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Help with caring for newborn kitten
Brandy Alexandre wrote: My cubicle neighbor found a kitten that is about two or three days old. She's going to try to raise it and if anyone has any advice or encouraging words, I'd like to pass them along. She said she saw the kitten in the grass and decided to watch for a bit in case the mother was moving kittens in stages. After more than 30 minutes and no mama cat, she picked it up and took it to the vet to get it checked out and get some supplies. The kitten apparently had fly eggs on it already, so it was probably alone for a while. She said it won't take the bottle, but she's using a syringe. She said he had a little cough and I'm concerned about pnuemonia, but the vet probably would have heard that. The vet did tell her his chances weren't great, but she wants to try. Advice appreciated. -- Brandy Alexandre=AE There are some how-to websites on raising orphan kittens, so I'll just pass along a couple of things. Her vet I'm assuming probably already gave her some tips. One important thing is, tell her not to hold the kitten on its back to syringe-feed it. Try to copy the position when a kitten nurses naturally--it will lessen the chance the kitten will inhale milk into its lungs. It will need to be stimulated manually to poop after it eats. You just get a paper towel or gloved finger and rub, like the mother kitten was grooming it. There are "surrogate" mother cats available at Petsmart--it is a stuffed cat with a heartbeat. Tell your friend good luck with the kitten. They really are tougher than they look. It isn't hard to raise an orphan kitten. Sherry |
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On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 21:09:51 GMT, "Brandy*Alexandre"
wrote: My cubicle neighbor found a kitten that is about two or three days old. She's going to try to raise it and if anyone has any advice or encouraging words, I'd like to pass them along. She said she saw the kitten in the grass and decided to watch for a bit in case the mother was moving kittens in stages. After more than 30 minutes and no mama cat, she picked it up and took it to the vet to get it checked out and get some supplies. The kitten apparently had fly eggs on it already, so it was probably alone for a while. She said it won't take the bottle, but she's using a syringe. She said he had a little cough and I'm concerned about pnuemonia, but the vet probably would have heard that. The vet did tell her his chances weren't great, but she wants to try. Advice appreciated. Thats awfully young. Stick with the feline milk subtitute in the syringe, then bottle, then mix the milk and wet food at about 4 weeks. I could be off a bit on the six weeks. I raised my Cinder from 3 weeks of age. Keep the kitten WARM. Plenty of light blankets/towels.They loose heat really easily at that age. |
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On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 21:09:51 GMT, "Brandy*Alexandre"
wrote: My cubicle neighbor found a kitten that is about two or three days old. She's going to try to raise it and if anyone has any advice or encouraging words, I'd like to pass them along. She said she saw the kitten in the grass and decided to watch for a bit in case the mother was moving kittens in stages. After more than 30 minutes and no mama cat, she picked it up and took it to the vet to get it checked out and get some supplies. The kitten apparently had fly eggs on it already, so it was probably alone for a while. She said it won't take the bottle, but she's using a syringe. She said he had a little cough and I'm concerned about pnuemonia, but the vet probably would have heard that. The vet did tell her his chances weren't great, but she wants to try. Advice appreciated. Silghtly corrected reply... Thats awfully young. Stick with the feline milk subtitute in the syringe, then bottle, then mix the milk and wet food at about 4 weeks. I could be off a bit on the 4 weeks. I raised my Cinder from 3 weeks of age. Keep the kitten WARM. Plenty of light blankets/towels.They loose heat really easily at that age. |
#4
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On Wed 20 Apr 2005 05:24:44p, wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav
roups.com): Tell your friend good luck with the kitten. They really are tougher than they look. We're sending our good luck vibes to your friend too, Brandy! Sherry, I was thinking that even at ~8 weeks they are tough to raise, but then I got your meaning correctly. (rough day!) With Scarlett, it was tough to get meat on her bones because she was such a picky eater, and then all her problems with the URIs and the spay suture reaction. I don't think I want to raise kittens anymore. However, I've enjoyed the experience. I don't think I'd have the patience or the time for the newborn Brandy's friend has rescued. -- Cheryl "The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath." - W.C. Fields |
#5
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wrote: There are some how-to websites on raising orphan kittens, so I'll just pass along a couple of things. Her vet I'm assuming probably already gave her some tips. One important thing is, tell her not to hold the kitten on its back to syringe-feed it. Try to copy the position when a kitten nurses naturally--it will lessen the chance the kitten will inhale milk into its lungs. It will need to be stimulated manually to poop after it eats. You just get a paper towel or gloved finger and rub, like the mother kitten was grooming it. There are "surrogate" mother cats available at Petsmart--it is a stuffed cat with a heartbeat. Tell your friend good luck with the kitten. They really are tougher than they look. It isn't hard to raise an orphan kitten. Sherry They have to be kept warm or they can't digest the milk. A hearting pad set on low under 4 layers of toweling in a carrier works well, but you have to make sure they don't get too hot. They need to be fed every 2-3 hours around the clock. I'm assuming a vet already told the OP all of this. Single orphaned kittens usually do not survive. If you can get it to anyone else who has kittens of similar age, it will have a much better chance. -L. |
#6
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Brandy Alexandre wrote:
My cubicle neighbor found a kitten that is about two or three days old. She's going to try to raise it and if anyone has any advice or encouraging words, I'd like to pass them along. She said she saw the kitten in the grass and decided to watch for a bit in case the mother was moving kittens in stages. After more than 30 minutes and no mama cat, she picked it up and took it to the vet to get it checked out and get some supplies. The kitten apparently had fly eggs on it already, so it was probably alone for a while. She said it won't take the bottle, but she's using a syringe. She said he had a little cough and I'm concerned about pnuemonia, but the vet probably would have heard that. The vet did tell her his chances weren't great, but she wants to try. Advice appreciated. -- Brandy Alexandre=AE This is almost exactly how I found my first cat back in October of 1975. I was waiting at a friend's house, waiting for him to get there, and when he arrived he said he saw a small kitten alongside the street near the Mississippi River bridge. He did not pick it up because he said his tom cat would kill it. I went to check it out and it had probably been 15 or 20 minutes since he had seen it. It was very small, fit in the palm of my hand, and its eyes were not open. I did not know what to do, so I took it to the vet. He thought the kitten was maybe 3 days old and it was covered with fleas. He used flea spray on his hands to cover the kitten's body. Then I took it home with his recommendations. I gave it KMR replacement milk every few hours in a small bottle made for that purpose. I kept it in a small box with a heating pad on the bottom with a towel over it. I learned I would have to stimulate it to have a bowel movement, so I did this while holding its bottom under lukewarm running water while stimulating with a q-tip. Then I would dry it off, put it in an old sock and shake it down to keep it moving. Then it was back into the box with an alarm clock until the next feeding. I looked at the kitten's bottom to determine the gender and figured it was a male so I named it "Ali" because he had to be a fighter to survive. After about a week his eyes opened and the first thing he did when he had his legs and was out of the box was to head for the litterbox, and so that part was over. I had a beagle who had never yet seen the kitten. This dog was wild about cats, but had never seen one up close. When Ali came out and saw the dog, never having seen a cat, I am sure he wondered, is this mom? So he started after the dog, who was totally bewildered by this creature, and the beagle went and hid under a chair. Ali had the upper had there and never gave it up. Ali never saw another cat until I took him to be neutered. I think he though he was a dog. While he was at the vet clinic I got a call from them telling me they could not do the operation I wanted because "he" was a "she". I was duly embarrassed, but they said trying to sex kittens at 3 days old is difficult. It was even worse for me since I worked at my city's zoo and took a razzing from my fellow employees. Ali survived all of that and was queen of her kingdom. She travelled with me in my car, riding on the back of the front seat where she could scope out everything, once travelling from Wisconsin to Florida and back again. She lived just a few months short of 20 years and I used what I learned from raising her from a near newborn on other baby animals with great results. So it can work out great. |
#7
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On Wed 20 Apr 2005 08:03:45p, Brandy*Alexandre wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav (news:1114041825.b602bb3b40189bc46b912a00e9d28635@ teranews): I know I couldn't do, but she's getting up in the night and feeding him every two or three hours. He seems to let her know when he's hungry. I thought maybe the cough was because she was feeding him on his back, but she said she's not. She also has a heating pad with a lot of padding so it doesn't get too warm. She's going to look for the surrogate maybe in a week just to make sure he's going to survive. It sounds like she's doing a good job. Kudos to her, and some extra luck to the baby. -- Cheryl "The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath." - W.C. Fields |
#8
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Send this link to your friend. It's one of the best guides for caring
for newborn/abandoned kittens I've found: http://kittenrescue.org/handbook.htm Megan "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke Learn The TRUTH About Declawing http://www.stopdeclaw.com Zuzu's Cats Photo Album: http://www.PictureTrail.com/zuzu22 "Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way." - W.H. Murray |
#9
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"elocs" wrote in message
... Brandy Alexandre wrote: My cubicle neighbor found a kitten that is about two or three days old. She's going to try to raise it and if anyone has any advice or encouraging words, I'd like to pass them along. She said she saw the kitten in the grass and decided to watch for a bit in case the mother was moving kittens in stages. After more than 30 minutes and no mama cat, she picked it up and took it to the vet to get it checked out and get some supplies. The kitten apparently had fly eggs on it already, so it was probably alone for a while. She said it won't take the bottle, but she's using a syringe. She said he had a little cough and I'm concerned about pnuemonia, but the vet probably would have heard that. The vet did tell her his chances weren't great, but she wants to try. Advice appreciated. -- Brandy Alexandre® This is almost exactly how I found my first cat back in October of 1975. I was waiting at a friend's house, waiting for him to get there, and when he arrived he said he saw a small kitten alongside the street near the Mississippi River bridge. He did not pick it up because he said his tom cat would kill it. I went to check it out and it had probably been 15 or 20 minutes since he had seen it. It was very small, fit in the palm of my hand, and its eyes were not open. I did not know what to do, so I took it to the vet. He thought the kitten was maybe 3 days old and it was covered with fleas. He used flea spray on his hands to cover the kitten's body. Then I took it home with his recommendations. I gave it KMR replacement milk every few hours in a small bottle made for that purpose. I kept it in a small box with a heating pad on the bottom with a towel over it. I learned I would have to stimulate it to have a bowel movement, so I did this while holding its bottom under lukewarm running water while stimulating with a q-tip. Then I would dry it off, put it in an old sock and shake it down to keep it moving. Then it was back into the box with an alarm clock until the next feeding. I looked at the kitten's bottom to determine the gender and figured it was a male so I named it "Ali" because he had to be a fighter to survive. After about a week his eyes opened and the first thing he did when he had his legs and was out of the box was to head for the litterbox, and so that part was over. I had a beagle who had never yet seen the kitten. This dog was wild about cats, but had never seen one up close. When Ali came out and saw the dog, never having seen a cat, I am sure he wondered, is this mom? So he started after the dog, who was totally bewildered by this creature, and the beagle went and hid under a chair. Ali had the upper had there and never gave it up. Ali never saw another cat until I took him to be neutered. I think he though he was a dog. While he was at the vet clinic I got a call from them telling me they could not do the operation I wanted because "he" was a "she". I was duly embarrassed, but they said trying to sex kittens at 3 days old is difficult. It was even worse for me since I worked at my city's zoo and took a razzing from my fellow employees. Ali survived all of that and was queen of her kingdom. She travelled with me in my car, riding on the back of the front seat where she could scope out everything, once travelling from Wisconsin to Florida and back again. She lived just a few months short of 20 years and I used what I learned from raising her from a near newborn on other baby animals with great results. So it can work out great. What a great story! Bless your heart for caring for a little foundling so well! Hugs, CatNipped |
#10
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On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 20:40:18 -0500, elocs wrote:
Brandy Alexandre wrote: My cubicle neighbor found a kitten that is about two or three days old. She's going to try to raise it and if anyone has any advice or encouraging words, I'd like to pass them along. She said she saw the kitten in the grass and decided to watch for a bit in case the mother was moving kittens in stages. After more than 30 minutes and no mama cat, she picked it up and took it to the vet to get it checked out and get some supplies. The kitten apparently had fly eggs on it already, so it was probably alone for a while. She said it won't take the bottle, but she's using a syringe. She said he had a little cough and I'm concerned about pnuemonia, but the vet probably would have heard that. The vet did tell her his chances weren't great, but she wants to try. Advice appreciated. Congratulations on a great story. MLB |
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