Cat people- Sick kitten, advice needed

[Team Chaos]

Hi there,
We had a stray cat show up at the farm a few months back and, no surprise, she was pregnant. She had the babies in the garage and has really turned into a tolerant sweetheart w/ us. 5 weeks ago she had 6 babies- all survived. 2 black tabbies and 4 grey tabbies. All babies have been in good health despite some eye gunk early on. The kittens have taken an interest in mama's wet cat food and we've been providing kitten chow for about a week now. Mama has been very reluctant to nurse for several days- the babies have to chase her and crrrrry and she'll relent for about 5 minutes. Anyway, one of the black tabbies (Chuck) has been eating the wet food and kitty kibble really well and has not bothered chasing his mama down for milk. Yesterday, it became apparent that something is wrong with him- his fur is falling out by the handful! He was lethargic (not like him at all) and felt boney but his belly was like a hard ping pong ball. His poor butt was really inflamed as well. We got mama to nurse him exclusively for a while and that seemed to perk him up some. We gave mama cat some rare steak and she was delighted to drink all the blood from it, and Chuck was sucking on the meat too! When he finally had a bowel movement, it was clear liquid with a little bit of yellow in it and very sticky. I rubbed his belly for a long time last nite and he seemed more comfortable. We gave him a heat lamp and he slept in a pile with his brothers and sisters. He's looking a little brighter today, but still small and wobbly with weird "poop"s. Mama cat has been hiding from the babies and doesn't want to nurse them at all. About an hour ago, she vomited and had white poop. I've got a call in to our vet but it's after hours and I'm sure she's on another call since we haven't heard anything yet. Any ideas what is going on here? I was initially thinking malnourishment but I don't have a lot of cat experience. Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[so lucky]

It's been a while since I had cats/kittens, but I think they are not weaned by 5 weeks, more like 8 weeks. If mama is trying to hide from them, she may be pretty ill herself. The white poop doesn't sound good for mama, nor does the fur falling out, on the boy. Hope your vet has some solutions.

We were blessed this weekend by someone dropping off 4 kittens. They are wild as a turkey. I ignored them for 2 days, but relented and gave them some water and left over stew this evening. I will need to get them tame enough to catch, even to just take them to the humane society. I estimate them at being about 3 months old, starting to get gangly. Maybe I should keep one and encourage it to be a mole catcher.

 

[Emerald]

Have you wormed them at all since momma showed up? A big parasite overload can lead to the symptoms of the little one and kinda the big one.. and when they start to lose hair like that and groom then they tend to get really bad hairballs. so maybe some hairball remedy or even some bacon grease will help pass that.
It is also possible that they ate(or momma ate) a mouse or critter that had been poisoned by another household. I almost lost a furkid to that. I'm sure that the vet will probably know exactly what is up.
Here is a for you.. I usually end up with every stray in the area and find them good homes if they are abandoned and it is so easy to become attached to those little furballs.. But I've lost a few that were just to young to be away from mommy and some that were just too old/sick to recover and had to ease their pain. So I know how you are feeling right now.. got my fingers crossed for you.

 

[Team Chaos]

Thanks for your replies, everyone! We went to the vet this a.m. and she was kind of surprised to not find any worms in the mom (Scraps) or the kitten (Chuck). I took all six kittens along and the rest got a clean bill of health. Chuck and Scraps will be on antibiotics in case it's something bacterial, like giardia, but no real diagnosis- just supportive care. Everybody got wormed just for good measure.