Help, Abandoned kitten.

Hello everyone. My dad recently found an abandoned kitten in front of our house and i ak caring for him. He is not more then 15-20 days and his one eye is completely open while i think the other eye has infection. He basically nibbles on cat chow and i have to force milk into him through a syringe but it is hard and half of the milk is on me. Any help on how to help him sutvive? And what milk should i give to him? I have been given buffalo milk and pieces of meat. He is not as thin but withoit his mom, there arent much chancces of survival. Also i have another cat witu her babies. If i hold her down and make him feed her? Will it work? Thanaakkssss! Also if i bath the kittens with the same anti bacterial as the abandoned kittens, will the mama accept the abandoned as well??

Hi @sunshiness  If the kitten is only 15 days old he's a bit too young to eat meat. Putting him with the other kittens is probably the best way to help him. No need to hold the mother cat down or bathe the kitten. Put him in with her kittens and see if she will accept him. Most mother cats will feed an extra kitten if it is in with their own.

If you do need to syringe feed him goats milk is better than buffalo milk. Can you get KMR in your country?

Are the kittens you have with mom around the same weight? If there is a huge difference in weight, do not put them together. It can end horribly.

If they are of simular weight it should be okay (tough I wouldnt suggest it due to illnesses he may have - which he can transfer to mom and the other kittens) However, as this kitten has been fed with a seringe, and is likely underfed and thus weak, it's possible it wont suckle at the mom or will be too weak to do so.

Keep a very good eye on the weight (weight twice a day for now) to make sure it gaines around 10 grams a day.

It is indeed too young for regular food. It needs milk if he is really just 2 to 3 weeks old. However, it might be older as you mentioned you found him on the streets. Does it have any teeth?

sunshiness

How are things going? Have you put the kitten with your lactating queen yet? Please post a picture so we can see his age and size.

sunshiness said:

Hello everyone. My dad recently found an abandoned kitten in front of our house and i ak caring for him. He is not more then 15-20 days and his one eye is completely open while i think the other eye has infection. He basically nibbles on cat chow and i have to force milk into him through a syringe but it is hard and half of the milk is on me. Any help on how to help him sutvive? And what milk should i give to him? I have been given buffalo milk and pieces of meat. He is not as thin but withoit his mom, there arent much chancces of survival. Also i have another cat witu her babies. If i hold her down and make him feed her? Will it work? Thanaakkssss! Also if i bath the kittens with the same anti bacterial as the abandoned kittens, will the mama accept the abandoned as well??

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How is it going?  You can try to let the momma adopt him - they often do it voluntarily.  This with bath you may try if she doesnt accept him...  Do NOT hold her down - she may get sour on him and you because of this... And as said, if the size difference is big, you must keep a watchful eye - the bigger will probably push him off...  But you can let him nurse when they are sleeping.

The real problem is, if they are healthy and he has an real eye infection, there is some risk of contagion...

If you can get goats milk, its the best.  But buffalo milk should be OK, especielly if you can get it raw.  Give the milk in the corner of the mouth, a few drops at a time, so you are sure he can swallow...  It wll be better with time when you both get the trick.

I tried to put him with my other cat and she almost tried ti kill him so im never agaim trying to keep them close and i will surely post a picture soon. He is very tiny though.

He is also very dirty. Can i give him a bath?

Also my dad just found another way of feeding him. What my dad does is soak a tissue paper in milk and give it to him and he sucks it. It is working well and he sucks it pretty easily as well. I want to knwo if there is anything we can use instead of the tissue paper and no he doesnt eat the tissur paper, he just sucks it.

THAAANKKSS A LOTT LOVELY PEOPLE

Also he isnt really week. I mean he is week but it has been two days since we have found him on the road and god knows how many days without his mom and yet he manages to climb the cage i kept him in. Also he walkd around the cage as well

sunshiness said:

Also my dad just found another way of feeding him. What my dad does is soak a tissue paper in milk and give it to him and he sucks it. It is working well and he sucks it pretty easily as well. I want to knwo if there is anything we can use instead of the tissue paper and no he doesnt eat the tissur paper, he just sucks it.

THAAANKKSS A LOTT LOVELY PEOPLE

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I have heard of people using a clean makeup sponge. Does he have any teeth?

How much are you feeding per day?

He bit me today and it felt like he had teeth but it didnt hurt at all.

And i am not really sure how much we are feeding him. My dad gives him milk and chow seperately in the morning. My cousin gives him milk seperately and at night, i try my failed attempt of feeding him with a syringe


I will try to get a make up sponge but i think tissue is better..

Tissue isn't better because he will end up ingesting pieces of it...
It doesn't sound like he is getting enough food. Does he have kitten chow down all the time? Are you feeding wet food too?

Make up sponge will work better than tissue. It can hold more milk and he can't accidently eat it. If he ingests paper (and he will by just suckling it) he can get constipated, which can be deadly for small kittens.

Looking at the picture, he's older than 15 days for sure. I think more like 4 to 5 weeks. But I will appreciate a picture from up front to be sure. Seeing he is not just 2 weeks, try getting your hands on some good brand wet food and try slowly introducing him to that, aside of the milk (continue this as well). If he eats it, he eats it (but start with a little bit and give more every day to make him get used to it). You can also soften some kibbles in kittenmilk in a week orso and start him on kibbles. He should be a big kitten soon!

And I wouldn't suggest washing a kitten, unless you really have to. It gives a lot of stress (and he has had plenty of that in his life till now), and a wet kitten can get sick really quickly. 

I live in a small city of pakistan so getting good quality kittem chow isnt really a possiblity. All that is available here is whiskas, felix and me-o. I usually buy whiskas(small pouches) and felix (tins). Suggest which one is better..

Also here is another picture


Also from tomorrow i have holidaya from school and tuition so i will try to nurse him as well as i can and tell you people the updates.i will buy a clean sponge as soon as possible. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE HELP UPTIL NOW! YOU GUYS ARE DOING A GREAT JOB!

sunshiness said:

Also from tomorrow i have holidaya from school and tuition so i will try to nurse him as well as i can and tell you people the updates.i will buy a clean sponge as soon as possible. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE HELP UPTIL NOW! YOU GUYS ARE DOING A GREAT JOB!

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Splendid news!  Good idea this with tissue, but as said, a sponge is safer and better.

The sponge idea is new.  Somebody come forward with it here, less than a year ago, so it doesnt sit in our backbone as yet...  But it certainly is a good improvement / alternative in some cases....

I agree with BiancaVD, with these ears he must be more than 3 weeks, he is prob 4 perhaps even  5.  He seems slender (emaciated) but I suspect the cats in Pakistan are usually of the "Oriental" type, ie being slender by nature...  The unusual with him is he seems to be mediumhaired...  But it would be good to see the face too.

OK, how much to give... We can take it the other way around. With milk its 8ml / oz a day.  Say he being emaciated is 300g, 10oz - gives 80 ml milk per day for a starting poing - it will be more as he get bigger...

Real food is more energy tight, so it will be less with cat food.  But you get the idea.  If he gets enough?  Easiest is to see by weighting him every day.  If he adds 10+ grammes a day, its good. If he adds less, its not good.  Simple, neh?

Whiskas and Felix dry foods dont have good reputation. But the fact is, their wet food isnt that bad. You can use it.  I dont know anyting about the third brand. 

We have a forumite living in Pakistan, she has several treads on her rescued kittens, indie-n-button.   She uses much raw chicken (all parts) and raw buffalo milk, as its what she can easily get.  Also some youghurt, some cheese... some eggs.  Works fine.

Ah, yes bathing.  We dont recommend it, among other because kittens gets chilled out so easily.  But if you must, so you must. Its necessary in some situations. The trick is to be pretty sure the kitten doesnt get chilled. So, no draugh. Warm but not hot water, warm in the room. Dry off the kitten  thoroughly yet kindly. Make sure there is no draugh afterwards, and good it has a heating pad afterwards.  The wet are always freezing, no?

Carrying at your chest is too a good alternative to keep them warm and nice.

Thankyou so much for all the help and yes cats in pakistan are tabby and they all are extremely short haired. I will try to feed him as your instructions and hopefully, he will become a big man soon. Thankyouuu!

Hello again lovely people! So today i tried feeding him my chicken wing (i removed the brown part and fed him pure white pieces) and has eaten a lot today. He drank about 1 cc of milk. Ate 1 and a half chicken wing and then also ate some raw meat in the morning. And now im starting to think what if it is too much? Also his poop is completely black and i think that is weird. Any suggestions?

Also now that he has started eating -what should i do of his eye infection? It is getting worse day by day. His one eye is completely open (blue colour i think not sure) while the other is closed due to infection.it is some light green/yellow thing. His eye is completely closed.

THANKYOU ONCE AGAIN CATMEN!

You need to put a warm, damp cloth on the closed eye to soften it, and allow it to open. Then, continue this to keep it open.

He needs antbiotic eye ointment from a vet for the infection, usually called terramycin. It will clear it fairly quickly.

In the meantime, dip the cloth in warm, steeped tea. This seems to help.

It sounds like he is eating well. Black poop can mean he is dehydrated.

What a little cutie.  It sounds like you are on the right track, and he is starting to eat well for you. 

If feeding him meat, just be sure the pieces are teeny tiny so he doesn't get choked on them.  Unless you are force feeding him, he won't get too much food, and he'll stop when he is full.  It is advisable to leave food out for him so he can eat when he is hungry, if you are able to do that.   It's hard to tell with kitties by feeling their bellies to see if the belly feels full because most kitties have worms which makes their bellies feel full/tight anyway,  Worming him will be something you'll need to do when he is about 6 weeks old, but it sounds like you are on the right track, and he is progressing well.   I agree with the others on not giving him a bath yet, and how to go about treating the eye infection.   It sounds like this little guy was very lucky that someone as caring as you found him.  Keep up the Great Job!!!

sarthur2 said:

You need to put a warm, damp cloth on the closed eye to soften it, and allow it to open. Then, continue this to keep it open.

He needs antbiotic eye ointment from a vet for the infection, usually called terramycin. It will clear it fairly quickly.

In the meantime, dip the cloth in warm, steeped tea. This seems to help.

It sounds like he is eating well. Black poop can mean he is dehydrated.

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I will try to do this tomorrow morning as it is 1 am here. Also can drhydration cause problem? We try to feed him as much milk as possible. He himself eats meat but we have to force milk down him. He literally eats chicken off my finger but wont lick the milk on my hand!

Crackerjacker4u, we always leave food for him. And thankyou! Actually kids in my neighbourhood found them. They are abour 10-12 year olds who come to work in the street due to poverty and guess what? They not only gave the kitten to my dad but later came back by buying milk for the kitten from what little money they had! They are the real heroes!

I was inspired enough to share it here