Hand Rearing Minnie - animal concern cumbria north
Hand Rearing Minnie
ANIMAL CONCERN CUMBRIA North Lakes and Solway Branch
I was first called to help with a two week old kitten on Tuesday 23rd June. She had been taken into our veterinary practice, Paragon in Dalston, by a man who had found her abandoned and squealing on a building site. Perhaps her mother was disturbed moving her kittens and left Minnie behind, we'll never know. Luckily she was pretty okay except for an abundance of ticks! The vets had to remove over 30 ticks from this tiny two week old girl, even from between her tiny toes, it's amazing really she wasn't much sicker as a result of such an infestation. When it was determined that the man couldn't provide the skilled care needed with such a small kitten we were called and I picked up the small scrap that afternoon. My first thought was to try Minnie with an existing nursing queen who belongs to one of our fosterers. Lucy had had four kittens which were now almost seven weeks old and so I contacted her 'mum', and experienced hand-rearer Irene. Sadly after a fruitless night of attempting to feed, Irene realised that Lucy didn't have enough milk left for Minnie and started the process of hand feeding. This is a practiced art that requires a feed of special kitten milk substitute every three hours - with feeds during the night. After a couple of days, Minnie came back to me and as a first timer to hand rearing I had done some reading online! I was able to get Minnie to use a nursing bottle which was easier than syringe feeding and she happily adapted to it, grabbing the sides with her little paws and holding on while she guzzled. It really was quite the eye opening experience, especially when I had to enocurage Minnie to wee and poo! Normally the mum cat would wash the kitten's bum area to encourage it to go, in the absence of mum we fosterers must do this! Using cotton wool you gently massage the area and wait for flow as it were! I had no idea quite how much wee would be produced and ended up using a substantial amount of loo roll. I really have heaps of renewed respect for nursing queens! Imagine doing several kittens...Before long I had the bottle preperation, feeding and toileting down to a fine art.
Registered Charity
Number 513091
Follow our fosterers' work with an abandoned two-week old kitten.
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