#or more than one bottlefed litter

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 43

Oh, my sweet chili babies, today has been A DAY. I told you yesterday how I got two two-week old kittens, my first of the season. It was very exciting and not too stressful, two week kittens usually go 3-4 hours between feeds, so there is some opportunity for sleeping, and with a pair, feeds typically don't take too long. Sweet adorable kittens, relatively basic bottlefeeding, no problem, right? I did a feed at 1am, a feed at 5am, and set my alarm for 9am. 

A little before eight this morning, I woke up because my phone was blowing up, enough that the vibrating woke me even though the sound was off. My TNR group chat was in a frenzy because a person called our coordinator about a local feral who'd started having kittens on her porch, but then the woman had gone outside, scared the shit out of Mama, and long story short, the cat was running around the yard screaming, with a kitten hanging half out. Not ideal! By the time I caught up with things, two of our trappers were out there but Mama had hit the road, leaving behind one dead kitten, presumably the one she'd had the trouble with, and one alive kitten, placenta still attached, still wet from birth. I talked them through drying and warming the kitten, separating the placenta, etc, all with my brain at about 70% function. It became clear fairly quickly that the mama was not coming back, at least not any time soon, and the baby was getting hungry, so something had to be done. 

I am the only bottlefeeder at our rescue who regularly handles days-old kittens, but even for me, this was a new record. The  other trappers brought him to me, cradled in one's cupped hands, held close to the heating vent. They named him "You're Killin' Me, Smalls," or Smalls for short. He weighed 81 grams at his first feeding, slightly less than two packs of gum, but he was fully furred (full fur means full-term kitten) and rooting energetically. He suckled on the syringe, all good signs for his prognosis, but newborn kittens are shockingly fragile. Smalls needs two hour feeds, all through the day and night. 

After I fed Smalls, I had to separate Amy and Rosa because Amy was exhibiting sibling suckling behavior, which is maladaptive instinct that makes a kitten suckle on anything catlike nearby. Not that bad if it's a blanket or a stuffed toy, but can be very damaging if it is a sibling. So I got out a whole other set of carrier, towels, stuffed toy, heating pad, and set up a second kitten setup. Then I had to feed the girls. They both still have food-change diarrhea, and it was not getting any better. I texted with our vet tech, who suggested more frequent, smaller meals. So all the kittens went onto two hour feeds. 

I realized in the afternoon that I was going to need more kitten formula sooner than I expected, so I went to the pet store by my house. Nobody there, neither customers nor staff, were wearing masks or distancing. Lovely. And they didn't even have KMR, just its cut-rate cousin, PetLac. If I wanted soy formula, I could've gotten it a lot cheaper at Walmart, since it's all they sell. In the parking lot, I got a call from the rescue coordinator. I told her I was having trouble finding KMR. She told me she had a brand new can for me, and also another kitten. A what? I basically asked. Apparently Rosa and Amy had a sibling who somehow got mixed in with the TWENTY FIVE OTHER KITTENS that this farm owner had brought in today. Also, a lot of the kittens were way younger than advertised, which is a big problem when you have three bottlefeeders and twenty bottlefeedees. So I took the can, and the kitten, and that's how I ended up with Jake! 

Jake is a weird puzzle that I haven't figured out yet. He's sick with something, probably something respiratory since he has serious eye goopies, but no other discharge yet. He also seems to loathe being alive. He hates the bottle, he hates the syringe, he hates milk, he hates being weighed or washed. He expresses his hatred by twisting his tiny body in such a way as to attempt to hurl himself into the void and to the ground far below. Once he is in the carrier with Rosa he settles down, but it literally takes twenty minutes to get a teaspoonful of milk into him. The girls aren't much better, honestly, and Smalls is pretty slow but he has the excuse of being zero days old. My four kittens need to be fed every two hours and feeding them takes an hour. It's going to be a long, long week. 

Anyway, I'm going to lay down for an hour and contemplate the hubris of wishing for kittens even though I knew I'd be punished for it. At least they are cute and extremely fluffy, and if I can just keep them alive it will all be worth it. If anybody would like to contribute to the effort, I have an Amazon Wishlist of kitten supplies right here. I especially need Breeders Edge powder, it's expensive but everyone I've talked to says it is the best thing for food change diarrhea. Here's hoping, cause I've gotten pooped on A. Lot today.