Lame Kitten At About 6 Weeks.

laurafhl

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Kittens from a feral cat.. One seems to be lame, about 5 weeks old.. Back legs don't work well.. Should we be concerned?? Thanks for any advice..
 

Furballsmom

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Hi!
Can you massage him, gently move those back legs, hold him in your hands to provide your touch and warmth. I realize he's from a feral mama and she may not be happy about your attention to her baby...
 
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laurafhl

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Hi!
Can you massage him, gently move those back legs, hold him in your hands to provide your touch and warmth. I realize he's from a feral mama and she may not be happy about your attention to her baby...
She is the only one that will let us touch her.. Lately mom cat hisses at her. She will let us hold her as well.. That is how I found she is a girl by looking closely. Our other cats(first litter from mom about 5 months old, two boys, one girl) hiss at her too but she is a trooper and doesn't back off.. I will try massaging her back legs and hips. I thought she had actually been left up on the hill because I hadn't seen her for over a day but she showed back up and very hungry. Ugh!! I don't want to get attached.. Have called a place locally that will help us home all of them but can't get any of them fixed until January (that we can afford anyway). This is the second litter from this mom.. Need to get her fixed (priority) and then the kittens.. One female from her first litter too.. Ugh.. But I just have to help these kitties!!
 

Furballsmom

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Hoo boy.... if mama rejects her, can you take on feeding duties or do you know someone who would?
We can help with the how-to if you need it.
 

StefanZ

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When you give massage using an IR heating lamp is good yo prepare the tissues.
 

Geronimo

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Did the kitten have those issue always or did the lameness begin just recently? If it is recent, then it could be a strain of feline calcivirus which is highly contagious to other cats.
In such a case, if they share a common rest place, food or water together, the infection rate is pretty much 100%. All other cats will develop it as well and might already have it to start showing symptoms very soon.

I know from my own experience, feeding 12 strays at some point. A mom which gave birth to 5 kittens and later got pregnant again within less than 3-4 months, giving birth to another 6.

When the first 5 became around 8-9 months and the other 6 were about 11-12 weeks old, one of the 11-12 week olds started limping and lost strength.
I thought it must have hit its leg as there were no signs of a bite or wound or a broken leg, so i decided to wait at least 2 days and go from there.

I did rub a little bit of aloe vera gel on the leg though for 2 days. The kitten recovered but then two more cats started limping.
Sure enough, within 4-5 days, all of the cats went through a limping phase.

I did some research then and to my best knowledge, FCV feline calcivirus strains that attack the joints as well seem to fit the symptoms best.
I expected some of the cats to die after reading about FCV but either they had a very strong immune system inherited from their mom, or the aloe vera gel i applied on all of them might have actually helped with the inflammation on the joins.

It might however just have been a coincidence but a specially rare coincidence, because one of the cats that would not allow me to touch her, started limping for 2 days. The 2nd day it got so bad, she could barely move, which allowed me to catch up and quickly rub about 2 table spoons of aloe vera all around her body.
Just a few hours later, i saw her walking normally.
I am not sure if the cats also licking the gel as they try to clean themselves from it, added to the recovery (or if the gel did anything at all for that matter)

Same with my favorite and prettiest of those strays. She lost almost complete control and was really miserable. I thought she would not make it. I massaged her with aloe vera and the next day she was completely recovered. Otherwise i would have brought her to the vet as she was one of the two that would actually let me touch her.

I did this to all of the cats which had medium to strong symptoms (9 out of 12) and each time they recovered within 1 day at max.
One of the cats displayed only mild limping for 2 days and recovered on her own. I wasn't able to approach her for an application.
She did however lay together with all the others and probably got also a little bit of aloe onto her that way.

The mom seems to have been immune, meaning that she got it already at some point.

From what i read, some cats can carry the virus life long while showing no symptoms. However, i do not believe the mother was the carrier because chances are that she would have infected the first 5, now 8-9 months kittens much earlier.
It was probably some of the stray males which kept visiting her from time to time at about this time period when the first symptoms showed in one of the cats.


I am not 100% certain it was FCV because some sites describe it as having a high mortality rate which i cannot confirm. The mortality rate in my case was 0%.
The human equivalent would be a strong flu with joins aching for up to 5 days until a full recovery at least in the case of the strain those strays i was feeding got.


A study on the effectiveness of aloe vera on calcivirus strains which attack the joints/muscles would be in order it seems to check if the recovery was only coincidental in my case because if it wasn't, that would be a really cheap and effective treatment to at least get rid of the mobility impairment in affected cats. I believe that the licking of the aloe vera might also have fixed the appetite loss possibly. In any case, all cats recovered fully within less than a week.
 
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