2 new kittens... problems :(

Well I got 2 new kittens. Incredibly cute and already madly in love with them..... but.

The guy at the store said they were 6 weeks old, which i know is on the young side. They seemed fine enough at the time though. I bought the same food they were eating and brought them home.

well it's been 3 days and one of them is incredibly inactive. He plays once in a while but i'm going to say he seems lethargic.

The other has diarreah and it's obviously in quite a bit of pain when he does it.

Neither of them were eating much of the food (dry food for kittens) so i called the store and they said to add in some wet food. I did that and they ate like crazy. They both still seem out of sorts though. It's been a while since I had a kitten but from what i remember they usually are always running around and causing havoc.

I'm pretty worried. Should i just take them to the vet? I don't have much money so i'm hoping the answer is just that i'm being oversensitive and that this is normal for 6 week old kittens that are only 2 or 3 days in a new place.

thanks for any help!

Nick

Maybe you can CALL the vet and see what they say. That's what I always do since it doesn't cost anything.

Also, check your yellow pages. Lots of times vets will offer the first visit free. That's what my vet does and since I have so many animals(especially exotics) it has already saved me a few hundred bucks!

Did the store offer any type of health guarantee? Usually they have to offer like a 3-7 day health guarantee so you can get them checked by your vet and if there are any problems they must either refund your money, or pay for any treatments. We had that problem with a bird that we bought from a store and they had to refund our money because he was sick and our vet diagnosed it and we brought the proof to the store along with the bird, still alive.

Ah that's a good idea. I'll call and check out if there is one. Thanks!

Its not normal - please take both to a vet as soon as you can. In young kittens, diarraha can spell death as they have very little to fight with!

Also if the kittens were in the pet shop at 6 weeks, that means they were taken from mom probably 1-2 weeks earlier.......FAR too young. At 6 weeks they are barely weaned and eating solid foods.

Its better for kittens to be with mom/siblings for a minimum of 10 weeks old. My kittens at 6 weeks just were learning how to eat solid foods and still nursed another month!

definitely take them to the vet ASAP!

Well i took them to the pet store as they will take them to the vet themselves for free in the first 2 weeks.

They treated them right there though.

Girl kitten had diarreah and was dehydrated
Boy kitten was lethargic

They gave them both another deworming and some pills to thicken their stools (not sure why he wants me to give it to both of them) it's called metronidozole. i checked on the internet and it looks like that's on for Giardia and not Coccidiosis which is what he was talking about.

He did give me some differnt food that they are both eating a lot of. They wren't really eating much and the boy kitten already seems a little more energetic.

Should i insist on taking him to the vet?

Thanks!

Nick

Yes I would definetely take them to the vet! If a vet did not look at them and they just had a pet store worker fix them up for you they don't know what is wrong with the kittens and could be diagnosing them with the wrong thing, or giving them wrong medication. They should be seen by a certified veterinarian and soon.

I agree, I would not trust pet shops to do anything right - considering they are selling kittens far too young to begin with. Make an appointment with your own vet and tell them what the pet shop has done for them. Hopefully it will not cause more problems with the little ones.