newborn kitten hurt! please help

Question
QUESTION: my 10 day old kitten seems to have hurt her arm it is very swollen & she cannot use it. she has been crying out in pain. i do not have my car w/ me right now or my cell phone are i would have takin her to a vet but i am wondering if i can find a ride will she be able to be helped since she is only 10 days old.is there anything i can do to help her right now? i really hate that she's hurt. i seen her last night & hadn't noticed any problems she was eating along w/ her siblings. i woke up & noticed her crying & then her arm im going crazy thinking how this happened since i keep them in my closet in my bedroom. can this be a delayed reaction from something that colud have happened earlier in the day???please help as soon as possible i wanna know if she can be saved?

ANSWER: Hi Jaci.  Sorry I didn't get your question sooner.  Were you able to get the kitten to the vet?  If the leg is injured then chances are actually pretty good that she'll recover from it.  There may not be a lot the vet can do for her at this age, but the kitten's bones are so soft and flexible at this age that they mend easily, and kittens learn to cope well even if they have injuries that don't heal just right.

However, swollen extremities can sometimes indicate a bad infection instead of an injury.  These can be much more dangerous than an injury to a leg.  Your vet can put the kitty an a liquid antibiotic to try to treat the infection.  It's always risky to treat a very young kitten with antibiotics, because they may aspirate the medicine when you try to give it, and also because their bellies are so sensitive that antibiotics may cause diarrhea, leading to dehydration (contact the vet if this happens!).  However, if an infection is to blame, it's the only choice.  A newborn with an infection will quickly die without treatment.

I hope all turns out well!  If you think about it, please let me know what the vet says and how the baby does.

Jessica



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QUESTION: thank you for your response but sadly she didnt make it. i think you might be right about an infection.Im really starting to stress though because about an hour after she died i found another one of my kittens dead and he was one of the two biggest ones. He was not swollen any where or did he ever cry. i had noticed him near the other kitten who kept excluding herself from the group. the mother of them originally had 9 kittens, after the first night i woke up to a dead kitten but since it was the runt i thought he just wasnt strong enough. about 2 days later the second smallest died again i thought just wasnt strong enough. but now these last 2 were 2 of the biggest ones. thier in a comfortale area & the mother is always feeding them so i dont know whats going on. i've checked all the others & they seem fine. Could there be a contagious infection? Are anything else contributing to this?? i really cant afford a vet bill for all kittens & would like them to stay w/ their mom.

Answer
Such a large litter is very unusual!  As you suspected, this could be the reason you've lost a couple - not enough milk to go around for everyone, and the smallest ones got pushed away from the teats too often to receive enough nourishment to survive.  Why the larger ones wouldn't survive is a bit of a mystery, but infection is always a concern.  If possible, it would be best to get mom and kittens to the vet for an exam.  

There is a condition called Fading Kitten Syndrome that causes the deterioration of a litter's health, and the kittens all start dying, one by one.  There has not been a single cause determined, so the phenomenon is very frustrating, but infection is one of the reasons why the kittens are lost.  If your vet finds anything amiss with mom during the exam, then you may have your answer.  However, sometimes mothers can be carriers of bacteria like certain strains of chlamydia that they will show no signs of.  This can be fatal to kittens.  Watch out for any signs of sniffling, nasal or eye discharge or coughing, and report this to your vet right away.  An antibiotic will be needed to treat this infection.  

I would recommend having mom tested for the Feline Leukemia and Feline AIDS viruses.  These can cause the death of newborns if they are infected.  Most vets carry in-office tests that will let you know results in about 10 minutes.

As for the rest of the litter, the best way to monitor a kitten's health is usually to keep track of his weight.  I weigh all my babies every day with an ounce scale (for mail), and keep a record of their weight.  Each kitten should gain about 1/4 oz. each day.  If a baby ever fails to gain weight for more than two days in a row, or if he ever loses weight, he's in trouble.  You should immediately supplement with bottle feeding, and ideally, get him to the vet.  Most likely, he's a fading kitten.  Some vets will give a fading kitten an antibiotic in case his condition is being caused by an infection, and I think this is the best idea.  Some of my kittens who had been fading have only made it to adulthood because of antibiotics.

Best of luck!