# Feral Kittens/Queen update



## RedRoo (Apr 24, 2013)

So the feral queen that we had trapped, dubbed "Tess", hasn't been the greatest mother. We were leaving her to raise the kittens without much human interference to reduce stress on her and she stopped allowing 3 of the kittens to nurse. Sadly, one was too far gone to save but the other two have been slowly gaining weight back. So, after careful re-evaluation of what would be the best situation for these kittens (who are too young to start eating canned food still) we decided to take the other 3 away and bottle feed them for the next 2 weeks (one week till we start them on canned food, one to slowly wean them) so that we can more closely monitor their intake and weights, and the litter will stay together. So momma has a spay appointment for Thursday  Also today, while wandering around outside I found the kittens from the other queen we were unable to trap before she had her kittens. They seem to be at least one/ one and a half weeks older, so we are feeding them a canned food/raw goats milk mixture and the traps are re-set to hopefully catch momma so she can get spayed as well. So now there are 8 little fluff balls running around my bathroom LOL. I will try to have pictures up soon. 



This whole ordeal with the mother rejecting kittens has made us re-think how we are doing a lot of things. We have never had this issue before, and we don't know if its because she is obviously a first time mom (she looks to be about 8 months old) or what.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

You are doing such amazing work with the ferals. Im so impressed. Dealing with Moms and kittens can be so stressful! And so much work! I think your right about age being the factor of not being attentive to her kittens. Sad but true. Those kittens would of met a horrible death if you had not intervened. Great job!


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## RedRoo (Apr 24, 2013)

Mitts & Tess said:


> You are doing such amazing work with the ferals. Im so impressed. Dealing with Moms and kittens can be so stressful! And so much work! I think your right about age being the factor of not being attentive to her kittens. Sad but true. Those kittens would of met a horrible death if you had not intervened. Great job!


Thanks  Its hard, stressful and sometimes very sad work, but so worthwhile! 

I have some pictures from yesterday, most are of the girls since I have a friend who wants one of them when they are ready. 

Little dilute tortie girl, from Tess' litter


Torbie girl, found yesterday. Trying to convince the DW that we NEED to keep this one 


Orange and white female, found yesterday


Solid orange male, from Tess


One of the sick little boys from Tess, doing wonderful now (he's the loudest lol) but still skinny and small



The other sick little boy is worse, we weren't sure if he was going to make it through the night, but he did. He has one of the worst "kitten colds" (I'm not sure what they are actually called, but its sneezing, goopey eyes, ect) so we are treating that. His eyes have improved ten fold overnight, just slightly runny at this point. But his nose is ridiculously runny, to the point where if her don't wipe it every 15 minutes or so it runs down into his mouth  We are going to start giving all the kittens a liver broth today (mainly the two sickies though) to hopefully gets some extra fluids and good stuffs into their bellies  

I will get pictures of the rest sometime today, they are all orange boys with varying degrees of white


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

With really sick kittens my fav vet had us giving them Maitake DMG Liquid viamins by Vetrie Science. Cheapest place could find it was KV vet suppy, for their immune systems.

I always have teramyacin for weapy eyes. I run a humidifier when they are conjested. The kittens look really healthy inspite of the challenges. Great job your doing.


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## RedRoo (Apr 24, 2013)

Mitts & Tess said:


> With really sick kittens my fav vet had us giving them Maitake DMG Liquid viamins by Vetrie Science. Cheapest place could find it was KV vet suppy, for their immune systems.
> 
> I always have teramyacin for weapy eyes. I run a humidifier when they are conjested. The kittens look really healthy inspite of the challenges. Great job your doing.


Never heard of that vitamin, I'll have to see if we can get in locally, or if I have to order it online  We are using a bacitracin ophthalmic (sp) ointment, and it is working. We have used teramyacin in that past, but the vet wasn't open when we noticed the kittens eyes, so we used what we had lying around. We called the vet later, he said it should work but if it doesn't to let him know and he would get us some of the teramyacin. 

We don't have a humidifier but since they are in the bathroom do you think running a hot shower for a little bit a few times a day to steam up the room would help?


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## RedRoo (Apr 24, 2013)

Oh, right! I was going to add a picture LOL

These are the non-sick boys and one of the girls is in the foreground.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

They are so darn cute!

Both tramyacin and DMG can be bought on line cheaper than bought at the vet. Atleast in my area of the country.

Shower idea works great. If you get a humidifier in the future we cover a wire dog kennel and aim the humifier in the kennel to help with congestion. Keep up the good work. You are making such a difference in these kittens and cats lives.


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## LadyK (Jan 30, 2012)

Oh, what beautiful little kittens! Thank you for caring for them! It must be exhausting but very rewarding.


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