Fished a kitten out of our pool last Monday. Need some advice.

[robertskitty]

I fished a kitten out of my pool on Monday. I got her cleaned up and dry. I checked her lungs and it doesn't seem she took on any water. She has all of her 6 week kitten teeth, and her eyes have begun to change from blue to green(maybe yellow it's hard to tell). Best guess she was about 6 weeks when we found her and nearly 7 weeks now.

We have her in a kitten room eating high quality wet food mixed with dry kibble as well as dry kibble left out at all times (she doesn't really seem to recognize it as food yet but hopefully soon).

She's got an appointment with my primary vet on Wednesday for her first round of shots.

My only real concern is she is *tiny*. I weighed her this week (between 6-7 weeks old) and she's only 1lb. She's very active and playful. She doesn't eat as much as I would expect but she is always very excited to see her food. I feed roughly an oz of wet food per meal with maybe 20 kibbles mixed in and she eats maybe half of that each meal.

We are feeding 3 times a day due to scheduling. I bought some stage two milk replacer for 4-8 week kittens but she won't drink any.

Anything else I could do ahead of my vet visit to help her weight?

 

[Furballsmom]

Just look at those bright eyes! Gosh I'm glad you got to her in time!

You could try some kitten glop for extra calories, but I'm wondering if she's normal for her?

Kitten Glop Recipes - Supplementing Cats and Kittens with nutritious formula you make at home: presented by Bengal Cat breeder Foothill Felines.

 

[robertskitty]

I'm not sure. She may just be the runt. Our pool is above ground, she climbed a trellis to get up (we assume?) Which makes me wonder if she was abandoned. We live in an area with coyotes so sadly a lot of cats and kittens get picked off and with her being so little.

How long is it safe to leave the wet food out? I'm getting lots of opinions online. The first few days I left it out all night and all day just because she was SO small but lately I've been doing 1-2 hours at most.

Edit: I can definitely feel divots between each rib and vertebrae so she's definitely underweight.

 

[fionasmom]

What a beautiful little girl! Lots of coyotes here, too, and I have found the singleton who was apparently the only survivor. You are going to find a lot of opinions about leaving cat food out. I usually leave it for about 5 hours and then replace it. My cats eat more than once a day, so it works. In the case of a kitten, you want her to have as much food as she wants, so when you pick up the old food, she should be offered new food. If you want to do 1-2 hours, that is perfectly fine. If she is at all picky about freshness, which some cats are, she will enjoy fresh servings.

 

[robertskitty]

What a beautiful little girl! Lots of coyotes here, too, and I have found the singleton who was apparently the only survivor. You are going to find a lot of opinions about leaving cat food out. I usually leave it for about 5 hours and then replace it. My cats eat more than once a day, so it works. In the case of a kitten, you want her to have as much food as she wants, so when you pick up the old food, she should be offered new food. If you want to do 1-2 hours, that is perfectly fine. If she is at all picky about freshness, which some cats are, she will enjoy fresh servings.

My main concern is with her 'probably' weak immune system is it dangerous to leave wet food out that long? The dry stuff I'm not too worried about leaving out at all times but I do worry about the wet stuff. I'm out from 7-8 hours a day so I'm guessing that's surely too long?

 

[IndyJones]

Dry food has bacteria too. Especially if it has been exposed to moisture. If she doesn't recognize the dry as food I would probably use that to your advantage, cats get most of their moisture from food so canned or raw is actually best for them.

Dry can cause chronic renal failure too.

 

[IndyJones]

Has shee seen a vet yet for a checkup/deworming? Most if not all kittens will have worms especially if they aren't from a breeder. Worms will take any nutrients away from her. Also would check for fleas or other parasites.

You may want to ask about scheduling a spay surgery, many vets are backlogged right now for spay/neuter so the sooner you can get it slotted the better.

 

[stephanietx]

She could have worms which can make them not want to eat, but it can also make them very hungry, so there's that. I would take wet kitten food and mix with kitten replacement milk into a thick oatmeal consistency or even a bit thinner. You may need to put it on your finger and then tap it on her nose/mouth so she'll lick it off. I would not mix dry food into the wet, but give it in a separate bowl. Make sure the wet food is really stinky. That seems to entice them to eat better.

 

[Margot Lane]

….will you keeep her?! wot a cutie.

 

[Meowmee]

She is adorable thanks for saving her That was a close call poor thing

My cats mostly eat everything up immediately because they always seem to be starving. Inspite of the fact that they eat everything up right away they all still have digestive issues. Sometimes it is from eating too fast.

Except for Quinn who would leave some pieces of the dry in the dish, but not for very long. Fred on the other hand who is isolated in the bedroom eats the dry slowly so I just leave it out for him. Again, he eats it in a time frame. He has perfect poop and pee.

When Quinn was a kitten he ate everything immediately but he wouldn’t eat dry food at all. His breeder gave me a bag of what he was supposedly eating but he would never eat any of it, lol.

I left dry food out for my cats free feeding in the past- there was never any problem with bacteria and none of them had any of the digestive issues except for Wizard who is Fiv plus. At some point I switched them to mostly canned food and then again it was a situation where they ate everything pretty rapidly.

You could give her small portions if you are worried about it. Kittens tend to eat several meals a day anyway. I am giving my guys small portions of everything.

 

[robertskitty]

….will you keeep her?! wot a cutie.

Yes we are definitely keeping her! Our current cat is already peering under the door and playing footsie with her so I'm very hopeful they will get along. Waiting for most face time until after kitten has been vaccinated.

Our current cat had some rough past experiences with other cats and she's so little it will be a very slow introduction.

 

[robertskitty]

Has shee seen a vet yet for a checkup/deworming? Most if not all kittens will have worms especially if they aren't from a breeder. Worms will take any nutrients away from her. Also would check for fleas or other parasites.

You may want to ask about scheduling a spay surgery, many vets are backlogged right now for spay/neuter so the sooner you can get it slotted the better.

Vet scheduled for Wednesday afternoon which was the soonest my regular vet could get her in. I think we will have to play the spay by ear since I'm not sure when she will weigh enough to get it done.

No fleas or visible parasites. I have checked her poop as well and nothing is visibly leaving her body.

 

[Furballsmom]

In case you aren't familiar with this, it may have some helpful information;

How To Introduce A Kitten To An Older Cat – TheCatSite Articles

 

[robertskitty]

In case you aren't familiar with this, it may have some helpful information;

How To Introduce A Kitten To An Older Cat – TheCatSite Articles

Yah I've done introductions before but it's been awhile so I will give it a read.

 

[Margot Lane]

Yes we are definitely keeping her! Our current cat is already peering under the door and playing footsie with her so I'm very hopeful they will get along. Waiting for most face time until after kitten has been vaccinated.

Our current cat had some rough past experiences with other cats and she's so little it will be a very slow introduction.

Hooraaaayyyy!!! It’s kismet.

 

[StefanZ]

I want to add, some of us arent advocating stage 2 kmr; if you need to continue with kmr, keep on with stage 1.

MY suggestion, is you use goats milk as addition / supplement. Or even try with full fat unflavored youghurt.

 

[Uncled]

Enjoy, she is a cutie, I have two black cats myself,brothers. Does she have a name?

 

[robertskitty]

Enjoy, she is a cutie, I have two black cats myself,brothers. Does she have a name?

Jiji from one of my favorite movies, Kiki's Delivery Service

 

[Sarthur2]

Love that movie! Watched it many times with my daughter when she was young. Still own a copy on a VHS tape. Memories …

 

[robertskitty]

We are still having diarrhea with her so guessing she's going to need deworming at the vet tomorrow but she's still eating and playing so we are monitoring her.

When we first got her we had her eating WholeHearted grain free but then the store was out so I got blue buffalo grain free. A day or so after starting on blue buffalo she started having diarrhea. I figured it was the food change so I kept her on blue buffalo for 4 days but she kept having diarrhea so we have gone back to Wholehearted grain free just in case she was having an allergy with blue buffalo.

Hopefully the vet will have some ideas for us as well.