The Season of Small Deaths

Editor’s note: This post addresses multiple issues of death, depression, and euthanasia which some readers may find triggering.

Photo by Damla Ozkan of Unsplash

Most folks see those tiny baby kittens that often look like little bears and their hearts melt as they are overwhelmed by the innate cuteness. What could be more adorable than a newborn baby kitten?

From the perspective of the animal rescue worker, what we see is potential devastation and destruction, scorched earth, if you will. Neonatal kittens, often referred to as simply neonates, strike a certain level of dread into each of us. 

How could we possibly feel this way?

First of all, neonates die at an alarming rate. If they come in without a mother, the chances of all of them surviving is close to zero. If a mama cat has abandoned her litter, it is usually because she knows they are a lost cause. Granted, some mama cats have gone missing due to misadventure.

Mama cats just know. Ask any rescuer and they will tell you that if a mama pushes a kitten away or moves it away from the rest of the litter, that kitten almost certainly has some kind of genetic issue and is likely destined for crossing the veil. 

Oh sure, you can bottle feed, tube feed, do all the things, but 8 out 10 neonates rejected by a mama cat won't make it. And to be clear, we ALL try to save them. It takes tremendous amounts of resources—energy, time, and yes, money, but it's what we do. And we fail, over and over again. 

If we are going to be honest, if every kitten that was born lived, we would likely be overrun with cats in short order. So, there is that.

If you come across a litter of newborn or tiny kittens and do not see the mother, do not immediately assume they have been abandoned! Mama may be off hunting or scrounging for food. Neonates require being fed every few hours. If you remove the kittens without their mama, their chance of survival decreases dramatically. Waiting to see if the mama cat returns is critical. Trapping mama is also essential to their survival.

Photo by Gregory Rudakov of Unsplash

The adorable nuclear warhead: The Neonate Kitten

Most cats with kittens or any kittens that enter the animal rescue & shelter system, little is known about them when it comes to their health and history. Most are not chipped, so there is no one to contact or any way to obtain a history.

If the mama cat was vaccinated, then there is some hope of them managing to survive beyond kittenhood. Unfortunately, most are not up-to-date on their vaxxes, and some have never been vaxxed. In a perfect world, running titers would be inexpensive and easily accessible, but that is not the world we live in.

This means their kittens are susceptible to every preventable disease that a cat can catch. Sidebar: If you are a responsible cat parent, for the love of all that is holy, get your cat chipped, vaccinated, and spayed or neutered! 

One of the preventable diseases that is so prevalent in community and feral cats is feline distemper, also called PanLeuk. The effects of PanLeuk are devastating, weakening and killing i a matter of days. It's awful to bear witness to and almost impossible for a cat or kitten to survive if they have never been vaccinated. Remember, most kittens cannot be vaccinated for anything until they at least 6 weeks old. 

For those six weeks, the kittens have zero protection unless their mama has been vaccinated and able to pass on some immunity to her offspring. Add in some parasites and you have the perfect storm for a small death or a series of them. And yes, almost every cat that comes into a rescue has parasites if they have been outside and not recently treated for them.

So a neonate kitten that comes in without a mama is very likely to have at the very least parasites and at the worst, a genetic defect and possibly some other disease like PanLeuk. The neonate kitten is why we quarantine, wear protective gear, and clean like maniacs. PanLeuk is so contagious it can spread like wildfire through a rescue and even a cat that has been vaccinated against it can become ill. And a cat that has underlying health or immune systems issues? They can end up dying if infected. 

As a result of these hard facts, any rescue/shelter that has an outbreak is required by state law to have any and all of their facilities shut down for months until it is determined that site is biohazard-level clean. This also requires all the cats to be quarantined.

Most folks who work in rescue also have personal cats at home. Often their cats at home have health issues which is frequently why they adopted them in the first place. All of these cats are placed at risk by an outbreak. 

Talk about scorched earth... In short it is a nightmare scenario in the making. 

Photo by Kristin O Carlson of Unsplash

It is also important to recognize that even a healthy neonate can contract all manner of illnesses. Just parasites can kill, even with treatment. This is why when we handle them that we wear protective gear--they literally have no immune defenses against anything we might have picked up from being around or handling other animals. 

Another thing that frequently happens with folks who do not know any better, is that they will place a “singleton” kitten that has no mama or litter mates in with a nursing mama cat. This practice never ends well.
All too often the singleton kitten has a health issue and that ends up infecting the entire litter and the mama. So instead of just one kitten dying, some of the other kittens that were doing well, end up dying.

Kitten season is brutal and all too often the “season of small deaths.” Working in rescue is not for the faint of heart. Death is part of the cycle of nature. It is inescapable. Whether due to defect, disease, or simply the end of a long life due to natural causes, death completes the circle.

How we cope, and perhaps most importantly, how we honor both the life that ended and the work we do is crucial. Out next blog entry will offer some grief and funerary practices that anyone can do.

(Featured image at top of page is by Madalyn Cox of Unsplash)