Expert: Ali - 5/11/2009

Question
its like my momma cat isnt producing enough milk.. she has hard kitten foos for herself and fresh water.. the kittens are 4 days old.. and i noticed today it sounded like the kittend where drinking air from her nipples so i took a look some nipples are bleeding some look very sore  what do i do?

Answer
Frances,

Mom and her kittens should be packed up in a large travel crate and taken to the veterinarian as soon as possible, there are a number of issues that can cause mom's nipples to bleed and I'm quite sure she's uncomfortable. If you have a commercially prepared kitten milk replacer on hand I'd suggest feeding the kittens by bottle or syringe every two hours during the night. Mom needs to be taken to the nearest veterinarian along with her kittens as early in the morning as possible. It's very important to keep mom and her new babies separate from other pets in the household because newborn kittens don't have much immunity against viral or bacterial infections. I would also highly recommend that you (or anyone else handling the kittens) wash your hands thoroughly with hot, soapy water before and after handling mom or her kittens to lower the risks of passing along any infections.

If you don't have kitten formula, bottles or oral syringes on hand then for the sake of mom's comfort I think it's a good idea to go to your local 24 hour grocery store to pick up organic, full fat goat's milk and some organic, unsweetened, plain yogurt. Your local 24 hour pharmacy will stock oral syringes, you'll need a minimum of one syringe per kitten and oral syringes can be purchased inexpensively in the baby aisle. When you get home you'll want to mix one cup of goat's milk with 2-3 tablespoons of plain, organic yogurt and draw about 2 syringes of this mixture per kitten into a cup or small bowl. During the time you're mixing the emergency kitten formula you need to heat some water to boiling in the microwave or on the stove. A smaller cup or bowl containing the formula should then be placed into the larger container in such a way that you don't accidentally dilute their emergency formula. Once the formula is roughly body temperature you can fill your first two syringes and sit with mom while you feed the first kitten.

Kittens must never be given formula lying on their backs or in similar positions that you'd use to feed a human infant...When feeding the kittens their bellies and rear paws must face the floor, it's instinctive for the kittens to knead with their front paws so this will likely happen. Between syringes you'll need to burp each kitten by either sitting it on your lap like a human baby, gently rubbing and tapping the kitten's lap until s/he burps. Some kittens won't burp in this position so if you find it easier to gently rub the kitten's belly until s/he burps that's fine too...Allow the kitten to take as much formula as s/he likes from the second syringe, some kittens won't finish the second one, others will. Since mom's still able to care for her kittens she will probably take care of stimulating them to use the toilet.

At this point all you're doing is supplementing these babies until a vet can give you further advice tomorrow about what needs to happen next. Newborn kittens should be fed every 2 hours if receiving supplementary feedings of formula or other appropriate food. It's very important that you don't separate the kittens from their mother unless a veterinarian tells you to do so, because it's always best for kittens to grow up learning to be and understanding how to interact with other cats. Queens are incredible mothers and they teach their kittens what's acceptable or not during the first 10-12 weeks of life. Even if the vet recommends that you take over feeding the kittens a commercially available formula it's important that you continue to allow mom take care of them for the first 10-12 weeks so that they can grow up and become happy, healthy, well adjusted and adoptable pets.

I would highly recommend that you avoid allowing mom to have contact with intact tom cats because some cats become pregnant 24-48 hours after giving birth which isn't healthy for the queen or her unborn kittens. Intact tom cats often kill kittens too young to be weaned because that will bring their mother back into season more quickly than usual so that the tom can mate with her again which is why it's important to keep toms away from the kittens and their mother at all costs. There's a serious pet overpopulation problem affecting shelters and rescue organizations worldwide and all too often shelters are forced to euthanize healthy, adoptable animals because they run out of time, space and resources to devote to each animal. Spaying and neutering pets has many medical and behavioral benefits aside from the obvious benefit of population control. Spaying and neutering cats prevents uterine, ovarian and testicular cancers. The earlier in life a cat is sterilized the lower their risk is of developing prostate or breast cancer. Unspayed female cats are at risk of developing a potentially life threatening uterine infection called pyometra which causes the womb to fill with pus - if the uterus ruptures and infection spreads throughout the abdomen the cat's chances of survival aren't good. The only treatment for pyometra is to spay the cat although doing so while she has such a serious infection increases the risks during surgery, the financial cost is higher because the surgery takes longer and is more complicated.

In North American cats the leading cause of death is euthanasia secondary to behavioral problems. Spaying and neutering cats prevents serious behavioral issues such as using urine/feces to mark territory inside and outside of the house, fighting with other cats (which can result in some pretty expensive vet bills to treat abscesses and other infections), wandering away from home in search of other intact cats to mate with, caterwauling to decide which male gets the right to breed with specific females in season, howling to advertise their availability to mate and sterilizing cats also reduces the likelihood that they'll develop aggression towards people. Spaying and neutering saves countless lives every year, it's a responsible and ethical choice that could very well save your own cat's life.