Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Cats & Kittens

1. 

   I've been looking at the posts about constant meowing, and most of the advice seemed to be to keep the cat comfortable, especially if it's too young and suffers from seperation. I've found a tiny kitten, eyes closed with pus and hardly managing to walk/run, meowing at the top of its lungs in the street before my house yesterday, running randomly under cars because it can't see. I brought it upstairs to my boyfriend (who dislikes cats and is allergic to them at the same time), promising only to try and heal its eyes and at least allow it to fend for itself. Of course that's not what I want to do, since the kitten seems to have taken me for its mum now, and I'm not sure how it could survive out there, especially since it's getting colder, and this is a busy traffic line here.

   Thing is, I took the meows as a sign of seeking attention, since I fed it, gave it water, and prepared a little cosy bed for it along with some temporary setting to use as a toilet, yet it was still looking at me, escaping its bed to run after my feet and try to climb up my legs, so keeping it cosy helped at first (even though it loves to climb up my neck, and either sit on the back of my neck with my head bent, or sleep between my neck and my chest, preferably in my shirt), yet the meows have started again and is not stopping. I know I need to take this guy to the vet, yet I need to gather enough money to do that first, until then I'm trying to take care of the eyes following the advice of a doctor I know, and will attempt to bathe the guy with flea shampoo (since it's dirty as hell and is not really into cleaning itself). Any idea what the meows could be about? Maybe in pain because of something? It can't play with me either since it can hardly see anything... just sleeps, and meows. Meows alllll throughout the night especially :/

   And I can't determine how old the kitten might be. It hardly has any teeth (but they're starting to show, ever so slightly), it has CLAWS instead of nails, and can hardly walk without stepping the wrong way and falling down, though it can climb surfaces (failing most of the time and falling on its back), and no bigger than my hand so far. Doesn't poo either, just likes to piss on me when it's sleeping. Any ideas about the age and the meowing reason? (Sorry about how long and messed up this post became, also...)

   Posted 3 weeks ago by JCD #

2. 

   Thank you so much for rescuing this baby. Please DON'T bathe it in flea shampoo, it is probably much too young for any flea treatment but especially that. Give it a bath in Dawn dishwashing detergent then towel dry very quickly or s/he will be in danger of chilling. Get any remaining fleas by gently combing with a flea comb every day. You can try bathing its poor eyes gently with cotton wool dipped in cold tea.

   If you were a baby, you were blind, and you had no mum, you would be crying too! What are you feeding it, kitten milk replacement or canned wet food? It may not be pooing because it has very little in its little tummy. It is probably over three or four weeks if it can pee on its own, very young kittens need stimulating.

   Young or sick kittens can't control their own body temp, they need an outside source of warmth (normally Mum's body) so put a heat pad or a hot water bottle covered in a towel in its bed, with room for it to crawl off the towel if it gets too hot. Also put a stuffed toy for it to snuggle up to and an old unwashed T-shirt of yours in there -- the familiar smell of its new Mum -- cause that's what you are :) -- should comfort it and help it sleep. What it would probably like best is to sleep cuddled up to you on your pillow but that is up to you...

   I guess, if your boyfriend's allergic, you don't already have another cat? If you do, this little one should be quarantined from it until you can get it to the vet and checked for any nasty diseases.

   Please don't put it out or let it fend for itself, it will certainly die and the death will probably not be a nice one. If you can't take care of it, try to find a local no-kill shelter that can take it.

   I will give you some good kitten sites -- the first one, messy beast, is recommended by a very experienced TDK foster mum (thank you Skyron) and it's great. The others are good too and should help you work out how old your little one is. (At a guess, around four weeks.) Try also to keep getting fluids (the KMR, pedialyte from the baby aisle or wet canned food) down it, as dehydration is very dangerous for kittens.

   Good sites:
   www.­messybeast.­com/­handrear.­htm
   http://www.kittenrescue.org/pages.php?pageid=15
   http://www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/orphans.shtml
   http://www.feralcat.com/raising.html

   You are a total star for rescuing this darling. I hope that your boyfriend eventually falls in love with it too. Keep us in touch and pix would be great! I am worried about its health though, with the pus in its poor eyes.
   Good luck!

   Posted 3 weeks ago by jcat #

3. 

   I'm having some trouble following the advice here, since some brands (e.g. the Dawn dishwashing detergent) can't be regularly found in all markets on my side of the world (Turkey), I would need to go hunting for them. More "common" brands such as Palmolive would be very very easy to find anywhere though. I'm having thoughts about the food, which I was meaning to go out and stock today; some sites favour dry and moistened food and shun canned food until 8 weeks or so, others advice to use formula and gradually turn into moistened dry food, I'm totally confused! Assuming that this kitty is around 4-5 weeks old, I'm trying to choose what to do, but failing...

   As for the eyes, I'm using saline water to dab the pus away gently with q-tips, then applying an eyedrop that has antibiotic effects and no cortisone in it (which I think might damage the eyes if applied when redundant?). I really need to bathe the cat, aside from this, since it's so dirty its smell is overpowering (though i can't do anything but let it sleep near me, since the hot bottle/unwashed shirt thing does NOT help this one :/). I'm kind of panicking since I don't want to starve the cat or let fleas roam it as they please...

   Posted 2 weeks ago by JCD #

4. 

   Sorry, JCD, I did look on your profile to see where you were from (I'm in New Zealand) -- but it didn't say. Palmolive should be fine (I assume it's roughly the same formulation everywhere), but don't use antibacterial. You're just trying to find something really gentle. Water should be luke warm.

   I would start with wet canned food (dry food sucks water out of kittens so if it's already dehydrated, not a good idea) and mix some kitten replacement milk with it so it;s nice and sloppy. Put it in a shallow plate and see if kitty can eat it. She will probably get it all over her but then she can lick it off! I would stick to a good quality canned food. Do not moisten dry food as it can quickly grow bacteria. If she can't seem to manage this, stick to kitten replacement milk and keep trying to introduce her to the wet food. Before dry food came along, all kittens and cats had to eat canned food and they did fine.

   I don't know how cats react to cortisone but I think it's a good idea to stay away from it. Sounds like you're doing really well, don't panic :)

   Posted 2 weeks ago by jcat #

5. 

   JCD, there's one other thing your boyfriend should know... the proteins that people are allergic to, with cats, are carried in their saliva. There have been 4 different proteins identified as possible allergens; some people are allergic to 1 or 2, while others can be allergic to all 4.

   A cat typically cleans itself by licking its fur. The very thin dried coat of saliva on their fur building up in layers, and then flaking off and becoming airborne, is what triggers the allergy in humans.

   Since this kitten is right around weaning age, and not cleaning itself, bathing once per week will eliminate any trace of allergens that he might react to. So you and he don't need to worry about allergies right now, since you'll be wanting to bathe the kitten in warm water at least weekly for a while (to keep clean and reduce fleas).

   In between full baths, wet the corner of a clean washcloth with warm water, squeeze out the excess water, and then wipe down the kitten's face. Then wipe down the kitten's genitals; they need this sort of stimulation in order to go potty, until they're weaned and going potty on their own. Do this several times per day, and it should help both with the eye goop and with going potty.

   The websites JCat pointed to are great websites! Good luck with this kitten!

   Posted 2 weeks ago by anncetera2 #

6. 

   Big thanks to the both of you for the fast replies, I was really panic-stricken for a while %) The kitten is meowing for attention again (I think it just says that it's bored, it can't play with closed eyes, but would like to climb up to my head and dig its nails into my skin - which is what it does constantly :/ well, hope there is nothing more serious anyway...). I hope it gets better after this whole eye ordeal is over. And about the comment on the allergy... that's very useful information. And might do more than I can to keep this kitten safe and sound in this house (since it's not mine, otherwise it would be its house too within seconds) ;)

   Posted 2 weeks ago by JCD #

7. 

   Thought I'd share some pics, have very few right now, planning on getting more. This is the kitty yesterday: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/cyberianoodle/_MG_1226.jpg
   http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/cyberianoodle/_MG_1227.jpg
   And this one was taken just now: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/cyberianoodle/_MG_1230.jpg

   Posted 2 weeks ago by JCD #

8. 

   Hello JCD! I'm trying to sift through a lot of info on this post, I'm not sure if I'm getting all of it, but I'll try my best.
   1) Age of kitty: If kitty's teeth are just starting to show, he's probably around 2-3 weeks old.
   2) At that age, they can pee by themselves, but only just because they cant hold it in any longer - that's probably why he smells so bad. That might also be why he's crying so much. They cry when they need their mommies to stimulate them to pee/poo. So try stimulating him and see what happens.
   3) Food: In my experience I find it is best to feed young kittens formula and gradually wean them on to solid food. I've spent a lot of time observing the mommies and babies in my feral colony, babies still suckle from their mom's at age 6+ months, even if she has a new litter already, so I try to stay in keeping with that and give my babies formula milk as long as they want it, I just give it to them from a saucer when they start biting holes in the nipples of my bottles.
   4) Bathing: I would not easily recommend bathing such a young baby, but if he really does have bad fleas and smells bad, I would just use normal baby shampoo (like the yellow Johnson & Johnson stuff), squirt some in warm water, take a wash cloth and wet it down with the soapy water, and then rub the baby down with the wash cloth. Dont submerge the baby in water, he wont be able to dry and warm himself back up.
   5) Meowing: Kitties are born in litters, so they always have brothers and sisters around to keep them warm, and keep them company. So your baby needs to get that warmth and comfort from you. I really think that the meowing will get better if you start stimulating him to pee/poo.

   Please check out this website, it answers a lot of questions that would take forever to cover here: www.messybeast.com/handrear

   Posted 2 weeks ago by Skyron #

9. 

   Bump for JDC. How is Kitty doing?

   Posted 2 weeks ago by jcat #

10. 

    Kitty is great so far! Eyes are 90% open, it's clean (though yet to get the flea meds prescribed by the vet, but that will be either today or tomorrow), it's eating well and peeing/pooping just fine, and even though I didn't yet get the cat litter it accepted its "box", with newspapers in it, as a toilet, goes there without being told to. My boyfriend's dog of 10 years died yesterday, it was like a son to the family and a brother to him, and the family is devastated, so we had to travel to his hometown for 6 hours... but the kitten was fine with it. Just sleeps when it's warm anyways, so. It wants constant attention so there were lots of meows, but it's okay... we slept before the fireplace with the cat, it was sleeping up to a point, all warm, but then wanted to sleep between us :/ Now is playing around, for the first time. A sign of health for me! ...uh oh, the family won't appreciate torn carpets though x_X

    22222222222222222222222222222222>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Zzzzzzzzz - Looool! The kitty typed this, jumping the laptop for attention >__> What I don't understand is WHY it so persistingly smells my privates and at the same time tries to get in my jeans O_o

    Posted 2 weeks ago by JCD #

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