Help with my runt of the litter!

cfcboy

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Hi,

We recently adopted one of our friends kittens, a 4 month year old female kitten (called Bubbles).

We discovered she wasnt quite "all there". She couldnt eat properly, she would stick her whole body and face in the bowl but only managing to move the food around without actually getting any of it in her mouth. So to get some food in her belly we had to bottle feed her for some time, she is much better now as she can eat from a bowl, its very messy and half of it ends up on the floor but at least a good portion is getting down her throat.

The next problem was her cleaning. We first noticed she couldnt clean herslef properly was when she had her leg in the air next to the wall, funny thing was that she was actually licking the wall and completly missing her leg. This has gone on for sometime and Im worried she may catch ticks or something nasty. Its only beacuse our older cat clean her now and again that she isnt filthy and rotting!

The third and most disheartening problem was her use of the litter, or should I say lack of it. She seems to have three primary places of going to the loo - Behind the toilet, under my sons bed or behind the sofa in the living room (the latter being the most common). Now this has really got my fiances back up lately and she has actually started about giving bubbles away. I dont want this happening as my 8 year old son will be devasted. We have taken her to the vets and they just said she was a bit "slow" as she was the runt of the litter (which didnt help me very much!). I have read some advice about how to litter train but that applies to normal cats, can anyone help me and give any advice on what I should do??



Thanks in advance
 

semiferal

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I would get a second opinion from another vet. I don't have any ideas about what could be the problem but she definitely seems to have some significant problems. Bloodwork would tell you how her organs are functioning, and the vet can check her reflexes and see what is going on.

As for her missing the litterbox, you can put a litterbox or puppy housebreaking pads in her preferred spots. This will make the situation manageable.
 

phenomsmom

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Is she brain damaged? i would check to see. my best friend used to work for a vet and ended up taking a brain damaged cat that noone wanted. she has some similar problems i believe.
 
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cfcboy

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Im not sure she is brain damaged, she manages to go in certain "hiding spots (mainly behind the sofa so she has some memory of where she is going. Its not as if she is going here there and everywhere so i very much doubt she is brain damaged.. maybe just a bit stupid, lol.
 

hissy

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Sounds to me like her mom might have had distemper and this can affect the kittens in-utero. They can appear to be brain damaged, they can be born blind or have some other problems because of the distemper. I would get the kitten to a feline specialist and get her fully evaluated.
 

purity

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She's going to the toilet in the same places because of the smell, not memory. Even if you clean the spot well, there's still enough of a trace left for a cat to detect. You need to get a special enzyme based cleaner from a pet shop to break the cycle.
 

jennyr

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Maybe if you put litter boxes in the places she uses, until she is used to going in the litter. Then gradually move the boxes to the places you want them? My mom did that with a problem cat and it worked.
 
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