Expert: Jessica - 4/21/2010

Question
Hi

I wonder if you can give me some advise? I am currently living in Greece, about to weeks ago my son brought home six kittens that he found dumped in a margarine tub beside a bin. They were very small, but  half of them had their eyes open, so we guess they were around ten days old. They started to walk a few days later so they may have been a little older? Their weights were between 135g & 170g. There is an animal welfare group (British) on the island where we live & they have helped us with milk formula (Hills) & feeding bottles.

At first they would only urinate, after about four days they started to excrete, but only diarrhoea. We spoke to the animal welfare group &  they provided us with powders called sulfamycine which we were told to add one tea spoon per 200ml of made up formula. We kept them on this for about a week but nothing improved, although the kittens were still lively & gaining weight (only 5-10g per day). Three days ago the animal welfare group went back to the vet, they would not take the kittens to see the vet! They then gave us Flagyl, which the vet prescribed at 0.25ml, twice a day, for 10 to 15 days. The vet also said that we should stop the formula, as it exasperates the diarrhoea & we should start feeding Hills prescription diet cat food & water. We started the Flagyl, food & water, not all of them would eat the food. The following day a couple of the kittens were looking so weak, we thought they would die, so we went back to the formula. Today four of the kittens (the smallest ones) are very sleepy & have only drank have the formula they would normal drink. All their weights have fallen 15g to 25g over the last three days.

We really do not know what to do next. We don’t have the finances to take the six kittens to the vet ourselves & the animal welfare group only seems to have the resources to pay for medication, not treatment.

What can we do? Should we stop the Flagyl or reduce the dosage? We can only think, because it affects all of the kittens that they have a bacterial or parasite infection.

Any advise would be gratefully received. We have worked so hard to keep these littlens alive, we don’t want to loose them.

Regards

Stephen

Answer
Hi Stephen.  Sorry to hear the little ones seem to be doing poorly.  I would keep the kittens on the Flagyl as long as it's not causing them to vomit.  This kills bacterial infections as well as some protozoan infections (giardia).  It also has a good anti-inflammatory effect on the intestines.

As for feeding them food versus formula, feed them what they will eat right now!  They are at an age when they can begin eating canned food, but if they are not going to do so happily, feed them the formula.  Personally, I have only had one litter that experienced diarrhea because of formula - the rest experienced stools that were too firm!  See if trying to feed them smaller meals more frequently will help lessen the work load on their bellies.  At 4 weeks, I feed my kittens every four hours.

Your kittens seem to be experiencing Fading Kitten Syndrome, an unexplained phenomenon that occurs, often in whole litters.  Seemingly robust litters begin to become weak and fussy.  They lose appetite, and soon, we start to lose them.  There may be various reasons why we lose the kittens.  Perhaps the kittens are infected with the Feline Leukemia or Feline AIDS viruses, or flea-borne illness such as Feline Infectious Anemia.  Infection of some sort is probably the most common reason for Fading Kitten Syndrome at this age.  The kittens are covered as far as an infection in the intestines, but I don’t know if the animal welfare group might be able to help you out with something that might be more broad-spectrum since the kittens are worsening.  It can be difficult to know what to prescribe when you’re not exactly sure what you’re treating, but there are a few choices that cover a lot of bases.

Good luck, I hope the kittens all pull through!

Jessica