Am I absolutely crazy ?

I had to stop by the shelter today to pick up some flea meds for my foster families and they had a 3 week old kitten all by itself. They are looking for a foster family for it...

I held it for a bit while they got my meds ready. So cute... I am thinking of fostering it. My husband thinks this makes me officially insane...

You see I currently have:

- my 2 cats. My older male has started sparying because I was letting the first foster family upstairs. I've hopefully fixed that problem, all the fosters now stay in our finished basement. That and Feliway spray seems to have done alot for the spraying - hope it lasts !

- Foster family 1 is down to only 1 kitten who is 9 weeks old. I have him until he's 12 weeks. He's doing great (3.5 lbs) but is being treated for worms and fleas (Drontal I think, and Advantage).

- Foster family number 2 is momma and her 3 week old babies (4 of them). Also being treated for fleas w/ Revolution (safe on lactating cats).

Grand total: 8 cats

My plan was to bring home the 3 week old kitten from the shelter and quarantine it until I am sure it's OK. Then I was going to introduce it to foster family #2. The kittens will be of the same age and will be able to play together and learn the basics of potty training and solid foods together. I thought it sounded like a great idea !

The shelter only got the baby kitten today and have no info on his health. Can I do this without endangering all my other cats ? How long will I have to quarantine him to make sure he's OK ? All the other cats are being treated for fleas so if this one has them, at least he won't spread them to the others. What other things should I worry about ? Should I just bever mind the whole thing and stick to 8 cats ?

It's mighty hard to say NO to a 3 week old kitten...
Help !
Julie H

I`m not sure about how long to seperate them....someone on here will know though....but I think it would be wonderful for you to take in this lonely little singleton. Maybe if their sents are mixed enough the mom cat will accept it, as well as the other kittens. Let us know!
Linda

I'm positive the momma cat would accept him. Before she delived her own litter, she had adopted the kittens from the first foster who were 6 weeks old even though thier momma was still here. She nursed them and cleaned them and everything (I had to separate them so they did not drink the colostrum before her kittens were born). Tiger, my one remaining cat from the first foster family is right now sleeping with the lot of them. It's Momma Kiera, 4 3week old kittens and Tiger the 3.5lb "kitten".

I just don't want to make them sick by bringing in another baby

I don't think you're crazy. I think you're an angel. Sounds like it is meant to be.

Sounds like a good idea to me...in a way. But...

Last summer I had Festus' Momma and her litter of four. I took in Garfield and his brother Odie, both the same age (about 8-10 weeks). The boys (Gar and Odie) had been vet checked, and declared healthy. They had diarrhea, which we thought was due to the change in food. I got them on a Saturday. Wednesday night I found Odie dead.

A necropsy showed distemper. Garfield and his mother (Tigger), who was not at my house, underwent treatment and they both survived. Tigger needed a blood transfusion at one point. She came very close to death.

My four kittens, including Festus, got a mild case. Luckily, they had had 2 vaccinations. A course of antibiotics cured them.

That said, I only foster one litter per year due to my paranoia. Also, since I work full time, I don't have as much time to care for them properly. Lots of other people foster lots more cats and kittens. And this year, I had a litter of 5, and lost 3 for no good reason! So caution is no guarentee of healthy babies!

I guess you just need to think about it before you do it. That baby has almost no chance of growing up normal if kept in a cage from 3 weeks. But there is some risk involved if you foster him.

im not totally sure on the length to keep the kitten separate to be safe, but i just took in 2 now 1 week old kittens and my vet suggested to keep them away from my cats for 10 days. but im still going to keep them separate until they have had shots and are ok'd by my vet that they dont have FIV (one of the mother's previous litter babies was found to have it and was put to sleep) so there is a chance these could have it.

I was just talking to the SPCA on an unrelated matter and she said they recently had an epidemic of feline distemper. Tht pretty much cemented my decision to not take the little cat - I have no idea whether the little guy at the shelter has it (and probably not since he's only been there 2 days and has been isolated) but I have 4 unvaccinated kittens here and cannot not put their lives at risk.

Darn... hope the little guy is healthy and finds a nice home to grow up in.

Julie