Crappy Colostrum

KILL-O-CAT Crappy colostrum

Quackery
I’m always trying to find topics for the magazine on British Shorthairs of which I’m the editor-in-chief. So when I read an advertisement on cat colostrum I followed it up.
When the parents’ blood type isn’t compatible, you need to feed the kittens for the first 18 hours, so it is always good to be informed about new food on the market. By reading carefully I soon found out that it wasn’t cat colostrum at all as the manufacturer wanted people to believe: it was bovine colostrum.
However, as he kept going on that because of it being freeze-dried it was so much better than our traditional KMR, and that bovine colostrum was universal for all animals, I thought I might dedicate a story to it and bought the powder.
The instructions on the package were very unclear so I contacted the firm and was told that for kittens it should be administered 1:2, preferably with a mixture of water and Rehydration Instant.

Murder by accident
Four kittens were born that needed to be hand-fed. So I prepared the stuff and didn’t like it all. It was sticky and syrupy, like burnt sugar. I should have followed my intuition, if only I’d thrown it away immediately, if only….
One kitten didn’t like it and only started to drink four hours after the other ones. Fifteen hours later the first kitten died and four hours later the last one, the one that had started drinking later. Four perfectly healthy kittens lost because of this crappy colostrum.
In despair I called the company and was told that for kittens it should have been 1:4, even better 1:5. My vet also looked into it and said that:
Colostrum is useful only if it is from the mother (animal)
Bovine colostrum isn’t universally useful, it can be dangerous to small
When proportions are so terribly important that wrong instructions kill kittens within 15 hours, the stuff should never be marketed for kittens.
SO BEWARE!
Use traditional KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement) or Meadowfield Kitten Milk and keep away from Col-O-Cat: it should be called KILL-O-CAT instead.