1. Crawling up the couch. Note that they're bigger than a hamster, yet smaller than a guinea pig..
2. Not accepting all their medicine. As I've posted, there is a runt in the litter, who was severely underweight. Although she has gained quite a bit, her condition could still go either way. She is 'supposed' to receive antibiotics, Nutri-Cal, KMR, and Pedialyte. I'm also supposed to reserve time for her to nurse from mom. Sometimes I feel bad force feeding her out of several syringes, and leave the KMR and Nutri-Cal out of the picture. (You can tell who 'Baby' is)
3. Although they're 'only' four weeks old, I worry that they aren't weaning or using the litter box at all. One ('Tan') likes to nibble on the litter, and although it's non-clumping, I like to worry. Mom ends up eating all their food.
4. They make me worry that I'm not paying enough attention to Frank and Sammy.
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI posted on Beth's blog about my babies and my sick runt. Well she died this morning, curled up on my chest. She was too weak to fight any longer. I'm sad today because I feel like we failed her. But she lived surrounded by love and knowing nothing but gentleness and caring.
I'm sorry to bring your blog post down. You're doing a fantastic job and I can assure you that 4 week old kittens are tougher than the look. They bounce well too. I wouldn't worry about them climbing on the couch. One of my adult cats took a swipe at one of my babies well they were both on a window ledge and sent him flying. I was horrified but Zeus landed, stood up, shook himself off and took off after a piece of lint or speck of dust.
Keep trying with the food, at four weeks my runt (from my previous litter) was the only one who was using a dish. The others were still dependent on nursing. But once they realized what that yummy smelling stuff on a plate was there was no turning back.
Good luck with your little guy. I'll keep my you and him in my thoughts.
I know the feeling of failing a kitten. We had one put down a few weeks ago, and they suggested we put down our current runt. Since 'Baby' is doing so well, I still think that maybe we could have nursed the other one back to help. It's a bitter feeling, but, for the most part, I've gotten over it. I cried, a lot, but began to feel it was best.
ReplyDeleteI continue to feed them cat food, kmr powder, water mush, and always heat it, and one of the kittens has begun to graze on litter. I find it very offensive- I COOK GOOD!
With my litters, after they are one month old and momma doesn't 'clean' up their poo, I start setting them in the litter box every now and again to get used to the idea. Also, a vet told me if you are worried about them not being able to get into the litter box, use a shoe box lid....it is short enough for them to get into and their mess isn't bad enough to ruin the lid ;p
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