My totally mad day started at 3am this morning. It’s been madness all the way until now. Everything is more or less settled for now (I hope!).
I dearly hope we made the right decision regarding Samantha stopping her medication and letting her breast feed the kittens again. Well, there was no other way, actually. Her mammary glands were so engorged, it could become inflamed and lead to mastitis which is a very critical condition. I’ve also checked with the vet – there is no medication to reduce the engorgement. Expressing out the milk manually with our (human) fingers proved to do more injury than good. So the only way was for the kittens to suckle again.
As for the kittens, they were not doing too well without Samantha’s milk too. Their weight gain was fluctuating and at times, Akira and Indra were dehydrated as well. There is a difference between me (the human) handfeeding every 3 hours and a mother-cat letting her kittens suckle slowly for a longer period. I know there is a difference now.
And I think I owe Samantha an apology as well for saying she wasn’t keen to feed her kittens. Cats have their own ways of doing it. Samantha does not feed all three kittens together. She does it one by one. That is why sometimes in 12 hours, only one cat would gain weight while the rest don’t. But I think over a period of 3 days, everyone catches up. While here we are, getting all panicky when the kittens don’t gain weight after 24 hours (because I was told they should!).
So, my apologies, Samantha. You know what you are doing.
Just now, at 7.30pm, I went up to feed the kittens. I wanted to do it with hopes of “diluting” whatever Inox there may be in the breast milk, if there are any. But all three weren’t keen on being handfed anymore. Kai, especially, outright rejected my handfeeding. Well, this is GOOD. They must have got enough milk from Samantha.
And look at the weight gain too:
| 5-Mar | 8am | 508 | 459 | 476 |
| 5-Mar | 5pm | 507 | 474 | 479 |
| 5-Mar | 11pm | 511 | 470 | 489 |
| 6-Mar | 5am | 510 | 469 | 490 |
| 6-Mar | 12pm | 515 | 466 | 479 |
| 6-Mar | 4.30pm | 516 | 465 | 480 |
| 6-Mar | 7pm | 520 | 475 | 488 |
| 6-Mar | 10pm | 533 | 477 | 494 |
| 7-Mar | 3.30am | 539 | 480 | 492 |
| 7-Mar | 7am | 545 | 478 | 495 |
| 7-Mar | 10am | 536 | 480 | 497 |
| 7-Mar | 1pm | 538 | 485 | 499 |
| 7-Mar | 4pm | 539 | 490 | 500 |
| 7-Mar | 7.30pm | 542 | 495 | 518 |
Kai gained 3g, Akira 5g and Indra, a whopping 18g in the last 3.5 hours!
Look at the feeding schedule ever since Samantha stopped breastfeeding:
| 5-Mar | 1pm | 10 | 16 | 8 |
| 5-Mar | 5pm | 13 | 10 | 11 |
| 5-Mar | 7.30pm | 5 | 8 | 9 |
| 5-Mar | 11pm | 8 | 9 | 8 |
| 6-Mar | 5am | 15 | 11 | 12 |
| 6-Mar | 8.30am | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| 6-Mar | 12pm | 4 | 7 | 7 |
| 6-Mar | 4.30pm | 11 | 17 | 18 |
| 6-Mar | 7pm | 15 | 12 | 12 |
| 6-Mar | 10pm | 13 | 14 | 12 |
| 7-Mar | 3.30am | 16 | 12 | 14 |
| 7-Mar | 7am | 13 | 14 | 14.5 |
| 7-Mar | 10am | 15 | 15 | 11 |
| 7-Mar | 1pm | 17 | 18 | 16 |
| 7-Mar | 4pm | 12 | 10 | 9 |
| 7-Mar | 7.30pm | 4 | 4 | 4 |
I’ve had to pump up to 15-18ml of milk each feed. If not, there will definitely be a weight loss after that. But as you can see, giving milk every 3 hours is really not the same as the mother letting her kitten suckle slowly over a longer period. Their way is definitely more effective.
Of course Nature’s way is ALWAYS better, isn’t it? Humans should only intervene if Nature needs a helping hand.
Now, here is what I hope for:
- Samantha’s nose lesions are the result of a bacterial infection which the Convenia jab is clearing up. The skin scraping test today is already much clearer, the vet said. It’s all bacteria. No fungal spores at all.
- Samantha does not have cryptococcosis. Please.
- The kittens will all be okay. No gastrointestinal problems. No liver problems. Hopefully the amount of Inox in the breast milk is insignificant.
Samantha’s lesions are dryer today. Let’s hope they heal real soon.
Have a pleasant evening, Sam and babies.
I need a good rest tonight.