Oddly, I was surprised by how big these guys are. We were told they were two weeks old but they seem more developed than that. Also, the last bottle feeders we had were newborns and they really were tiny!
Is your friend sure the mother abandoned it? Sometimes the mother is just out hunting or relocating kittens one by one and will come back.Its much better for the kitten to leave it a warm blanket and wait to see if the mother returns the first night. Since there's only one, that does make it a stronger chance that the mother moved the others and left this one because she though it had something wrong with it. Having a litter of one is very rare. Did your friend take the kitten in or bring it to a shelter? Any idea how old it was when found and how it's doing?
Kitten reported to be doing OK, being kept warm, and the vet's supplied her with kitten formula to feed it and told her to bring it in for a check-up later in the week. She said it was lying in a patch of blood on the driveway, with no sign of a mother.
Wow. If it was a newborn and the blood was from the birth I can only think the mother must have given sudden and premature birth there. Good thing she at least licked the amniotic sack off the little on before deciding it wasn't a good survival prospect. If the kitten wasn't just born I can only thin the mother got injured while moving it and then went off to die alone. Quite a story in either case. That's one lucky kitten to be found and time and doing okay. Frequent small feeds around the clock and warmth are the key to getting the tiny squeak through the week. A kitchen scale to check if there's daily weight gain is a good investment too. If it doesn't gain weight it's a good idea to contact the vet again sooner. Best of luck to your friend!
Yeah, it was very strange. The kitten was actually lying on my driveway -- well, a space of concrete between two sheds, to be technical. Not completely exposed, but not exactly the kind of cozy, sheltered place I'd expect a cat to go to give birth. I can only assume the blood was from the birth, as it certainly wasn't his. And he still had an umbilical cord attached. He (or she, I'm not sure) certainly doesn't look premature, though. He's a good size (I think), and seems to be healthy enough.
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chickenfeet) wrote2005-09-18 08:47 am
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Right after your admonition about unwanted kittens, my friend at
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Since there's only one, that does make it a stronger chance that the mother moved the others and left this one because she though it had something wrong with it. Having a litter of one is very rare.
Did your friend take the kitten in or bring it to a shelter? Any idea how old it was when found and how it's doing?
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If the kitten wasn't just born I can only thin the mother got injured while moving it and then went off to die alone. Quite a story in either case. That's one lucky kitten to be found and time and doing okay. Frequent small feeds around the clock and warmth are the key to getting the tiny squeak through the week. A kitchen scale to check if there's daily weight gain is a good investment too. If it doesn't gain weight it's a good idea to contact the vet again sooner. Best of luck to your friend!
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Yeah, it was very strange. The kitten was actually lying on my driveway -- well, a space of concrete between two sheds, to be technical. Not completely exposed, but not exactly the kind of cozy, sheltered place I'd expect a cat to go to give birth. I can only assume the blood was from the birth, as it certainly wasn't his. And he still had an umbilical cord attached. He (or she, I'm not sure) certainly doesn't look premature, though. He's a good size (I think), and seems to be healthy enough.
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Thank you, please come again.
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