Weaning question/possible URI

[talkingpeanut]

He's so stinkin cute!

 

[Sarthur2]

Oh, gosh, he's adorable! I love black kitties! I have one myself (fully grown now). [emoji]128522[/emoji]

 

[emmaleesmith90]

He is awfully cute. He used to suck on my pinky finger, like a binky. It was the sweetest thing. But now he just likes to attack my hands lol. Every one of our animals are black haha. It just kind of worked out that way.

 

[Sarthur2]

Don't let him attack your hands or feet. Pull away and say a firm "no"! It's a bad habit that you do not want to encourage. [emoji]128522[/emoji]

 

[emmaleesmith90]

I do that when he attacks my face but he barely even cares lol. He's going to be BAD. But the vet finally called back and wants me to take off of KMR completely and put him on strictly canned food? That doesn't seem like a good idea.

 

[krissy marissy]

Kmr can upset a tummy, maybe he wants to see if it clears up without it.

He doesn't have to be bad. A bad cat is not something you want to live with, you have to put in the work now. Be consistent.

 

[talkingpeanut]

I do that when he attacks my face but he barely even cares lol. He's going to be BAD. But the vet finally called back and wants me to take off of KMR completely and put him on strictly canned food? That doesn't seem like a good idea.

You need to start doing this with all body parts now. Bad behavior can't be tolerated, even while he's small, because it grows unmanageable very quickly.

 

[emmaleesmith90]

Okay I will be more stern with him. But what about taking him off of KMR? Does that sound like a good idea to anyone else?

 

[emmaleesmith90]

I do like playing with him with my hands but I suppose that is a bad habit. He is usually gentle, he just gets carried away sometimes. But I will stop this behavior now before it gets bad.

 

[Sarthur2]

E emmaleesmith90

No, taking him off KMR does not sound like a good idea. Almost all orphans stay on it for 8-12 weeks in addition to solids and with no problem.

Your vet obviously thinks it's giving your kitten diarrhea. And it was, but you were using pre-mixed.

 

[talkingpeanut]

I do like playing with him with my hands but I suppose that is a bad habit. He is usually gentle, he just gets carried away sometimes. But I will stop this behavior now before it gets bad.

It gets out of hand, so to say, very quickly. You have to be his mama and teach him limits. The best thing to do is find him a toy to tackle and get rough with that's his size. That way he learns what's appropriate as he might with a playmate.

 

[emmaleesmith90]

I'm going to use the powdered and his probiotics and hopefully that helps. If not I will try what the vet suggested. How long should I wait to see if it's helping?

 

[Sarthur2]

E emmaleesmith90

24 hours

 

[emmaleesmith90]

Okay will do. He has a stuffed dog that's a little bigger than him but he doesn't play with it too often. We just for him a ball mouse thing and he seems to spat that around. I'll stop him from playing with our hands.

 

[emmaleesmith90]

Update: he has had several firm poops!! I believe it has a lot to do with the probiotic because a little while after he ate it he has his first semi firm poop. So let's hope it stays that way! He seems to be peeing a bit more. I didn't give him any formula between feedings yesterday, but it was a little soupier than I was making it. He doesn't seem dehydrated but it is hard to tell with his skin because he's always wiggling around. I just didn't want to give him too much formula because I didn't know how he would do with it. I'm going to give him some water when I get home today. I think he is ready. And we have him at my moms, we kind of barricaded him into a corner lol. It works for now.

 

[emmaleesmith90]

Also do you think it's okay if he puts his nose in his "soup"? He doesn't sneeze but I can kind of hear him blowing it out.

 

[mewmommy]

When kittens attack!

What I do, and this may be controversial, is act like a mother cat. As in, I very gently tap the baby on the head with ONE finger and make a high pitches "No!" sound. Sometimes I'll include a soft hiss, like a cat. When babies are hand-raised, they don't have a mother to teach them proper cat manners. This has almost always worked for me.

They need to learn that human body parts are not prey or toys. A crumpled paper ball is a free toy that a baby will love.

 

[Sarthur2]

Well, that's good news that his poops have firmed up. Giving him a day off was good. I do think he'll be fine though with the powdered formula.

 

[emmaleesmith90]

Update: My kitten just turned 6 weeks today and I think he's getting a URI. He has always sneezed a few times a day, since I got him at 1 day old. But he was on antibiotics for a urinary infection for two weeks and they had no effect on his sneezing, so I thought it was probably allergies. But the last couple days his sneezing has gotten worse (probably like 15 times in a matter of ten minutes) and they have been wet sneezes for about 24 hours probably. He also has been getting dried eye boogers in his eyes, like almost black. And when I wipe his nose after he eats he usually has a little booger or two. He is still eating great. But the vet wants to give him an antihistamine because he had diarrhea while he was on the old antibiotics. But I also had him on premixed formula then, so I am 99% sure that's why he had diarrhea. It wasn't just while he was on antibiotics, he had diarrhea a lot while he was on premixed formula. Since we switched to powdered formula mixed with canned food his poops have been pretty firm. I know if it is a URI that an antihistamine is not going to get rid of it. I don't know what to do?

 

[Sarthur2]

E emmaleesmith90

He needs another antibiotic, but a different one. It sounds like he has a bad URI. He will need clavamox this time.

What was he on before? If it was a sulfa drug for a UTI, it would not help his URI.