Expert: Karen Craft - 9/21/2009

Question
My cat just had her second littter of kittens, she gave birth outside, and at first there were five kittens and one died after the first day. Then she moved them onto our back porch for a few days, then she finally moved them inside our house. For the first week or so the kitten were fine, they walked, ate, and played like normal. But recently they all became very weak, and started breathing irregular; like it was hard for them. And they quit feeding on their mom. Then one of the four kittens went missing, and when we found him under our couch, he had a brownish liquid crusted around his mouth and was even more weak than the others. This morning I found this kitten dead. Later on in the day another kitten started having the brown liquid appear around his mouth, and he would just lay there. After I came home from work this evening, that kitten had died also. There are two left and they are acting the same way, except the brown liquid hasn't started showing yet. I have no clue what brought this on, and I cannot afford to take both kittens into a Vet. Can you tell me what is wrong with them? and if there is anything at all I can do for them??? I aslo have two older kittens from her previous litter, they are six months old, but they are acting normal. Could the younger kittens pass whatever they have onto my other cats??

Answer
Hi Erin,

Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. It sounds like they had some sort of virus. The brown liquid could be blood from their sputum. I can't tell you for sure what they had. Your vet will be able to help you. Some kits are stronger than others. The two you have may be able to fight off whatever it is that killed the first two.

Again, with the 6 month olds, I can't help you with what you want to know. It depends on what the younger ones died from. Was the Mom sick? Did the kits come into contact with another sick cat? Usually the Mom's milk passes protection to them for a bunch of things. Was the Mom vaccinated? If she wasn't then their protection was incomplete.

I'm sorry for the loss of the kits. And I'm sorry that I can't help you further. A vet needs to look at one of the kits. If the one has it so does the other. He will be able to help you. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen