I found an kitten stuck in a car engine! pics

angryrectangle

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Hello hello,

Not sure if this belongs here or in the Strays/Ferals section. Feel free to move it if you like.

I'm currently in Lima, Peru as some of you may know. Last night I went next door to get a few things out of my car. The car parked next to me appeared to be having mechanical problems and a group of people were looking under the hood.. they asked me for a flashlight so I came to see what was going on since I have a bunch of tools in my car, should they have needed them. When I asked what was going on the guy just said there was a cat. I presumed that this was some weird Peruvian car term I didn't know, but then I heard the meowing!

After a few minutes he finally located the kitty above/in front of the front wheel and asked me to help him get it out. It was REALLY stuck in there, and I have NO idea how it even got there. After about 10 minutes of him pushing the rubber bit that keeps the engine area closed and me yanking on the cat we finally managed to drag him out.

The poor kitty was SOAKED in engine grease and seemingly water aswell. The guy led me over to a pile of garbage and told me to leave the cat there, thanked me for helping him and drove off.

When I set this poor thing down I knew I couldn't leave him there since he was shivering from being so wet, and black from all the engine grease. I left him and ran back inside to get Josh (my boyfriend) to help me with the kitty.

He hid under a few cars but never ran away or struggled when we reached under to pull him out. We managed to get him and wrapped him up in Josh's sweater. As soon as he was all wrapped up he was instantly calm and got all happy looking since it was all warm and snuggly in there.

So we took him inside and spent a few hours trying to clean him up.. it reminded me of all those oil spill commercials you see on TV where people are dunking oil covered birds into tubs of soapy water. We gave him some food and water and he was happy as a clam.

He seemed to be very comfortable with us right away. He insisted on sitting on Josh's lap and seemed to enjoy being cleaned. Eventually he got up and hung out under the bed for awhile, so Josh and I watched a movie and he snuggled up in Josh's sweater on the ground.

He doesn't seem to mind being stuck in this room. He's mostly been sleeping and eating, and is loving all the pets and cuddles. He's CRAWLING with fleas so hopefully I can find some flea medicine for him soon. It's Sunday here so all the vets in the vicinity are closed, so vet will have to wait until tommorow. I think he's also got ear mites and he hasn't gone to the bathroom yet (as far as I know..) Really, in almost 24 hours he has not gone to the bathroom. I think he's a little weary of his "litter box" which is just a box filled with dirt, but I'm hoping it doesn't mean anything bad!

Here's some photos of him last night.. keep in mind all those gray spots are actually supposed to be white! I'm guessing by the size of him he's probably about 4-5 months old. What do you think?




And today, looking a little bit better..




I'm not sure what to do with this little guy yet. I guess we'll take him to the vet tommorow and get him all fixed up, and see from there.. Josh has already named him Valdez, hee hee.

Update!! He finally used his litterbox!
 

mrblanche

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Keep in mind ingesting the grease/oil is poisonous, so your cleaning him may have saved his life. Our first cat had that bad habit, climbing up next to a car engine to get warm, which is why we decided to keep him indoors the rest of his (fairly long) life.
 
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angryrectangle

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

Keep in mind ingesting the grease/oil is poisonous, so your cleaning him may have saved his life. Our first cat had that bad habit, climbing up next to a car engine to get warm, which is why we decided to keep him indoors the rest of his (fairly long) life.
I know, that's why we couldn't leave him there! We got most of it off last night, but he's still going to need another bath tonight and doesn't seem to be showing too much interest in cleaning himself.. he only wants to nap! Unfortunatly it's a very hard thing to get off and he does NOT want to get into a pot of water so we've been towelling him with water and baby shampoo.

Any tips to help get all this oil off?
 

mer636

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poor baby! i'm glad you three found eachother (fate??) and i'm glad you just didn't leave him in the garbage like that jerk of a guy suggested
 
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angryrectangle

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Originally Posted by Mer636

poor baby! i'm glad you three found eachother (fate??) and i'm glad you just didn't leave him in the garbage like that jerk of a guy suggested
I couldn't believe he suggested that! He just said "here, put him over here" then led me to the mound of garbage behind his car. Even when I pulled the cat out and remarked what a poor little kitty it was he just said "yeah, pobrecita, whatever." I'm very glad that I was there to help the poor little thing out!
 

trillcat

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Maybe try using a mild dish washing soap on him? Would be tougher on his skin but would do a better job of de-greasing.
 

mer636

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what a jerk maybe fate will get him back


I think you should take the poor little one to the vet just in case
 

joshoisasleep

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He is very friendly for a feral of this age... that's probably because there's a lady who feeds all the cats in this neighbourhood. He purs a lot and likes my lap.

I think we will take him to the vet tomorrow and when we go probably leave him here where we found him... there is a nice park where probably 20 of his friendly feral kitty friends live and are fed every day by the nice lady. It's probably his best option in this part of the world... I don't think I could take him with us. A couple days of being fed and tidied up by us while resting inside in the warmth should allow him to build up his strength and give him a good fighting chance back out there in his world.

Yeah I think the oil would have definitely killed him if not the cold... either he'd have ingested too much of it cleaning himself and died from that, or not been able to dry himself because of it and died of cold. It's not warm here and he was completely soaked and coated with oil... the worst of those photos show him after I'd already spent 30 minutes drying and cleaning him with paper towels.
 

catsknowme

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Kudos on your rescue of the kitty - you are a true cat hero!!! Bless you for saving that poor kitty and giving him a respite from the harsh life of the streets in Peru!
 

laureen227

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a mild dishwashing soap [similar to Dawn, but don't know if they have that brand in Peru] would be best for him. it'll also help a bit with the flea problem.
good luck - & bless you!
 

cocoa cream

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Poor baby! I'm so glad you had the heart to take him in and help him! Sure sounds like he would make great little pet, if he's already so friendly. He is showing you how grateful he is to you for rescuing him!
 

hissy

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Do you still have him? If you do and you can find some animal lard, spread that on his coat where the grease is now. Wait about 10 minute then using a warmed towel, towel him off. Keep using warmed towels until most of the lard is off him- it will also pull the grease off. Let me see if I can get you in touch with someone who can take him. I have a friend who travels and Peru is a place she goes a lot to help stray cats. She may know of someone that will come and pick him up. If he has ingested the oil (and he probably has) he isn't out of the woods yet and could be heading for a slow lingering illness and death. I know this, because I had a similar situation here a few years ago and the cat ended up dying.
The vets called it slow toxic shock syndrome.

I'll get back to you with a link -


I MAY have found you some help. Please let me know where in Peru you are and we will go from there. Check your PM box
 

hissy

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If you can find this kitten a suitable home, I have someone waiting in the wings willing to pay for the care of this kitten in Peru-
 
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