New to this site and kittens

carylinpa

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After putting our Thurston down two weeks ago I thought I was done with cats. Nope. My 20-year old son picked up a stray kitten in North Philly and it's now at our house. It had an obviously bad eye infection so after a quick bath (he was also filthy) he was off to the vet where he was wormed and given antibiotics and ointment for his eyes. He's about six weeks old, and they won't vaccinate till the infection is gone. He is growing on me, but it's not a good home for such a tiny animal -- we have three dogs, an old border collie mix who would seriously not think twice about killing Carl, and two Great Danes who don't seem to mind Carl, but could seriously hurt him just by accident.

So for now Carl is living in an old dog cage we had from crate training a previous dog. It's roomy enough for his bedding and food and litter box. We do let him out when the dogs are outside, but he is so, so tiny. Can't wait till he puts on some size.
 

mani

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Hi carylinpa.. welcome to TCS


I'm wondering how your Border Collie was with your previous cat?

Your little kitten is very, very young to be away from his mum.. he'll need lots of care from you to make up for it. 
 

-_aj_-

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Hi there welcome along to TCS :)

Sounds like the best thing to do for now is to keep the kitten away from the collie and introduce them slowly to each other so they both get used to be around each other
 

feralvr

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Hi carylinpa.. welcome to TCS :)

I'm wondering how your Border Collie was with your previous cat?
 
WELCOME TO TCS!!!! :wavey:

My question is the same as Mani's. I would be very, very worried then about keeping a kitten IF you have any doubts that one of the dogs could kill the baby. In your post, you wrote that the border collie mix would not think twice about killing Carl (kitten). Makes me shudder. May not be the best to keep this little one, I am sorry to say. Even, IF the Border Collie was "good" with Thurston does not mean he will ever accept another new cat coming into the house. I assume Thurston was there WAY before the dogs so the border collie mix accepted him from the beginning when he was the newcomer. If you even think the border collie mix will never readily accept another kitten/cat even with proper introductions, then I would not keep a kitten. :vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes: for the kitten.
 
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carylinpa

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Actually, Thurston came after the border collie, but Thurston was already an adult cat. We put him on a chair and when the dogs came over and starting sniffing him he took one swipe at them and that was that. Healthy respect and very quickly acceptance. I think the problem is that Mac, the border collie, is 13,, can't hear and is very grumpy, touchy these days.

The kitten is safe in its cage and comes out frequently when the dogs aren't around. I have asked around to see about another home, but no takers so far and I would never take it to the pound where something like 90+ percent of cats are never adopted.
 
 

mani

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Has the border collie shown signs of aggression to the kitten, or haven't they been anywhere near each other?

If the big dogs show sign of interest but are gentle, when you are ready and feel he's big enough, use the techniques in the link that _aj_ gave (above).

And remember that little kittens need lots of socialisation/handling and activity so that they become well-adjusted adults..  And of course the appropriate food.

I do hope everything goes well for your little kitten.


Keep us posted!
 
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carylinpa

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Mac seems to be settling down. He is still a little too interested in the kitten, but is not acting as aggressively as he was -- he's pretty much ignoring him rather than trying to get in the cage. The big dogs are soooo curious,especially the 2 year-old. He'll lick the kitten when we're holding it and he'll get down on his haunches in front of the cage like he wants to play. It's really funny since Loki's about 135 pounds and Carl is 1.4 pounds. And Carl shows no signs of fear of the dogs, either. Once he's bigger and more coordinated so he can get out of the way quickly I think he'll be fine.
 
 

mani

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It's amazing how much cats can pull dogs into line.. having said that, it is so important that you are very slow and cautious with the introductions.  Carl is such a tiny thing, but it's plain you really understand how fragile kittens are.

The Border Collies that I know in Australia (they are really popular here, both as working dogs and pets) are normally more interested in rounding cats up than attacking them, but yours has obviously shown hostility, so obviously great care needs to be taken.

I do hope that with lots of care and attention your furry family will be good mates!

Please do let us know how it's going.. we'd love to have updates, and if we can help, just let us know. 
 
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carylinpa

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OK, an update. Carl has been with us for 9 days now, which makes him about 7 weeks. His eye infection has mostly cleared up and he only sneezes occasionally. He's been to the vet twice already, initially for the eye infection and then because the diarrhea wasn't getting better and he was also straining. The vet thought parasite, but the very small fecal sample came back negative. Still, she started him on a second antibiotic -- the first was better for the URI and the second for the gut. He's now over the diarrhea as well and has put on about 6 oz. over the last six days, up to 1 pound, 12 oz. (as weighed in a bowl on my digital kitchen scale).

Mac, the border collie, has shown no hostility to the cat recently, and what I thought was him attacking the cage might only have been him trying to get at the cat food. He's always had a weakness for wet cat food and would stick his head through the cat door trying to get at our previous cat's food, so maybe I overreacted. Still, keeping kitty separated from the dogs until he's bigger is the plan. He is cute as heck and runs/hops all over the place (when the dogs are outside), but he's also a little too fearless. He jumped off the second floor landing yesterday down to the console table in the hall beneath then to the floor. Thankfully, he didn't injure himself. He was walking, running fine, but he seemed a little subdued afterward so we kept an eye on him all day. For some reason he became a little clingy and more affectionate than usual, touching our faces with his paws when he crawled in our laps, which was new behavior for him. He continued to eat and drink normally and didn't seem to be in any pain. Today he is back to his normal self.

Next up -- vaccinations. They won't do them till the infection(s) clear so I'll make an appointment for later this week when his antibiotics are all gone.
 

mani

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I'm so pleased to hear things are going so well and that your border collie doesn't actually want to harm Carl


I've had cats that have had something stressful happen and then become very affectionate... I think they're just looking for reassurance, and it's so good you're there for him.
 

twckittenmom

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sounds like hes jealous of the new baby(the kitten) try to show equal attention even if it means showing him more attention than usual.
 
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carylinpa

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Just an update on Carl. He is now 3 mos. and today, for the first time, we let him out to mingle with the dogs on his own. We'd been introducing them slowly, holding the dogs, then realized it wasn't the dogs, it was Carl, who runs at the dogs and swats at their faces and hisses, etc. So we started putting Carl on the leash so we could pull him away if he got too aggressive with the dogs.

Everything seems to be working out. The dogs pretty much ignore Carl, and leave the room if Carl starts trying to instigate anything. He is fascinated by the younger Great Dane, and thinks his tail makes a fine toy. Loki doesn't think this is fine and will move from one room to the next to get away from the cat. It's actually pretty amusing, a 135-pound dog routed by a 3-pound kitten. The grumpy old border collie just lies in his spot and ignores Carl's attempts to engage, and every once in a while gives us a look that says, "Really? I need this at my age?" No signs of aggression at all from the dogs, though, so it appears my earlier worries were unfounded. In fact, I think our street kitty has more attitude than any of the dogs.

One of Carl's eyes cleared of infection pretty quickly, but the other didn't and after a return trip to the vet we were told he has an ulcer on that eye and it will take a while to heal, if it does. We continue with the eye ointment there. Next up, his shots. He had one dose of an anti-herpes vaccine in his nose about three weeks ago, but needs to go back in about a week for the rest of his shots. They're hoping the eye heals by then, although I'm not sure it has, not entirely at any rate. But we'll see.
 
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