Worried about Newborn Kitten's Legs

Hello,

We found a newborn kitten a few hours ago (young enough to still have a small umbilical cord). It's meowing, eating (a little), and we've gotten it to pee, however both of it's front legs are extended straight against its sides. It can pull them forward enough to be perpendicular to its body but doesn't do it often, and doesn't use its front legs to move, instead only pushing itself with its hind legs. There is no swelling or wounds, and the joints seem the same size as the ones on its back legs.

Is this normal or something to be worried about? I've tried looking around to see if this is normal newborn behavior, but the prevalence of posts about FIV causing hind  leg weakness is worrisome; although nothing seems to match exactly what this kitten is doing. If this is something abnormal, is this something that can be a danger to the other two cats we have in our house? Thank you in advance.

Thank you for helping this poor little one it is very important to keep the kitten warm at this age they can not regulate there own body temp. you will ne to buy som KMR kitten replacement milk petco has it. The kitten should be taken to a vet and checked over. you will need a scale to help weight the little one and the kitten will need to be feed every two hours or so. Keeping the kitten warm is very important blankets hot water bottle the legs i am not sure about but a vet visit is a must at this point. I hope some one else comes along with more experance with kitten we have a lot of nice people on this site with a lot of helpful advice

how old do you think the kitten must be did you see mom or other kittens when you found this one.

No, that doesn't sound normal. Because the kitten is so young, it may be possible to help massage the legs back into place. I would do this several times a day, very gently, in order to help lengthen the tendons.

First step is keeping it alive though. As mentioned, it will need to eat every two hours around the clock. 3-4 ml per feeding. Baby is fed stomach down, head up, one drop into its cheek at a time. It may accept a bottle since it's an orphan. Baby and food must be warm in order to eat. You should stimulate the kitten to potty before and after every feeding. Be sure to also wipe the kittens body down with a warm, damp cloth. They get dirty and mom cleans them frequently.

It does not sound normal, and the mother may have abandoned it because she knew it had something wrong, as they often do. That does not mean it cannot be saved to grow up normal, though, it depends on what is wrong - sometimes these things are caused by accidents in hte birth canal and right thmeselves or can be righted, It may need an xray to see if there is any joint damage so I would take it to a vet as the sooner treatment is started the better the chance of a normal life.

Hi all, thank you for the replies!

Yes, he was definitely abandoned by his mother, but we're not certain that means there's something wrong with him. His mother cat is a stray who is a serial abandoner; she'll have 2-3 kittens in a litter and chose only one to take care of. We usually end up finding the abandoned ones and try to care for them; the plan was to catch her and get her spayed soon, we didn't even realize she was pregnant again. So he was definitely abandoned, but we're not willing to say it's because there's something wrong with him and not just blame it on her poor parenting.

He's doing very well otherwise. He eats and excretes regularly, is maintaining his warmth, and sleeps well. He can move himself with the use of his back legs as well, and he does move the front legs somewhat, though he doesn't really pull them to where a normal cat would hold them. However, he's not in pain and there doesn't seem to be anything malformed with them.

We've been massaging them lightly and having him do 'pull ups' where we lightly get his legs perpendicular to his body, just in case it is some type of stiffness or tendon issue. I've had some other people tell me that it's a common stage of the neonatal process (he's probably at most 3-4 days old) and that he should grow out of it within 2 weeks. We're going to keep doing the light physical therapy and just focus on him recovering from abandonment/keep him alive and after the 2 week period, if nothing's changed then we'll take him to the vet to be examined.

Again, thank you all for your replies and advice!

How's the little guy doing?