New Arrivals: Four 9 Day Old Motherless Kittens
These four, 9 day old kittens have been left motherless due to a tragic medical incident last night. Their mum died last night due to an aortic thromboembolism at a vets in Leeds.
An aortic thromboembolism is a blood clot that cuts off blood supply to the back legs. The clot forms in the heart, gets pumped into the main artery (the aorta), then travels in the bloodstream until it reaches the junction leading to the arteries in the back legs. It lodges at the junction and cuts off blood supply to the legs. Without blood, the back legs become paralysed and extremely painful. The clot is also called a ‘saddle thrombus’ because it sits like a saddle, across the two blood vessels that branch into the back legs.If the clot is small, it may travel past the junction and lodge in a smaller back-leg artery. In this case, symptoms appear in just one leg. Blood clots can also travel to other parts of the body, blocking blood flow to organs such as the kidneys, lungs or brain.
Being motherless and only 9 days old the kittens prognosis is very much guarded however we have fed then every 30- 45 minutes overnight and they have taken their feeds well.
They are currently in one of our intensive care units which is now set at 30 degrees to ensure they are kept as warm as possible as kittens of this age cannot regulate their body temperature.
We do not advocate the practice of handing out orphaned kittens to poor mums who are already under such an enormous strain raising their own babies.Not only is this unfair on mum it also carries a huge risk of cross infection. Many feline diseases lie dormant for several weeks or months before symptoms present.