Emaciated kitten

I picked up a five-week-old kitten this morning from a private rescuer. This was a kitten born to a barn cat and given to the rescuer with his siblings at three weeks of age. She's been raising them since. We talked in detail prior about what my kitten's needs would be at five weeks, and I felt confident in taking him. She gave him to me wrapped in a hand towel, and we had a short time frame to get to the vet for his appointment, so when I finally unwrapped him I found that I could feel each of his individual ribs and all the contours of his spine. I thus wasn't surprised when the vet told us that he's emaciated. He weighs 11.6 ounces at 5 weeks old. He was also dehydrated, and they gave him subcutaneous fluids. He is alert, aware of his surroundings, and very affectionate. My plans on how to feed  and care for him are in shambles, however. I've taken this kitten now, and while we were not interested in having to feed our new family member more than three times a day, he is our responsibility and we'll do what we need to do so that he becomes healthy. The issue is HOW exactly to get him to a healthy state. The vet gave us a couple cans of I/D Science Diet wet food (we were planning to feed dry), and I purchased some kitten formula hoping to bulk up his diet. How much and how often should we feed him? How often should we weigh him? I don't have a kitchen scale, but it may be possible to get one if he needs to be weighed more than maybe once a week. While it's quite possible I shouldn't have committed to a five-week-old kitten, the rescuer told me as she handed the kitten to me that another in the litter died this morning, and considering his state perhaps it's for the best. I have dry food, the wet food given to us, and the kitten formula on hand. Not sure if I should get more of the I/D wet food or give something else when this is out. I would be grateful for any guidance!

Hi and welcome to the site.

I have a cat rescue group, so I get kittens in all sorts of condition, including very thin/emaciated/malnourished/sick.

First and foremost is whether the kitten has fleas. A small little one can get very anemic from fleas, so this is a biggie.

Feeding, I would buy Royal Canin Babycat dry, it is EXCELLENT, and has turned around so many kittens after a couple weeks of caring for them.

I would leave this dry down all the time, I would supplement at least once a day with canned, any pate canned is actually fine.

I would also offer some kitten formula at least once a day.

This will turn this baby around really well.

Excellent advices above.   I want to add, if you can get goat milk, fresh or bottled, it is useful it too, for both kittens, adult cats, and humans.  

Good luck!

The little guy actually doesn't seem to recognize dry food as something edible. I tried crating him overnight with some dry food, but at 1 am he was howling and we fed him some wet. I haven't seen him show any interest in the dry kibble at all. Any advice about piquing his interest in it?

Finn is a little orange kitty, and I haven't seen any fleas in his fur, nor any flea dirt. His only problem seems to be that he's underweight... and that he throws himself into his wet food, burying his face in it and getting everything from his paws to his chest all gunked up. I'd also be happy to learn how to break him of THAT. I'm hoping that over time he might realize that he always has enough to eat and be less crazed about diving in. Is there anything I can do to encourage him to be neater, or is this just a side effect of kittenhood?

I would say it is a side effect of kittenhood. If he isn't interested in the dry food and is underweight, then give him the wet food whenever he is willing to eat. Some cats hate dry food. Some hate wet. Some kittens  know at a young age what they hate and what they like. My guess is that one of the reasons he is throwing himself into the food is because he is hungry and can't contain himself when he sees food, but it is still a part of kittenhood. (Take pictures of it, you will get many laughs later when he is a grown cat and you remember how he started out!) 

Big gold star to you for taking on this little one. Hope it goes well for you both.

I'm not sure why the poor little thing is starving, but kittens who are starving DO eat like that, and once he has made up for lost time and gained weight, he won't be throwing himself into the food, but until then, he should ALWAYS have wet food available day and night.  You can wet a little of the kibble/dry food also, but he hasn't had teeth very long so the hard is probably too tough for him still.  If the other sibling died this morning, you have probably just saved this little guy's life by taking him.  Yes, it will be a little labor intensive for a few weeks, but before you know it, he'll be plump and happy and eating on his own.  BTW feeding dry food alone is NOT a good idea even when he's grown.  You can check out a lot of posts in the Nutrition Forum about what IS good to feed later on.  Make sure he gets enough liquid formula too.  I'm not sure if the other foster was bottle feeding or what, but obviously he wasn't getting enough liquid or else he has had diarrhea and has been losing more liquid than he takes in.  I'm sure you can work with your vet and bring him through all this.  If he were here, he'd be sleeping in the bed with me. 

Unless you live in an area where fleas are not seen, (I didn't realize any area existed with no fleas but recently heard this) then guaranteed, there's fleas.

It's a given in kittens pretty much.

It's his age that causes him to eat this way, they also are too young to groom themselves either.

This develops naturally closer to 7 weeks and up, suddenly they don't like to step in icky stuff, they don't want poop or junk on their fur, or food all over themselves.

It comes.

Sometimes eating like a starving kitten is just their way, there is always a little aggressive food eater in the bunch, or 2.

They will even growl at this age when a sibling comes near "their" food.

However, it is also very possible that the kitten needs deworming too. They ALL need it, but some kittens have a bigger infestation then others, and makes them feel very hungry.

Are his gums good and pink or pale? Does he have a rounded tummy?

His little tummy is rather round, and his gums are pink. He must have been starving indeed, or at least convinced that he might not get another meal for a while, because we fed him four times yesterday, and he dove in every time, and he dove in this morning, but then abruptly he stopped doing it, though his face still ends up a mess. I try to clean it the best I can each time, but eventually he'll just need a good scrub. Thank you for all of the suggestions and advice. I have a great vet who will probably let me drop by and get him weighed regularly, and in any case he'll have another proper visit in a couple weeks to start his shots. I feel pretty positive that we'll get him healthy, and I already know that I just LOVE this kitten. 

What an adorable picture of him!  You mentioned you got baby kitten formula but you didn't say if you got the liquid or the powder form, or if it's the exact same kind the rescuer was feeding him before.  Be sure to dilute it so it's not as concentrated as the infant formula because that would be too rich for him.

Kitten tummies have a rounded look anyway, but they all have roundworms and will need deworming soon.

Pink gums are good, so you are not looking at an anemic kitten, which is a big plus.

It's likely if mom is not a fed cat and hunts her own, the kitten has never seen mom eating dry food, as this is how they first learn, by investigating what mom has in her dish

It's quite possible at this young age the kitten has a hard time eating dry food, as it's nearly always big hard chunks and their little teeth have a tough time working on them, so it's alot easier to eat wet food.

This is another reason Babycat is ideal, it's tasty teeny tiny bits, especially for weaning kittens.

Happy to report that in just a few short days Finn has gained 4.1 ounces. He weighed in today at the vet at 15.7 ounces. He's also much more playful than he was the first day or two. I'm hoping this is an appropriate amount of weight for him to have gained in three and a half days. He's also much neater at meals. He stopped throwing himself into his food, though his face and upper neck still get covered. I clean him diligently with the moistened corner of a washrag after meals, which is at least mostly effective. I also took a stool sample to the vet and it came back clear of parasites--a pleasant surprise. So it seems to me that he's doing well! Thanks to everyone for the good advice.

That is great news! Thanks for letting us know!

Great news!! Though I would still deworm him just in case since 1 clear fecal isn't enough to guarantee he's clear of parasites due to the shed cycle of different worms. For me, it's a cheap enough investment to begin with so I'd rather give the meds to be sure than to find out a few weeks down the road that something was missed and then have a bigger infestation on my hands. Been there, done that.

I'm back with a few more questions about my new kitten. I picked him up on the 14th at five weeks of age. He weighed only 11.6 ounces and yesterday, 9 days later, he weighed 1 lb 3 oz! We're very happy with our baby, and he seems happy as well.

But I've never owned a cat with longer fur. Finn's not very good about grooming and VERY good at getting covered in food when we feed him. I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle with keeping him tidy. I wipe him off with baby wipes after meals and comb him out throughout the day, but he ends up positively crusty around his face and neck. My sister has warned me against bathing him too often because it will dry out his skin, so I'm not sure what to do to care for him until he grows up enough to be neat about his food and groom himself. Some days I just point him at my big cats and beg them to lick the kitten already, but they aren't quite ready for that kind of affection!

Another concern I have has to do with his ribs. As he was emaciated, I could and still can feel all of his ribs, the contours of each vertebrae, all of it. Thankfully there's a little more padding than there was, but I realized that his left side feels different than his right. There's a slight divot around the spine where the ribs attach. On the right, the little ribs curve off perfectly. On the left, maybe a centimeter out from the spine, there is a hard lump on several of the ribs all in a line. The top two are barely palpable, then the third and fourth gets bigger, and then the next rib feels normal again. It feels like the rest of his bones on palpation, but since it isn't present bilaterally, I don't know what it is. My first thought was that his ribs had been broken and hypertrophied as they healed (I know this is possible with a misaligned, healing fracture). My sister suggested it might be a congenital deformity, which frankly seems more likely as he's so young that a fracture might not even be fully healed, and I don't know that he would have survived rib fractures at such a young and tender age. He isn't in pain when I palpate the affected ribs, has never cried when squeezed (as in a hug, not that we squeeze the kitten!), and doesn't seem to get out of breath or have difficulty breathing as if the ribs are squeezing his lung on that side. Other than the hard lumps, the ribs extend in a normal-seeming curve just like the other side. I suppose that my main concern is that if it is a deformity, the rib cage won't grow with him and he might end up with more severe issues.

So after all of that explanation.

Has anyone had experience with anything resembling this issue? I'm a registered nurse, but I know feline anatomy is different than human anatomy, so for all I know this could be a normal finding on a little kitten. The only reason that makes me think it isn't is that it isn't present bilaterally.

My vet's office has suggested that we put off the first vet appointment until over eight weeks to give him a chance to gain more weight and strength, but the reason for this was so he could better withstand his vaccinations. Do you guys think that I should get him checked out earlier than that? Is it likely that any difficulty would show up before eight weeks, even assuming it is a rib deformity? I don't know that taking him in would serve more than answering my questions, since I'd be reluctant to put the little guy through serious interventions at this age and weight. (Though I suppose answering my questions would be useful, I seem to have a ton of them!)

Any insight you might have would be appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: Forgot to mention the lumps don't shift when palpated, they seem fused to the rib.