Replacement milk

[annie]

It's that time of the year again...The kittens are back and many of us can't resist the maternal urge of helping one or many of them. Last Spring, I did the same thing and tried to devote myself heart and soul to my baby (who is doing perfectly fine now by the way). However, you need to be careful with what you give your baby. I found that the replacement milk stock was very limited here and had to change brands almost every 2 week...Then one day, I had to use the Lactol brand (the only one that was left in my surroundings). 3 days later, my baby was under IV at the clinic. The cat had vomited 6 times that day and had diarrhoea as well. It cost me around 200,000W to save my baby (I didn't care, trust me)! He had to stay 2 days at the clinic under observation (the vet brought him home at night and didn't go to his seminar on Sunday). The vet even called to ask me to come as the "end" was near. I rushed there crying, but there was nothing to do. But my kitty DIDN'T die!!! (I love my vet!)

After all that stress, the baby survived. But what had caused all this?! We thougth the change of milk and the introduction of meat had irritated the stomach (the tests showed stomach bleeding due to obvious irritation).

However, my friend found a kitty too about a month later and had to change milk just as I had. Well guess what she found?! While looking the different brands up on the Internet, she found forums and comments discouraging people from buying that brand! Many complained about vomiting and diarrhoea when starting this brand, often resulting in death!

Anyway, all this long message (:D)to tell you to be careful. We maybe blindly believe that all companies want our kitties' well being, but there are still some mistakes and dangers.
Good luck with the little ones!

Here is what my baby looked like:
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8841/img2798eq5.th.jpg (http://img130.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img2798eq5.jpg)

and him now (at 4 months old):
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/7995/picture170zi1.th.jpg (http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture170zi1.jpg)

[Wibidad]

Annie,

We also used Lactol for 3 kittens- one street rescue and two from KAPS. Two of the three were bottle-fed because they had no mother. We had no problems whatsoever with the product.

The first thing we did when we took in the cats was have a full exam- stool check, blood test etc. Street cats can often have all sorts of bacterial infections, so we wanted to be sure it was OK. Lactol was recommended by cat owners on some European sites that my wife visits.

I don't know why you and your friend had problems with the brand and we did not. But from our own experience, there was nothing wrong with the Lactol and our cats grew strong and healthy very quickly. You must be very careful with the dosage, as too much will cause diarrhoea, but that would be true of all brands.

Anyway, I'm glad the cats all turned out healthy in the end.

[annie]

Hey Wibidad!
I am sure I dindn't give too much as he didn't drink enough. I thought it was just the change, but I had changed before..Plus, he had all the tests before.
Anyway, my other guess could be the amount of water needed. Some need more and others less, so maybe my balance was not perfect...
Thanks for sharing though, it's helpful to share :D

[Karen]

It's possible also that there was a batch contamination, or some ingredients changed in the product that caused the adverse effects during a certain period of time.

Is Lactol the name of the company or the name of the product?

[Wibidad]

Lactol is a brand name. It is made by Sherley's, which is a British company.

I looked at a lot of pet related sites and sometimes cats have trouble adjusting to any milk subsitute, and there are clear directions how to handle that. I never saw anything about any product recall. But any search will show that the brand is a very popular and trusted one. I don't work for them- I just had a good experience with the product :)

[annie]

hahahah, are they bribing you Wibidad?
Is it possible that they have a factory for Korea and that the standards are different? My friend who found the info looked only at Korean websites.... Might be the problem! Well, I guess not since you had the kitties in Korea as well :/