Keeping Kittens In An Outdoor Patio?

[Rickdrey]

I am fostering 11 kittens, and one cat for a shelter nearby. All of the cats have fleas, and we are trying to get rid of them

Most are older than 12 weeks, 2 of them are still probably only 1 or 2 lbs. We have tried dawn baths and cannot keep up, so we are planning on using diatomaceous earth and a big bomb in the bedrooms they were being kept in. While the rooms are being cleaned, we are going to need to leave the cats somewhere else. We have a covered patio at our house. All 4 walls are enclosed, and it is covered, but the bottom is just decking

My question is, do you think the cats are okay in this room day and night? Right now, the highs have been about 85-90 degrees, and the lows have been 60-70 degrees. We are planning to put some boxes in the room with blankets that we will just wash every night. Do you think this will be too cold for young kittens? They have some upper respiratory infections, and i dont want them getting worse

 

[jen]

Personally I don't think that is too cold at all. Especially at over 12 weeks. What is alarming is that they are only a 1 or 2 lbs?? That is what a 4 and 8 week old cat should weight roughly. They are on medication I assume for their colds? I think it would be a good idea to get a scale and weigh them, make sure they are all on a good quality kitten food maybe dry and canned and also note that too much older then 12 weeks you are going to have to separate males and females as they can start to mature surprisingly young.

 

[Stinky15]

If you are going to bomb the room in the house you want to be sure and use something that will kill the flea eggs as well otherwise they will just hatch out again. If you can't find a bomb that does it you can buy spray that does. I think they will be fine on the porch. Poor babies.

 

[Rickdrey]

Personally I don't think that is too cold at all. Especially at over 12 weeks. What is alarming is that they are only a 1 or 2 lbs?? That is what a 4 and 8 week old cat should weight roughly. They are on medication I assume for their colds? I think it would be a good idea to get a scale and weigh them, make sure they are all on a good quality kitten food maybe dry and canned and also note that too much older then 12 weeks you are going to have to separate males and females as they can start to mature surprisingly young.

i should have clarified. Most of them are a healthy weight. we have two young kittens, they are only 1 or 2 lbs

The shelter ran out of meds, so hopefully they will have more by tonight.

 

[Rickdrey]

If you are going to bomb the room in the house you want to be sure and use something that will kill the flea eggs as well otherwise they will just hatch out again. If you can't find a bomb that does it you can buy spray that does. I think they will be fine on the porch. Poor babies.

fipronil doesnt work in our area, so we are going to use capstar, followed by another dawn bath to clear all of the dead fleas and eggs, and then we found some organic spray on Amazon that is okay for young kittens

 

[Stinky15]

fipronil doesnt work in our area, so we are going to use capstar, followed by another dawn bath to clear all of the dead fleas and eggs, and then we found some organic spray on Amazon that is okay for young kittens

I was speaking to the bomb you said you were going to use in the flea infested room.

 

[jen]

Ohh ok that makes more sense. So they are all together with upper respiratory infections? Whew, you have your work cut out for ya. I hope they have more meds too. Honestly an outdoor patio of course has a lot of fresh air which could be a good thing for their colds.

I hear that commonly that Fipronil/Frontline doesn't work a lot of time, what about Selamectin/Revolution? I have had luck with that. Or imidacloprid/Advantage? And Diatomaceous Earth is wonderful stuff! Food grade of course. You can take it yourself, it is good for hair and skin and many other benefits.

It sounds like you know the Capstar is only very temporary and only kills the live adults. You need something to repel them. Hopefully organic spray works but if not, and I am only saying this because I don't think I have ever heard of those kind of sprays working, consider the other 2 name brand flea applications.

Shouldn't the rescue be paying for all this anyway? If they gave you 11 kittens to foster and they all have fleas?

 

[Rickdrey]

Ohh ok that makes more sense. So they are all together with upper respiratory infections? Whew, you have your work cut out for ya. I hope they have more meds too. Honestly an outdoor patio of course has a lot of fresh air which could be a good thing for their colds.

I hear that commonly that Fipronil/Frontline doesn't work a lot of time, what about Selamectin/Revolution? I have had luck with that. Or imidacloprid/Advantage? And Diatomaceous Earth is wonderful stuff! Food grade of course. You can take it yourself, it is good for hair and skin and many other benefits.

It sounds like you know the Capstar is only very temporary and only kills the live adults. You need something to repel them. Hopefully organic spray works but if not, and I am only saying this because I don't think I have ever heard of those kind of sprays working, consider the other 2 name brand flea applications.

Shouldn't the rescue be paying for all this anyway? If they gave you 11 kittens to foster and they all have fleas?

They should, but they are conveniently not answering the phone ha