- Joined
- May 10, 2023
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Hi all,
Around a week ago I took in a kitten given to me by my boyfriend's mom. The kitten is of a stray that visits her backyard often, as there are a lot of strays here. She was giving away these kittens in hopes of finding new homes and hopefully getting them spayed/neutered in the future since there are a lot of cats. Since he was 3 weeks old I have been keeping him in my home. I've been working off information I can find online, but it's difficult because a lot of sources can contradict each other a little bit.
My first issue was fleas. He actually doesn't seem to have many, and before doing anything I noticed only one crawling around at a time. I assumed he didn't have many. The kittens at my boyfriend's mom's house had a little makeshift heated shelter done for them that they stayed in, so I assume fleas weren't too much of a problem? I asked around because he was almost 4 weeks old at the time when I noticed the flea. My friend said to give him a flea bath, and the vet I called said to use a flea comb. (Btw, the vet said he was too early to take in for an examination, so I just gave her my questions at the time) I used a comb many times but nothing was coming off, so I tried to do my research before giving him a bath because I was really scared about the thermoregulation part and I really didn't want to scare him. I did a ring of soap around his neck and tried to be speedy with the bath but at most I only saw one flea come off. After drying him up I noticed a bigger bug crawling around..I was a little frustrated but I would continue using the comb in hopes of it jumping off or something. It would be around his hind legs, tail, and butt area, but after picking it up a few times I haven't seen it again. Now I'm just wondering if that was really a big flea, or some other bug? It seemed flea shaped, just kinda big for one. He doesn't scratch himself in that area (or scratch himself at all for the most part) and he seems content but there's really no way of knowing. I also check his gums to see if there is any anemia as a result but they look healthy.
Next is he has diarrhea since yesterday afternoon (As of writing this it's morning of the next day for me)! I have weaned him off his milk formula and started giving him "Fancy Feast Savory Salmon Classic Pate." Its very smelly after his meals since he is a messy eater and walks all over his food plate but I make sure to clean him up afterwards. After he pooped for the first time yesterday it was pretty watery. The color looked healthy, it was just around toothpaste consistency or wetter. The rest of the day I gave him more of the same food when it was time to eat. He would poop again at night and it was the same consistency, just a LOT more and all over the litter box. This morning he did the same again, just a lesser amount and this was before eating. I read up and saw less fiber can fix this, so I switched and fed him a little bit of "Friskies Shreds Chicken & Salmon Dinner in Gravy" since it had a half-percentage less of raw fiber. He hasn't pooped since, just went straight to bed after a little bit of attention. I read after weaning kittens diarrhea would be common for around 24 hours? I want to call the vet again if he does it some more today.
Sorry this is so long! I am new here and wanted to know some more feedback from other people with experience in raising kittens. I want to make sure I am doing well in raising my kitten Mango and what I can do to make it better.
Around a week ago I took in a kitten given to me by my boyfriend's mom. The kitten is of a stray that visits her backyard often, as there are a lot of strays here. She was giving away these kittens in hopes of finding new homes and hopefully getting them spayed/neutered in the future since there are a lot of cats. Since he was 3 weeks old I have been keeping him in my home. I've been working off information I can find online, but it's difficult because a lot of sources can contradict each other a little bit.
My first issue was fleas. He actually doesn't seem to have many, and before doing anything I noticed only one crawling around at a time. I assumed he didn't have many. The kittens at my boyfriend's mom's house had a little makeshift heated shelter done for them that they stayed in, so I assume fleas weren't too much of a problem? I asked around because he was almost 4 weeks old at the time when I noticed the flea. My friend said to give him a flea bath, and the vet I called said to use a flea comb. (Btw, the vet said he was too early to take in for an examination, so I just gave her my questions at the time) I used a comb many times but nothing was coming off, so I tried to do my research before giving him a bath because I was really scared about the thermoregulation part and I really didn't want to scare him. I did a ring of soap around his neck and tried to be speedy with the bath but at most I only saw one flea come off. After drying him up I noticed a bigger bug crawling around..I was a little frustrated but I would continue using the comb in hopes of it jumping off or something. It would be around his hind legs, tail, and butt area, but after picking it up a few times I haven't seen it again. Now I'm just wondering if that was really a big flea, or some other bug? It seemed flea shaped, just kinda big for one. He doesn't scratch himself in that area (or scratch himself at all for the most part) and he seems content but there's really no way of knowing. I also check his gums to see if there is any anemia as a result but they look healthy.
Next is he has diarrhea since yesterday afternoon (As of writing this it's morning of the next day for me)! I have weaned him off his milk formula and started giving him "Fancy Feast Savory Salmon Classic Pate." Its very smelly after his meals since he is a messy eater and walks all over his food plate but I make sure to clean him up afterwards. After he pooped for the first time yesterday it was pretty watery. The color looked healthy, it was just around toothpaste consistency or wetter. The rest of the day I gave him more of the same food when it was time to eat. He would poop again at night and it was the same consistency, just a LOT more and all over the litter box. This morning he did the same again, just a lesser amount and this was before eating. I read up and saw less fiber can fix this, so I switched and fed him a little bit of "Friskies Shreds Chicken & Salmon Dinner in Gravy" since it had a half-percentage less of raw fiber. He hasn't pooped since, just went straight to bed after a little bit of attention. I read after weaning kittens diarrhea would be common for around 24 hours? I want to call the vet again if he does it some more today.
Sorry this is so long! I am new here and wanted to know some more feedback from other people with experience in raising kittens. I want to make sure I am doing well in raising my kitten Mango and what I can do to make it better.
I tried looking for the Milbemax but the ones I found would say 6-8 weeks or older...he is only 4 weeks right now so I'm afraid to try anything like that yet. I will keep looking around though!
