7 Week Old Kitten, Dehydrated and Lethargic

[Umerwhat]

At the moment I'm taking care of 5 7-week old kittens, plus the mom. 2 are actually from another litter, but cousins. They all feed from the mother cat of the 3 kittens. The one kitten has been acting dehydrated and lethargic for a few days now. This is one of the mother's actual kittens. She feeds from the mom, though I've noticed the mom does avoid them at least half the day(I assume this is typical at this age?).

The dehydrated kitten has also been eating some canned pate, drinks from the dish a little. It's basically doing everything its siblings are doing, but less of it. Her gums do look pale, but not the palest I've seen on a kitten. The shelter had us put them all on antibiotic recently, as one had an upper respiratory infection. Day 10 was yesterday and the last of the antibiotic. Other than a slightly runny eye a couple days ago, this kitten hasn't shown any symptoms of having an upper respiratory infection. This kitten has been on Albon for close to 2 weeks now. I think I've seen one liquid poo in the past few days, but I honestly thought it belonged to one of the adults(it was next to a much larger poo). All other stuff in the litter box has been thicker than soft serve ice cream(sorry for the descriptors). I've been forcing her to drink a few mls of KMR a couple times a day in hoping to jump start her appetite, but with no luck. It's not as if she isn't eating/drinking either, just not enough.

Also I don't believe any of them ever had fleas(the lady they came from gives the adults flea treatment every month). I'll probably put some mineral oil on her ear later to rule out ear mites. I'm really at a loss though on what could be causing this. I can take her to the shelter and if she's dehydrated enough, they will give her fluids. But I don't know if they'll be able to pinpoint the underlying cause. Is there something I'm missing? Is there any side effects that I should be worried about from them being on the Albon so long? The other kittens all seem perfectly healthy. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[di and bob]

Just give her a little more attention and offer KMR or infant-unflavored Pedialyte in water. she needs a little one-on-one. Of course, if she starts refusing or gets worse, bring her in. You might get some Delectable Lickabels in the stew flavors and see if she will eat that, it is my go-to in the treat section for sick cats.

 

[Sarthur2]

Also try Gerber chicken or turkey meat baby food. Most kittens love it and it may perk her up. She may also just be a quiet kitten who needs some special low-key individual attention. Not all kittens are rambunctious!

 

[Umerwhat]

Thanks for the suggestions. I wouldn't be so worried, but she is on the thin side and she fails the skin tent test most times of the day. Almost like she's fine if she gets a good feed in with her mom, but otherwise is dehydrated. : /

She doesn't like the KMR enough to drink on her own accord, but she also doesn't resist much when I feed it to her in a syringe(she's definitely more uppity with her liquid meds). She did just eat some watered down pate earlier, but was still somewhat dehydrated. Like her appetite isn't adequate.

 

[StefanZ]

You can try with goats milk. It have somewhat different taste compared to kmr, and she perhaps prefers that.

I like the idea of flavorless pedialyte... Give with syringe if necessary. Its not only fluid, but it contains also some glucose sugar, so its always some extra calories for free.

Next idea is perhaps to give some nice vitamine paste. Look what they have in a well sorted pet shop nearby, or online....

Last; perhaps some probiotic, IF she seems to have some poo or tummy problems.... BeneBac by pet ag is good.
Otherwise, you can try with kefir or unflavored youghurt... - these are also cheapier...

 

[Sarthur2]

Perhaps it’s time to see the vet.

 

[Umerwhat]

If she doesn't look better before the start of the weekend, I will take her into the shelter. If that doesn't seem to help, I could try the vet after that. Though I'm worried they have more experience with cows than young kittens. It's a fairly rural area.

I do have some vitamin paste, so I'll see if I can get her a bit of that. Is putting it on the back of their paw to lick off the best method? Or any other ways to go about it? Trying to catch her in the litter box, but I'm not in there constantly. Maybe I'll have to camp out in there this evening.

 

[Umerwhat]

I'm starting to wonder if she's just really constipated from the antibiotic/albon combination. I've been pushing the feeding today and she feels quite bloated. One time I thought she was pooping, but nothing to show for it. When I think about it, her sisters felt really bloated a couple days ago, but are fine now. Going to have to wait til morning to get supplies. Any suggestions for unconstipating a kitten with household supplies is appreciated.

 

[StefanZ]

I'm starting to wonder if she's just really constipated from the antibiotic/albon combination. I've been pushing the feeding today and she feels quite bloated. One time I thought she was pooping, but nothing to show for it. When I think about it, her sisters felt really bloated a couple days ago, but are fine now. Going to have to wait til morning to get supplies. Any suggestions for unconstipating a kitten with household supplies is appreciated.

Yeah, constipation CAN easily give severe symptoms.

If she doesnt want to eat, it wont help much with extra water nor oil in the food at every feeding...

A quickie is to have a glycerin cone, same as for humans, and cut off a suitable stripe kitten size, and put into the behind... It softens up
the poo mass, and with any luck, after a while the poo comes out...

Try with a warm bath. It relaxes the body and things gets going.
Catwoman707 recommends a potent variation.

You let warm water flow (warmer than luke warm for you, but not hot)

You put the kitten on your hand, head up to you, rear end out. Have an cloth on if it makes it easier to grab the kitten. Train some with a doll.

You put the kittens rear end under the water, and with forefinger of the other hand, you pet on the behind. It feels as if momma licked
the kitten....

Usually it works.

You can of course combine the two methods.

Sorry for my bad english. I hope you understand.


Ps. A vet can make it easy for himself and gives an enema... This is doable home too if you know how to do it, but its more complicated.

 

[Umerwhat]

She luckily has been eating some, just not a lot. I did put a couple drops of olive oil in her KMR last night(she laps up about 3ml, before becoming fussy). She seems less bloated and dehydrated today, so I haven't resorted to a butt bath or glycerin yet.

She's still lethargic, so I took her into the shelter today to get a quick look over and get more supplies. They suggested another round of antibiotics, because she is off sleeping on her own a lot. Also to make sure she's getting Albon twice a day. They also suggested more of the vitamin paste than I was giving, plus some high cal canned food. Overall they seemed to think she was reasonably healthy, just under weight(of course it helped she wasn't very dehydrated this morning after eating a bit of pate and having some KMR). Since the other kittens seem healthy I might put her in the crate with her mom overnight. Help her stay hydrated, but also hopefully I can figure out what her poop looks like.

Thanks so far for all the advice! Hopefully she's just in small rut at the moment and will get more energy soon.

 

[maggie101]

7 week kitten can start eating canned food.

 

[Umerwhat]

Alright, kind of freaked out now. One of them just had 2 bouts of white/beige looking diarrhea. Kind of mucusy looking. I was in and out of the room a lot over the past couple of hours and haven't seen the long hair budge and her butt looks clean. I'm worried it's the male kitten who started acting lethargic in the past 24 hours. Honestly not sure he's been eating much the last day either. Mainly nursing on the mom. I was planning to give him Amoxicilan and Albon tonight. Is that suitable for what is going on here? Calling the shelter first thing in the morning, but I rarely hear back before noon.

 

[maggie101]

Cab you take a pic of the diahrea and take him to a vet?

 

[Umerwhat]

I regretted not taking a pic right after cleaning it up. An emergency vet is not feasible for financial reasons, but also distance. Both do appear somewhat lethargic, but not dehydrated. They had a good feed from mom. Watched them for an hour+ after meds to make sure there was no puking. Going to keep checking in on them every few hours with pedialyte ready.

 

[Umerwhat]

So the female kitten did not eat much at all yesterday, mainly just milk from her mom, plus the forced pedialyte/KMR. We took her to the shelter this morning to see if another medication would work better. She had been on albon for 2 weeks already, and had doubled the dose for the past couple of days and it wasn't doing anything as far as we could tell. The person at the shelter gave us the smallest feasible dose of metronidazole to give her. They also gave her some fluids, which seemed to perk her up a bit by the time we got home. She even ate a bit of flakey wet food before I left for work(3-4mls probably). I come back 4 hours later, decide to give her the A/D pate mixed with pedialyte. She inhales it. Like at least 15mls worth. Can the metronidazole work this quickly? I hope we didn't give up on the albon too soon, but I can't imagine such a night and day change from it. The person at the shelter advised against taking albon and metronidazole at the same time, so she didn't get any albon today. That person also mentioned it's possible the Albon was still taking its time to do it's thing. If anyone has experience with the 2 meds, to tell me what they think is the more likely scenario, I would love to hear some input. The male kitten is doing relatively better, but is still lethargic and with a lackluster appetite(he's got some extra fat to spare and is staying hydrated). So trying to figure out if he's up next for some or not.

 

[heatherwillard0614]

For the little boy kitten can you have the shelter test him for coccidia? I think that's how it is spelled and pretty sure it is a parasite not bacterial and needs medication to clear up. Im just guessing only by the color of his stool that you described. I hope both little babies get better. Please update when you have any further information.

 

[Sarthur2]

The metronidazole should clear the kitten, as it treats both bacteria and parasites. How many days will the kitten be on it? Is the kitten better today?

 

[Umerwhat]

The female kitten is still eating food like a champ today. I'm so relieved. She ate almost a whole can of Hill's A/D pate in 24 hours. She does have quite a bit of bloat going. She had some diarrhea, but it was brown and not super liquidy, so that's a huge improvement. Also she's playing like a kitten again!

The male kitten I'm a little thrown off on. He probably is still struggling against coccidia as we haven't had him and his sister as long, so less time on albon. His appetite is less than the other kittens, but he eats consistently. Acts lethargic at times, but still plays. Going to give the albon a couple more days to work for him. Not sure what his poo is, but I haven't found any of the mucusy looking stuff in the last 24 hours. Weird thing is, I caught one of the healthy kittens having the mucusy diarrhea, but she has since had a healthier poo.

 

[heatherwillard0614]

If you can if the issues persist I would definitely try to get pics of their stool and try to get a sample and get them to the vet. Good luck with everything. And please keep the updates coming.

 

[Umerwhat]

Sorry I haven't updated in forever. We ended up taking in 6 more foster kittens, so we've been busy taking care of 11 total. Both kittens are doing great now.
In the picture, there are 8 of the kittens. The female kitten who was struggling, is the long hair gray on the bottom right. The male is right next to her in the crate. All seem healthy and eat well. They're getting their vaccines this week.