|
| |||
Findings of a Foster:
Author: Rachel OlivieriDate: 7/1/2020 Hi Everyone! Marketing Director, Rachel O, here! FLR is excited to begin our series entitled 'Findings of a Foster,' which will be a weekly series dedicated to all that goes into being an animal foster. We'll touch on various elements - some will be funny, some will be very educational, and some will explore various trials and tribulations related to animal fostering. I'm elated to present our first episode in the series, which talks about the first few days of fostering neonatal kittens. My story begins two (or was it three? I'm not sure - time has escaped me!) weeks ago, when we first received a plea from a family looking to surrender two 2-week-old kittens whose mother had rejected them. Sadly, their siblings had passed already, so we knew time was of the essence to get these babies hydrated and on the road to recovery. When I first saw the kittens, I was amazed at how small they were. They looked just so fragile. Both of them could fit into one of my hands. Their eyes were open (a clear indicator of at least 7 - 10 days or so days of age), and their little ears were unfolding. I was immediately in LOVE - these two little beings had stolen my heart, and I hadn't even heard their first little 'mew!' When we got home, I took the kittens to a spare room (normally reserved for my mom - sorry, Mimi!) in a Tupperware container and stimulated them to use the bathroom. Toileting is something done by the mother cat for the first several weeks of life, but since I was their foster mom now - that job fell on me. Armed with several rolls of soft toilet paper, I was ready! Monitoring urine and fecal output for kittens is extremely important, and I've come to celebrate every single poop (which is something that probably every single foster will tell you - regardless of which species you're fostering!). After toileting, I gave the kittens some freshly prepared, warm goat's milk in a syringe. I personally prefer the Miracle Nipple - it is extremely helpful for getting kittens to latch on, particularly if they've never nursed from a bottle before. The kittens loved the warm milk, and drank several mLs before going peacefully back to sleep in their box. I'd added a heating pad to their box, covered in a soft towel. Kittens are unable to monitor their temperatures for the first weeks of life, so they needed an external source to keep warm. Another part of our daily routine was the flea baths. These kittens had quite a few fleas, and given their age and size, we couldn't use traditional flea and tick medicine to get rid of them. We used Dawn dish soap to give the kittens baths, followed by using a flea comb all over them. This was repeated for multiple days! Given the kittens' age, they were on a 3-4 hour feeding schedule. It became a routine for us - my alarm would go off, I'd heat up the water for their bottles, stimulate them to use the bathroom, weigh them, feed them, spend some time with them, and then start the process again a few hours later. This continued for the first few weeks - day AND night. Needless to say, I've been pretty tired! While it is 1,000% worth it because we've saved two absolutely AMAZING lives, foster fatigue is very real (we will cover this in another installment), and I will definitely be taking a short break from fostering after these two little loves find their forever home! Thank you for reading this - I know our first episode was a long one, but I wanted you, our readers, to gain some high-level insight into fostering neonatal kittens. Please let us know what you think in the comments, or if there are any topics in particular you'd like us to go in depth about! Hope you all have an amazing weekend! - RO |
Help FLR Save More Like Me       |
| ||||||
