Newborn rescued kitten died after sudden mouth/lip swelling trying to understand what happened
I rescued a newborn kitten who was only a few hours old. Eyes were still closed, and the kitten was probably born the same day. The kitten has now died, and I’m trying to understand what may have happened so I can learn for the future.
Some background: I know the mother cat because she lives beside my home. A few months ago, I saw that she had given birth to a kitten in our garage. At that time, I thought the mother would come back and take care of the baby, so I didn’t interfere much. But the mother never came back, and later my dad told me that the kitten had died.
Because of that experience, when I found this newborn kitten, I was afraid the same thing would happen again. She was cold, crying, and it seemed like the mother cat had not visited her for a long time. I didn’t want to leave her there and risk her dying the same way the previous kitten did, so I decided to rescue her.
Timeline/details:
The kitten was extremely young, eyes closed, probably only hours old.
When I rescued the kitten, it was cold. After bringing it home, I focused on warming it up first.
After getting warmth, the kitten seemed to become more stable/normal, so at the time I thought it did not need an immediate vet visit. Looking back, I realize that not taking the kitten to a vet right away was my mistake.
I kept the kitten warm and started feeding as carefully as I could.
At first I used emergency feeding advice until I could get proper kitten formula.
I stimulated the kitten after feeding, and it had yellow poop and yellow urine.
Earlier, the kitten was moving strangely, kind of circling in only one direction.
Later, around 1 AM, I noticed one side of the kitten’s lip/mouth suddenly became swollen and reddish/purple.
The swelling seemed to spread across the mouth/muzzle area.
There was no emergency vet available at that time in my country. I was planning to take the kitten to a vet in the morning, but it died before then.
Does anyone know what could cause such rapid swelling around the mouth in a newborn kitten? Could it be infection, injury from feeding, aspiration, insect bite, congenital issue, birth trauma, or something else?
I know only a vet/necropsy can confirm the exact cause, but I’m trying to understand what warning signs I missed and what I should do differently if I ever find a newborn orphan kitten again.
Please be kind I tried to keep the kitten warm, feed it, stimulate it, and get proper formula, but emergency veterinary care was not available overnight.