Is my 5-week-old kitten going to die? :'-(

by Ria
(Sugar Land)

My poor little baby kitty!!

My poor little baby kitty!!

So, I brought this kitty home last night (about 24 hours back). It was at a friend's place who has many many many cats at his place. The kitty was looking unwell last evening itself. However, we decided to adopt it and even before we got home it had an episode of diarrhea (kind of squirting, yellowish white in colour).


It had a little bit of formula last night and in the morning. I took it to the vet and he found fleas and worms, low body temperature and low sugar (no dehydration). It is just 0.8 pounds in weight. He gave me some medicines for the worms and a nutritive gel. And also asked me to feed him prescription tinned soft food along with the formula (I have been using Hartz - this is my first pet and I don't have much idea about the brands).

So, after feeding it, its stool color did change to yellow and then brownish but I observed some blood in the stool and also sticking out of its butt (which I think is sore cause it doesn't like me cleaning/touching it) when he was pooping. And it SQUIRTS it each time.

The vet asked me to go see them after 2 more days but each and every day is hard for me. I feel so bad for the little one. I am afraid that it might be dying. I hope it gets better. What do you think? :'-( How long will
it live? Do you think I should return it to its mommy? Although I think it is highly neglected there (friend's place).

Sorry for the long question!

Reply
Firstly I would like to say that your friend needs to either change his ways or contact a animal shelter to come and take the poor cats away from them. It sounds to me like both your kitten and the rest of the litter and mother are probably all suffering rather badly.

fleas can kill a kitten, they cause severe anemia if not treated. So it is no wonder that your little guy is ill. However he is now in your good hands and as long as he has been treated for the worms and fleas and is now being fed good food he should pick up, but it could take awhile as his system needs to time to get back to normal.

Diarrhea in a sick kitten is not unusual and again may take some time to settle down now.

Don't worry you are doing everything you can. Thank goodness for people like you.

I have some pages on my site about kitten care etc which i think you will find of further help. Here is the first page

kitten-care.html

Could I also ask. Could you persuade your friend to have the rest of his cats treated for fleas at the very least. It breaks my heart to think of cats and kittens suffering due to neglect.

best wishes kate

Comments for Is my 5-week-old kitten going to die? :'-(

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sad
by: Anonymous

I foster kittens. I had a kitten that was 6 weeks old. We had just weaned from milk replacement and she was so tiny, but she had developed diarrhea from the milk. My vet said to wean her off it. We also dewormed her. But the diarrhea kept up. She went from playing one day to dead the following morning. :( my daughter was crushed. We still don't know what happened.
Probably never will. She came from a guy that is trying to TNR alot of cats, she was found under a shed. We tried to save her. Gave her the best care for the 4 weeks we had her. But jn the end I guess somethings are just unknown. :(
G-Strep silent quick KILLER
by: Carol Cares

Kittens or young cats in trouble with G-Strep could look perfectly healthy but gradually keep eating as if it were the last meal they will ever have. They will keep talking to you and act afraid to have you out of their sight. All their playing stops suddenly in a day or so, and you have to fight them to eat anything.

Some could be very constipated, but then a sudden pus-like FOUL smelling poo comes and it gets all over, and they don't want to clean themselves at all anymore.

You work like a intensive care nurse 24/7 but the cat only gets way more dehydrated. You even try sub butane lactated ringers around the clock and force foods and water. NOTHING helps at this point and then with you worn out beat to a pulp SUDDENLY you find the cat or kitten dead 1 -3 hrs later! IT's a very scary mysterious disease that it is said the mOTHER has, and the kits look great all the way up until they start eating soft or dry kitten food. Top of the line VET foods won't turn this around either, and rarely any kit like this survives even though you gave it the best vitamins around the clock.

You can find the breeders web sight about "G-Strep" and how show cat breeders loose entire litters quickly to this wicked disease. The main article warns that a mother cat needs certain vagina meds to be clear enough of the mysterious virus BEFORE considering the breeding, as to save a your litter of kittens.
Also never feed you cat food with GRAIN in it.
You have to ASK Vets to test for G-Strep as most never think of checking for this. Stay Healthy and Best of Luck
I am so glad to read this!
by: Anonymous

Hi Ria, the cats your "friend" has are not his pets, they are just stray cats that he feeds and really, even with flea spray it's difficult to keep the cats from getting mores fleas. It is just a large gang of stray cats and really I wish they could all be adopted but feeding them is just the best I can do. I don't want them to land up in a shelter where they will be put to sleep if no one adopts them. Thanks for adopting the black kitten. What have you named her? How is she doing? :) Thank you for being such a caring owner.
in reply
by: Anonymous

It could be coccidia or ghiardia, spelling may be off, but I have experienced this myself. After placing a kitten almost three weeks later it came back with coccidia, diarrhea with blood in it, have the vet check. Coccidia is a parasite that lives in the animal and may become actvie when there is stress. Ghiardia comes from bad drinking water. Good luck
He just pooped!
by: Ria

Okay.. so he just took a dump! Sorry about the bother!
Another problem! :-(
by: Ria

In the morning my kitty pooped but since then he ate a lot and his belly is all swollen now and he wouldn't poop. He pooped a little bit (like a drop) when he ate in the evening at around 5pm but that's it!

Is it from the antibiiotics? I called the vet and he said to bring it in in the morning if he still doesn't poop. I tried giving belly massages and rubbing his butt with a warm wet tissue but in vain. He had been very active in the morning and afternoon but since this evening he seems to be quiet (probably due to his swollen tummy).
Paper litter did work!
by: Ria

Hey!!

So, he has improved a lot in the last 1 week. Eating well and pooping well. His fleas have reduced a lot too after I washed him and combed him. However, since the past few days he had been sneezing a lot so I took him to the vet and he gave me antibiotics for Upper Respiratory Infection which he said is common with kittens.

I started giving him the antibiotics since yesterday. Looks like his sneezing has reduced to some extent but today I saw that his stool is looser than the toothpaste texture stool he had been having. It probably is a side-effect of the medicine. However, his appetite is still good (knock on wood)! Do you think giving him antibiotics is a good idea? He is about 6-weeks-old now.

Also, he doesn't like to drink his formula. I mix some with his prescription canned soft food that he loves to eat but he doesn't like to drink anything. Should I change his formula? I use the Hartz formula.
Thanks so much!!
by: Ria

Thanks a ton for your reply. I have another question:
Whenever possible I try to put the kitty in the litter box when it seems like he will poop. The first time I did it, it started eating the clamping litter (scented) from the box so now I put some paper napkins on the litter box to cover the litter before I place the kitty there. But firsts he starts trying to dig in the paper to find the litter and eat it and then poop. I try my best to stop it from doing it and am successfully mostly. It looks like he really loves the litter. What do you think I should do? Do I need to buy another litter?

Reply
Hi
It is natural for a cat to dig at the litter etc before going to the loo, so putting paper over it really isn't any good.

My advice would be to try and change the type of litter. You can paper made litter, this may be less appealing to him to want to eat it.

It may well be the scent of your existing litter which is attracting him to eat it. So try swapping the litter for a different type. i have a page on the site which goes through some of the different types available. here https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-litter.html

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