Limp Kitten, Took Home And Strange Symptoms??

[Shesabetch]

Im gunna make this as to the point and also thorough as I can.
I found a kitten at work on the farm. It was limp and laying in the sun on its side just meowing terribly
Took home and has been pooping normally, eating normally, playing normally. BUT she walks really wonky. She cant walk with her body all the way held up, and she topples over randomly.. But its a big improvement of the first couple days she was here after i found her.. She walks almost crouching and doesnt seem to have coordination. I pooped her by hand up until yesterday when she started to poop on her own.

This morning she had mucous in her poop. The poop was regular looking and feeling besides that.
Just 5 hours later, she pooped in her litter box and it was WHITE with bright red BLOOD strewn through it. Pure white with blood. Not hard, not diarrhea. Soft and held together. Her stomach is hard but she is 'walking' around meowing and purring and pooping on a regular basis, so idk why her stomach would be hard if shes expelling feces regularly. I tried googling white feces with bright red blood in it and found nothing. Im seeing possibilities of what each symptom seperately is but not the two symptoms combined. Does anyone have any idea what would cause white, bloody stool in a 5-7 week old kitten would be?

We have many farm cats here and i cant afford to be taking every farm cat and kitten to the vet thats an hour away.

 

[msaimee]

I Googled "cat feces white" and it pulled up some sites, one said it could have something to do with the bile obstruction and the liver, or a bacterial intestinal infection, which would require antibiotics. Try Googling those words. It sounds like the kitten does need a trip to the vet. If he needs an antibiotic, the illness will not improve without it.

 

[jcat]

White feces and blood in a kitten can mean giardia, which can be fatal for kittens. She really needs to be treated by a vet.

 

[Shesabetch]

While I appreciate the jump to a vet solution, I'm hoping maybe someone could tell me what helped their cat. I have several injectable antibiotics available and can administer them myself. But maybe someone knows what to treat with if they know what it could be. Thank you for the suggestions otherwise! Just can't take every cat to the vet. Many people drop cats off, drop kittens off, etc. Its not always in the books to help every animal. I would need serious bank to do that. I found that searching for white feces didn't pull up anything with blood included, I did try that already. The two symptoms together is concerning and I'm not able to find a perfect criteria match.

 

[StefanZ]

Her peculiar moving scheme may be in part because she was utterly exhausted. Recovalescence takes time.

Do you have access to raw goats milk? Use it.
Raw unpasteurized honey may too be useful with water.

If she has say a bacteria infection its easy happen to get bleedings. Esp as she is still weak and prob has worms too.
So white poo and traces of blood arent necessarily closely connected, just happens simultaneusly.

 

[Sarthur2]

The white bloody poop with mucus indicates infection in the intestines. This is very dangerous for the kitten. Please start the kitten on clavamox or albon ASAP.

What is the kitten eating and drinking?

 

[Shesabetch]

Kitten was constipated when we found her so i was feeding kmr with a tiny bit of mineral oil in it to get things going. That worked and i had cut out mineral oil after 2 days. Then i was bottle feeding kmr every 4 hours for a couple days but figured shes gained enough strength to go overnight without feeding. She was on kmr for a total of 4 days. Now shes on kitten kibble soaked in very diluted kmr and seemed to have been pooping and whatnot regularly. She also has kibble free feed to get her going on only hard food. Past couple days I've only given her diluted milk/kibble sludge 2 times a day just so she chills out because i think shes having a hard time adjusting emotionally (lol) to having only kibble. So the sludge 2 times a day for a couple days. Pooping seems normal today ..she poops on her own but doesn't pee often on her own so ive been picking her up randomly to pee just so shes not uncomfortable. So currently just kibble and then kibble sludge in the morning and before bed, otherwise she just cries and cries.

 

[msaimee]

Sounds like you got yourself a sweet little pet kitten. Have you named her yet? How is she adjusting to being indoors?

 

[Sarthur2]

Oh my! The kitten needs to eat 4-6 times a day at this age, and 2 of the meals need to be with wet food. You can give saucers of KMR for it to lap up. It’s easy to underfeed a growing kitten, but almost impossible to overfeed. Kitten chow can be available 24/7.

Can you feed more often? Kitten may be crying from hunger.

Glad to hear the poops are more normal.

 

[msaimee]

I wasn't paying attention to the feeding schedule. The best thing is to get some dry Purina kitten chow or some other kitten chow and leave a bowl out 24/7 in addition to the other feeding you're doing.

 

[ArchyCat]

And da saucer of KMR would good for her to have available.

 

[kittychick]

Trust me - - I VERY much understand that, sadly, finances sometimes often are a factor. We just had to put one of our much-loved indoor kitties to sleep very recently, and sadly, finances were a big part of all of our discussions involving how far we could go in what we could do for her.

I will say - - I've worked at and volunteered for several cat shelters - and have only seen stool like you're describing a few times in many years. I also dug around online, and the reputable sites seemed to corroborate what I'd remember about the two kittens I remembered from "way back when" (long enough ago that I wanted to make sure I was remembering correctly!). In one of the cases I saw - it was a very serious intestinal infection (the kitten came to the shelter like that - so we weren't sure how long it had been ill before we took it in). It did turn around and live - but only after heavy duty antibiotics. The other kitten I remember was on the edge of liver failure. Again - it only survived with veterinary intervention.

I missed your follow-up posting about the fact that the past few days you haven't seen that grossly abnormal stool from her - - but the lack of ability to urinate on her own would concern me. As would the incessant crying (lord knows lone kittens can be very noisy, often purely because they're lonely). But incessant crying also can obviously mean hunger (and it does sound like perhaps she's underfed?), or feeling chilled, etc. You obviously have kitten experience, since you know to use KMR, etc.

I personally would try to get to a vet - - I know you mention the closest vet is quite a distance, and that money is the other issue. Again - I truly understand. So while my recommendation is to get her to a vet - - if you simply can't, I'd keep checking in here on the forum and keep looking online (at reputable sources). Do you have any lower cost vet clinics that could see her at a reduced rate? Where we live, some of the pet stores have reduced cost exams - -and we have a vet that will work with people on payment plans AND adjust charges based on income. Perhaps a call to a local shelter could point you in the right direction.

I hope you keep us posted on her - - - you're obviously putting alot of time and love into her health!

 

[catsknowme]

Glad to see that the little kitten is doing better. As far as free-feeding kibble - is it moistened? Kitten teeth are often not able to crunch down on the hard, dry kibble. Also, cats evolved to get at least 70% of their hydration from their food so dehydration is a common issue. Cats do not act picky out of being finicky; rather, they instinctually choose food that is optimal for one reason or another. Kibble may be to hard to chew; their uber-sensitive sense of smell can detect disease, putrefaction, chemicals and even dog/cat substance in animal by-products, hence their rejection of certain canned foods. As cats are more susceptible to diseases than are dogs, chickens and even people, Mother Nature has made them finicky/abundantly cautious by design.

 

[msaimee]

Kitten chow is designed specifically for kitten teeth, the morsels are small and not as hard as adult food. I've fed kittens as young as five weeks the kitten chow along with canned food and have had no problems. I'm not suggesting replacing wet food with dry food, only making it available in addition, 24/7. Especially if the kitten is recovering from malnutrition.

We haven't heard back from the OP. I hope the kitty is okay.

 

[ArchyCat]

OP -- please keep us posted on kitten's and your status! Good luck to you both!