newborn kitty with diarrhea

mewdrop

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Hmmm, for updates on the kitty, my boyfriend told me it has diarrhea now. It's eating and it's warm and it's been his 5th day without a mother. I hope he survives. We feed him till he pushes away and then when he's done, he doesn't cry and just tries to bury himself to my boyfriends arm. I'm glad it's feeling warmth and love. The kitty is outside and can't be inside due to allergies and well my boyfriend puts shirts and two very hot water bottles to keep it warm and then he covers the box.

Anyone knows what could be causing the diarrhea?
 

jen

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Well kittens only drink milk at this age so there is no reason for them to have anything but runny poops. If it is discoloured or suddenly changes, then take him to the vet, otherwise I think it is fine. Is there any way to get him inside? I don't know where you live but by me it is awfully cold outside, too cold for a newborn kitten alone all night long. I would be worried about preditors too.
 

dawnofsierra

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I quite agree that this tiny baby is far too young to be outside! Regardless, she should not be left alone for such an extended period. Also, please be sure to wrap the hot water bottles in a thick towel to ensure the baby isn't accidently burned.
 

kumbulu

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Firstly, please say thank you to your boyfriend for trying to give this little one a chance.


The best thing he could do right now is take the kitten to a shelter where someone who has lots of time on their hands can foster the kitten. This kitten needs feeding and stimulating every 3 hours and on your other thread, you said your boyfriend goes to school and works. This kitten will die outside, as hot water bottles can only stay hot for a couple of hours outside.

The kitten may have diahorrea because it has to drink so much in one go because your boyfriend can only feed it a few times a day. Diahorrea can cause a tiny kitten to become very ill and die, very quickly. The kitten's poop should be the consistency of toothpaste (just able to hold it's shape but a bit soft) and a mustard colour.

Please keep us updated on the kitten's progress.
 
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mewdrop

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Originally Posted by dawnofsierra

I quite agree that this tiny baby is far too young to be outside! Regardless, she should not be left alone for such an extended period. Also, please be sure to wrap the hot water bottles in a thick towel to ensure the baby isn't accidently burned.
Oops!! I forgot to mention that he does do this already. He told me when he stops feeding the kitten, he stops meowing and is quite content. He asked me the other day if kittens can purr at such a young age and I'm not sure but I think they can do some other noise. He also twitches his ears when he's drinking his milk.

I've suggested him to put him in the van till morning and he tried it out and it's much warmer in there then outside. I live in south texas and right now it's cold. Not too much but chilly. I'm going to try to convince him to put him inside the house, but the reason he doesn't is because they have a puppy inside the house and as soon as the kitty starts meowing, the pup goes barking all through the night, not letting people sleep. He has an attic/room upstairs. When I was living there, I slept there. It's very cozy. I don't know fi the puppy will hear him up there, but maybe I should give that a try.

Kumbulu: Thank you for such the great advice and everyone else as well! I forgot to mention that when he's not home, his mom takes care of it and they switch the water bottles every 2 to 4 hours or as much as they can. I don't know any information of the only shelter we have but I don't think they take newborns in o_o;; I'm not sure, I should give them a call tomorrow.

I've seen sites where there's kitty rescues and communities set up where people get together or just one person picks up orphaned kitties and takes care of them. We unfortunatly don't have anything like that here.

We sort of do actually. We have "the cat lady" at our local college that takes care of the recent (about 3 years now) over population of cats at our college.
Seriously, about three years ago, cats were getting lost or getting dumped off at the college, they weren't nuetered and about 2 to 3 generations of cats were born there. So what this lady does is feeds them, she captured all of them and nuetered all of them so there's no more cats to be born and she takes care of them. She's also a spanish teacher there. She's the one that caught me my dieter when he was a kitten at the college. ^_^

But she's so busy with doing her college stuff, she doesn't take in newborns anymore. =(

soooo....What we're going to do is I'm probrarbly going to bring the kitty over with the new batch of kittens and I'm going to call the shelter.

I hope everything works out for this little one. <3 Thanks everyone so being awesome cat lovers!!
 
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mewdrop

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I have another update and sorry for writing so much in one day!

I saw my boyfriends kitty for the first time right now and it's an off white color and he's nice and plump! He's very quite and meows and he seems content. He sadly has a lot of fleas!! or those little black spots on his tummy! Flea nest maybe? Anyhow, he's not small at all, he's about a week and a half and has these cute little sharp nails. He's a little dirty but he's been taking care of him well. All is fine for now. He wanted to add the kitty to the newborns I have but I concluded that the best thing was the vet like you all have mentioned. He's needs to be cleaned throughly, given some meds for the fleas, or at least a tiny check up....pun! XD! And then after that we'll see what we'll do. But like I said, he has that dirty/black flea nest on his tummy. We need to clean him right away! But omg, I need to take pics. He's adorable to boot!
 

tnr1

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Originally Posted by mewdrop

I have another update and sorry for writing so much in one day!

I saw my boyfriends kitty for the first time right now and it's an off white color and he's nice and plump! He's very quite and meows and he seems content. He sadly has a lot of fleas!! or those little black spots on his tummy! Flea nest maybe? Anyhow, he's not small at all, he's about a week and a half and has these cute little sharp nails. He's a little dirty but he's been taking care of him well. All is fine for now. He wanted to add the kitty to the newborns I have but I concluded that the best thing was the vet like you all have mentioned. He's needs to be cleaned throughly, given some meds for the fleas, or at least a tiny check up....pun! XD! And then after that we'll see what we'll do. But like I said, he has that dirty/black flea nest on his tummy. We need to clean him right away! But omg, I need to take pics. He's adorable to boot!
Please do not use any over the counter flea products on this little one....poor thing....he needs those fleas removed ASAP. You can use dawn dishwashing detergent and a flea comb to remove the fleas.

Katie
 

hissy

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Fleas are an immediate danger, please do not use any flea products on this baby, instead use a flea comb. If you are by Lewiston, I do know someone that would take this kitten and raise it then adopt it out. Let me know. Even in a van, this kitten will get chilled. Please bring it inside immediately.
 

jen

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I would not recommend using flea med on this little one either. He is too young and flea meds could do him harm, especially self-medicating him, especially over the counter flea med (those are bad for all cats)
 
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mewdrop

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I never said I was going to use the meds over the counter to get rid of the fleas o_O I know that! That's scary to use those meds on the baby kitten. Ermmm. We're going to the vet tomorrow ^_^ So hopefully they'll be able to do something for him. And he has decided to move him into his room where it's warm. As for the comb and the dishwasing liquid, we'll give that a go. Thank you everyone and I'll keep you updated
 
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mewdrop

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Originally Posted by Kumbulu

The black dots you are seeing is flea poop and as others have said, fleas can kill a kitten this young. This page will give you some advice about the fleas: http://www.kitten-rescue.com/parasites.html
To treat fleas, it is safe to use a very small amount of kitten strength Advantage, Frontline or Revolution drops, as long as you have your vet's consent to do so! You will need to treat the kitten once a month. Be sure that you obtain the spot on flea treatment from your vet, and not over the internet or over-the-counter. After applying the drop/s, use your thumb to spread it along the kittens back in a straight line, to the tail. This helps to spread the flea treatment over the whole kitten's body. Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. Dosages are as follows:

Birth to one week: one drop (two drops if flea infestation is heavy)
One to two weeks: two drops
Two to four weeks: 3 drops
Four to six weeks: 4 drops
Six weeks on: follow directions on pack
If you don't want to use flea treatments, you can lather some vet-approved kitten shampoo onto his fur and use a very fine flea comb to comb out the fleas. The shampoo immobilizes the fleas, making it easier for them to be combed out. Be careful that the kitten doesn't become chilled during this process. After you have combed all the fleas out, rinse off the shampoo under warm water. Use the hairdryer or warm towel process discussed earlier, and don't get water in the kitten's ears or eyes.

That was quoted from that very informational site up there....the vet is out of town and someone else mentioned using detergent of some kind. At least very little of it. Would that be useful as well. I also don't have a flea comb, but a kitty comb and it looks something like this. Can I use that as well?

hope someone is up this late to answer this!!
http://www.arcatapet.com/images/1045.jpg
 

gayef

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That is really not going to be effective IMO. Do you have a small, fine-toothed comb anywhere in the house? If you can get your hands on one, the dishwashing detergent method is best until you can get the spot-on treatment from your vet. Get a bowl of warm water (not hot) and squeeze just a drop of the detergent into the water. Run the dry comb through the fur gently but firmly, dislodging as many fleas as you can. Dip the comb into the soapy water, dry it off with a paper towel and repeat. Try not to get the kitten wet if you can avoid it. Make sure the comb is good and dry before running it through the fur. While I respect the information you posted above, the fact is that I do not think that getting this kitten wet is the best way to proceed here. Try dry combing first.

As soon as you can, get a hold of your vet and ask about the spot-on treatments which are safe for use on kittens. He may have alternatives or other suggestions to help.
 
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mewdrop

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He's a dirty little kitten. Actually, this was before we cleaned him a few days ago. He's so white now and he doesn't have as much flea poop as he did in this picture. He's nice and white and he's getting fat!


Here he's fast asleep inbetween the HUGE waterbottles filled with hot water. It's that hot water from those water coolers. Wrapped around two layers of shirts doesn't burn him at all and keeps him very very warm for hours. That's the advantage of huge water bottles.

So yes, we're planning on taking him to the vet. Due to car problems, we haven't been able to but we've managed to take very good care of him for now. He's been eating eagerly and he's been pooping and peeing great with no problems. My boyfriend has been washing him and taking his fleas out manually one by one and with a damp towel, he's been soothing him by cleaning him. He's used some dawn detergent to get make him nice and clean and to get rid of the fleas little by little. He brushes him with a little cat brush and he's even starting to play with my boyfriends hoody string. My boyfriend's very very happy that he's made it this far. I can't wait to take him to the vet so we can get the little bugger check out properly. Thank you all for reading and I'll keep on updating ^_^
 
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mewdrop

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I'm crying so much here it's it's weird, I only met the kitten twice but my boyfriend put so much effort in him. So much damn effort. He gave him a warm bed, he was eating fine and well today he had him with him and the kitten slept in his arms dammit!! He even peed and pooped and he was even purring. my boyfriend was getting ready to sleep and he went to go put him back in his warm box. My boyfriend fell asleep for an hour or so, he then went to go check up on him and like nothing he was gone. He died. My heart hurts and I hate when this happens. HE GAVE HIM SO MUCH LOVE DAMMIT! Why do things like this have to happen. I'm so sad. My boyfriend has a huge heart and he had survived this long. He's in pieces as well and he can't understand why he passed on. He feels like he handled him wrong. Anyhow, we're going to go bury him now underneath where we found him. Thank you for your support and your answers. He was already planning on buying him one of those snuggle kitties so he can have the heart beat of a mom. My heart hurts...goodbye for now.
 

gayef

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Oh dear ... I am so sorry. I know this hurts horribly and I know my words won't ease that for you at all right now, but you and your boyfriend gave this little one a lot of love in his short little life and he knew your gentle, warm touch. Be comforted by that if you can.

Hugs,

~gf~
 
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