no idea what's wrong;
it's good that your mom is taking her to the vet.

Meanwhile, the kittens aren't getting the nourishment they need from their mother, so they need supplemental feeding;
you can get KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement) at Petsmart or at the vet's, may be cheaper at Petsmart.

I would get the powdered kind in the big canister; you'll go through the liquid too fast.

I've bottle-fed kittens with a medicine dropper;
just be careful that you don't feed it too fast.

if it "goes down the wrong way", it can get into their lungs & lead to pneumonia, & kittens aren't likely to survive pneumonia.

Give the mother cat whatever is left over aftr feeding the kittens.

Best luck (& let us know what the vet says).

sylvia

ps: as soon as this crisis is over, it would be a kindness to the mother to have her spayed. She'll live longer & be healthier without the constant stress of pregnancy & nursing. (& there just aren't enough homes out there for kittens.)

Sounds like Mom is stressed out. This happened to my cat when she had a litter. The vet recommended supplements for the kittens....KMR like Sylvia said and if they are about 3 weeks old try offering them the KMR in a saucer for them to lap it up....this is what we did and it worked fine after they got a taste of the stuff they didn't need any more encouragement.....Mom will finish the rest. Make sure that she is not with the kittens when you do this or else she will eat the milk before the kittens can get it.

Also, is she having any runny stools.....ours did and the vet said to feed her pumpkin (canned) a little at a time and this cleared that problem right up.

How many kittens did she have?

Good Luck

The mother cat should be getting a high quality kitten food while she is nursing. Kitten food provides a higher concentration of essential nutrients that a lactating mother requires. She may also need a vitamin/mineral supplement that your vet can supply.

And as Sylvia recommended, it would be best for all concerned to get the mother spayed as soon as she weans this litter, and NOT to allow her access to any intact males until she is spayed.

Laurie

She is going to get her spayed as soon as the vet will do it. The kitty was already pregnant with this litter by the time I caught her. We don't have any idea how old she is either and that could be adding to the problems. She already took her to the vet, they seem to think that it may be a upper respirtory infection, mom told them to run tests until they find the cause. They are going to test for leukemia as well, everyone keep their fingers crossed!
If they put her on antibiotics we will have to go ahead and bottle feed these guys anyway (unless we can get them to drink from a saucer, that would be a big plus!)
This cat is such a doll, some people that lived here about 6 years ago moved and I KNOW I seen this cat sitting at their sliding glass door before they moved. Then poof! all of a sudden I seen her running around outside, People are such jerks, I couldn't catch her for YEARS, it drove me crazy especially in the winter but I guess all those times sitting down by the trashcan with a open can of tuna worked because I eventually managed to get my hands on her and when I finally got her and picked her up she just went limp in my arms, I thought she was a tortishell siamese mix my mother seems to think she is a ragdoll because of some of the things she does (the going limp when you hold her) and the pics she found of that breed.
As she is the only indoor cat my mom has and she has absolutly no desire to go out she don't need to get in any hurry to get her spayed now, but I am sure as soon as it is safe for meshka she will:)
(she had 6 kittens mamabear)
thanks guys I will keep you posted.
michelle

They cannot find anything wrong with her, they tested her for both leukemias and they wormed her, she does have a small upper respirtory infection but nothing that would cause these problems, her milk has totally dried up. Her gums are white. The vet sent her home already. I am not happy with this vet, her regular vet must of been out on a call, for she normally tries not to let the vet that looked at meshka touch any of her animals, but as this was a emergency she didn't want to wait.
well I guess it is a wait and see, hopefully the antibiotics will work, guess she is going to bring me 3 of the kittens to feed and she is going to keep 3, whatever it takes.

Your mom did the right thing by getting Meshka to the vet, but from your description Meshka is doing VERY poorly and I seriously doubt that antibiotics are going to help. I cannot think of any bacterial infection that causes anemia or cardiovascular disease, the top 2 reasons that a cat would have white gums. Unfortunately it sounds like Meshka needs to see a different vet, ASAP. You will be busy feeding kittens for a while! I'm glad that her FeLV and FIV tests were negative, but something is very seriously wrong to be causing white gums. Good luck with all the kitties.

They gave her a B12 shot and wormed her (he thought the white gums was parasites?) ran all sorts of tests, she is anemic. He said her condition had nothing to do with having the kittens. Right now she is very listless, so unless the antibiotics kick in we may lose her. The babies are eating great from the bottle, all but one little black one seem to be doing fine. We shall see, mom's regular vet is on vacation so no help from that quarter.

Mom is taking her back this morning, she has something wrong with her backend and can't even stand up right, she was whistling last night, but she stopped doing that. She keeps acting like she is going to throw up as well. I told her to call her regular vet to let him know what is going on, to this other vet she is just a cat, her regular vet is not that way he genuinely cares about animals. This cat should of never been sent home last night, I think that is just rediculous, he should of kept her until they had some idea of what was wrong with her. I am afraid the worming may of hurt her, I have had bad experiances worming a cat when there is other health issues.
This is just so awful! Mom says she just lays there and looks at her like she wants her to do something for her, so sad! We believe we will lose this cat, but at least mom is still trying to do everything she can for her.

Take her to another vet!

If her regular vet can't see her, find another one.

Do it now.

Since your mom trusts her regular vet, have her ask the vet for a referral to a specialist. I wouldn't go back to the same clinic!

What about kidney failure. I looked it up on the net and some symptoms sound like what your cat is experiencing. Maybe kidney failure is just on my mind right now because of the food recall, but I thought it would be worth mentioning. I hope your cat gets better. Take care.

Well, antibiotics are NOT going to help with anemia, and without proper veterinary treatment I'm afraid you're going to lose her. Isn't there another vet around who can really help? If she's doing that bad, she may need a blood transfusion which is expensive, but may save her life in the short term. Anemia is caused by something, and unless and until that cause is found and treated Meshka doesn't have much hope for survival. It depends on how far you can go with treatment of course.

If you're not going to do anything else for Meshka, please euthanize her. She is suffering, and slowly dying of anemia is NOT a good death- it will take days.

I'm glad the kittens are mostly doing well.

Oh my gosh Micke I'm SO sorry I missed your last post! I'm so glad your mom is taking her to another vet. Poor mommacat sounds like something is seriously wrong, maybe a saddle thrombus. Oh, please keep us posted about Meshka, the poor dear. I hope another vet will be there to help her.

she is on iv's right now and she is absorbing them as quickly as they are being administered. She is basically the same as she was this morning, they have ran test after test all kinds of bloodwork, everything is negative. Really odd. They are keeping her until they figure out what is wrong with her. The only thing that bugs me about that is these are small country town vets, not like a 24hr clinic or anything. I am sure she will be alone tonight and I don't like that.

Meshka died this morning. Never could find anything, they think it might of been Kidney failure. everything they tested for she had some symtoms but not all.
My mother has a helper for the kittens, her Australian Cattledog cleans them while she is feeding the others. So she may end up just keeping them all there with her, instead of sending half of them home with me.

I am so sorry to hear Meshka died, reading of her symptoms, it is no surprise, but so sad.
At least the kittens are well taken care of, having an Australian Cattle dog for assistant is a good thing, they take their jobs seriously.

So sorry to hear about Meshka.. tears for her here. Good luck with your kittens.
Lorie

I am so sorry to hear about Meshka. You at least have the kittens to carry on her line. I know that is no substitute for her, but it is all I can offer right now. You and your Mom and Meshka are in my thoughts. Please take care.

So sorry to hear about Meshka. Her condition sounded very serious so I'm glad she went quickly. I hope the kittens continue to do well.