Need advice about my bran new kittens.

My kittens are 10 days old. They have fleas as their mother was an outside cat. Since I can't give them a flea treatment until they are 8 weeks old and I want to releive them of some of the burden of fleas I am wondering how soon can I bathe them? I would greatly appriciate a response. Thank you.




@}}heather{{@

That must be tough for the kitties. From my understanding, any kind of affliction is very tough on kittens until their immune system really starts to work.

I think you should consult a vet to be on the safe side.

Since the babies are only 10 days old, they might be too young for any sort of treatment (other than wiping them off and picking off the fleas that you see). There are others on this board with kitten experience who could let you know about bathing the babies.

Are they still with the mother? If she is around, and it is at all possible, the kittens should be with her. The mom cat should be treated for the fleas (with something that is ok for a nursing cat).

Thanks for the advice. Yes they are still with the mother. Unfortunantally I can givr the mom a treatment because they are nursing and if she injests the treament they can get it through her milk and if it's on her fur than it will get on theirs.




@}}heather{{@

Have you spoken to a vet? I thought that one of the ingestable treatments was supposed to be ok for nursing mothers. Anyhow, a vet might have some good, safe suggestions to help everyone out .

Yeah I got all of my info from the vets office. However I didn'tpeak with the vet. I am going to do that tomorrow. Thanks again.



@}}heather{{@

Oh, what a nightmare! I had the same problem. There really aren't any treatments safe for kittens. And don't bother with the herbal remedies like rolling them in Brewer's yeast or covering them in citrus compote ~ trust me, they don't work and they are really messy!

Here are some things to do -

1. Dump Boric acid all over your house and rub it in with a broom. Its non-toxic, but sharp and cuts and kills adult fleas.

2. Vaccuum everywhere! Throw the bag away outside immediately and put the boric acid down again (you can find it at dugstores). Wash bedding, anything you can wash, wash!

3. That includes the kitties! Wash them in an all-natural shampoo especially for kittens. It needs to be something that lathers well. Fleas drown if you keep the kitten lathered for 5-10 minutes. Take care with the temperature - not too hot, not too cold. Be extra careful about them catching cold. I put clean towels in the dryer first, and we have a cuddle and pet session in them, which is really me drying them but they don't know that! I also keep mine in the bathroom for awhile since its nice and steamy in there.

4. Flea combs! You can buy them at any pet store. Careful - fleas jump like crazy! I keep a bowl of hot water next to me when I do it (on a tile floor in the bathroom). They drown in it. If you just rinse them down the drain, they can come back up! They are really persistent!

You might also want to get them checked for tapeworm. Cats get tapeworm from fleas.

I hate fleas!!!

I'm not sure how young you can start this but you can bath young kittens, you MUST keep them warm at all times. Straight from the warm water wrapped into a towel next to you, or next to a heating pad.

Other than that, keep at it with a flea comb, over and over and over groom them any chance you can, and find the finest tooth flea comb that you can. (yes they do come in different sizes)

Hissy said bathing kitties that young could be bad....is it just them catching cold? I bathed mine right away, but I got him at 5 weeks, plus he was a feral rescue. If he survived outside here, I figure he could handle a bath! 10 days is pretty young.

The youngest I bathed kittens was when they were like 5 weeks. I got them from some 'dog rescue' that.. erm. well there not that good and either knew nothing about cats, or didn't care.

They were limp lifeless creatures when I got them. Bathed them, held them in my hand while I blow dryed them (warm on low) until they were dry... they layed there and enjoyed the whole thing, ate a bunch slept.. woke up the next day and it was like they were whole new cats.

If you decide to bath them use something VERY mild. And make it as short as possible. You can not use flea soap. I think someone said you could use human shampoo or mild dish detergent.

As long as you keep soap/water out of their eyes and ears and keep them warm I see nothing bad happening from this.

I think you should never ever use dish detergent or human shampoo. Kitties have a different pH than us, plus their skin is much more sensitive than ours as it is always protected by fur. There are a lot of great products out there at pet stores and especially at natural markets. I use Desert Sudz, an all-natural kitten shampoo on Spidey, and Septiderm, an antiseptic kitty shampoo on Poppy.

If you can get out to a petstore to bath them, yes I prefer you do that as well, I have used 'human' shampoo many time (not frequently) with success. Some are safter than others, a mild shampoo, and sometimes baby shampoos are ok in emergency situations.
Try to find something for 'kitten's'. Things that are for dogs and cats, I try to stay away from.


Like that night with those kittens, I had stinky harsh ferret shampoo, or gental mostly water human shampoo lol. The stores were closed, and they were covered in their own crapulace, waiting till morning was not an option lol.

I have this one pamphlet that I got lately from a rescue group. a print out of some well known place on the web and it said to use antibacterial soap.. handsoap/dish detergent. It sounded kinda funny to me, since then I have had several ppl tell me that its a very bad idea.

Thank you everyone so much for all the awesome advice. I am quite new when it comes to cats. I have only had my cat "Etta James" for about 6 monthes, and well the kittens are only 10 days old. So yeah I have a lot to learn. Those are all great suggestions. I'm going to have to try some if not all of those.

btw, 2 of the kittens just opened ther eyes. They are sooooo...... cute!!!



@}}heather{{@

I called like 3 million, billion, kazillion vets and I took them in for their first check up and was advised by my vet that putting advantage on kittens that young is ok, just as long as it is one little drop. My vet has acctually put Advantage on kittens as young as 1 day old. So we did that and the fleas are gone and the kittens are healthy. Thank you once agaon for everyones wonderful advice.



@}}heather{{@