EMERGENCY CARE FOR NEONATAL KITTENS
Today I woke up to a baby who was stumbling and lethargic. I went in to emergency mode, outlined below, and recovered her fairly quickly. I had slept through my alarm and realized that she was either cold or had low blood sugar--or both.
There is very little medical care that can be administered to neonatal kittens. Their systems are too underdeveloped to handle most medications and they cannot be anaesthetized. The most basic, essential elements of neonatal emergency care are heat, subcutaneous fluids, glucose and massage.
I keep my emergency kit in the kitchen, where it is easily accessible and always clean and organized. It has a bag of ringers, syringes and needles for emergency fluid restoration. I also have a bag of grape sugar (glucose) that I rub on a baby's gums when it is unresponsive or cannot suckle. The emergency kit also includes two hot water bottles, and I have an electric kettle ready to boil water quickly. I've learned that there is not always a point in trying to rush to a veterinarian if a tiny kitten starts to crash, since the treatment is pretty much always the same and I don't want to lose time by bringing a baby in, when every minute is critical. I also have an oxygen chamber and tank I set up in my spare room.
My emergency procedure is this (I follow it as protocol for intake of all new babies in the hot months, assuming that they are dehydrated and under extreme stress):
1. Put water in the kettle and start it.
2. Stick a moist fingertip in the dry glucose and then rub it on the baby's gums. I make sure the whole top set of gums is white with sugar, but am careful not to put so much that the baby then overdoses or has a metabolic crash on the way down.
3. Fill a sterile syringe with ringers (I use roughly 2 mL per 100g body weight). Warm the syringe full of fluids in hot water until it reaches body temperature: cold fluids can kill a little guy or cause a neurological shock. You can give fluids every 2 hours until the baby has recovered. **WAIT!!! NEVER ADD ANYTHING to subcutaneous injections. Something as seemingly harmless as a bit of glucose can kill your baby!!**
4. The water should be hot by now. Fill the water bottle, cover with a towel (never put a baby directly on the bottle, as it can burn!) Put the baby on the bottle and massage it gently to improve circulation. Cover the baby, always making sure that the bottle is not too hot and that the baby is at no more than a COMFORTABLE temperature. Overheating and too rapid heating can be very dangerous. In the case of overheating, uncover the baby and moisten his feet, ears and belly. Don't wet its body completely--just dampen its extremities! Blowing on the baby will help to cool it a little faster.
Monitor temp carefully (using a rectal thermomether) so it doesn't dip back down! Healthy body temperature for kittens is 100 - 102.5°F (37.7 - 39.1°C). Get to the vet if baby's temperature is under 99°F (37.2°C) or over 104°F (40°C).
Rectal temperatures in a normal newborn puppy range from 95º to 99ºF (35º to 37.2ºC) for the first week, 97º to 100ºF (36.1º to 37.8ºC) for the second and third weeks, and reach the normal healthy temperature of an adult (100º to 102ºF) (37.8º to 38.9ºC) by the fourth week of life.
5. Keep the baby on the bottle and your hand over the blanket she is covered in. I feel that the touch of a caretaker helps tiny babies to feel more secure, and it is important that you keep close watch over your tiny friend.
6. ONLY IF the baby is responsive and able to suckle should you then offer food and/or liquids. If the baby will not willingly eat, do not put any bottle or other food/liquids in its mouth or you might asphyxiate it or cause aspiration!
7. Set the bottle and the baby in a little, covered box and get to the vet ASAP for more expert care.
Sadly, the vast majority of neonatals who start their crash cannot be recovered, but some can. If you decide to get in to kitten/puppy rescue, prepare for some heartache...you WILL lose some of your tiny friends...