Very Sick Kitten!

On Sunday afternoon my across the road neighbours bought over to me a Tiny tiny little maybe 4 week old siamese kitten..(my neighbours kill cats )Anyway it was over 90 degree,s so i put her in the kitchen with some water and kitten food (IAMS) and she shoveled that down...She is ALL skin and bones..I mean i have NEVER NEVER seen a kitten so Dehydrated...Her eyes where all swollen and runny..I think she may have been outside for a pretty long time...Poor thing ANyway i put terramycan (i think thats how you spell it) in her eyes . She is using the litter box but this cold doesnt seem to be getting any better.....she isnt weezing or rasping just watery eyes..She is eating pretty well but i have to remind her to eat and drink...... Last night we had chicken and i gave her a tiny tiny piece and she tore it up.....:tounge2: Any suggestion on how i can put some weight on this poor kitten...We live in a very rural neighbour hood and apprently there was another kitten (so i was later told)but where that one is i dont know. .She is sleeping alot.....Please dont tell me to take her to a vet as i just cant afford it.. ..and i have 3 other cats that were rescues and they are thriving PSS i keep saying a she but its a HE!!! Any help would be appreciated
Also she isnt frigtened by nothing and has tons of fleas but seeing as i dont know what her age is (as in weeks) i dont know what i can put on her safely

She is to tiny to put anything on her safely, and to sick and probably anemic and she NEEDS a vet. She needs to be flea-combed at least. You can buy a special comb with small tines to groom her out with and put the fleas in a soapy water solution. She probably needs subcutaneous fluids, and she needs to be tested for regular diseases so she doesn't get your other three sick. Most vets are very good about taking payment plans,if you call ahead and speak to the office manager. There is always the option too about surrendering the kitten to an animal shelter so they can look after the medical needs. Putting medication in her eyes that have not been prescribed for her is sometimes not a good idea. I am sorry I am not going to sugarcoat this, this kitten needs a vet.

I agree with Hissy, this baby needs a vet. Can you not offer to pay the vet bill in small instalments for a few $ a week? I live in the UK, and most vets here do offer an instalment program.

Please take the baby to a vet soon

About the fleas!

I dont know if you have 'frontline' there, but you can use it on kittens as young as 2 days old

Its expensive to buy, but works!!!! And I mean WORKS!

Good luck, and keep us posted

This is true BUT with a sickly kitty and a comprimised immune system like this one probably has, it should not be applied without a vet's consent.

Well i rung all the vets and NO they dont take payments......PAY IN FULL ON THE DAY!!!!....TOday her eyes are cleared up and she is eating and drinking and playing........THanks Neesey for you advice on fleas..i will go and ring now the pet store now...And here as for putting the kitten in a shelter if its sick it will be PUT TO SLEEP!!!...SO NO WAY am i taking her to a shelter ....I am going to try and make her feel as comfortable as possible ....AND Hissy i DIDNT ask for anything to be Sugarcoated..I asked for advice.....You are a VERY VERY mean person for making me feel like its all my fault the kitten is sick! I am doing my best.....

I am sorry you think I am *mean* I assure you, I am not. I was trying to impress on you that even though you said you "couldn't" take this cat to the vet, this kitten needed a vet. I did not say you were a horrible person for posting this, or for saving this kitten. I just wanted to make you aware of that with kittens, they can be fine one day, and gone the next. I have done this type of work for many years and I have seen pretty much all of the bad stuff that happens and also been blessed with the good stuff when it happens. I am sorry your vets are not flexible and won't work with you, and that you apparently have no No-Kill shelters available. My concern was strictly for that kitty.

Is there noone that could help & advance you the money and you can pay them back in installments?

I hope your kitten gets well.

But I have to agree with the others, it really should see a vet. Or perhaps you could give it to someone who could afford the medical bills, like a family member or close friend???

I think Hissy is right, the kitty really needs to be seen by a veterinarian in its own best interest for survival.

ghostkitten, It is obvious that your intentions are only good and loving. If it hadn't been for you that poor baby would be dead. The problem is with the people who allowed this to happen. To be honest, every trip my animals take to the vet is a hardship for me, but when it's necessary, it's unavoidable, and I am not the only person at TCS in this position.

Unfortunately, someone's negligence put this kitten in danger of dying. That would break your heart, I know. We are all animal lovers like you, and some of us are barely getting by. However, if it is a matter of life and death, we know that a lay person cannot always save an animal's life, no matter how good the intentions. I know you'll do your best for the kitten, but if we didn't give you our best advice, we would not be true to the most important missions of this site, education and the well being of cats. God bless you for trying, and please try to get some professional help for the baby.

Very well said Jeanie! I think Jeanie has voiced all of our concerns very eloquently. Ghostkitten, I hope you understand where we are all coming from.

Of course, I agree that the kitten should see a vet. Hissy was not at all mean to stress that. I stopped my cable tv so I would have $40 more a month to pay for vet bills for my cats. If you have cable, you can do that. My family is good about lending one another money, perhaps yours is too.

Aside from that, do you know that very tiny kittens need to eat about every four to six hours? The best thing is to leave out dry kitten formula food round the clock (kitten formula food has the extra protein and calories kittens need to grow.) Then, also serve her some canned food meals each day. Is she defecating on her own? Kittens can't defecate or urinate on their own until about 3-4 weeks old. If you have not seen her do both, you need to wipe her rear with a wet washcloth, a bit after meals to stimulate her to eliminate. Mother cats would use their tongues.

If she had recently been with her mother, she might like to drink the special kitten milk (not cow's milk) more than she would water. Water might seem foreign to her. Also, the canned food has water in it, so that is another reason to serve it daily.

Kittens need to stay warm, so make a little cozy nest box for her that will let her burrow into the blanket or folded towel you line it with, and the sides of the box will help keep any draft off. Get a small stuffed animal to put in the nest box for her to snuggle against to help keep warm, and also to give comfort.

And no, you CANNOT use a full does of frontline on a tiny kitten. It is supposed to be about one drop only per body weight. More could kill the kitten, or get it sick. A four week old kitten likely doesn't even weight one pound, not if it was starving. You can put the opened vial in a film cannister, to keep it upright for use the next month. NEVER use Hartz flea drops or any Hartz flea product from the grocery. It has killed kittens and caused toxic reactions in adult cats. A flea comb takes a long time, but it works. Of course, you also have to vacuum more often, to get up the fleas that hopped of the cat.

Ok....1st off i DONT have cable!!!!!!!!!..2nd..im in america ON MY OWN!!!!!! All my family is in Australia.....SO no i CANT borrow the money........ The kitten has fresh food every 4hrs...Fresh water ALL the time! Yes kitten chow is out for her ALL the time!!She is using the litterbox after every meal.....She has a made up box with warm blankets where she puts HERSELF EVERY NIGHT since Sunday at 9.00pm..........She has just started to purr .....I have kitten formula on hand but she doesnt want it so i watered down some cows milk and she is fine with that....Water isnt foreign to her.....I assume by the state of her on SUnday that she has been left to fend on her own for a number of days.........AT this moment she seems to be doing fine........no i will not put frontline on her i have talked to the petshop and they said NO WAY!!!!!!..Apparently Dawn dishwashing liquid is pretty good and VERY gentle for kitten and puppeis to give a bath too but i will wait until she is more settled in before i even attempt a bath.........

ghostkitten,

First of all, calm down please? I am not jumping on you, although it may sound like I am. I am not there to see this kitten for myself so I have to go on what I know from *experience* could or might happen. You are estimating the kitten is 4 weeks old and that is quite young. Young kittens need plenty of care and attention and a vet would be a good idea if you can swing it. My concern is the flea problem because the fleas can very quickly suck the blood from a young kitten and leave her with problems of anemia. In my experience, I have had young kittens who were fine one minute and gone the next. I am just trying to prevent you from experiencing that type of heartache. Kittens will purr when they are in pain or uncomfortable as well as when they are content. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference. One way you can tell IF the kitty might be in trouble is to gently open up the mouth and look at her gums. If they are "pink and happy" then she is not affected by the fleas all over her. If they are bleached out and pale, then she has lost some vitality and you will be experiencing some trouble down the road.

You have to understand that you have come to a board full of cat lovers and many of us deal with these types of problems all the time.
If you do bathe her, you really don't need a lot of dawn detergent, just 1/4 of a teaspoon will do the trick. Have a few towels cycling in the dryer (put them in dry not wet) and when her bath is done, take out the towels and wrap her in them. Hold her tight to your chest until she is done shivering. It is really best if you don't bathe her,the flea comb will work just as well even if it will take longer, because kits catch chills quickly and are susceptible to upper respitory problems should they get chilled. Also, and I am not criticizing you or being mean, but please don't give her cows milk. If you cannot find KMR at your grocery store, then if you go to the baking aisle and get a can of powdered goats milk, this is so much better for her. The cows milk will eventually start to plug her up so she may have problems using the litterbox, so please stop using it, even if it is just a little bit. If you do a search on the forum for the words Kitten Glop, you will be led to a thread that gives recipes to help young kittens thrive. After I post this, I will do the search for you and leave the link at the end of this post. Good luck with her.


Here is the link:Kitten Glop Recipe

Well this is a sad story about a kitten (8 months old) we had our little man for 6 months and he became VERY sick (we got him from an animal shelter). In the past 3 weeks we have spent over $1000 trying to help him. He had a suspected Shunt and after many tests they still were not sure what was wrong with him. We ended up taking him to a specialist and they checked him out. They said he had abnormal kidneys and 1 of them had lumps on it, so they told us we needed to spend another $500 for more tests. If we found out he needed an operation it was going to cost us another $2000 if not more to fix him but because they could not tell after 3 weeks of testing him what was exactly wrong with him we had to make the hardest decision to put him down yesterday (29.8.02).
It has been a hard few days and we had to sacrifice alot of things to pay for his costs and the costs kept going up and up. As much as we wanted to save his life we couldn't. Our heads are knowing we did the right thing cause if it was a simple problem they would have diagnosed it and he would be here at home again. I can understand where ghostkitten is coming from as i couldn't ask my parents for help either (not that we got a chance to ask them). But in the end tonight my parents gave us $200 to buy another kitten because they said "they really feel for us and know how hard it has been for us". Ghostkitten you do all you can do, if the poor little might is meant to live a happy life what ever you do for him he will either survive or not survive, unfortunantly for us our little kitty was never meant to grow up.

Good luck with everything and everyone has been giving GREAT advise, its good to come to a forum where people know what they are talking about.

Ghostkitten

I'd like to add that I think you're doing a brave and admirable job taking on this tiny kitty. I wish you every luck in the world with her.

I'd also like to say that nobody here is picking on you, or belittling what you are doing. Some of these guys know a SERIOUS amount, and I've learn alot during the few months I've been coming here - the advice hasn't always been pleasant, but it has always been realistic and sensible.

If you can, take on board what they all say - Hissy really knows her stuff. I know, if I had any major issues I would always come here. But I'd also seek out the help of an expert. I think the vets where you live must be real sods if they won't take stage payments. I know they are running a business, but I think they need to exercise a degree of flexibility when it come to sick animals.

All the best - have you named the kitty yet?

This link is GREAT. It details ALL no kill shelters in each state...

http://www.saveourstrays.com/no-kill.htm

If you contact one of them, they will help you to help that little kitten. All you can do is your best honey--keep up the good work.

Elyse

Oh, Racoooooooon, I'm so sorry about your cat. What a sad thing to go through.

I can fully sympathize with not being able to afford a vet - and I have discovered that most will not take payments at all. One thing you can check - FEW animal hospitals will foster a pet - they take the kitten from you and someone on their staff will take it and pay expenses. So IF (and that is a big IF because I only know one in the state of Vermont who does it - our usual vet had never heard of it.)

For milk - my brother just adopted a puppy whose mother was malnourished and her milk dried up when they were 3 weeks old. He went to the health food store and bought a half gallon of Goat's milk for $3 and feeds the pup from a bottle. The puppy's weight has doubled in the two weeks they have had him.

My vet had told me to feed my unweaned kitten a mixture of corn syrup, egg yolk and cow's milk, but now that I have discovered he misdiagnosed my Siamese - I don't trust a thing he has told me!!! So I would go with goat's milk instead of the cow's milk.

This is another valid option - BUT again there are some (the one in our area included) that limit the towns they will take pets from, our local one was running short on funds so they decided only towns that give heavy "thousands" donations through the year are part of their "membership" if you live in a town that is a "member" they will take animals - if you live in a "non-member" town - they will refuse you at the door, so our town's animal control is now faced with having all unclaimed strays euthanized because the town does not have the needed money for "membership" in the current budget. It is worth a shot though.