Found Kitten tonight need advise

My husband & I were outside tonight with our dogs and I heard the frantic cry of a cat.

Being who I am I meowed back to see if the cat would come out to us. It was in a neighbors yard, well neighbor that no longer lives there and has not for awhile.

There were people there the other day cleaning and since the place has not had anyone there for awhile I am wondering if they spoked off the mommy cat and other kittens if there were any.

We had a terrible rain fall tonight but as I crouched at the gate and meowed the kitten appeared.

As soon as we saw the baby we knew we were bringing him home. He came right up to me at the gate but he could not crawl out under it and it was locked so we could not get in. My husband lifted it up some to try and entice it to crawl out and he got spoked a little from the lifting of it. So hubby put it back down and then the kitten found a spot and just walked right out and we laugh like why didn't you do that to begin with.

So hubby carried him home. Our driveway is a .10 of a mile and as we walked down it hubby said omg this kitten is covered in fire ants. Hubby has a ton of bites from them to prove it.

Well we get in and hubby goes to the bathroom and washes the kitten off. We had to do something. Did not use any soap because unsure of the age.

On top of the fire ants the poor baby is or was covered in stickers in its fur.

So hubby worked at getting them out. I have done some grooming so have some stuff here, specially with the animals in our house. So I gave hubby my grooming stuff so he could work at brushing the stickers out. He wanted me to cut them out and I told him no I was not going to cut his fur. (He even wanted me to shave him, said no to that too) I have told hubby this over and over again that cats skin is like paper and you can cut it very easily.

Well hubby forgot about this and while I was out of the bathroom decided to start cutting the stickers out. He cuts the cat twice, took the second cut to realize what he had done.

The cuts are not big he got the first layer in two spots.

Here is what I need advise on....

Age - the kitten fits easily in the palm of our hands. Eyes are not blue anymore as I know most are when the first open. I want to estimate him weight under a half pound. I am guessing 4 weeks.

Since we had kittens at one time I had formula I tried given him some he wanted nothing to do with it. I have cat treats, the temptations. I broke that up into pieces and he ate some of them but not much. He has baby teeth.

I put out a dish of water, small pan of cat litter that I put him in that he had no interest in, than the dish of formula. I also have a small handful of broken up cat treats for him to eat. (Since it is now almost 3 am here we were not able to do much else, wal mart run in AM when step son gets up)

With knowing this information what age would you estimate the kitten to be?

Also the small wounds we inflected. On my other animals I have used a small dab of neosporin but I don't know if the kitten is that young if he licks the wounds (which he is doing) will be bad for him.

Should I clean the wounds out with hydrogen peroxide at all?

Here are a few photos of him so you can tell me if you have any idea on age.

The kitten is super friendly, as it came right to us, but appears to have been abandoned due to all the issues we found on him. Ears were filth.

He is purring when we pet him. But is a fighter or strong lil guy that is for sure.

Any advise help would be great.

Thanks,
Cortney

As you can see by his eyes they are green so I am at a lost for how old he is.

He may have been the runt of the litter and small due to that.

Any advise would be great.

Thank you again!

About washing off the cuts.
I myself believe in common salt water.
Water, say 1 litre, kitchen salt, say 1 tea spoon. Boil it up, let get cooler to body temperature. Pour on freely and profusely.
Dont spare on the solution more than 24 hours, better to make new instead if need be.
- This in no numble jumble, they use this in hospitals too.

He doesnt want eat much?

You sure he is warm enough? Not dehydrated? If - he wont eat...

Try to get the milk-formula on your finger, and he hopefully want to lick it off.
If this not works, you must give it by other means. A little syringe, or dropping-bottle or something...


Dont forget to hug your wonderful hubby!

Good luck!

Walmart. Try some wet kitten food or baby food. He does not look too young. I would get him to vet asap for preliminary exam. God Bless you for taking this little one in. The world needs more people like you (us).

Going to wake hubby up soon to run to wal mart.

Baby really did not move from the kitten bed we made it last night. He is warm, body feels good temp wise but ears are a little cold.

I have KMR for 4 to 8 weeks. I gave the kitten some but won't drink it so I took a syringe and force feed him 1 cc right now.

But he fought it tooth and nail. So I want to get the premade stuff and a bottle and see it I can tempt him that way easier.

Also want to get wet food and see if he will eat some of that.

When I placed the broken pieces of cat treats in front of him this AM he ate some not much though.

Since only vets around here that are open on sunday is the ER, and we can't afford that, we will have to wait. Unless bansfield is open on sunday which I don't believe they are.

Thanks for your help and any other advice is still needed. Just don't want this little baby to die specially with as loveable it is. As soon as I went in our bathroom this am and sat by him he started to purr up a storm.

Hubby is well be hugged and reminded me over and over again last night I owe him.

I did just go and weight the baby, he weighs in at 1.08 pounds! Much bigger than I thought he was.

Also help us with a name. Most of our animals (8 cats and 3 dogs) have disney themed names. He is a boy, and you see the photo of him above.

Names for our current animals

Dogs
Maggie, Brownie, Sammie

Cats
Tinkerbelle, JJ, Momma Mia, (and these are her five kittens, we rescued Mia from our street too and we kept all her kittens that are now just over a year old) Mocha, Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Simba & Bashful (girl)

My first thought is Hercules a good strong name and keeps with our disney theme.

I know I want the name to be a strong one because this poor baby has been through an ordeal and is a fighter!

Thanks again

You can mix the KMR with his kitten wet.. .also try human, stage two baby food- chicken or turkey. NO garlic or onions... just meat and water... warm it up so it smells good.

If he is unsure, try dabbing it on his lips and he will lick it off ... he will get the idea.

I'm not good at guessing age --- but I would think about five weeks.

Older than 5 weeks. My guess would be at least 6, and probably 8 weeks, but underfed.

Bless you for taking this little guy in! A good name would be Sampson. Don't know if it fits with the Disney theme or not but Sampson was a strong guy!

Originally Posted by Catkiki

Bless you for taking this little guy in! A good name would be Sampson. Don't know if it fits with the Disney theme or not but Sampson was a strong guy!

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Samson, or Simson, I think...

I propose some name from the Lion-King Story. There are surely several.

In the Ariel-story, you know daughter of Poseidon. Is there any strong male character save Poseidon himself?

Mulan, the chinese girl Hero who pretended to be a boy... CAN be used as a male cat name.


I hope for the best, and wish you and your family all the best!

Bless you for saving this little guy. I'm so glad you had your listening ears on and heard his pleas for help. He's quite dashing, too!!

He may not be eating if he's still scared and afraid. Also, if he's weak, that might also contribute to his lack of appetite. You might want to try calling your regular vet and explaining the situation. S/He may be willing to meet you at the clinic to obtain some food or ointment for the bites and snips from scissors and also maybe an appetite stimulant.

Read the stickied thread at the top of this forum regarding links, http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74659 . You might have the ingredients on hand to make the homemade kitten goop and he might be enticed to eat that.

Keep us posted on his progress!!

If he was covered in fire ants, there is a good chance he feels very bad from all the bites. Not much you can do about them, but fire ants CAN kill small animals.

Thank you everyone for all your advice and help.

My husband and I did go to Wal-Mart and got some kitten wet & dry food. He did 1/3 of a can of the kitten wet, which is the recommended amount for a kitten his size.

Before we left, I was able to get him to lap up some water by mixing it with the cat treats that he was nibbling on. So, I feel a little better knowing how to get him to drink some water, and I will continue to make sure he stays hydrated.

He is adapting very well. It seems that one he ate, he got some more energy. Right now, he is curled up in my lap, but is very curious about his surroundings.

The only issue right now is I have put him in his litter box after eating, moved his paw in the litter, but he doesn't seem to want to do anything in it. I don't know if he has been without food or anything for a while, he might not have anything to process. I did bring one of my dogs that helped my mom cat with her kittens, with stimulating them, and she did lick this kitten in order to help him.

The only thing that I can think to teach him is to try to use the little pan, is to put one of the cats that is good with this kitten in the room with him to show him how to use the litter pan.

Other than that, any suggestions to help teach him to use the litter pan?

Thank you again for all your help!!

Put him in a small room, preferably one with a non-carpet floor. Put in the litter box and his food. Usually, the security of the small room and the ease of finding the litter box helps everything work out.

Using a friendly cat or dog is a very good idea.

The drawback is, there IS some risk of contagions of sorts. Thus, most rescuers do have the rescued on its own (=quarantene) some time, until they are sure the rescued is OK. Usually a vet check up too.

How strickt, it depends. Some are VERRY strickt, some mix the animals almost at once. Most are somewhere in between.

If your animals are healthy, fully vaccinated, and use to freely roam outside - you probably dont need to overdo the precauations.

If your animals are strictly indoors you do something different. etc...


ps. You can yourself stimulate the tummy and the behind. Use a cloth somewhat wetted in warm water.

UPDATE -

Kitten has been doing really well tonight with the food. He ate a whole can. I tried on his second feeding to mix in KMR but he did not like that at all. So tonight I added some hot water and some dry kibble to it that I had mushed up.

He loved it.

So tonight hubby and I looked at his teeth to help determine how old he is.

He has his lower molars in and some of his upper molars. So I am guessing he is about 6 weeks to 7 weeks old.

He is well underweight than for his age. This am when I weighed him he was barely over 1 lb. When you pet him you can feel his ribs easily. So I am just going to keep feeding him as much as I can.

Here are the only issues so far I am having and need some more advice on:

1 - he won't go to his water bowl on his own. If I place him in front of it which is two steps away from his bed where he is laying, he will lap it up. The same with his food he has to be put in front of it.

2 - I have not seen him poop yet. Yes one of my dogs did stimulate him last night but so far today he has not gone poop that I have found. He may have peed on his bed, but no poop. After every meal or after drinking I have put him in the litter box. After playing or napping as much as I can I have put him in there and nothing. I have moved his paws around in it, he has sniffed at it a bit but not done anything in it.

One of my cats has taken to the kitten a bit and cleaning him. So tonight I am going to lock him up with the baby and see if he can help teach him some things. But can kittens be constipated? If he has not had anything to eat in awhile will it take awhile for him to start pooping again? I am just worried about his and can't get him to a vet as I am currently car less so any advise is greatly appreciated.

Thank you again in advance. And we have decided to go with the name of Hercules for him.

Glad to hear he's eating now. I'd say about 8-9 weeks.

If he's acting lethargic (not wanting to do anything) he's probably still having issues from the bites. I can't even imagine how that many bites can effect such a tiny little body =0(

It could take up to 3-4 days for him to feel "comfortable" enough to have a BM, especially if he's barely eating as it is.

Originally Posted by coco75

But can kittens be constipated? ...any advise is greatly appreciated.

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Yes, they can.

Some light constipation loosers:

In Sweden we do recommend butter made on goat milk. Preferably the norvegian variation...

In USA I believe conserved pumpkins thay say...

There may be others too.

Against heaver constipation is liquid paraffine oil good.

Some cat treats are dissolved in liquid paraffine, so I suspect they should do, if you cant get good liquid paraffine-oil.
For example Cat Malt. Some vitamine-pastas too.

With dry food you need to make sure a cat is getting plenty of water, but if he's eating mostly wet food you I wouldn't worry too much. Wet food is already about 78% water.

I don't have any advice on teaching him to use the litterbox. Goldy's kittens all learned from watching their mother, so I didn't have to do anything. Putting another cat in with him sounds like the best thing to do at this point.

How soon will you be able to get him to a vet? From the pictures I would gues around 7-8 weeks old. He may be small because he's malnourished, or he may just be a small cat. Maybe a combination of both. Whatever he is, he's cute.

Awww how sweet and I love the name Hercules (my kitty is named that after the Disney movie..) I hope you get him all sorted out I bet he is thanking the heavens he found you guys...I will be reading to find out more!!!