You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Wasting disease is a common cause for concern in young kittens.

Wasting disease is one of the main cause of death in young kittens along with congenital defects, infections and trauma during or after birth. Mortality is greater in kittens that have a low body weight at birth, and kittens that are born at the end of a prolonged period of parturition (the period in "labour"). 

Wasting diseases occur during lactation and after weaning. Kittens with wasting disease have one or more of the following signs :

• They are quiet and depressed - not interested in surrounding events.
• They do not eat (called anorexia)
• They lose weight - measuring daily body weight gain/loss is important because it will help to identify affected kittens.
• Sometimes they become dehydrated - dry gums to the touch
• Sometimes they have signs of respiratory disease - a cough, sneezing, increased breathing rate
• Sometimes they have signs of gastrointestinal disease- diarrhoea and vomiting 

There are many causes of weight loss and a failure to eat (anorexia) in young kittens, and important factors that predispose an individual to wasting disease include :

• Low birth weight
• Poor weight gain before weaning
• Failure to feed on colostrum - this is the first milk from the mother and contains antibodies which are important to provide some immune protection to the kitten during the first days of life. Colostrum must be taken by the kitten within the first 18 hours of life - otherwise it will not be of any benefit.
• Inadequate feeding and food intake
• Inability to feed properly eg due to a cleft palate, or other deformity
• Poor lactation in the mother - insufficient quantity or poor quality of milk
• Poor diet for the mother - imbalanced or inadequate energy content
• Low body temperature (hypothermia) - occurs if the environmental temperature is too low. When body temperature falls a kitten loses it's appetite. 
• Low blood sugar concentrations - called Hypoglycaemia -results in weakness, collapse, seizures.
• Infections - viruses, bacteria, parasites.
• Other disease eg neurological disorders

Weaning is an important time for the development of wasting disease because of the separation anxiety that kittens sometimes suffer from - leading to stress and anorexia.

Provet Tips for Owners - To Minimise the risk of Wasting Disease

• Ensure new born kittens start to suckle from the queen as soon as possible after birth
• Ensure some colostrum (first milk) is drunk by the kitten within the first 18 hours of life.
• Make sure that the queen is producing adequate milk by squeezing and drawing down milk from her nipples
• Keep newly born kittens warm - use heater lamps if necessary
• Weigh new born kittens daily and plot their weight gain/loss. Contact you veterinarian if a kitten  loses weight consistently
• Use feed supplements (recommended by your veterinarian) if the queen is not producing enough milk
• Seek veterinary advice if the kitten shows any signs of illness or refuses to eat.
• Make sure the queen is vaccinated prior to pregnancy to pass some immunity on to the kittens 
• Vaccinate the kitten as soon as it is old enough and big enough
• Don't wean a kitten until it is large enough as the risk of wasting disease is greatest in underweight kittens that are weaned and suffer stress.
• Avoid trauma in the postnatal period - from adult cats, children.

Treatment

Unattended kittens that are not eating can die within a couple of days and inadequate food intake leads to poor immunity and increased susceptibility to infections and parasites. So, ensuring adequate food intake and water intake are the most important parts of  treatment. Hand feeding, force feeding or tube feeding may be necessary if the kitten won't feed voluntarily.

Any underlying disease must be treated appropriately by a veterinarian eg antibiotics for infectious diseases.

Updated October 2013