We lost one of our two cats last year and made the mistake of getting kittens earlier in the year to keep the remaining elderly cat company. The short story is that the elder cat put up with the kittens but wasn't really happen with them and she passed away recently. Due to this experience we want to avoid adding cats to the established cats in the future and decided to add one more cat to the family.
Earlier in the year we adopted kittens from a local animal rescue that gets cats from the shelters and fosters them for a while until they are ready for adoption. We took a different route this time and picked up a kitten direct from the local government animal shelter which has turned out to be a totally different experience.
The kitten is a 12 week old male who has such a nice personality and really warmed to my wife (they usually prefer me so it was nice seeing my wife's face light up with him giving her so much love and attention). When we were with him in the shelter we noticed that one of his eyes had a little redness to it. We were told that it was due to allergies and took him home.
When we got him home we isolated him from the other cats and placed him in a bathroom in a bedroom with a closed door. After sitting with him for a while I noticed that he has some issues.
One issue is that he is shaking his head ever so often which was due to his ears being full of debris, I assume ear mites, he had so much debris that one of his ear canals was completely blocked. I was able to clean both of his ears up and I figure I just need to get him some medicine for his ear mites.
The big issue, I think, is that he has a runny nose, the discharge is clear and he doesn't have problems breathing but he is licking his nose and sneezing ever so often. The runny nose combined with the red eye I am thinking that maybe he has a upper respiratory infection.
To be honest I have had cats for 30 years but the cats have all been indoors and the only issues have been; ringworm, UTI, urinary track blockage, and hip dysplasia. Reading about upper respiratory infection I am now worried (freaking out) that I have exposed our other cats to URI.
I gave the new kitten some Nutri-Cal and put L-Lysine in the kitten's food which he ate once I placed it in front of him. He didn't go to the food on his own, not sure if it is due to him being scared or his sense of smell being dull due to his stuffy nose. I ran the shower on hot water to raise the humidity in the bathroom and turned up the heat in the room to keep him warm.
The kitten hasn't been neutered yet so we are technically 'fostering' him until he gets neutered in a couple of weeks and they said that during now and then we have access to their vet free of charge but they are closed until Tuesday.
Can anyone with more experience help give me some guidance what I should be doing (outside of freaking out) for the kitten as well as the other cats and how big of an issue is it if the kitten has URI?
Earlier in the year we adopted kittens from a local animal rescue that gets cats from the shelters and fosters them for a while until they are ready for adoption. We took a different route this time and picked up a kitten direct from the local government animal shelter which has turned out to be a totally different experience.
The kitten is a 12 week old male who has such a nice personality and really warmed to my wife (they usually prefer me so it was nice seeing my wife's face light up with him giving her so much love and attention). When we were with him in the shelter we noticed that one of his eyes had a little redness to it. We were told that it was due to allergies and took him home.
When we got him home we isolated him from the other cats and placed him in a bathroom in a bedroom with a closed door. After sitting with him for a while I noticed that he has some issues.
One issue is that he is shaking his head ever so often which was due to his ears being full of debris, I assume ear mites, he had so much debris that one of his ear canals was completely blocked. I was able to clean both of his ears up and I figure I just need to get him some medicine for his ear mites.
The big issue, I think, is that he has a runny nose, the discharge is clear and he doesn't have problems breathing but he is licking his nose and sneezing ever so often. The runny nose combined with the red eye I am thinking that maybe he has a upper respiratory infection.
To be honest I have had cats for 30 years but the cats have all been indoors and the only issues have been; ringworm, UTI, urinary track blockage, and hip dysplasia. Reading about upper respiratory infection I am now worried (freaking out) that I have exposed our other cats to URI.
I gave the new kitten some Nutri-Cal and put L-Lysine in the kitten's food which he ate once I placed it in front of him. He didn't go to the food on his own, not sure if it is due to him being scared or his sense of smell being dull due to his stuffy nose. I ran the shower on hot water to raise the humidity in the bathroom and turned up the heat in the room to keep him warm.
The kitten hasn't been neutered yet so we are technically 'fostering' him until he gets neutered in a couple of weeks and they said that during now and then we have access to their vet free of charge but they are closed until Tuesday.
Can anyone with more experience help give me some guidance what I should be doing (outside of freaking out) for the kitten as well as the other cats and how big of an issue is it if the kitten has URI?