Eye help and questions

First I would like to say thank you to all of the people who take the time to educate people on how to care for Kittens.

We found a mama cat and 2 babies in our back yard. We thought that she was fixed, but I guess not.

A local animal shelter (North Shore Animal League) will take the babies and fix mom once the babies are 2 pounds and not sick. One kitten has what looks like pink eye goo. Her eyes get goo'd closed. This local shelter's vet is over an hour away and I am looking into closer affordable places. I cleaned the eyes today with a wet warm cotton ball.

Should I continue to do this until we take her to a vet?? (probably on Sat.)

We were advised to socialize with the kittens. I can pick them up and play with them. Mama sees that I am here to help not hurt. She does cries/purry meows when I am holding the babies.

How do we socialine them??

We have 2 soon to be one years in the house and one human 9 year old, so we can not take these babies in as our own. Eventough I asked hubby. One day these babies will be in someones home. I thought about sending baby pix with them to the shelter. Is this stupid?

I think you can proceed with carefully taking the goo away as you do waiting for this vet visit. But be very careful not to contagion the other eye nor the other kitten. The bacterias does get there anyway, but it is unnecessary to get them there in big masses...

Good you are on the way to meet a vet. Such eye problems - goo, pus, etc, are not to be neglected. The rule is: If taking this goo away dont helps - contact a vet. As you are doing.


Proceed to socialize the kittens as you are doing. With small kittens you do simply handle them. Weigh them - or pretend to weigh, etc...
Later when they are a little bigger - play with them.

If your 9 year is a nice fellow, let himher too play some with the kittens. (if the mom allows it!).
Being socialized with children makes easier for kittens to find a good new home.
If you have a friendly dog - the same.

As you did notice, the mom does usually accept this, your handling of the kittens, although she apparently is watchful.
Even rather ferale moms can accept this! btw, thus in some ways, it is easier to foster a feral mom with kittens, then an alone feral cat...

So proceed to foster the kittens, and if you can - the mom too...


Sending some pictures with them sounds like a great idea.
You cant know if the shelter has a real use of them as now, but their future owners will surely see the pictures. Nice memories so to speak.
And also, if nothing else, good they do have proof the kittens DID get fostered in a home, and not were just picked up outside on a field a few hours earlier....


Tx a lot for yours helping them - and good luck!



ps. IF you do after all have any plans of adopting them, yourself or some friend or relative - please think firstly about this shy mom.
Kittens will almost surely find good adoptive homes. Well socialized kittens usually do.
But grown up cats, especially shy - much more difficult.

Thank you so much for the advice.

We will be taking the baby to the vet tomorrow. Poor baby

I will post some pix and an update tomorrow.

Thanks again!

Another thing that really helped me was putting eye and ear polysporin in the eye after you've got it open by dabbing it with warm water. Eye infections are VERY common in litters from outside.
Oh, and for socializing, all you need it lots of love to give! Hold them often, pet them, play with them...they'll love you back very quickly!

Definitely wipe out the little eyes, I use a warm washcloth whenever we have sick kittens. A lot of times this will help take care of the problem, but a visit to the vet is always a great idea. Good luck!


Also in terms of handling kittens, I like to help them practice for other things, like nail trimmings by handling their paws, ear cleaning by poking around their ears. Just different feelings so they get used to them early on.

Thank you all for the advice.

Dawn (We had to name her) has a viral infection. Vetroplycin was prescribed 3x a day for 7 days. She weighs 1 pound 6 oz. She is about 5 weeks old.

Sunshine (her sister) weighs 1 pound 7 oz.


They are both healthy and look good.

At what age can we expect them to weigh 2 pounds?


We adopted 2 babies last year from a shelter and I do wonder if they were socialized because at time it appears that we are the bothersome humans who live in their house. They do not cuddle Gracie May is a little lovie, but her brother Dash is a typical cat. I had 2 boys previously and they were so different.

Originally Posted by Myboys15

At what age can we expect them to weigh 2 pounds?

Click to expand...

Usually 8 weeks, possibly 9 or 10 if they're small. But since they're already over a pound they'll probably make it by 8 weeks with good feeding.