Took in stray mom and kitten and have questions

A few weeks ago we took in a stray mom and her 6 kittens. She's nursing so I've been making sure she has extra food and water, the kittens are about 5- 6 weeks old and have started taking an interest in regular food canned and kitten chow. But the thing is I'm concerned about the mother having round worms and passing it to the kittens. In the 3 weeks we've had her she hasn't put on much weight except her belly. Her hips are extremely bony but she has a pronounce pot belly (which I know is a sign of round worms) her belly's soft, no diarrhea and I haven't seen any in the litter box, but I also know from experience that you might not see symptoms of round worm until it's to late. I know she's burning up calories feeding the kittens which seem to be ravenous all the time they will eat all the food I leave for them and still nurse. The kitten and mom seem in over all good health. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

I'm looking into ways to get her to the vet, but having issues. I can't afford it out of pocket and when I called our local SPCA they basically said tough we can put you on a waiting list to put the cats in our care but other wise we can't help you.
Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

PS. I could probably get a dewormer from our vet w/o an appt, but since I don't know if that the problem for sure I wouldn't want to do anything that might make mom or babies sick. Also last time I did that they gave me the wrong type of dewormer, for my boys. They had round worms and the vet gave me meds for tapeworm which didn't cure round worm and then argued with me about it. Sorry still irks me.

Is it Purina Kitten Chow that you are feeding them all? Any way you can feed a better quality food, like Wellness canned? I don't think worms would be having that much of an effect unless she had an overwhelming amount of them, and in that case you'd probably see more signs of them. I would guess that she and her kittens just might need higher quality nutrition (more protein, less carbs and fillers). 

Oh, and thanks for helping this little family!!!! 

Yes exactly that's what my MIL suggested she's been saving cats for a while with her sister who runs a local Animal Charity. Anyway it's what she fed the ones she took it. They also get Friskies Prime Canned Cat Food, 2 cans a day. It's the same diet I've had my boys on since we got them, although we've started given them adult food since their older now.

Thanks for the advice. I will check out Wellness Canned food for them.

I wish I had found this forum two years ago, I took in another stray that was injured. He wound up getting sick and passing away, I could have used the advice and support I've seen here then.
 

StrudelKitty said:

<snip>

I wish I had found this forum two years ago, I took in another stray that was injured. He wound up getting sick and passing away, I could have used the advice and support I've seen here then.
 

Click to expand...

Don't beat yourself up over it - he may well have died whatever you tried for him.  You did your best and gave him a chance he wouldn't have otherwise had.

OrientalSlave said:

Don't beat yourself up over it - he may well have died whatever you tried for him.  You did your best and gave him a chance he wouldn't have otherwise had.

Click to expand...

I don't well not to much. Part of me does blame his previous owner though, he was wearing a collar that became hooker over his foreleg and rubbed it raw. When I found him under our trailer it was infected, we actually were able to get that taken care of. What we didn't know and the vet didn't catch until it was to late, was that he had these crystals build up in his urethra due to poor diet. He died from that, basically it poisoned him. At the time we had no idea it was the first time I'd ever taken in a stray and had no idea what his history was. In the end all we could do is make him comfortable. It's sad because he was one of the most loving cats I'd ever owned.

You could try setting up a charity donation thing online; like something paypal could do - a "donate now" button with the story behind the mom and her kittens, with pictures, and a brief description of the financial strain you're under.  Though I don't recommend paypal, but if they're all you can find to make it work, then use them.  Then tell anyone you think might care about this girl and her babies about the donation page, and ask them to spread the word.  Use facebook if you're on it.  Ask your friends if one of them can host the web page.  Pull in all your social resources and find out what you can do.  Let us know!

You had got good advices, among them higher quality food.  This Purina is surely OK with small litters, but with a big litter the margins are taunted to max.

That said, it is very probable she, and thus the kittens too from her, do have round worms. Exactly like you suspect.  Possibly also tape worms.

If you hadnt not dewormed them, count they do have some at least.

Strays do have often also fleas and ear mites. You would surely notice them, especielly fleas, so I presume you did something about them?  What?

Anyway, Revolution / stronghold  spot on takes almost everything save tapeworms.

The kittens are now old enough to also get these medicine.

There may be also other good preparates.

Talk with your vet, as he can give recipe over telephone.  You can always google or ask us, if you arent sure if this medicine is good or you had some misunderstanding.

Tx for helping!

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice, we were able to get together enough money to take momma to the vet. I will be making an appointment this week hopefully, life's a little crazy. When we brought them in the weather was still fairly cold, so they really didn't have fleas. I've been using a vinegar solution on the mom (50/50 vinegar and water, I spray it on a brush and work it into their coat) and vacuuming regularly to keep them at bay. This is what I do with my two cats and dog (who has a flea allergy) and it works like a charm. I'm going to have the vet check for worms both, if she does have them then I'll ask about something for the kittens as well. Hopefully the vet will give me something for them without seeing all of them if I have a sample from the group box, if you know what I mean.
 

If a cat has fleas I can't see any point in testing for worms before treating - fleas are part of the life cycle of one of the common worms. 

I know our vet, she'll want to test. It's just her way. Although I'm pretty sure it's just to get more money out of us. I'm willing to pay to have the tests done as long as we get Momma taken care of so she won't give my boys any thing and we can finally let her out of our bedroom.