What’s New at Heritage Springs Maine Coons

Eepie Mouse is officially 8 months old and weighs in at 6 pounds!

Eepie was born with full a cleft of both his hard and soft palate-which is usually a death sentence for kittens.

Kittens with a cleft palate can’t nurse from their moms because they can’t form a suction with their mouths. This means that not only do they not get mom’s antibodies to help fend of sickness, but they also have to be tube fed or syringe fed every two hours for weeks (and then every three hours for even more weeks).

There is a very high risk of aspiration when kittens are receiving supplemental feeding. If a kitten aspirates and survives more than an hour, they often die of aspiration pneumonia within the next few days.

Eepie Mouse contracted aspiration pneumonia multiple times- I actually lost count at some point of how many times he got it- maybe 6. Amazingly, he made it through each bout.

About a year ago, I had a kitten aspirate while she was nursing from her mom. I rushed her to the ER where she stayed for a week. I watched the vets like a hawk the entire time and asked about a thousand questions. I also called a vet friend I have and learned everything he could tell me about aspiration and aspiration pneumonia. He spent an hour telling me everything he knew about treating kittens who aspirated and then told me that his advice was to let kittens who aspirate pass.

I am a firm believer that if I am the reason kittens are born into this world then it is my responsibility to do everything in my power to ensure they have a fair chance at life- no matter the cost or hardship (and believe me, there was plenty of both). With a lot of prayer and a lot of thinking, Neil and I navigated through each new phase of our journey with Eepie Mouse taking each day as it came- and we learned a lot.

We set up a neo-natal intensive care unit in our bedroom with an incubator, heating pads, oxygenator, and a nebulizer. I didn’t take Eepie to the vet when he was sick because my biggest fear was that he would contract something else while we were there that would make him even sicker. Also, I was confident that I was doing everything for him that would be done at an ER. Sub q fluids, injectable antibiotics…anything the vets could do for him, we could do for him at home.

After the pneumonia problem was the tube feeding problem. Eepie was tube fed every few hours for 3 months with no problem. Then he started biting through the feeding tubes. When he bit through a tube, the tube would slip down his throat, and I would have to reach down his throat and catch the tube with tweezers and pull it back out. It was harrowing to say the least. Eepie hated it and I hated it.

Neil and I made bite guards out of pieces of pens, pencil grippers, rubbery straws, even the tubes the dentist uses to suction mouths, but they only worked about half the time. Every time we fed him, there was an increasingly high likelihood that he would bite through the tube and choke to death. I was a wreck. Feeding time was a nightmare.

I bought thicker tubes, spoke to my vet, joined Facebook groups, and scoured the internet, but I couldn’t find any information on how to feed a kitten with a cleft palate who was biting through feeding tubes.

Finally, I started looking at how people care for other species with cleft palates. While it is normalized for cat breeders to put down kittens with cleft palates, the same isn’t true for dog breeders.

I found quite a bit of information about how to feed puppies actual food who were born with cleft palates. With a little tweaking, I formulated a recipe for kitten jello that we affectionally call “Eepie Bites” that literally saved Eepie’s life (and our sanity!).

Eepie Mouse has undergone two surgeries to repair his cleft palate. His hard palate is repaired fully. We will know in a week or so if the soft palate is healing as well.

I haven’t even gone into the other problems that poor little Eepie Mouse has overcome because this is already longer than I intended. I’ll just say that caring for Eepie Mouse has been difficult- and a big reason for that is because there is so little information out there about caring for kittens with cleft palates.

I am passionate about sharing what I learned while caring for Eepie with breeders, rescues, and even vets because so many people have never considered the possibility of not putting a cleft palate kitten down. I do a lot of one-on-one teaching and mentorship, but I don’t feel like it’s quite enough.

All that to say that I am so excited to share that I am in the beginning phases of starting a non-profit called The Kitten Care Lab. The goal is to provide education to people who care for neo-natal kittens using what I’ve learned in my experience caring for Eepie Mouse and other high-risk neonatal kittens. Hopefully I can help even one person desperately searching the internet at 2 in the morning to find the answers they need to save their kitten’s life.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our family on our journey with little Eepie Mouse. He is such a sweet and happy kitten, and I am so blessed to have him in my life.

Check out our newest blog post: Understanding Tabby Patterns: How to Identify Each One

Kitty Care Tip

Maine Coon cats often get gingivitis while they’re teething at around 6 months old. It does go away, but if your vet isn’t familiar with this anomaly, they may recommend pulling your cat’s teeth- don’t do it! It’s just a weird thing that happens with Maine Coons- almost all of my cats have gone through a gingivitis phase while they’re teething. Remember too, that Maine Coons teeth later than other breeds because they’re slower growing.

There is a very easy solution to help clear up the teething gingivitis. I use a water additive in all of my water fountains- it’s tasteless and it’s good for dogs to drink too. All of the 4-legged creatures that live in my house have better breath less issues with red gums since I started using it and my vet recommended it to me which is a bonus. It’s called Oratene. Add it to all of your waterers and that’s it!

The next easiest solution is to squirt a cleansing “goo” into your cat’s mouth once a day. They will work it around and as they do that, it cleans their teeth and gums. My vet recommended this one too- it’s called Maxi-Guard Oral Cleansing Gel.

The next solution is more time consuming, but not necessarily difficult if you get your cats used to it early. You can brush your cat’s teeth with a delicious (to them) toothpaste. I keep these toothbrush kits on hand in case I need them. Honestly, I rely pretty heavily on Oratene and Maxi-Guard Cleansing Gel though- both work wonders.

Now for the disclaimers:

1- I am not a veterinarian, and any advice in this post is based on my own experience caring for kittens and cats and not meant to replace a veterinarian’s expertise.

2- If you purchase a product that I have linked in this post, I may receive a small commission from Amazon. That said, I use all of the products I recommend myself and would never recommend anything that I have not found to be effective on my own cats.

I hope this helps! Have a wonderful week :)

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