A Foothill Felines Bengal Kitten
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Overview of Colostrum; Sources of Colostrum; Colostrum Donors; Preparing Serum Colostrum; Giving Colostrum to Kittens
OVERVIEW OF COLOSTRUM
In this article, we are referring to the care of newborn and very young kittens. Colostrum is most commonly the first milk that is produced by a mother cat after she has gone through labor and had her kittens. This is a very special milk which is full of the mother's own antibodies. Ideally, the mother then passes on the natural immunities she has built up in her body, through this colostrum, to her young kittens when they nurse. Usually, after about 3 days, the mother's milk then changes to a richer, calorie dense milk. The kittens who have received that colostrum then have more protection from illnesses until they are a few weeks older, and their own immune systems start to develop.
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SOURCES OF COLOSTRUM
The primary source of colostrum for kittens is their own mother's milk within the first 12-48 hours after birth. Even if the mother cat has to deliver by c-section, she should still have colostrum for that amount of time. If she is not feeling motherly towards her kittens after delivery, which can happen for a variety of reasons, it is still important to try to ensure that her kittens receive that vital colostrum. Try holding down the mother, gently but firmly, and trying to get the kittens to latch on and nurse. Even a few minutes of nursing during this critical first 12-48 hours after birth, can provide the kittens with those all-important antibodies, and will greatly improve the odds of their survival, especially during those first few weeks of life. Another source of colostrum for newborn kittens is the milk from another mother cat who has delivered her kittens within the past 36-48 hours. When neither of these first two sources is available, the informed cat owner can then turn to other sources or donors ... which is the heart of this article.
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COLOSTRUM DONORS
Sometimes, kittens are born without a source of their mother's own colostrum, or the colostrum from another mother cat who has queened within the past 36-48 hours. Tragically, there are times when the mother cat becomes ill or even dies during or after giving birth. Other times, the mother cat may abandon her young. For everything to go right during the queening process requires a lot of things, including some luck. The queen has to be well-nourished, feel secure and not stressed, carry her young the right amount of days, have a normal labor and delivery, have healthy, full-term fetuses, and have all the right hormones kick in at the right time. She probably also has to have the right genetic make-up to be a good mother, and there also has to be luck involved that the pregnancy has gone successfully, with the kittens fully developed internally, and able to move about and absorb nutrients properly from their placentas.
As many of our readers have already experienced, there are times when some or all of these factors are not in play for some newborn kittens. There are times when these kittens are in need of colostrum, which is not available to them from their own mother or a substitute mother cat. While I have raised many kittens successfully without colostrum by bottle-feeding them a commercial formula, I also recognize the importance of the antibodies in the colostrum. Recently, I learned from my veterinarian, Dr. Jean Metzler of Orangevale Veterinary Hospital in Orangevale, CA, that there is another option for times like this. There can be donors for "colostrum"!!
Who then can be a donor for colostrum for newborn kittens? You might be surprised to find out!! According to Dr. Metzler, any adult cat who is not pregnant, can be a donor. In a recent case of mine, I had a single kitten litter born by c-section, and the mother cat had not actually gone into a full labor, so she never developed the hormones necessary to mother her kitten. I tried and tried, but could not get the kitten to nurse from the mother. Dr. Metzler asked me if I had any other adult cats in my cattery which weren't pregnant, who could be brought in to be a donor. I told her the only cat at the time like that in my cattery was the newborn kitten's sire!! She said he would do just fine!! Turns out, he was only too happy to be a donor for his daughter. I brought him in to Dr. Metzler's office, and the staff there carefully proceeded to draw some blood from him. The reason pregnant cats should not be used for this procedure is that we don't want to stress them during their pregnancy, and also, pregnant cats tend to be anemic. Basically, the best donors for colostrum are adult cats in great health, from the same environment that the newborn kittens will spend the first few weeks of their life in, as these are the antibodies that will be most important to the babies.
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PREPARING SERUM COLOSTRUM
In order to prepare serum colostrum, blood is drawn from the donor cat or cats. This blood is then spun using special veterinary equipment which will remove the red blood cells. What is left is a "serum colostrum", which contains the antibodies from the donor cat or cats. This technique has been used for years with race horses and other expensive animals, but is relatively unheard of at this time for the cat fancy, yet it is obviously equally as valuable and usually quite successful.
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GIVING SERUM COLOSTRUM TO KITTENS
Timing is very important for the success of this procedure. The optimum time for a newborn kitten to receive this serum colostrum is when the kitten is from 12 to 36 hours old. This is the time when the kitten's gut area is still open and can absorb the large size protein molecules in the critical antibodies from the donor's blood. If the serum colostrum can be made within that timeframe, it can then be given by tube feeding to the newborn kitten. Dr. Metzler gave my kitten 3 cc of the serum when the kitten was 24 hours old. Once the kitten is more than 48 hours old, chances are high that the kitten's gut can no longer directly absorb those large proteins. The serum colostrum can still be given to the kitten; however, it needs to be given at that point either by injection directly into the abdomen, or injection into a hip bone, which are obviously more risky methods than the tube feeding. So, who says father cats (or other adult friend and relative felines) can't do anything to help their young??!! Plus, once you find a vet who is comfortable with this knowledge and the procedures involved, it is also possible to have them make some serum colostrum from your donor cats and freeze it for use later if and when it is needed.
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