A Moment in Kitten Time - The Aristocats, Week 4

Here is this week's update on Duchess and her kittens. The babies are growing fast and will be listed for adoption now, and will be ready to go to new homes on the Labour Day week-end.

Last week we had to take Duchess and her litter to see the vet at the Regina Animal Clinic. Duchess had tar-like stool. I know poop talk! Moms always find a way to talk about their baby’s poop, what colour is it, is it normal. I made a quick call to the clinic to talk about Duchess and her stool and they suggested she be seen right a way. Tar-lie stool is not normal. They suggested it could be one of three things; blood in her intestines, worms, or a bacterial infection. De-worm, antibiotics and a paste, we had a small pharmacy for Duchess and 4 kittens with colds needing eye ointment and we are on our way home from the clinic.

All of the kittens are walking and playing with the toys we have put out for them. Toulouse drank from the water bowl too. Berlioz and Marie dipped their toes and were not interested in the water further than that. I guess a dunk in the dish of water will do that to a kitten.

The kittens can now escape the pen we built for them. When we were going to bed one night we turned on a light to find Marie and Bear had both escaped from the nest. Marie arched her back and hissed like a “big” kitten. The hiss and spit was so cute! She’s one tough Kitty. Fearing for their safety we moved them to the bathroom where they could roam and not get hurt. This was too stressful for Duchess and not practical for our family of humans so we decided after a day to let them roam the bedroom and moved them back in.

With the daily care of the kittens we are trying to teach our 2 year old how to handle them properly. She likes to pick them up by their heads and it just freaks me out. We show her repeatedly how to pick them up under the belly. She does love to hold them, kiss them, and pet them. She is very gentle in her cuddles. Having our adult cats she has learned the basics now it’s just getting her to understand that kittens are tiny and we need to be gentle.

Lily gave us a scare this week. She has a cold infection in both eyes bad now and a runny nose. We watched her closely over night as she was sleeping more than the other kittens. She continued to nurse along with her brothers and sisters and the eye ointment did its magic. Over the next couple of days all the kittens’ eyes have improved. Spooky too has a double eye cold now too. The vet told us this might happen so we now apply ointment to both eyes. There are a lot of hands to wash with four kittens needing ointment and not wanting to pass the colds to the other kittens. We have been lucky the two healthy ones, Mittens and Berlioz still remain healthy.

None of the kittens are interested in Duchess’ food. We have tried to spoon feed the kittens. We even tried finger feeding and no licks. We will try again when they seem more interested in Duchess eating. In the meantime we are feeding Duchess from a plate instead of a bowl to try and get the kittens interested in what she is eating. Mittens joined Duchess to eat the soft cat food. How exciting! The other kittens show no interest.

We introduced a small pan of traditional non-clumping litter and cut a lower entrance into the front of the litter box so the kittens can get in and out. I took each kitten and scratched their paws in the litter to show them what to do when in the box. We even added another litter box for Duchess to use. They all seem to like the same box and even though I cut the lower entrance they climb in and out through the sides. Spooky was the first to use the litter box. Lily is curious about it but not using it yet. Toulouse and Berlioz have now graduated to the litter box as well.

Just last week they could barely get around on wobbly legs and today they are running, wrestling with each other and climbing to high places. What will they get into next? Stay tuned as we follow Marie, Berlioz, Toulouse, Spooky, Mittens and Lily in their adventures.


Jackie Kruger
Foster Mom