Runt of the litter

by joan duffett
(baltimore)

my cat had 4 kittens and the runt of the litter is barley eating and skinny sleeps a lot and not very active and when the mom cat offers her to eat from her she acts like she can barley find the nipple and has trouble finding it and wont suck very long my other kittens are very active and doing well should i be worried i brought some milk and a bottle from pet smart and the only way she would drink it was on a plate and barley was able to do that but she drank some she seems week what should i do if anything


Answer by Kate
firstly make sure you do not give the kitten normal cows milk. only give the special cat and kitten milk you can buy.

It sounds like you will have to take over the care of this kitten for now. You could keep it warm and feed it with a small spoon warm milk every two hours. All through the night I’m afraid as it sounds like this little one needs some serious tlc. Also take him to the vets to get him checked over, he may need some extra medical help to get him through this tough time.

lets hope the little guy can build his strength up.

best wishes
Kate

Comments for Runt of the litter

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Susan
by: Ingrid

Hi Susan you almost described our cat to the T he plays fetch too and is 5 pounds at 5 months but he is in good health otherwise according to the vet
I Adopted the Runt of a Litter
by: Susan

I adopted a cat that originally came from West Virginia, but was shipped up to a Massachusetts shelter near me.

He was 8 months old when we adopted him this past May, which would put him at 10 months. He's very small, but my little runt is as healthy as a horse. I'm not sure if that's b/c he was sent to a shelter where he received his shots and also got neutered.

In any event, I'm not even sure if he was indeed the runt b/c I didn't see the other cats from the litter. However I never seen a cat actually play "Fetch the ball" with me, nor see a male cat at such a small, small size of 5 pounds.

Growing up my dogs would play Fetch, but out of the past 6 cats I owned, not one would even know how to bring a ball back to me. Not to insinuate my past cats as non-smart b/c they all had their own individuality.

Thanks,

Susan
Upset
by: Anonymous

My runt kitten is EXACTLY the same. There are 4 kittens and Pepper (which is it's name) is very sick. We tried doing the whole feeding him or her??? We tried letting Pepper rest. We tried everything. Last night I had a dream. I know this sounds strange but dreams can be true. Last night I dreamed that my mommy cat wad friends with a mommy cat and I remember thinking in my dream that the mommys were alike because they both had 3 yes I said THREE kittens! I have 4 kittens. Always I woke up in the morning and I was supposed to go to the dentist but it got cancelled and I had to go to school. But I didn't want to cause it felt like something bad was going to happen. We were getting dropped of at school when my little sis vomited so we both went home. It's been about 10-20 mins and Pepper is lying alone and I think she/he's dead!!! I'm really upset and I'm trying to look on the positive side which is it's better to R.I.P then live in hell. I guess it was all meant to be.

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