young kitten having trouble eating

by Jordan
(Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Hi,

Ive got a 7 week old kitten we have handraised since he was 2 weeks old. Yesterday, after a meal, he started crying out and frothing at the mouth.
Anyway after about 5 mins he calmed down and became his usual happy self again. Next meal, the exact same thing happened.
We took him to a vet, she wasnt too concerned about what we told her, she examined his throat and said he seemed fine and that the obstruction should pass (if theres one there).
However today it is still going on and he seems in quite a bit of discomfort after eating. I have tried massaging his throat, he will sometimes vomit up a very small amount of food after I do this (he then feels instantly better) but I am unsure if I should continue in case im making it worse in the long run.

After he eats, he starts to froth and call out for about 5-10 minutes , then he is very quiet for about another 10 minutes, and then it calms down again and hes back to normal until his next feed. Its just so distressing to see him cry out in pain after eating.
Any ideas?

Reply
Hi
I don't know what food you are feeding him on but if it is solid food it may just still be too early for him to cope with this and it may be uncomfortable in his tummy. Perhaps return him to kitten milk for another few weeks and then to slowly reintroduce solid food again.

If it continues to happen then i would definitely take him back to the vet for another look. he is very young still though and some kittens don't wean until they are 12 weeks old so he may need a little more time with the milk.

I have a page about kitten weaning which you may find of interest here

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/kitten-weaning.html

best wishes kate

Comments for young kitten having trouble eating

Click here to add your own comments

young kitten frothing white froth a few minutes after eating and crying.
by: Anonymous

I have a young kitten bottle fed with the same problem he is one of 7 kittens and all the others are now 14 months huge babies and are rehomed but he has never grown much only very slowly. He is eating minced food but seems to want to eat everything but when he has fininshed about 10 minutes later he starts to cry then froth at the mouth then normally brings the food up. You can hear his tummy rumbling and he is always hungry. The vets put him on some antibotics saying then we can put him on some probiotics because maybe an lot of bad bateria in his stomach. But I had to take him off the medication because it made him worse. He is having milk with added vitiamins now which he seems to prefer so after reading you notes I will try him back on kitten formula until he grows a bit more. Thank you.
I rescue hundreds of kittens each year but have never had one with this problem before.
Continued!
by: Jordan

Hi again Kate,
Thanks for your reply. We are currently feeding him kitten food (wet) and a little bit of soaked dry food. He is definitley a guts and the vet suggested he could be eating too fast and aspirating? He has been on solid food for about 2 weeks now and we stopped the bottle about 4 days ago. It's just weird that it is happening every time (for the last 2 days), his brother and sister are completely fine. I will try offering the bottle again and seeing how he goes.
Thanks again,
Jordan

Reply
Hi yes he may be eating too fast, i had a cat who used to to do this and she was sick everyday. In the end we fed her smaller amounts and we moved to just dry food. this seemed to help her and the vomiting stopped.
Kate

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Cat Questions.