Starving stray feeding schedule...help?

Okay, so tonight my hubby found a little orange kitten out in our chicken coop, trying to get the chicken feed. It looks about 10 weeks old, and is so skinny....ridiculously skinny. We brought him in, bathed him, poor thing is covered in fleas, and has a healing gash across his belly. His hair was matted down to it, and he has medium hair, so we tried to clean the wound as best we could. It looks pretty healed but we are watching it to be sure.
My main question is, should I give him 24/7 access to food?
When we brought him in, we gave him half a can of wet food. He ate that so fast, and was looking around for more. We gave him a half a plate of dry food. He ate a bit, and slept for awhile. We bathed him and he has been sleeping and playing. About 1 1/2 hrs after his original feeding, he wandered over and ate more. Now it is about an hour after that time, and he is snacking on the dry food again. His belly feels so full...when I picked him up to take him to litter, his belly was just swollen with food.... He is so tiny, his belly sticks out bad when full. I am just worried that if I leave the food out all night, he will gorge himself and get sick...but I don't want him to feel like he is having food withheld. I just worry he will over eat, bc he isn't sure if the food will be taken away at some point...ack!!

ps. yes I am keeping the kitten away from other cats in my house for now...i would like to take new kkitten to the vet but don't know when I will be able to afford it so we will see...

Call around to the local vets as this little one needs a visit asap ..... Yes give food 24 hours and get some kmr stage 2

My husband and I are hoping to be able to get him to a vet within the next week, so we are planning the vet visit as soon as we can afford it, but we just cannot for a few days. I wish we could, I wish we had the extra money we just don't right now, as soon as we can though we plan to take him, I know vet visits are important. I am looking around right now to find the cheapest closest vet for a checkup.

ask about a new kitten one... both vets I use give the first check free... wormer or shots are extra of course

I wrote down a few numbers to call in the AM. I was able to find a couple vets in my area on facebook also, and on their pages, they have advertised kittens in the past, so I am going to contact them to see if they can help me get the word out on this kitten...I figure finding a home through a vet would be a safer option.

Originally Posted by frankthetank

I wrote down a few numbers to call in the AM. I was able to find a couple vets in my area on facebook also, and on their pages, they have advertised kittens in the past, so I am going to contact them to see if they can help me get the word out on this kitten...I figure finding a home through a vet would be a safer option.

Click to expand...

tell them the situation... I got lucky enough to have loving vets who took basic care of all my fosters with me only paying for meds