Hello All,
This is my first time experience with cat, I am sorry for the long post and my poor English.
A stray cat gave birth in my parents-in-law's attic last month, judging from the scratching and meowing sound we sure there were more than one kitten. They stayed there in the attic till two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, we heard one kitten keep meowing all night long into the afternoon, so we checked it out and apparently the mother cat had abandoned one of the kitten. We rescued the kitten from the attic, it probably around 3 weeks old. The kitten was in a bad condition:
- the eyes had a lot of dirt and a kind of watery discharge, even after we cleaned it it returned after an hour or two. It seemed she was not able to see clearly but she responded well to voice.
- the kitten probably is a female, she is very thin, very less to no hair on her belly, chest, front leg and her nose. Her ribs bone is visible.
- her shoulder is narrow but hip is wider, her stomach also big (compared to her shoulder, the hip and stomach do not look proportional)
- her body was covered with dirt from the attic, and has fleas
- her poop was watery, most likely suffering from diarrhea
- rear leg was weak, when she walked she often dragged her rear leg, also she often delaying in lifting and moving it.
Do you think the mother cat know of these and then decided to abandoned her? We tried a few times to keep the kitten outside the house for a few hours but the mother cat did not return.
We gave the kitten a bath and cleaned her as much as possible, fed her with wet food and water, put her in a cartoon box with towel and warm bottled water. We took her to a vet clinic where she was given some medicines for worm, diarrhea, and the eyes. After one week she got much better, diarrhea stopped, eyes were clean but somehow we feel her vision is not that clear yet. Her stomach was still big, she also still has fleas (the vet told us not to give her bath as she is still too small). Her rear leg was much better, she could actually walked fast but in a funny looking. We took her to the vet for the second time and left her there for 4 days so that she would be given more proper care.
We got her back last Friday, unfortunately there has been not much improvement:
- her stomach is still big, the vet said she has a problem with digestive system as her poop is rather greenish, the size and amount of each poop are not as much as it supposed to be. The vet told us to stop giving her milk for the mean time, and to give her a special kitten food to help her digestive system. She eats a lot, 3 times a day and use her litter box quite frequently (although there has been a few accidents).
- we found her anus is swollen. This was not the case before she was sent to the clinic, but the vet did not say anything about it. We do not know for sure, but we think this is probably due to dry food given to her in the clinic. Actually she does not eat dry food unless there is no other choice. In the first few days after we rescued her, we tried to give her a dry food once a while but it seemed it was too hard for her. Even if we crushed the dry food and mixed it with milk she won't eat it.
Other things that we observed:
- she does not know how to use her tongue to eat or clean herself. She always push the wet food around the plate, often puts her front legs, her face, or her front body inside the plate spilling out the wet food. She does not really care about the spilled food, sometimes if the spilled chunk is big enough she eats it but most of the time she ignores it. Due to this, her leg, face, and body become dirty and she does not know how to use her tongue to clean it so ants come to her crawling and she just meowing crying for help so everytime we have to clean her up after feeding. Unfortunately, this has become too troublesome for us.
- she also does not know how to lap the water, we gave her watter using a pipet (kitten bottle is rather hard to find) or mix a little water to her wet food.
- her rear legs are stronger now, in fact she now likes to climb up and sit in the couch but then she can not get down and always meowing for help. We are very happy because initially we thought she got the swimmer leg syndrome.
- her voice is little and weak. If I compared it to kitten of similar age in Youtube videos, those kittens' voice are much stronger.
- we keep her in a pavillion room, its door is closed but we can see her from big windows. The reason is that my parents-in-law is old and a little bit allergic to cat. The kitten seems lonely and is craving for attention everytime someone open the door she immediately runs to him/her even when it is not the feeding time. She likes to rub her body against our feet and sometimes try to climb up to our lap. Unfortunately we can not give her as much as she wants, we kind of feeling sad about it. Do you think this is because of she miss her mother cat?
We are trying to find another vet as we feel the first vet was not good enough, but in the meantime we would appreciate it if anyone can give us advice to improve the situation. Actually we are working abroad and will have to leave after a month, we wish we could but it is not possible to take her with us. So at this point we are just trying to get her to healthy shape then hopefully someone is willing to adopt her. She is just a local (not a pure-breed) but even in her current condition, she is very cute and lovely.
Thank you!
This is my first time experience with cat, I am sorry for the long post and my poor English.
A stray cat gave birth in my parents-in-law's attic last month, judging from the scratching and meowing sound we sure there were more than one kitten. They stayed there in the attic till two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, we heard one kitten keep meowing all night long into the afternoon, so we checked it out and apparently the mother cat had abandoned one of the kitten. We rescued the kitten from the attic, it probably around 3 weeks old. The kitten was in a bad condition:
- the eyes had a lot of dirt and a kind of watery discharge, even after we cleaned it it returned after an hour or two. It seemed she was not able to see clearly but she responded well to voice.
- the kitten probably is a female, she is very thin, very less to no hair on her belly, chest, front leg and her nose. Her ribs bone is visible.
- her shoulder is narrow but hip is wider, her stomach also big (compared to her shoulder, the hip and stomach do not look proportional)
- her body was covered with dirt from the attic, and has fleas
- her poop was watery, most likely suffering from diarrhea
- rear leg was weak, when she walked she often dragged her rear leg, also she often delaying in lifting and moving it.
Do you think the mother cat know of these and then decided to abandoned her? We tried a few times to keep the kitten outside the house for a few hours but the mother cat did not return.
We gave the kitten a bath and cleaned her as much as possible, fed her with wet food and water, put her in a cartoon box with towel and warm bottled water. We took her to a vet clinic where she was given some medicines for worm, diarrhea, and the eyes. After one week she got much better, diarrhea stopped, eyes were clean but somehow we feel her vision is not that clear yet. Her stomach was still big, she also still has fleas (the vet told us not to give her bath as she is still too small). Her rear leg was much better, she could actually walked fast but in a funny looking. We took her to the vet for the second time and left her there for 4 days so that she would be given more proper care.
We got her back last Friday, unfortunately there has been not much improvement:
- her stomach is still big, the vet said she has a problem with digestive system as her poop is rather greenish, the size and amount of each poop are not as much as it supposed to be. The vet told us to stop giving her milk for the mean time, and to give her a special kitten food to help her digestive system. She eats a lot, 3 times a day and use her litter box quite frequently (although there has been a few accidents).
- we found her anus is swollen. This was not the case before she was sent to the clinic, but the vet did not say anything about it. We do not know for sure, but we think this is probably due to dry food given to her in the clinic. Actually she does not eat dry food unless there is no other choice. In the first few days after we rescued her, we tried to give her a dry food once a while but it seemed it was too hard for her. Even if we crushed the dry food and mixed it with milk she won't eat it.
Other things that we observed:
- she does not know how to use her tongue to eat or clean herself. She always push the wet food around the plate, often puts her front legs, her face, or her front body inside the plate spilling out the wet food. She does not really care about the spilled food, sometimes if the spilled chunk is big enough she eats it but most of the time she ignores it. Due to this, her leg, face, and body become dirty and she does not know how to use her tongue to clean it so ants come to her crawling and she just meowing crying for help so everytime we have to clean her up after feeding. Unfortunately, this has become too troublesome for us.
- she also does not know how to lap the water, we gave her watter using a pipet (kitten bottle is rather hard to find) or mix a little water to her wet food.
- her rear legs are stronger now, in fact she now likes to climb up and sit in the couch but then she can not get down and always meowing for help. We are very happy because initially we thought she got the swimmer leg syndrome.
- her voice is little and weak. If I compared it to kitten of similar age in Youtube videos, those kittens' voice are much stronger.
- we keep her in a pavillion room, its door is closed but we can see her from big windows. The reason is that my parents-in-law is old and a little bit allergic to cat. The kitten seems lonely and is craving for attention everytime someone open the door she immediately runs to him/her even when it is not the feeding time. She likes to rub her body against our feet and sometimes try to climb up to our lap. Unfortunately we can not give her as much as she wants, we kind of feeling sad about it. Do you think this is because of she miss her mother cat?
We are trying to find another vet as we feel the first vet was not good enough, but in the meantime we would appreciate it if anyone can give us advice to improve the situation. Actually we are working abroad and will have to leave after a month, we wish we could but it is not possible to take her with us. So at this point we are just trying to get her to healthy shape then hopefully someone is willing to adopt her. She is just a local (not a pure-breed) but even in her current condition, she is very cute and lovely.
Thank you!