sick kittens

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My cat that has had all her shots recently had four kittens. They are about four weeks old and were doing fine until about a week ago. I came home to find one of the kittens limply laying on it's side. No matter how hard it tried to stand it couldn't get up. I figured that somone had stepped on it or something had accidently squished it and broke some bones. There weren't any of the usual symptoms such as a goopy eyes or diahrea. The kitten was dead within the day and I thought that was the end of it. Then this morning I found one of the other kittens in the same position: limp on it's side unable to stand up. The only other thing that seems wrong with it is that it can't meow properly and sounds almost strangled. I can't figure out what could be wrong since the mother has ben vaccinated for distemper and all the other essentials. If you know anything about this or have had any of these problems please email me with advice. Thank you

-- Molly (toadtrod@yahoo.com), July 29, 2001

Answers

NO vaccine is 100% effective. I advise taking them to a vet.

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), July 29, 2001.

It sounds like your kittens have distemper. Get shots for them IMMEDIATELY. I don't care what your vet says about not vaccinating until 6 weeks. We vaccinate all of the barn kittens starting at 4 weeks. We had a mother cat that did not pass this immunity to her kittens and through trial and error this is what we have to do and it does work.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), July 29, 2001.

I have never been through this myself, but a really good friend of mine has. Her husband is a firefighter, and brings home mama cats and their kittens--not from fires, mostly, but from calls for neglected animals. In my experience, through hers is, believe it or not, Fleas. While our normal grown up pets deal with the itching and scratching, the babies just sit there and let the fleas suck out their blood until they are so weak it kills them. It's kinda like when we go to donate blood, but imagine doing it non-stop! The kittens are weak, and need transfusions. Of course, you can't do that, so just feed them well, and use some sort of flea-repellent--immediently....Advantage or something similar on the Mama cat will kill the fleas on the babies,or if the Mama cat is out of the question, then I reccomend Sevin dust or another non lethal dust. The main thing is to act quickly! I hope I have helped Kathie

-- Kathie in Western Washington (twinrosefarm@worldnet.att.net), July 30, 2001.

First of all.....you can't vaccinate the kittens while they are sick or debilitated. If they already have a disease, it will not help to vaccinate. They must get to vet ASAP. Whatever it is, more than one has it...so they may all die. It's true, fleas can kill young or sick critters. See if gums are pale, and check for flea dirt and flea eggs. Will look like black specks and grains of salt. Had a kitten die in my arms at vet that I worked, as I tried to bathe fleas off and blood ran in sink...very sad.

-- Kathy in Va (VaUSMCwf@home.com), July 30, 2001.

You did not say if the mother cat or the babies had ever been wormed. A fulminating, massive hookworm infestation could produce this scenario. Worms reproduce geometrically, each generation having many more than the previous one. Hookworms have a two week life cycle. They also pass through the placenta into the kittens before birth. If these kittens had a fair infection with hookworms at birth, they now have had time enough for the parasite to pass through two generations. Basically the kittens are probably so anemic that the fluid in the body is pooling in the lungs hence the agonal gurgling. Worm them pronto. Hope you are in time for the remaining kittens.

-- Sandra Nelson (Magin@starband.net), July 30, 2001.


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