn't going anywhere when she's old enough, she's staying here with us, I have no choice in the matter lol not that i'm bothered.

Hand rearing kittens.

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