A miracle kitten is born

Aura was born on April 22, 2018. She has two sisters, and two brothers. All five were vigorous and healthy at birth, with normal birth weights.

Aura's mama Chloe was one of three pregnant ferals from the Happy Forest feral colony who were sharing our caternity ward. All three gave birth within five days of each other, with Chloe's kittens born last.

Ramona and Rula, the other two mamas, both had kittens who were struggling. Normally I wouldn't disturb a feral mama cat to weigh and check kittens if everything looked ok on the livestream, but because we had kittens fading in the other litters, I felt it was necessary to risk stressing Chloe by weighing her kittens shortly after birth, and again six hours later.

That decision is what saved Aura's life.

At their six-hour weigh-in, I noticed that Aura's siblings had all gained weight. Aura had lost several grams for no apparent reason. I knew something was wrong, and based on how strong she was and observations of her trying to nurse, it made sense that she was having trouble nursing for some reason. A cleft palate was the most likely issue, so I checked and saw that was exactly what was wrong.

I will never forget the sick feeling I had in the pit of my stomach, looking at her and knowing her prognosis was grim. Dr. F and I talked about it, I sent photos, and she confirmed it was a severe cleft palate. She warned me that it would be a huge investment of time and energy, for a poor prognosis.

I struggled with what the right decision was for Aura. I didn't want to prolong her life if it would cause suffering for her at some point, but I also was pretty confident she was not suffering at that time. I decided to give her 24 hours to see how she tolerated tube feedings, and see if she wanted to give up or if she wanted to fight.

It became clear pretty quickly that she is a fighter. Thankfully, she tolerated her tube feedings very well.

(more to follow...)