Smudge came into the shelter on September 5th, weighing 13 oz. and having no mother and siblings (that we know of). I don't know the whole story, but someone had been hand raising her.
She was only young, but they couldn't tell her age because she didn't weigh much, but she was fairly developed.
So by my scales she hasn't put on any weight, so I took her in to the vet today and they said she looks healthy, but has indeed lost an ounce in a week.
She was a little dehydrated, so they gave her subcutaneous fluids. I'm going to change her over to Iams tinned kitten food since she came with Friskies kitten food and it kept giving her the runs. She's been loving KMR and I'm going to make more of an effort of getting her to eat dry kitten food as well.
She seems great otherwise. She's a real snuggler, and she loves playing. She's a real explorer - when she's out of her cage she checks out all of the room she's in. She goes racing after the laser pointer dot, and a feather toy and does what we call her "happy dance" where she bounds in one spot when she's about to chase my fingers.
But she may have some congenital defect which is preventing her from processing her food properly. Either that or she's got some sort of bug. She hadn't been wormed because she was too small, but they wormed her today, and I'm also going to give her Bene-Bac (some beneficial bacteria we found at PetSmart) - the vet said it was fine to try that, especially since she's had some loose stools.
She's at least 5 weeks old, maybe even 6 weeks old, but is the size of a 3 week old kitten. We're going to do absolutely everything we can to try to beat whatever is wrong with her, but the risk is there that she just may not make it no matter what we do. She'll certainly be getting lots of love and attention, and if she does pass, at least she'll pass in a loving home.
She was only young, but they couldn't tell her age because she didn't weigh much, but she was fairly developed.
So by my scales she hasn't put on any weight, so I took her in to the vet today and they said she looks healthy, but has indeed lost an ounce in a week.
She was a little dehydrated, so they gave her subcutaneous fluids. I'm going to change her over to Iams tinned kitten food since she came with Friskies kitten food and it kept giving her the runs. She's been loving KMR and I'm going to make more of an effort of getting her to eat dry kitten food as well.
She seems great otherwise. She's a real snuggler, and she loves playing. She's a real explorer - when she's out of her cage she checks out all of the room she's in. She goes racing after the laser pointer dot, and a feather toy and does what we call her "happy dance" where she bounds in one spot when she's about to chase my fingers.
But she may have some congenital defect which is preventing her from processing her food properly. Either that or she's got some sort of bug. She hadn't been wormed because she was too small, but they wormed her today, and I'm also going to give her Bene-Bac (some beneficial bacteria we found at PetSmart) - the vet said it was fine to try that, especially since she's had some loose stools.
She's at least 5 weeks old, maybe even 6 weeks old, but is the size of a 3 week old kitten. We're going to do absolutely everything we can to try to beat whatever is wrong with her, but the risk is there that she just may not make it no matter what we do. She'll certainly be getting lots of love and attention, and if she does pass, at least she'll pass in a loving home.