Foster Kittens have Fleas--tons of questions!

Good Morning~

I need some guidance. I have my first foster family of a very young mama and four kittens. They are about four weeks old. Mama isn't cleaning them well and two have diarrhea. The shelter has me giving them goats milk and adding "FortiFlora" into that for the diarrhea.

I am combing the fleas out as best I can and along with fleas is a lot of dried blood/flea dirt. Is the anything else I can be doing to get rid of the fleas?

How old before I can bathe them a gently use a blow drier to dry them?

How old old to I start trying to start them on a little solid food? Suggestions for introducing them to that?

Thanks a million for any and all help!!

blessings~

My young cat Jade had 4 very cute kitten July 29 2007.I was surprised when they had fleas mom and kittens. I went to visit our local vet and Bought advantage for all of them and got the right doses for all. I am a supporter for shelters but I have alot of faith in my vet. Fleas eggs hatch every 3 days and cause tape worm and afew other problems, I also bought a spay for the house thats safe for the kittens to flea free my house for my babies. I would make a visit to a FRIENDLY vets office and get their opion on the kittens and mom. a few times I gave the kittens a sponge bath with mild soap, pan of luke warm water and afew towles and wash rags and a soft cat brush. I put out moisten dry kitten food and wet food around 4 weeks near their area. I put a kitty litter box (low sides) in thier area I used unscented non toxic kitty litter its only 1.59 for a small bag. the kittens did try to eat the kitty litter I think they all try it out lol. Most important is the mothers health she needs kitten food and my need the powered kitten milk for extra nutr. mom cat is young she will need your help with the kittens try and guide her to care for her kittens and show her lots of love she is going though alot and she needs you. God Bless,mistikal

I have bathed bottle babies from birth, as long as you use warm water and dry them off completly there shouldn't be a problem. If you can have a warm wate rbottle or something else to keep them warm after their bath (evern if mom is helping out) they should do just fine.

Blow drying has worked for me too but make sure it's not too hot and not too cold also. I usually towel dry as much as possible first then finish up with a blow dryer.

I am lucky enough not to have carpet in my house so, that is not a factor. If you have carpet though, vacuum a lot so the infestation doesn't grow. Throw out the bag after each vacuuming to keep them from hopping back out too.

I comb like crazy but since we no longer have any kittties going outside, it's really cut down on the fleas I'm combing off.

I keep a flea comb by my computer (where I live most of my time. LOL) and any time a friend decides to come visit, they get a good combing. I have 11 cats in the house right now (rescue/fostering too) so there is a lot of combing going on.

thank you Misticaldreamer for all your advise. I will make a little trip to my vets office and talk to them! I appreciate it very much!!!

Thank you for giving me the guts to give them a bath!! I will do the vacuuming and thanks for the extra tip about dumping the bag when I'm done. You have given me a lot of sound things to do and I deeply appreciate it!!!!