The three remaining kittens have proven to be some of the crankiest kittens ever. I spent a lot of time this weekend trying to figure out why they seemed to be so demanding. Of course, they seem to be the most trying during the middle of the night feedings: when all I want to do is finish up and go back to sleep.
I refuse, no matter how frustrated I get, to let kittens continue to cry. Crying means something is wrong and I need to fix that issue. I posted a list of some of the most usual issues.
Feed, Stimulate, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat…
One issue I’m having with this litter is that they seem to like to eat in short bursts. My routine is to feed one, stimulate them to pee/poop, feed a second time, put to bed. With this litter, I will do that but they don’t always settle down to sleep.
So I try again. They eat again. Sometimes they poop or pee again. And still they don’t settle down. So I repeat again and again. I get a rice sock. I brush them. Everything on the list, but nothing seems to let them settle down. They cried. Loudly. Worse, I would get two to settle and the third would cry loud enough to get the others to wake up and join them. Misery loved company.
Finally, I talked to the shelter about trying Metacam. Metacam is an NSAID pain reliever that I’ve used with kittens that have gastrointestinal issues in the past. Metacam was a short term solution and that’s what I needed. If something was wrong, I knew that I would see evidence of it soon. The kittens would stop eating or have diarrhea. They would get worse. At that time, the vet would be able to diagnose and treat. Before that, there wasn’t much the vet could do but give them some relief.
And it worked. I now believe that they were having a bit of a bacterial imbalance in their stomach which was causing cramping/pain. Since I was already giving them probiotics and I increased that prior to giving them Metacam, they were feeling better and did not need a 2nd dose 24 hours later. They still are a little more demanding than other litters I have, but I can deal with that.