2 week old orphan kitten HELP !

[fastweb]

Female, 2weeks old, eyes just opened, very squarwky, has had a bottle/seen vet/peed upon tummy rubbing...

Now what ?

Oh, and she is called Lilly.

vid here,she really is so tiny that I am a bit nervous about breaking her during feedings and elimination stimulation.

Keep telling me that...in the flesh she looks so small and defenseless. Despite her tastes for extreme sports in terms of mountaineering. And yelling her head off.

What do anybody think of the vets instruction to give her babyfood meat (the stuff in jars), isn't she a bit too young for anything other than milk ?

I'd say she's still too young by a week or two. Get her stabilized on the milk first.

She is not doing brill with the bottle today. Looks like she is struggling to get the milk out, but I made holes with a sterlised needle as per instructions on the net and I'm worried she aspirate milk if I make them bigger.

Might send DH to go get a syringe when the pharmacy opens. I can manage a birthday party of 12/13 year olds, a tiny baby kitty and "in very crabby mood" MIL by myself for an hour. Well I can if I drag the vodka out of the freezer

The holes should be big enough for milk to come out with only a little squeeze. (If it drips when you simply hold it upside down, that's too big and you do run risks there.) Try making them just a little bigger.

Best of luck - you're brave having all that today. Especially because you'll spend all afternoon stopping the whole birthday party from decamping to 'see the kitty, please?'

PS - keep the vodka for a little later. (Not too late or you'll forget to get up in the middle of the night for feeds!)

Well the syringe was rubbish. The micro kitty - she say NO!

The other nipple has a constant drip, too fast for my liking, but she was taking in milk. The not dripping nipple I will attack with a needle again.

I am covered in milk.

And when does she want another feed (due to the last one being more ON the pair of us rather than IN here) ...... five minites after the first two guests arrived.

But for an audience she ate pretty well. 3-4 ml more or less. So that's 10 feeds a day (24 hours) if she can keep that level of intake up.

No more poo since the big one. But she has peed.

Right, off to padlock her bedroom door shut to keep gawking boys out.

MIL sedated and put to bed - check
First guests stuffing selves with pizza- check
Micro kitty fed, burped, botty rubbed - check

So far so good.

Just four more hours to go until I can relax. and hit the vodka

her, not "here"

Forgive the constant updates, this way I won't forget.

She just screamed for another feed, this time easily 4 -4.5ml.

The trick might be to put her on The Sock Droppers hairy chest for every feed. I think she thinks my husband is her mummy

He has gone from a grumpy "ANADDA BLODDY GATTO!" to "ahhhhhhh, bellissima!"

Heh.

I win. If she makes it she is staying for sure now she has bonded with the one person who was underwelmed by her arrival.

Good thinking. If feeding becomes a comfort and pleasure rather than a confrontation, she'll take more - and end up better adjusted as well I suspect.

Keep up the good work.

She just fed again. The Sock Dropper selfishly refused to get out of the paddling pool and provide the furry chest. But she still had a good guzzle. Only another 3 ml or so, bit still, considering the total amount she has eaten this afternoon, not bad going.

Maybe she is trying to catch up after a less sucessful morning of intake ?

Totally conked on her bunny right now. Bless.

Not that I am counting unhatched chickens or anything, but when can/should I introduce her to the junior cats ? The seniors will be fine, they got used to the 2 juniors no prob. But Whiskers and Snowball were abandoned within a couple of weeks of each other and

I don't want them to break the itty bitty kitty with their WWE style wrestling. The spunds of their heads banging on the tiles when they play fight freaks me out when it's just them. Poor Lilly would end up with brain damage if they flip her about like that.

If I wait till she is six weeks (if of course she makes it) is that the best time to let them get to know each pther (with hovvering supervision) ?

She's so sweet! Got fingers crossed for you.

Just popping in again to squeee all over again at micro kitty thinking your hairy DH is mummy

Please keep updating us with zillions of cute videos essential kitty bulletins. I will not be able to sleep otherwise

Lilly had a good sleep yesterday afternoon despite hoards of 12 year old yelling their heads off and MIL screaming like a banshee with wisdom tooth issues.

No spund because for some reason the ipad has decided that white noise is better that a soundtrack

This morning she guzzled a third of her suggested daily intake.

But she didn't wake during the night to feed, so maybe I should set an alarm clock ?

I love her. She seems very perky today, and purred upon stroking. Then squawked mucho.

oh and she suckled on my knuckle in her latest "lets totally avoid the nipple, but scream for MORE MILK" session. It was a micro kitty kiss

I wouldn't worry too much if she slept through. (I'm assuming she really did sleep through and it wasn't that you were flat out with exhaustion and didn't hear her?) She would have woken if she was hungry and let you know. Indeed, she may be a tiny bit older than you thought (makes a difference at that age) and just small from past under-feeding. So - she might just have been flat out with a full belly. A feeding gap of 7 or 8 hours is OK at her age if she's comfortable with it.

If she's perky and has eaten well this morning then that sounds good. Just keep an eye on her and make sure that she's poo'd and pee'd to keep up the good progress.

Well done you for coping with party, MIL etc yesterday on top of a new kitty!

I would have heard her if she had woken up, she is LOUD!

How does something so small make so much noise ?

I did wonder if she was 2w + some days rather than 2 weeks only just, cos she moves at the speed of light. It is very a wobbly crawlish walk, will try to video later so you can see what I mean.

I have developed a really bad habit of blowing on her gently to check she is alive when sleeping. She doesn't like it very much, so had better stop.

We had some serious purring this morning and she seemed to enjoy a good stroke.

Do I need to burp her ? I'm wondering if the on the bottle/off the bottle whilst yelling for milk is to do with my lack of experience with a bottle and air is getting in. I wish I could grow a cat sized nipple and breastfeed her, I know how to do that. Or at least I did 12 years ago.

She only did a little poo this morning, I will have another go at botty rubs when she wakes up. I feel better when she does a big poo.

Lots of pee though. Really funny cos she was purring at the contact and protesting wildly (at the indignity of having her lady garden rubbed) all at the same time. Purr WAH purr WAH WAH purr purr purr WAH! Mad micro kitty cannot make up tiny mind about what she does and doesn't appreciate

And she has learned to glower. Tiny little blue/black eyes peering and doing their best to create a "cross kitty" gaze. So cute.

She has become the "bambino" of the family. Former "bambino of the family", Snowball (2yo) had a sniff at her this morning, but then shot off when she went "irate squeaky toy" on him. He is not one to talk, when he arrived he screamed for 6 hours solid. Tiny white ball of fluff with the hump (to the power of ten) he was.

I love kittens.

And puppies.

But not rabbits, cos ours likes to take chunks out of me whenever possible. Think he might be a vampire rabbit actually.

Oh, I hear the dulcet tones of Lilly throwing a hissy fit about me taking more than a nano second to attend to her needs.....

I am loving this thread, complete with video. You are spoiling us fastweb.

I can't imagine that she'll do really big poos consistently until she's weaned onto more solid foods. There's not an awful lot of solid in milk to poo on if you see what I mean? As long as she's doing nice big wees then that's good - and small poos fairly regularly shows that that's all functioning. The last thing you want is diarrhoea or pooing all the time.

Sometimes, the yelling can be a sign (adult cats also) that they need to evacuate and it can happen around feed time.

At the weekend, maybe try doing her botty stimulation while she's on a litter tray? (Get one ready.) No pressure on her of course - just start with the association to get her thinking good tray-training thoughts.

195 g !

pre big poo however.

that is 15 more than yesterday. At least it's going up not down.

Am totally not supermum

It was just a perfect storm.

The day before the birthday party Lilly arrived unexpectedly and MIL's threatened manic phase just exploded onto the scene (she has bipolar 1, and OCD, and altziemers, and parkinsons, and congestive heart failure, and diabetese, and major cirulatory issues, and some profound malady of the soul

I didn't so much cope as run around like a blue arsed fly, flapping my arms and wailing to The Sock Dropper "are their parents coming soon?"

It's video all the way cos I haven't worked out how to upload photos, and am too knackered to learn right now. And she is so cute she just needs her every move caught on camera for prosperity.

I have two more videos loading on youtube, but in the meantime, here is The Former Most Junior Cat (before Lilly bumped him to more senior status), Snowball, an hour after he was dumped in a neighbour's garden. scroll down a little bit

Small bundle of white fluff that I was DETERMINED we weren't going to keep, having just found Whiskers dumped in the woods.

Will try her on a litter tray as suggest, that is a really good idea.

How many poos a day should she do, ballpark is fine. We had one small one so far today.

And when should I worm her ? The vet sprayed her for fleas and she is totally clean of them (paranoid grooming on my part ensures flea free status). She does have a big fat tummy though and that is a sign of worms isn't it ?

I think I want to go back to the vet in a day or so, just to be sure she is doing Ok not that I am a helicopter mummy or anything

[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHI_BefH6yc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Lilly, walking, but, less fast than earlier potentially due to huge tummy full of milk]]

any guess as to age ? 2 weeks tops, or 2 weeks plus some days ?

They are supposed to walk well at 3 weeks, is that right ?

I think one poo is OK right now as long as she's peeing. More when she's weaned, probably.

She's a feisty little thing, isn't she ?

By the look of her, I'd put her at a couple of days more than two weeks to be honest - but go by the original estimate when worming. Should be at about 3 weeks. A pot belly can be a sign of parasites but she seems to be clear of some of the other symptoms from what you say. Most kittens have them, though, so a treatment is always indicated. Make sure you weigh her precisely before getting the meds - not too much medicine or too little is required.

I hope you're getting some sleep - or at least a long scented bath!

Bath in this heat ? I'd cook

Will have a nice cold shower...right after I finally manage to strip the half stripped bed in the video. She woke up and yelled just as I was trying to grab the bedding for the wash. We don't sleep on bare matresses, honest gov although in a few days time it may well have decended to that level giving up on the house

I'm waiting for her feeding video to load. I think the bottle is too big, I have to tip it up so air doesn't get in the nipple and I'm not convinced the angle isn't at
east part of the problem with this want bottle/spit out bottle ad infinitum issue.

Fiesty she is, Lilly is far too delicate a name for her IMO, Spitfire might be better, but am outvoted.

Right, off to give the washing mashine a fright with a sight of the mountain it has to deal with today.