7-8 wk old foster kitten trying to fade away. Anything I haven't tried yet?
Hi all! I'm fostering a 7-8 week old kitten (~2lbs) that was found by an acquaintance. I took her, got her checked in with the local shelter, and then signed up to foster her since they're jammed packed. My shelter has a friendly finders program that allows found pets to be kept by the finder during their stray hold, and then I'm funneled directly into their foster care system. I have had this kitten since Wednesday. She became inappetent on Friday, though will drink a bit of water on her own. It's Sunday now, and she still won't really eat on her own. She's sluggish but aware. She vomitted a little last night and this morning, but I took her by the shelter this morning and they gave her an anti nausea medication
Things I've done:
- Started a deworming protocol for coccidia (3 days ponazuril, 5 days panacur). the shelter handed me these pre aliquoted. technically started on Wednesday when Intake dewormed her, but I took home additional doses thursday
- Took a fecal sample to the shelter on Friday. They were able to process it same day. It came back NEGATIVE for everything.
- Began keeping her on a heating pad set on low Friday night ( she can get away from it if she wants to.) Began syringe feeding KMR and administering Karo syrup every 5-10 minutes from 10pm-1am because her body temp was reading at 98F.
- On saturday, she ate 1 whole churu, as well as a couple teaspoons worth of kitten food. But that night, she vomitted maybe 4x. I started Karo syrup again, and syringe fed her water from 10 pm-2 am. I sent pictures of her gums to the foster person on call, and they said they were a little pale, and to keep pushing water and karo syrup. I also bought some nutrical, and was giving a dab on her tongue 2-3x a day.
- At 4 am this morning, I syringe fed KMR and gave a little more nutrical because she was looking pretty flat. I got maybe 4-5mL into her before she started to put up a fight. I called it quits and went back to bed.
- On sunday (this morning), she puked again. I drove her to the shelter and they gave an anti nausea shot, some kind of booster, and sent me home with an appetite stimulant and another gut health supplement. They said her gums were pale, but that her hydration was good. So far the appetite stimulant is ineffective, and she's still just pretty flat. She has had diarrhea throughout. I gave nutrical, and syringe fed another couple mL of KMR mixed with a drop of karo syrup
I've had sick kittens before. I've been through URIs and ringworm. But I've never had a kitten refuse food for so long. She's not taking any drastic turns for the worse. Her nose/eyes are clear. But I feel like I'm slowly losing ground, and this baby isn't showing me much fight. Is there something I'm missing? Something I should be giving her or advocating for? I'm tired.