Hand-rearing kitten - think she's constipated

mollymurphy

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Hiya everyone, just wondering if anybody could recommend something for a constipated week-old kitten? She's either constipated or wormy, but thought i'd try the constipation-route before worming. She's only pooed once so far.
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Also, am i right in thinking she's too young to be wormed now anyway?

She's being fed Cimicat (one part Cimicat to two parts water) every 2 hours (about 6ml each feed).

She's the 8th kitten we've hand-reared, but none of the others had this problem, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Lou. x
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Isn't she sweet!

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And suckling from our dog, Lucy!

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Are you relieving her as you would with her urine?
Does he look a little bloated?
This is common in orphan kittens/puppies with underdeveloped bowels...I would have her checked by the vet is she goes 48 hours without passing faeces just to make sure she is in good working order..as such
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and ask your vet for some liquid paraffin.

You can try gently massaging his stomach to encourage bowel movement....and when relieving use a little luke warm water and rub gently as rubbing to rough can also prevent them from passing a stool, and make them sore.
 
As you've reared kittens before I'm probably telling you something you already know, but, when hand rearing puppies, to get them to go to the loo the best thing to do is rub their tummies with cotton wool soaked in little baby oil. I expect the same would work for kittens.This is supposed to simulate mum licking them which encourages them to go. If you are already doing this then can't offer any help I'm afraid. Good luck she is so cute.
 
Thank you everyone. Mum was a feral who had kittens in someones garage, then took all of the babies away, apart from this little girl. We're fostering for the RSPCA.

We are stimulating her with warm, damp cotton wool, but she just wees. Lucy (our dog) also toilets her - she's the one who got her to do a poo, but nothing's happened since. She's due another feed now. If nothing happens tonight, i'll take her to the shelter in the morning to get some parrafin or something. She just looks quite bloated and uncomfortable at times.

Her eyes opened today, so she looks even cuter!!
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Are you sure the dog's not relieving her and then eating the faeces like the mum cat would? If she gone once then her bowel must be normal and if you've raised 8 before it can't be the formula so I'd see if her tum appears bloated and then get her to the vet.
 
Yeah, i've been watching her really carefully and she's deffinately only been once. And that one wasn't really up to much size-wise!
She looks really bloaty after a feed, but it goes down again before the next one. She just seems different to all of the others and i cant put my finger on what it is. It's probably just because she's on her own, whereas the others all came in 2's or 3's. She just takes a while to settle down and is constantly hungry.
Will deffinately take her to the shelter / a vet tomorrow for a check-up.
Thank you all.
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