4 week kitten-low blood sugar

Hi, a week ago (7/3) my friend brought home a 4 week old kitten that was without it's mother and infested with maggots and fleas. I took it the emergency vet where it was bathed, given antibiotics, and had it's rectum flushed. The maggots seemed to be gone and so I took her home the next morning (sunday). Tuesday afternoon she seemed to have no energy and started to move strangely so I took her back to emer. vet. We found out she was having seizures due to low blood sugar (12) and thy kept her overnight, giving her sugar and lots of food. The next moring (wed.) I took her to my regular vet who gave me special food and told me to feed her 2cc every two hours from a syringe. I did this and that night she had seizures again, so we went back to emer. vet. This time her sugar level was 20 and after having some sugar she seemed better. They told me to feed her about 6cc of food every two hours and if she started to seem sick to give her maple syrup or corn syrup. I have been feeding her every two hours since then with only one or two three hour exceptions and giving little doses of syrup (which she hates). Last night though she seemed to feel sick and after eating she vomitted and then lost control of her bowels. She had diarhea and there seemed to be mucus in it. Now she isn't eating much and seems a little weak. Her skin around her rectum(?) is swoolen and raw as is skin on her hind legs (from the maggots). She seems to have pain when she goes has a bowel movement. Can anybody tell me anything that would make her conditions easier to understand? The vets haven't explained much. I'm wondering what more I should be doing for her? Thanks,

It sounds like she might be a diabetic. Try some Kaopectate (sp?) for the diaherra. Only give about 1/2 - 1 cc though. It will coat her tummy and might help her feel a little better.

Put the poor thing to sleep !!! The most humane thing you can do would allow her to painlessly drift off to kitty heaven. Life is cruel sometimes, but let her have final peace. Candid Carol

This poor kitty! Bless you for working so hard to help her. I did a little research on the web to see what I could find, starting with the low blood sugar. The frequent feedings are common treatment for this. But the next question is, why does this cat have a problem with low blood sugar? If the blood sugar keeps dropping, even though you're feeding her every 2 hours, then it seems to me there must be something wrong with her metabolism, or perhaps her little digestive system isn't able to process her food in order to get the nutrition she needs. Now, I know that antibiotics can give cats digestive problems, because they are meant to kill bacteria, but *some* bacteria are necessary for digestion. Antibiotics don't care which kind of bacteria they kill. So if this kitten is having digestive problems due to the antibiotics, she may not be able to absorb the necessary sugars from her food.

The info about maggots really concerned me. I thought they only infested dead creatures, or decaying flesh (as in with gangrene), but after doing some surfing I found out that this isn't always the case. Maggot infections are called 'myiasis,' and are far more common in the tropics, though they can occur anywhere. It's a disgusting subject, but if you want to learn more about maggot wounds and infections, check out this web page:
http://www.comvet.com/html/myiasis.html

Hope some of that info helps. Good luck with this poor little kitty.

Paige

Hi I think you should drop this little kittne off at the vet for a week or so, so they can do blood work and take care of her prof. You can never emagine what could be wrong with her. i had bought a pure bread Lepoard Spotted Ocacat and he was always eating and poohing runney, then he would eat his pooh. Always screaming for food eating crumbs off the flore and the vet could not find out what it was. It came to the point where we had to get him put down at 9 months due to him being so week. After an odtopsie (SP) we found out he had Pancreatic Cancer. SO plaese just let the vet take care of the pore little kitty for a few weeks. Animal lover.