On the Misery of Helplessness

[serinde]

Piewacket has taken against her kittens. She has ignored them for the last ~18 hours, and hisses when they come near her. I tried bottle-feeding them, but although I know they're hungry--they crawl all over me and root against every bit of warm skin they encounter--they don't seem able to grasp the whole bottle concept. Five helpless little tiny bundles of fluff frantically crying and crawling on you, fighting to live, and you can't do anything for them; that's slit-your-wrists territory there.

Comments

[dagnycat522.livejournal.com]

That's terrible :-(
I know its not as efficient, but has you tried feeding them with eyedropper? Or are they too big for that now?

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

The bottle is for kittens, and has a tiny tiny nipple; it's just that it tastes like rubber, and is the wrong shape, and (etc.) They won't open their mouths to admit it in the first place, never mind suckling.

[elibalin.livejournal.com]

Eep. Is this common behavior for the feral types?

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Ish. It seems to happen, AIUI, if the mother feels insecure or gets frightened off the nest. (Or is just way too young to know what she is about, which was our best guess for why Foxy abandoned Rollo et al.) The frightened option is unlikely to be true, since Piewacket has been terrorizing every other cat in a two block radius; but we wonder whether the density of cats is triggering some kind of nature's population control impulse. No idea.

[missionista.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh, I'm sending you supportive hugs. Would it help to call the ASPCA or the vet?

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Yay hugs :-}

Calling in the Marines: Nothing they can do, really. The kittens are too young for serious intervention; if they don't suckle, they won't make it.

[otherwise-nyc.livejournal.com]

When I had to feed one kitten (the late Brunetta, RIP) 17 years ago, the vet suggested not a bottle but a syringe, which worked really well. She didn't have to suckle, I was gently pushing formula (Kitten Milk Replacer) into her mouth.

I'd be going nuts if I were you. *hugs aplenty*

[briony530.livejournal.com]

Call your vet or local shelter/adoption organization, or try checking on www.catster.com and see if there's an organization near you that will take foster kittens. They usually have people more experienced in dealing with this sort of thing.

[caelfinn.livejournal.com]

How terrible! I like the syringe idea. Oh and you probably already know this but warm the milk up to cat body temperature.

Good luck.