Three kittens dead, one vomited a massive amount of blood, vets baffled.

TW: this is a bit graphic and the kitten who vomited this passed on after being at the vet for the night. I’ve been fostering 6 week old kittens who at first glance only had eye infections, and were okay otherwise, besides two of them looking skinny. One had to be PTS after going from okay to very bad and then going into a coma. Two days later his brother who was doing okay and eating started to become limp, went to the vet and the suggestion was to PTS after he seemed to be in a coma too. Just as I come home after the second one being PTS I feed the remaining two kittens, they gobble up wet food and minutes later one vomits a large amount of blood. Rushed her to the vet, vet kept her overnight and she sadly passed this morning. I have one remaining kitten who seems healthy for the most part but I fear for him. Vets are baffled and rescuers too. What can cause a seemingly healthy kitten to suddenly vomit blood like this and deteriorate? Only weird signs in this one was a very bloated tummy but she was eating and drinking. All been dewormed and on Flagyl.  

I'm so sorry to hear this; you must be gutted.  Its hard to diagnose anything based on a kitten's outer body / history.  I had a few thoughts;  I wondered whether the kittens were clotting their blood properly.  Kittens can bleed inwards into the hidden internal abdomen around the organs, or 'outwards' into the gasterointestinal tract, depending on which blood vessels became damged first.  Weakness and collapse would be typical signs either way.  Reasons for a failure of blood to clot (causing severe bleeding) could include poisoning (eg Warfrin), or a genetic clotting problem.  There may also be some types of parasite that could all penetrate the gut wall at once during their migration, to result in this scale of damage.  Another possibity is if the kittens might, at some point - not necesarily on ypur watch - have got hold of drugs predisposing them to severe gastric ulceration.   I hear that your vet is baffled and can imagine that they will want to look for more clues; a post-mortem to find the origin of that blood may be enligjtening, but it is not the right 'next step' for everyone.

There is a website belonging to a charity called The Ralph Site, which may offer you some comfort at this time.   It was set up by a cat vet after his own pet passed.  Wishing you all the best moving forward.

Hi thanks for you thoughts. The lack of blood clotting is interesting and I'll look into it. Parasites are also a possibility but they have been dewormed and weird that they all seemed to die one after the next with similar symptoms. Gastric ulceration could also be interesting to look into. Someone suggested rat poison, maybe given to them before they came into our care.