New members of the kitten-nursery-school

In March, on one of my shifts I was visited by one my regular customer – an older lady, Mrs Zosia. She came to the clinic before with her cats who were ones of the oldest cat patients and lived approximately around 20 years. Now she shares her home with two young male kittens. She also feeds stray cats on her backyard – one of them is a young female. During winter Mrs Zosia gave her a shelter in her basement where she was kept warm, well fed and safe from other cats – also the two males from the apartment. There was a plan to catch and neuter her when she gets a bit domesticated.

This time Mrs Zosia came to me with a problem she now had. The female cat she took care of delivered 4 kittens in her basement. Law regaluation about animal laws and preventing homelessness allows to euthanasie blind litters (before they open their eyes). Mrs Zosia was considering this solution regarding future problems if the kittens grow up. She wanted to contact me about it earlier, right after they were born, but I was out of work for a week.

The lady was really upset about it and it was very hard to make that decision. I was also struggling  and was unable to sleep the night previous to her visit with the kittens – aware of what needs to be done. It was much harder due to the little ones form Helen and Elma crawling around the house. I knew I will see them in any other kittens. Mrs Zosia brought the babies to the clinic with tears in her eyes and left on the table. I was fighting not to run away from the responsibility. Before I even reached for any medications I examined the kittens. They turned out a bit older than I assumed. What’s more! They already had their eyes open which meant I couldn’t put them to sleep according to the law. I felt a huge relief that I no longer need to do that! But then a dilemma occurred – what will we do with them now?

If we give them back to their stray mom they will grow up to be also stray. It may be a problem to catch and neuter them so they don’t breed further in the neighborhood (three of them were females). Even if we manage to do that, letting them go on the same territory was not really an option. There were already several stray cats that Mrs Zosia took care of, new ones might cause conflicts and fights within the group. What’s more the kittens could be bitten by older and stronger cats. Finding homes for cats that are not used to people and don’t develop a bond with owners, would be a real challenge. Stressing both for owners and for cats.

If we won’t give them back to their mom, we would have to find someone who will be able to nurse 10 days old kittens for another couple of weeks. I also thought that we might try to search for a wet-nurse. My own two girls came into mind. Unfortunately getting home kittens with unknown immunological status (we didn’t know which diseases their mom had), having just a few days older newborns with no vaccinations yet. That wasn’t really an option. I felt sorry for the stray little ones but I wouldn’t forgive myself if that would compromise the others ones health and maybe even life.

Nursering the kittens in known foster homes wasn’t possible as these were overpopulated with cats and kittens already (it was already cat baby boom season).

We were running out of options what to do with them. I didn’t want them to be feral but I also cared that they are developing healthy. So I managed to develop a plan that might turn out to be golden mean in a way.

Normally kittens are suckling on their mom for around 8 weeks but from 4th week  – when first milk teeth show up – they also start to fed on other food. Social and psychological development takes place until they are at least 12 weeks old. Most important are the first 7 weeks of life. That’s a period when they get used to things the most. This means if they don’t have any positive human contact in that time of age, domesticating it later may be problematic. Also the future bond with owners maybe a bit loose or none – in comparison to one developed by a kitten raised with people. It doesn’t mean it’s totally impossible – just much harder to achieve.

We arranged with Mrs Zosia that for now the kittens will remain with their mom until 5 weeks of age. After that they will stay at the clinic where I work for quarantine – they will be devormed, changed from milk to babycat food, introduced to human contact and also observed for any symptoms. I decided that when that period goes well I will try to take them home and introduce them to our cats. I also decided I will cover all the expenses on their care and fostering.

Stray cat mom and her babies stayed locked in the basement under Mrs Zosia supervision and care. The lady also tried to approach the kittens from time to time, carry them a bit to get them familiar with touch. After the arranged time she has brought them to the clinic. In the exam it turned out they got fleas, so first they were treated for that with special spray safe for little kittens. They also got deworming paste.

6th week of age is when the “immunological gap” begins. It’s a time when immunity received from mom starts to decrease. It’s a very sensitive period for kittens health. That’s why I decided that they will also receive a supplement to help their defense system to work properly. Of course it was crucial to keep the hygiene and disinfection standards around the kittens.

First days of the kittens in the clinic were really time consuming as we had to get them used to canned food. Few times during shift they had to be fed and they didn’t always want to cooperate. Sometimes meal time for all four of them was around an hour or more. Luckily I’ve had some help of Ala, who is a veterinary technician and also zoophysiotherapist. Normally Ala works with dogs as she runs Psiłownia (a dog gym and puppy nursery school in Bydgoszcz), but she managed perfectly with cats as well.

The time we spent with them really paid of as soon after moving to the clinic, some of them started to purr. After necessary quarantine the kittens were dewormed again and vaccinated for the first time. Meanwhile our thai kittens from litter P & R received their second vaccination. Thanks to all that, after another few days I decided to bring “the strays” home from the clinic.

Thanks to the conditions we have provided for out cattery cats, we also had an opportunity to accommodate new kittens while keeping the quarantine. At first they stayed in second cat room. Thanks to that, those four finally had some place to run, play and rest while our cats got a chance to observe them and get familiar without direct contact. We tried to save some stress for the little ones (stray & thai) by introducing new things step by step. Larger stress could compromise immunity to all the kittens. Having those four at home also provided us with more chances to familiarize them to people and home living.

When pre-introduction through the glass was ok and none of the kittens had worrying symptoms we decided to finally open the doors between cat rooms.

At first kittens hissed at each other a bit and kept their distance. But it took them only two more days to play together. Now they even have naps with each other and during night it is hard for us to sleep with ten kittens in our bed. Especially the adopted ones appreciate our comfy bed 😉 It is natural that “the strays” prefer their own company more then other but sometimes they integrate with thai siblings. They learn from each other – how to use closed litter box, cat trees, toys and also stupid things – like how to get one the table. All without exception come to say hello when we get back home.

The only difference than we observe, is that the adopted kittens don’t really fancy being carried. But in return they purr much more often and louder when they come to us, than the thai’s.

Some time ago, when the kittens were still with their stray mom, I was contacted by Mrs Ewa. She lives with our Neo and wanted to ask me about getting him a cat sibling and considered a shelter kitten. That’s how one of the kittens already found a home even before coming to live with us. News travel fast within the clinic and some time later we found a home or a male kitten and one of the girls as well.
Adopted cats will leave the cattery in the same “standard” as our purebred. Which means 3 vaccinations, dewormed, microchipped and neutered. They will also receive a layette for easier accommodation in new homes.

As soon as I deal with our thai kittens personal profiles, I will also try some more about the adopted ones as well. For now I really am short of free time which is rather predictable with 15 cats at home…

P.S.

Two weeks ago I also spayed the female – mom of our adopted kittens. The surgery went well and without any complications. Using the opportunity she was also dewormed and treated for fleas. Soon she will no longer need to be locked and will be able to leave Mrs Zosia’s basement and go out to live as she is used to.