Frustrated - Just want to vent (*Kittens*)

[Sparrowghost]

I'm hand raising 6 kittens at the moment and I just need a bit of sympathy. They are just over 2 weeks old and its been a complete rollercoaster.. It seems to be one issue after another with them and I'm getting so disheartened and frustrated.

First we started with constipation on the switch to formula. I had to water down the milk a bit more and start them on lactulose to get it all moving, although they still had massive big bellies.

Then one kitten went down with a UTI .. which quickly spread to kitten #2, so they were all jabbed with antibiotics to nip it in the bud.

While we were treating the UTI they were weighed on the original scale they were weighed on, and in a week had only put on 30g or so each. Still had the massive bellies so we opted to worm them.

Wormed them, bellies came down a bit, but then it became apparent just how ribby and skinny they were. So we've had to go back to every 2hr feeds to try to build them up - have been doing that for the last 3 days, except this morning the smallest woke up with a gammy eye.

What next?! I will be gutted to lose one but I am so worried now :(

Fattest kitten is now over 400g and the littlest is 260g (but after a MASSIVE poo) so pretty happy today - at the weekend the littlest was 220g and the biggest only just over 300g. Have offered them pureed food twice today but they are just walking in it so don't think we're quite ready yet :)

aww sounds like you are doing everything right but yes tiring, some litters just seem to have one thing after another, and mom being there isnt always easy one of the moms at our rescue has had a telescoping bowel so major operation and the kittens cant feed off her now, so the poor foster mom has had to hand feed from two weeks and one of the kittens started fading was an infection so she managed to pull her through that, one was found to have heart failure so the kind decision was made, its not all cuteness and purrs but so worth while, one of my cats was abandoned at ten days old with his siblings, hand reared and hes now a huge hairy 6kgs hooligan

Good luck OP you are doing an amazing thing xx

Everyone is feeding well (100ml a day roughly, and 3 weeks old today) but the UTI is back, so another antibiotic jab again tonight, and in 3 days time..

I've hand reared many kittens and puppies when working for a rescue centre. My brother and I used to bring them home with us and the whole family got involved with looking after them although just my brother and i did the 2 hourly night feeds.
It does end though and well worth the lack of sleep and the heartache.
Just keep the eye clean with saline solution and obviously the antibiotic jabs should do the rest.
Good luck op!

Lone gave an interesting tip the other day about using cold tea for bathing/cleaning wounds because of its anti-inflammatory properties. I don't know whether that applies to kits' eyes though - she may comment if she's around later.

DH and I hand reared 2 x two week old kittens as an emergency rescue last summer. They came with their brother who died within a couple of hours because of flea anemia. The fleas were so bad, they were crawling in their eyes and it was a toss up between giving them a bath and killing them, or letting the fleas kill them. You haven't lived until you have seen a 6ft burly farmer with hands like shovels, trying to bath a tiny ginger kitten at 11pm at night in the washing up bowl.

Like you, we had ups and downs, and there were points when we thought we'd lose them.

Last week, they became international travelers and moved to Frankfurt to live with a close friend and her DH. They left as large, vibrant, 6 month old healthy boys who are now busy trashing their new joint and causing chaos with their new slaves.

The ups and downs were worth it to see them blossom. You are doing an amazing thing OP.