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In love with my little clingy Apollo ❤

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Update on the kittens - They are all very happy and healthy. Now 6.5 weeks old and great climbers of the cat tree ! They love the other cats and snuggle lots 🤗

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Happy Easter from the Franssen household 😊🐇🐣❤

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Who needs the hairdressers when you have Perseus ? 😂❤

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Cat Birth - Are You Prepared ?

Ah cat birth.. hours of mum howling and stressing prior to the birth, but a wonderful experience.. most of the time.

Usually mum cat will do everything she needs to by herself, without our interfearance. However, sometimes the mum cat can have complications, or is still very young herself so isn't sure what to do. We can observe from a distance and offer support by our voice and a familiar face during her birth. This allows us to calm mum as much as possible and also allows us to observe the births and act if needs be. I usually put soothing cat birth music on my phone to keep her calm.

So, what happens if mum gives birth but does not remove the birthing sac? Sometimes, for many reasons the mum can fail to remove the sac. Do not just snatch the kitten away the moment it is born. Allow the mother time to lick and get the kitten breathing. If mum clearly neglects to do this, then you can take the kitten and wipe its airways (mouth and nose) in a circular motion, using a soft face cloth to safely remove the birthing sac.

If kitten is still not breathing, you can use one finger and lightly press on the kittens heart (under their armpits) please do this gently as kittens are very fragile ! They also need this to be done at a quicker pace than humans, as their heart rate and breathing is a lot faster than ours.

If the kitten is alive, but gasping for air, it is likely the kitten has fluid in its lungs. You need to cup your hands and hold the kitten so his back is in your hands and he is facing you. Hold him securly (so he doesnt fall out when you swing) and quickly drop your hands between your legs and then swing back up (as though you were doing kettle weights) swinging your arms under your legs so the kitten will go upside down and the fluid will come out of his nose or mouth. Wipe away the fluid immediately with a cloth and repeat if needed. If you are not sure how to do this, you can YouTube examples of people doing this correctly on 'how to remove fluid from kittens lungs'

As crazy as it sounds, it is a well known method and you just might save this kittens life!

Mum cat should also birth one placenta, per kitten. So keep an eye on this as if this does not happen, mum cat can experience complications.

Mum should bite through the chord, seperating the kitten and placenta and eat the placenta. Do allow the mum cat to eat the placenta, as this provides her with lots of nutrients she will need to feed her kittens !

Should the mum fail to bite through the chord, you can cut the chord by using dental floss and tying this in a knot. When you pull, this should cut through the chord. Please take caution not to cut too closely to the kitten. You should keep atleast 4 to 5 inch away from the kittens stomach.

Some bleeding is normal during birth, but if you notice excessive bleeding, or that the mother is taking more than an hour to birth between kittens and is still panting and in distress, it could be that there is a kitten stuck, or other complications. If this happens, it is highly important that you contact your emergancy vet immediately.

Keep an eye on mum cat in the next few days after birth and make sure she has a good appetite and that she is also drinking plenty of water. She needs both of these to be able to provide her kittens with enough milk!

Enjoy your new bundle of fur babies :) I wish that the mum cat will be a great mum so that you do not have to step in. However, it is great to come prepared, just incase !

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Hello beautiful girls 😍 Athena & Nymeria ❤

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Observe & Enjoy - Kitten Update

It is great to finally sit back and enjoy these kittens being raised. After so long bottle feeding others, it is like having a perminant babysitter.

We have been observing mum cat and her kittens (now 5 days old) from the camera and in person. Mum cat is still happy and doing a great job with them ! The 3 kittens are nice and chunky, so they are getting enough milk each. They are also attempting to open their eyes! Their ears have lifted also.

This is the soonest case I have seen kittens attempt to open their eyes. Soon they will be wondering around causing all kinds of trouble. We will then focus on getting them socialised with humans, should mum cat allow us to. If mum cat does not like us near her kittens without showing us aggression, it is important for social reasons that we seperate them for a small amount of time to pet them and then return them to mum for feeds. Otherwise, the kittens will become aggressive, unsocialised and unadoptable.

The vet came to visit yesterday, to give our 9 week old kitten, Perseus his first vaccines. She also observed mum cat and her kittens and confirmed they are doing well. Great!

I can relax now and enjoy them growing :)

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Happy mummy cat and her 3 beans :)

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Nymeria, Athena and Apollo (Well, his bum to the camera lol) 1 day old 😍

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The first born 😍😍 9.30am

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CONGRATS ! Our foster cat gave birth this morning. We now have 3 beautiful little beans :)

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Our pregnant foster cat is huge and should be due any day now.... we sit here feeling very impatient to meet her new litter 🙏🏼❤️

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Building and maintaining kittens health (catflu/sick kitty)

So, we have a sick little kitty? Not something that we expect when we receive our bundle of joy. Maybe like me, you foster pregnant cats and your momma has had a litter, but you see one or more that are not well and you need to step in.

Okay, well first off I would recommend seeing if your vet can do a home visit, as you do not want to take any risks. Best to give yourself that peace of mind and see what the vet suggests is best. He may have seen way more of these cases than you and be able to assess the symptoms and treat them quicker than you just guessing.

However, if the vets have advised you they have an infection but are too young to treat, or they are not getting enough nutrients from mum. Here are a few things you can do.

(If the kitty or pregnant mum has a bad case of fleas/worms, check my other blog for advise on this)

Collodial Silver Spray:

I swear by this ! It is just like magic.

Even if your cat/kitten is in perfect health, it is great to add a few sprays to their water and food bowl to increase their immunity. Silver Spray has been found to cure in cats: cystitis, worms, dry/flakey skin, wounds, infections, eye infections and cat flu.

I can tell you from my own personal experience, that silver spray helped all of these problems in the cats i have treated.

Kittens and Collodial Silver

Kittens have a very low immunity and really need some extra boost. I spray 2-3 sprays into their milk formula per feed. It is a natural antibiotic, that kills the bad infections, but does not kill any good bacteria!

If the kitten is still feeding from mum, you can spray 4-5 in mums food and water also. She will then pass this on through her milk, but it is recommended you give it directly to the kitten aswell.

You can put 1-2 sprays on their fur too, if they have scabby or flakey skin.

If your kitty has cat flu (eyes are glazed, freauent sneezing, crusty/gooey eyes)

Or a skin/eye infection, you can put 1-2 sprays onto a soft cotton ball and dab it softly on the infected area. If you are afraid to touch the area, as the infection is servere, just go ahead and use 1-2 sprays onto his face or the effected area. Do keep a good distance of around 12inchs from the nozzle and the Kitten, so it is a misty spray, not watery.

Repeat this around 4 to 5 times a day. I am sure you will see results ! But be persistant.

Kitten doesnt have enough nutrients from mums milk

This is an awful thing to hear, but unfortunately rather common if the mum cat is a stray.

You may need to buy some kitten formula and feed the kitten yourself, or give him to an experienced bottle feeder to give him the best chance in life. If mum is exhausted and discarding her kittens due to lack of milk/nutrients, then she will keep onnrefusing them and they will not survive if you don't step in. (My other blog tells you all you need to know about bottle feeding)

If mum is still allowing her kitten to feed from her, you can still allow the kitten to do this for comfort reasons, but still come in and feed the kitten from a bottle every few hours aswell. Since he is not getting these benefits from mums milk, it ensures he is hydrated and getting the goodness he needs to grow big and strong.

To ensure you are packing mum cat full of goodness, to give to her kittens, you need to make sure mum cat is healthy and is now eating good quality kitten food while she is nursing or pregnant. These foods have higher calories and all the goodness is passed through to the kittens.

Please try and use the brands with the highest protein, with no grains or rubbish in there. Supermarkets have awful products with protein as low as 2-8% which is disgraceful.

I use the brand: Thrive- chicken for kittens. Which offers 90% protein with a grain free recipe.

Second favourite brand is: Lilys kitchen- chicken dinner kitten food, which is 65% protein with a grain free recipe.

You can also look for a high protein kitten biscuit brand to feed along with wet food. I'm currently using royal canin - mum and kitten biscuits.

You can find all the above on Amazon.

Continue to use the silver spray daily. Even if you see the kittens health improving. It is always great to keep the good bacteria coming. It will fight away any bugs or nasty bacteria that sneak in before it takes any action on your kitten 😊

If you still have unanswered questions, Contact me. I will be happy to assist.

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Who said you can’t reuse toys?

The top picture is Perseus enjoying the same toy that we purchase for Pepper, 3 years ago ! Bottom picture is Pepper (at the time she was his age, 7 weeks) playing with the toy. How I love them 😍 It has two balls that go around. Seems simple but gives them hours of fun! I believe I paid only £10 from pets at home for this product. Maybe you can buy something similar there, or online at Amazon? 😊

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The Story Of Perseus

Perseus is now 6.5 weeks old and has learned to climb the cat tree. This means he has pinched Peppers hammock and left her unimpressed!

So, I promised to let you all know the story of Perseus, which has been tough to think about and especially wright about. However, I really hope our experience can help others see the signs and stress the importance of vaccinations !

Please be aware that some readers may find this upsetting.

On January 6th, we agreed to foster a mother who had just given birth to her kittens on the street and needed shelter. We agreed to take her and her kittens in. 2 girls and 2 boys.

She was always purring and very affectionate with us and was very happy for us to be close. Within 4 days, she became sluggish and tired. We assumed this was due to her recently giving birth and the burden of being a new mum at a young age of 7 months.

Unfortunately, on day 5, we entered the room to find one of the kittens pushed aside and stone cold. He was alive, so we attempted to warm him and try attach him to his mother's teat. The mother viciously attacked us for doing this and we were forced to take the kitten to the vet for urgent medical attention.

When we returned, we checked on the others and she had again pushed a kitten aside. We did not hesitate to race this kitten to the vets either! When we got to the vets, the first kitten, who we named Panther. Had passed away. I do not have words to express the heartbreak and disbelief that this caused. Knowing that an hour before they were all healthy and feeding. It seemed like we were having an awful nightmare.

We later received a call telling us the second kitten, Nigini had also not made it and they believe after testing, that the mother has 'parvo virus' and it is a big cause of 'fading kitten syndrome' which acts very fast. One minute the kitten can be fine and the next deteriating very quickly.

We were also advised by the vet this is passed through the milk and reccommended us to bottle feed and care for the remaining 2 kittens. Autumn and Perseus.

Dispite us feeding and doing everything we could, it was too late for Autumn and she was very weak. We took them both for antibiotics and the vets told us to continue keeping them comfortable, warm and fed. On day 7, Autumn had problems breathing. We took her straight to the vet and when we arrived, she had left us. We thought there was some hope as the vet managed to resuscitate her and got her on breathing support. After 2 hours on the support, she was still not conscious, or able to breath on her own, so we had our stomachs punched and hearts shattered for a third time, by losing our 'cheeky chops' Autumn.

We prayed to our angels and begged them to let us keep Perseus. We told them he is the only glue we have holding our hearts together right now. We told Perseus that we will treasure every second with him and do everything we can. We promised to love him and give him the best life if he would fight and stay with us.

4 vet visits and antibiotics later, I continued to bottle feed him every 2 hours and put a few sprays of collodial silver in each feed (a natural good antibiotic/antibacterial product, which I swear by!) We could see he was getting stronger and healthier. I was still restless and would always keep checking his breathing and that he was okay. Probably because I was so paranoid and scared to lose him too.

As weeks went by, we enjoyed watching our little baby bean grow and decided we are going to keep him so that he can always be safe and loved.

We were presented with a cat and her kittens looking healthy, so we did not realise that she would not have been checked or vaccinated by the feeder or cat catcher.

We always recommend checking regarding vaccines and having your vet do a health check on any new animal. Regardless of what anyone tells you has or hasnt been done and always call your vet if you see any behaviour changes, even if it just to be sure. Do not assume it is natural behaviour we have seen before in new mother cats, as it could be completely different and was.

We really want to stress the importance of vaccinating your cats to avoid this happening to any other unsuspecting foster/cat owner.

When cats are captured for neutering, we also want to stress how important it is that they are also given a vaccine.

Should you have a budget, it is great to set up a nanny cam. This way you can always check on the kittens and mother, even if you are in another room or out of the house. This is something I invested in (£40 amazon) and am able to watch our new pregnant foster cat without always disturbing her and will be able to monitor her and the soon to be kittens on my phone whenever I like :)

We also purchased a willow tree ornimant, of a lady holding close to her a cat, to remember our loss.

Rest In Peace Panther, Nigini and Autumn.

Not a day goes by that we don't think of you and wish you were here with us and your brother Perseus.