Previously healthy kitten not eating and trying to nurse off dog.

Rowley Birkin QC

Never thought cats/kittens would be so much hassle!

Basically we had a stray cat come into the yard, it had 4 kittens about 10 weeks ago. Kittens were all doing well, eating food and drinking milk from a dish really well. Gave two of them away about 12 days ago after the cat was knocked down and killed. Kittens still eating and drinking well from the dish.

Last week one of the two we kept caught cat flu. Got antibiotics from the vet and tried to get them into her using a a dropper and some milk but she expired. The other one was flying around with the dog and eating and drinking fine. Until yesterday. Stopped eating and drinking from the bowl and has started trying to nurse off the dog, who is happy enough with the attention! Managed to get some milk into her today with a dropper but the kitten is pretty weak. Left her out just now and the first place she went is over to the dog to try to nurse off her again. So obviously it wants to drink but won't take it from the bowl.

Any suggestions? Working from home at the moment and I'm getting nothing done over this kitten! Will try it again with the dropper this evening as I had some success today but it's not going to thrive on drops of milk either.

Cheers.

mymo

Have you had this one to the vet?
Assume you have and got antibiotics?
Cat flu will make the cat lose its sense of smell and they won't eat what they don't smell, so get some stinky kitten food and warm it slightly in the microwave(just so its warm to touch) and try that, water is the best thing to give the kitten, even if its only a few drops at a time.
If she's trying to nurse from the dog take advantage of this, try the dropper while she's trying to nurse, or put some food on you finger and maybe she'll lick it off.
Good luck, they can survive this, one of mine was very i'l as a kitten with flu, he's now 9 years old and full of life.

Rowley Birkin QC

mymo wrote: »

Have you had this one to the vet?
Assume you have and got antibiotics?
Cat flu will make the cat lose its sense of smell and they won't eat what they don't smell, so get some stinky kitten food and warm it slightly in the microwave(just so its warm to touch) and try that, water is the best thing to give the kitten, even if its only a few drops at a time.
If she's trying to nurse from the dog take advantage of this, try the dropper while she's trying to nurse, or put some food on you finger and maybe she'll lick it off.
Good luck, they can survive this, one of mine was very i'l as a kitten with flu, he's now 9 years old and full of life.

Cheers.

Haven't been to the vet with this one to be honest but still have the antibiotics that he gave us for the first one. It was our farm vet so it was a diagnosis based on described symptoms rather than an actual inspection of the kitten. Will try what you suggested.

Is it just a case that the kitten is ticked off at being the only one left from a previous population of 4 kittens and a cat?

morganafay

Is it proper kitten milk replacer you're using or cow's milk? If it is cow's milk then that won't be great for the kitten, and you should try to get something like lactol (in pet shops or from the vet) which is a formula you mix up for them.

You could also try getting a bottle for kittens to drink out of in a pet shop too. And try to get the kitten to drink the formula from a dish. Also try microwaving food like the person before me said. Try giving the kitten cooked chicken or some ham or something too just to get her to eat.

The dog could possibly be producing milk (try squeezing a nipple and see if any comes out) because of the kitten nursing from her. If she is then that I think that's ok and would probably be good for the kitten. Well my kittens nursed from my dog before and the vet said it was ok.

I hope she gets better. Oh and preferably the kitten should be kept indoors somewhere warm to help her recover.

morganafay

Oh and does the kitten actually seem sick (sneezing, running nose and eyes, weak and lethargic, etc.) or is she just not eating?

mymo

Was just going to ask as above, and also how are the kittens you gave away?
I would try bringing the cat to the vet, there are other problems it could have, like other types of infection and illness.
I know sometimes farm vets don't have much interest in cats (first cat I had living in Ireland, local vet asked why I was bothering to vaccinate and neuter her?), so could you find a small animal vet locally?

morganafay

Yeah I was going to say too, if she had another type of infection then she might be off her food for a few days.

I'd definitely try to find a small animal vet too if the antibiotics don't help soon.

Rowley Birkin QC

morganafay wrote: »

Oh and does the kitten actually seem sick (sneezing, running nose and eyes, weak and lethargic, etc.) or is she just not eating?

The first one had much more obvious symptoms, eyes running, sneezing etc.

This one is just very lethargic, "dull" eyes and is not eating.

Will try getting it some of that milk replacer you advised on. Don't think she is getting anything from the dog to be honest, just searching. It slept inside last night on in a box with a towel and a lukewarm hot water bottle. To be honest I was expecting to be digging a hole for it this morning when I was going to bed last night but seems a bit brighter today after the few drops of milk.

Rowley Birkin QC

mymo wrote: »

Was just going to ask as above, and also how are the kittens you gave away?
I would try bringing the cat to the vet, there are other problems it could have, like other types of infection and illness.
I know sometimes farm vets don't have much interest in cats (first cat I had living in Ireland, local vet asked why I was bothering to vaccinate and neuter her?), so could you find a small animal vet locally?

Kittens that we gave away are in fine fettle according to all reports.

To be honest I'm not in a position to be paying a small animal vet to look at it. It might sound cruel on a pet forum but the costs involved can get silly. Sorry if anyone is offended at that.

Will persevere with this one as per advice above as it is definitely in better health than the other one who was displaying very strong symptoms

mymo

If you could spend 5 mins every 2 hours or so trying to get some food and especially water into the kitten it would make a huge difference. Even if it just licks the gravy off the cat food it will help. Don't try dry food until its back to full health.

Wisco

Have you wormed it? In addition to the cat flu, if it has a large worm burden (and all pups and kittens are born with worms as the hormones of pregnancy activate the worm life cycle, even in well wormed animals) it will find it harder to thrive. Definitely stop the cows milk, go for cat milk replacer. Also if it's 10wks+ age then you can feed normal kitten food (or chicken, etc, if not eating much). Agree with a previous poster who suggested warming the food- cats often won't eat if they can't smell their food and kitty's nose may be bunged up.
Good luck.

Rowley Birkin QC

mymo wrote: »

If you could spend 5 mins every 2 hours or so trying to get some food and especially water into the kitten it would make a huge difference. Even if it just licks the gravy off the cat food it will help. Don't try dry food until its back to full health.

Yup, have been trying that. Small doses of food.

Wisco wrote: »

Have you wormed it? In addition to the cat flu, if it has a large worm burden (and all pups and kittens are born with worms as the hormones of pregnancy activate the worm life cycle, even in well wormed animals) it will find it harder to thrive. Definitely stop the cows milk, go for cat milk replacer. Also if it's 10wks+ age then you can feed normal kitten food (or chicken, etc, if not eating much). Agree with a previous poster who suggested warming the food- cats often won't eat if they can't smell their food and kitty's nose may be bunged up.
Good luck.

Yeah, I wormed them all before the other two flew the nest. Will take it off the cows milk so. Have been warming its food/milk in general so not an issue.

mymo

I know you said you wormed them, but did you know you're supposed to worm a kitten every 2 weeks until 12 weeks, then monthly until 6 months. I still worm my adult cats(and dogs) every 3 months as I have a daughter and he friends around playing with them.
Always get the worm dose from the vet as the supermarket stuff isn't as good.

Rowley Birkin QC

Things just got decidedly odd.....


Car alarm went off in the yard outside, pretty regular at the moment, something is up with it. Coming back in and found a kitten sitting at the front doorstep, picked up the kitten to bring it back to bed while trying to figure out how it got outside. I now have 2 kittens again that look exactly the same, black coat, white shirt and nearly exactly the same size. Put out some milk for the new kitten and the sick one ran over and sniffed around the milk for the first time in two days, didn't drink it but the fact it showed any interest is a step forwards! Cannot figure out where the new kitten came from but the two of them are now curled up asleep in the kitchen, might be the makings of the sick one yet!!

Very very odd though, it definitely isn't one of the two that we gave away returning as they were jet black and there was definitely only 4 kittens in the litter.

The Sweeper

No more cow's milk. If you want to give it milk because it won't take anything else, go and get whiskas milk. The cows milk could be giving it diarrhoea, which will be dehydrating it and giving it a sore tummy which will make it not want to eat, so in other words you could be making things worse with the cows milk.

Wouldn't be surprised if you've got a kitten from another litter, if you have feral cats in the area you're likely to have more than one nursing mother.

Don't worm the kittens until they're well, eating and drinking - worming is quite a severe process on them and it can be hard on systems already suffering from dehydration or a lack of nutrition.

As others have said, go buy some kitten food. Don't worry too much about warming it up, but if you have to, force feed the kitten. Yes, I did say that, seriously. You know when you feel a bit ill, and you don't feel like eating, and then after a couple of days the hunger pangs lessen and now you don't feel like eating because you haven't been eating? Cats are buggers for that.

If all you can get is whiskas kitten food, try and find the chicken loaf variety instead of anything with too much gravy (it seems to help settle unsettled tummies). Also ask the vet if you can have a tube of Nutrigel, or order some on the net - it's a high-calorie supplement designed for animals who've been ill, could help put some weight on them.

To 'force feed' a kitten, get a dish of food, a teaspoon to help break it up, and a cloth. Sit the kitten in your lap, facing away from you. Put some catfood on your middle finger. Scruff the kitten gently with your left hand and lift him a little. With your right hand, use your index finger at the corner of his mouth to open his jaw, and with as much dexterity as you can manage, get some of the food from your middle finger into his mouth.

You don't need to do anything like hold his mouth shut or anything - and while he's gagging and licking around the first mouthful, relax your hold on the scruff and stroke him and praise him while he manages that first morsel of food. Sometimes you only have to repeat this twice or three times before the kitten remembers that he's hungry and will make his own way to the saucer of food to eat up.

Might not be a bad idea for the second kitten to be a wee mate for him - as long as both he and the dog accepts him.

Keep feeding and put out some whiskas kitten milk that they can lap themselves, just to keep them hydrated (put out clean water in a bowl too). Keep refreshing their food - little and often can work better than once large bowl of food a day, as cats are strongly scent-driven (hence heating up food to make it smell more), but the smell can go from food as it dries up and they might start to ignore it during the day if it dries up too much.

Graces7

Rowley Birkin QC wrote: »

Things just got decidedly odd.....


Car alarm went off in the yard outside, pretty regular at the moment, something is up with it. Coming back in and found a kitten sitting at the front doorstep, picked up the kitten to bring it back to bed while trying to figure out how it got outside. I now have 2 kittens again that look exactly the same, black coat, white shirt and nearly exactly the same size. Put out some milk for the new kitten and the sick one ran over and sniffed around the milk for the first time in two days, didn't drink it but the fact it showed any interest is a step forwards! Cannot figure out where the new kitten came from but the two of them are now curled up asleep in the kitchen, might be the makings of the sick one yet!!

Very very odd though, it definitely isn't one of the two that we gave away returning as they were jet black and there was definitely only 4 kittens in the litter.

'tis an angel come to save your wee one....;)