Hi Dragon.
I adopted my Milo a couple of months ago when he was just 6 weeks old. He came to me with an upper respiratory infection I hadn't been told about (the vet found it - I took him in because he had watery eyes)and also suffered from diarreah. He got antibiotics for the URI but was to little and weak for meds for the diarreah in addition to the antibiotics.
I fed him wet food (against my will, my 1 year old, Bob, never had anything but dry and loved it) because he was dehydrated from the diarreah. The vet said to make him drink as much as possible, but he really didn't want to drink at all because of his sore throat. Instead, I mixed pedialyte (unflavored) with gravy from kitten food pouches. That make him drink whick helped the dehydration.
If you give him wet food, try to mix in rice to help the diarreah, that's what I did. Milo seemed to like it, too.
Also be aware that changing a kitten's food will usually give him and upset stomach. If you want to switch foods, start by mixing the new food with the old over a period of 4-5 days, with a little more of the new stuff every day. This should get his system better used to a new food.
Because my Milo was sick in the beginning, I had to keep him in the bathroom and away from Bob for two weeks. It was quite a bit of work, keeping him in there, but I really think it helped the transition of Bobby going from an only kitty to a big brother.
He smelled Milo in the bathroom (and heard his meows as well) and pretty much spent 14 days camped out in front of the bathroom door. I think by the time Milo was finally allowed out, they couldn't wait to get to know eachother!
In the beginning, I would bring Milo out for 10 minutes or so and if it got rough, I would then bring him back to the bathroom. I took him out like this several times a day for longer and longer periods of time.
I have had Milo for almost 9 weeks now, and it wasn't until about 2 weeks ago that I let them stay together while I went to work. They seemed to get along great, but I didn't want to risk Milo getting hurt.
Now they are close and hang out together during the day.
When I got Milo he was very sick and clingy and only 6 weeks old. Whenever I went into the bathroom for a play or cuddle session, he would be so eager for company he litterally would jump onto my pants and claw his way to my shoulder, purring like crazy!
I made sure to spend lots of time in there with him and reassure him. I also gave him lots of toys to play with, a nice bed to sleep in and a teddy bear to cuddle with. This is something a lot of new kitten mamas do, since the kitten likes to cuddle with the teddy bear as if it were a littermate.
As for my Bob, I made sure to give him lots of attention as well, since he knew there was another cat in the house that I was spending time with. It's very important for you to spend time with your "old" cat and let him/her know that you still love them and the arrival of the new member of the family hasn't changed that.
Okay, that was quite long. Hope it helps a bit. Best of uck and kep us posted about how it's all going!
Posted 1 year ago by GreatDane #
