Jingles for Marlow! Could she be dehydrated from nursing? What a good Momma.
I hope it is something simple like that. She might be a little constipated - these nursing moms make poos that are HUGE. I’m kind of impressed LOL.
She has a steady supply of RC kibble and water and canned RC 3 times a day as needed. She did eat, drink and use litterbox (urine) overnight so those are all good signs. I might pickup some KMR just to be safe. Babies are still so little and she had never been as attentive to her babies as Daisy is with hers, so I’ve always monitored her babies more. So far they have all gained at least 10g a day, so I don’t want to jump in and supplement if I don’t need to.
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Jingles for Miss Marlow. I hope she improves. Her tinies need her!
I would love to have little Randall and Jessie. I need a kitten right now like I need a hole in my head. 
Love this whole story, just adorable kittens !
Hope Marlow is doing better today. Thanks for the baby pictures!
This weekend was full of ups and downs.
On Friday night weigh-in, Marlow’s babies had LOST 10g each and she had not touched her food all day. They would try to suckle, but would not latch and would then waddle around looking for food - its like her milk had dried up completely or they didn’t like the flavor of what was coming out. They were crying and crying and while she wasn’t shooing them away, she wasn’t doing anything to round them up or encourage them to eat.
I alerted the rescue and ran out to get KMR and bottles. Bottle feeding in ROUGH ya’ll - I had no luck with it. The rescue recommended trying to graft Marlow’s babies to Daisy. Daisy’s babies are 4 days older than Marlow’s have excellent weight. I put Daisy’s babies in a box with blankets over a pet-safe heat pad for 90 minutes while Marlow’s babies eagerly nursed on the ever-patient mother-of-the-year Daisy. Bless her, she started to lick and cuddle and nurse those babies with no hesitation.
I spent the rest of the night alternating litters between Daisy and the warm box until I had to get some sleep, so I put all 8 babies with Daisy. Everyone got along famously. The rescue told me to bring Marlow to their vet at 7:30am so I would be the first walk-in of the day.
I got about 4 hours of sleep, then woke up to try to put this feral cat in a carrier to take her to the rescue’s vet. Thank God I invested in those giant leather elbow-length gloves. Marlow came alive and got away from me when I tried to put her in our bigger hard-sided carrier. Cue the benny hill music background as I tried get a very upset and stressed feral cat into a carrier. Dealing with tricky horses with trailers made mw know I needed to pad my start time, so I was able to slowly corner her and with the help of Mr. Broom coaxed her into a different side sided carrier. It actually could have been MUCH worse.
I get to the vet before they open and hand off Marlow to the tech only to be told that the doctor wont be in for another 2 hours 
I go back home to check on the wild rumpus kitten party of 8 and restart the kitten liter cycling process. I hear from the head of the rescue (who the vet has been providing updates to) that x-ray and ultrasound have found nothing wrong. Mastitis has been ruled out. Blood, fecal and urine take and sent to lab. B12 and fluids were given.
I’m told to pick her back up since there is nothing more they can do. I’m glad that nothing major is wrong, but mystified as to what would cause a sudden attitude change and refusal to eat/drink. Vet wont talk to me directly - he said he already told the rescue everything. I don’t push or demand since I’m sure its hard to find vets to provide low cost care to feral cats and I don’t want to burn any bridges for the rescue. But I’m pretty disappointed that he didn’t want to hear anything from me or answer any questions.
Marlow is too woozy from the vet to take care of babies, so all 8 spend the night with Daisy again. Its been a long day with no answers.
The next morning (Sunday, Mother’s Day) Marlow is back to her growly self. She gives me looks that say she clearly wishes I would go to Hades, but I’m just glad she ate some food. I put her favorite baby (Celia) with her and FINALLY she suckles. A few hours later, I add Randal (the meezer!) and HE suckles. I tried to add a 3rd kitten, Sully, but he never latches.
Like many of us, I had Mother’s Day obligations, so I left Marlow with her 2 babies, and the other 6 with Marlow. When I came home and weighed them, the 2 with Marlow made significant gains! yay!!!
Maybe 4 babies were just too much for Marlow? Nothing really changed in her environment that would explain the sudden refusal to eat, and in kind, the babies not suckling on her. I’m going to try to just keep her to 2 babies, since she seems happier with this current arrangement. I have started to supplement both moms with KMR to make sure they stay hydrated & the extra boost. Daisy LOVES it and would drink a whole can if I would let her, Marlow take a few licks and ignores it. 
We are still waiting on test results. While she is eating, Marlow is still not eating much, so I will be keeping a sharp eye on her kitten’s weight.
Best mom ever nursing Marlow’s babies: 
Wild Rumpus kitten party. I know box is falling apart, I have tried to swap this box for a bigger one, but Daisy has told me multiple times that this is her very favorite box and she wants to keep box. I figure she I owe her, so she is allowed to keep ratty old box.! 
Daisy’s 4 babies snug as bugs in the warm box 
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What an update! Three cheers for Daisy and continued jingles for Marlow. And much respect and admiration for all your efforts on behalf of these kitties ! 
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Poor Marlow. I hope she’s feeling better today but at least she felt good enough yesterday to give “the” look. Lol
What a good momma daisy is! I hope she finds a wonderful home when all the babies are big enough.
Those pictures are precious. What sweet, sweet little bundles of fluff.
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Thank you for those pics and the story. Made my day. I wonder if cats can get that calicinemia like cows?
Maybe you are right and four was too much. But clearly not for Rock Star Daisy.
Vet sounds like a pill. Hopefully you won’t have to deal with them again any time soon.
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You and Daisy are rock stars! Hopefully Marlow continues on the upward trend and pulls out of whatever was bothering her. Those kittens are SO CUTE!!!
If you do have to feed/supplement them - I’ve had good luck with an eyedropper, until they get the idea of the bottle itself. I suck at syringe feeding, but the large eyedropper, where you can give them just a few drops at a time, seems to work well for me.
BatCo, can you PM me the name of the rescue? I’d like to send them a dribble.
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Never a dull moment. More gray hairs by the day.
At last night’s weigh-in the 2 babies who spent the day with Marlow, Randal (the Mezzer!) and Celia told me 2 different stores. After gaining a whopping 22 g in the previous night, Randal lost 2g, while Celia gained 12g. She is still the smallest of the bunch, but has been steadily gaining with Marlow. She had something sticky in her fur, and when I put the babies back with Marlow - I see THIS -
It looks like a burst abscess right next to her teat? I could not believe it. I have more pics if more knowledgeable folks want to investigate.
This poor cat. She spent all day at the vet on Saturday and they didn’t see this? Even if it had not burst yet, surely a puss pocket could have been felt on palpitation? I’m mystified. I don’t doubt that this was the cause for her fever and lack of appetite.
I shared all images with the rescue and they are confused and disappointed with vet as well. Its just frustrating. Back in waiting pattern, hoping I can get some antibiotics for her -and then convince her to eat them!
The babies kept interfering with the wound, so I removed Randal since he stopped gaining with her, and I wanted the wound to be as unjostled as possible.
The good news is that Marlow is eating more, and Celia is still gaining despite nursing near the wound.
Super-Mom Daisy had 7 babies all night. I did my morning ‘litter shift’ and pulled Daisy’s 4 kittens and put them in the warm box so Marlow’s 3 smaller kittens (Randal, Mike, Sully) could get some uninterrupted nursing time. Then I went upstairs to get ready for work. I come back to the garage/cat nursey to find that Daisy jumped out of the cage that I forgot to close and was
walking around the garage.
She’s a little nervous, but is more curious than scared. I think the poor girl just wanted a break. I put her babies back in her crate (they are the ultimate bait). I know she will go back to her kittens eventually, but I need to leave for work and I don’t want to open the garage door with her loose, plus I don’t want to be late for work, so I don’t have hours to spend waiting on her to get back to her kittens.
She ends up going into the warm box and snuggling up in the blankets. We have a nice cuddle session with belly rubs and face skritches. Then she lets me pick her up and put her back in the crate! This is the first time I’ve ever tried to carry her, so I am SO glad it was a nice peaceful transition - I didn’t want to go into the office with my blouse torn or scratches on my face hahaha! Message received - Daisy needs some mama-me time. I’ll park outside the garage and try to cat-proof my garage a bit and give her some solo exploration time tonight. I planned on doing this when the babies got older, but she’s ready now.
Definitely adding professional cat wrangler to my resume.
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Poor girlie - my vet has done a single jab of Convenia for abscesses for quite a few years. Although it involves getting cat to vet, at least it doesn’t involve cajoling them into eating nasty tasting crap when they don’t want to eat much in the first place.
Another thought - when Marlow is doing better, and if the 2 moms get along, you may find that they will co-parent, spelling each other off if they are put together with all the kittens. I have seen it time and again in large cat herds in barns. Aunties, teenagers, and non-breeding (either not mature or bottom of the totem pole) will babysit for each other while moms go hunting, get the hell out of the “house” for me time, etc.
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Daisy sounds like a little doll. Are you looking for a home for her? She sounds like she would make an excellent pet. Marlow…errr…not so much right now.
Could you put Daisy in the bathroom for a few minutes as a retreat rather than the garage where she might get out?
Got liquid antibiotics which Marlow will eat when mixed in with tuna (thank god!) I haven’t been able to get a good view of the wound, but she is acting perky and her appetite has improved greatly. She was doing so well that I put Randall back in with her, and he gained overnight, so I think I can go back to the 6-2 litter split.
Last night I gave Daisy the opportunity to roam the garage, and of course, cat logic dictated that once she was invited to do something, she couldn’t possibly do it hahaha. Oh well, at least she had the option.
Even though these gals are from the same colony, they had different cliques. Marlow was bonded to an older ear-tipped female, and Daisy prowled around with 2 young gray boys. Its possible if given the chance to mingle they could help each other, or Marlow could attack the smaller, younger Daisy - I’ve seen Marlow run Daisy off from the feeding station before we trapped them so I’m inclined to not let them both run loose around the garage together. Marlow is more feral, so I think she would just hide and urinate in fear, whereas Daisy is more curious about “what is all this stuff?”
My goal is to get Daisy adopted as well, but I know its hard to turn a feral cat into a good housepet on a short timeline. She’s less than a year old, so that is in my favor, but its still an uphill battle. I know my senior housecats would NOT react well if I tried to bring her in the house, plus I have promised DH up and down that I will not bring her in the house since if she freaks out, its guaranteed urine and destruction. So the garage is the best I can do. She does allow me to pet her, but it is still very much on her terms and I’ll get a swat if I mess with her kennel or babies for too long. On a scale of feral (1) to fat house cat (10) I’d put her at a 4.5.
I’m just happy that Marlow is feeling better and all the babies are gaining weight again!
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Yesterday the vet finally looked at the abscess pics and decided that Marlow should be brought back in for surgery to make sure the abscess is draining properly . So I had to load that poor cat into a carrier again and bring her to this vet last night. Randal and Celia spent all night and of all today in the mix with all 8 babies with Daisy. 
Hoping Marlow’s surgery goes well and she is done having to go into the vet. It stresses her out so much, and Randal and Celia do better with her.
On a cute note, Daisy’s babies are one day short of 3 weeks, so they are starting to discover grooming and how to use their little bodies.
Jessie vid
I bring them into the house for a brief monitored play time and “uncle” Milo is obsessed with the babies. He is so curious about them and loves to groom them.
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Jingles for Marlow! Love all your kitty pics and the video. What a journey !
Poor Marlow! I hope she does OK with the surgery. Does the vet donate all services or does the rescue pay any vet bills? I hope you don’t have to pay vet bills. You’re doing more than enough already.
Adorable pictures and video! Daisy is a gem. Is she losing weight from nursing all those kittens?
Poor Marlow! I hope this is her last visit to the vet for awhile and she continues to improve.
Daisy is a trooper! What a sweet momma cat. She must be getting tired of all the nursing but they all look like they’re in good condition.
Just so cute, all of them!
