Help with 7 week old kitten

Hello y'all. I have a 7 week old kitten that belonged to a stray in my neighborhood. I know the kitten is 7 almost 8 weeks because the mother showed up pregnant at my house and I have been caring for her. She even tried to have her kittens in my truck. So I brought her inside and kept an eye on her during labor. 4 babies later she was done. 3 died from so sort of infection. But this little guy made it through. He's been doing very well. But I have noticed some blood in both his and mama cats poop. I plan on taking them both to the vet. But I have very low cash until payday and I don't own a charge card. Anybody know what could possibly be going on with them? I am very worried.

I am honestly not sure, but it sounds like some sort of communicable disease that mama passed to the kitten & it does sound like they are going to need some sort of treatment, weather deworming or antibiotics. I would take them in asap.

Thanks for taking mama in and helping her through delivery and nursing.

Oh the mama is just wonderful! She is the sweetest little girl! [emoji]9786[/emoji]️ I plan on getting her fixed as soon as I can afford it. They are all just absolutely the most wonderful little critters! I have mine who I adopted from asp a 5 years ago. I have a Neighborhood Tom cat that doesn't stick around long enough for me to catch to get fixed. I have another female who showed up pregnant. We delivered her kittens and 3 out of 4 made it. The fourth on had some "developmental handicap" and a shelter took her in. Found homes for all of that mamas kittens. But still have her. And then I have the mama and kitten I originally wrote about. It's been stressful but these cats need a loving home and a patient person and they chose me! I couldn't be happier.

gloverme1988 said:

Hello y'all. I have a 7 week old kitten that belonged to a stray in my neighborhood. I know the kitten is 7 almost 8 weeks because the mother showed up pregnant at my house and I have been caring for her. She even tried to have her kittens in my truck. So I brought her inside and kept an eye on her during labor. 4 babies later she was done. 3 died from so sort of infection. But this little guy made it through. He's been doing very well. But I have noticed some blood in both his and mama cats poop. I plan on taking them both to the vet. But I have very low cash until payday and I don't own a charge card. Anybody know what could possibly be going on with them? I am very worried.

Click to expand...

Here is an useful article and also a number of useful links how to finance the cats care.

Also, as you are helping homeless, its possible shelters and the like around may help, or at least suggest you a cheap vet.

For them its often the problem to find fostering homes, the economy isnt always as difficult.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/no-money-for-vet-care-how-to-find-help-and-save-your-cats-life

Blood in the stool is usually a sign of a bacterial infection in the intestinal tract. They will both need antibiotics to clear it up. They will need a vet visit.

When is your payday?

It's not until next Friday.

I have powdered tetra something or other that you mix with water and it turns it yellow. I've used it before on kittens growing up on a farm and it always cleared up any eye infections, respiratory stuff, etc. I know I could use it on the mom. But little guy is still nursing and he is very little for his age. He just has begun to eat wet food the last 2 weeks. He will be 8 weeks old on Sunday.

I've no clue what that is. Can you be more specific?

Powdered tetracycline, perhaps?

That's it! Tetracycline. Whew. Lol. Just until I can get them to the vet. I know it can cause teeth problems in cats in high doses for extended periods of time. And i don't really feel safe using it directly with the kitten because of his size and age:

I am in the process now of making them a cat tower to play in/on. So far they love it. And I want to keep them safe and protect them when they're sick. I asked a friend of a friend who works for animal control. And he said it could be the food I am feeding them? I am feeding 1/2 can of 9 lives to him Daily. And a whole can to the mama. She doesn't seem to like hard food. She would rather let it sit there and she starve before she eats it:

The mom should be eating more food.  Can you give her a couple or three cans a day?  If you give mom the medicine, the kitten will get it when it nurses.

Yeah, mama needs more food for sure! She should have probably 2 cans per day if just eating wet, but with her nursing she needs double that! The cans generally tell you how much food per body weight to feed a cat (always double for pregnant or nursing moms.) Some don't though... which is lame. Calorie content is the best way to know if they are getting enough, especially since certain varities can vary so much in their caloric intake. I got several cans of Soulistic food from Petco and, after doing some digging on their site (Cause they did not have the calorie content on the can), found the calorie information and found that the cans they'd been having had very little calories!! While a couple others had actually pretty high calories. General rule of thumb is 20-25 calories per lb of body weight. So if mama is like 10 lbs, she should be getting 200-250 calories per day, 400-500 while she nurses. 

I've heard of that Tetracycline stuff actually. I used to get it for my mice when I used to raise them. They got intestinal infections frequently and I just added it to the water. That's good to know that baby will get it while nursing. You can also call a bigger vet office and ask if that is okay to give. If you tell them they are strays that you are just caring for and stress that they are not your cats, they might give some advice over the phone. I had to call a 24/7 emergency vet place once for a foster and I explained he was a foster kitten and they just gave me some quick advice via phone. You might not get someone willing to say anything, but then again, if it is UNSAFE, they will most likely tell you cause they would rather not risk you giving it to them because you can't bring them in. Worth a shot.

Also, building off what StefanZ said, you could potentially get yourself registered as a foster through your shelter and then essentially foster this mama and baby. Then you can get the shelter to take care of the vet care and some places can help provide food and litter and stuff like that as well.

She has access to the food. I put out more than one can at a time but she doesn't eat it all in one sitting. I usually put 2 with her but she just nibbles. She has eaten more today than usual. She ate hers and the kittens so I put more out for her. But she hasn't touched it yet.

I also must mention I have 2 others cats here. In concerned about the others passing whatever infection to them also. Neither mama nor kitten seem to "feel bad"

Do not use the tetracycline. It is not an antibiotic of choice for vets due to nasty side effects. Wait until you get paid and can see the vet.

Hmmm, how many times per day do you feed them and how long do you leave uneaten food out for?

It's possibly they could spread so just change clothes when you visit the room with mama and kitten and wash your hands after.

Tetracycline cause soft teeth and yellow mark in humans if taken while they are developing .
Have no idea about use in animals.
But I think that we should never assume that a medication is going to "get" to the baby / kittens by dosesing a mother who is feeding her milk . Each medication within each type of drug class is metabolized differently and ( a doctor Hale publishes a manual for use in humans with hunbreds of medication in it) different amounts pass either the placental barrier or from the blood stream to milk ducts.
Some pass in to milk in too high of a dose to be safe ,other just not enough to help.
When I had pneumonia my doctor would not just give me antibiotics and expect it to cover my nursing 3 month old. She was given her own medication by body weight!
The clearest way to explain is when a human mom drinks a beer and then breastfeeds even right away while the blood alcohol level is high the baby gets milk with the alcohol level of near beer ( 5%=.5%).
Is it tarry red like intestinal bleeding or streaks of bright red that is usually lower down in the gi track.

It had a little mucousy streaks of blood in it. But now they have semi regular bowel movements. A little soft but it's like khaki colored! Idk what is going on with these 2. And I wash my hands and I have a plastic coated apron I wear when I'm with them only so I don't spread whatever it is. Mama cat hasn't had blood in hers in a few days kitten still did 2 days ago. But like I said now it's a little soft and very pale. [emoji]128532[/emoji] I'm freaking out.