Found a ten day to two week old abandoned kitten! HELP!

[Cadi]

I know, not exactly the best post to start with, but please help me!

So I found a young kitten on my walk today. She/he was severely dehydrated and malnourished. I took her to the vet once I realized there was no mother to be found and she possibly had a missing eye (she didn't, it was just crusted over thank god!) Surprisingly the kitten is pretty strong for her sorry state and the vet declared she had nothing else wrong with her except for severe worms. After taking the pills I brought her home and declared that her name shall be Carbon (she's all black.)

Now my mom is very anti-animals (she doesn't know about the kitten in my bedroom, ahem) so I can't keep her for long. I just need help to ensure she survives the next few days until I can partially release her into the wild (aka my front yard. Lots of cats there for her to learn feline behavior. I'll keep feeding her if she keeps coming by however.)

So...I need some advice. I am in waaay over my head. I got some KRM (kitten replacement milk) and she sipped a bit of it. I gave her some water and she seemed uninterested. I offered some semi-solid kitten food for newborns and she /chowed down/ for a good few minutes before losing interest in that as well. Does she still need to be bottle fed? Is that why she is losing interest? Or am I horribly misjudging how much she needs to eat? (I plan on feeding her every four hours.)

Does anyone have any advice or info they can give me? Currently she is loosely wrapped in one of my old nightshirts with a Siamese beany baby partially on top of her to give her the feel of being in a kitten pile. I've also placed a ticking clock a foot away to simulate heartbeat. I've kept some water in a bowl inside her carrier but kept the carrier door open. I keep checking on her to make sure she's still breathing...

(Gosh, if I'm this worried over a kitten how am I going to be if I ever have a kid?!)

[paulinef2]

Is there not an animal rescue srevice you can call, rather than releasing her in a few day? She is not old enough to fend for herself being so young.

[lynz85]

i would imagine at that age she would need the milk replacement every few hours and the soft food you have for her, so i would keep giving her as much as she'l take. im not too sure if at this age shel be able to drink it out the bowl or if you should need to syringe some in.

do you have any rescue centres near you where you could take her in? they'l be able to look after her and possibly have a mother cat that could nurse her and kittens to help socialize her.

please, dont release her into your garden. as said she is too young to fend for herself, and if she survives when she is about 4-5 months old she will be able to breed and be responsible for even more unwanted kittens

but well done you for taking her in and getting her to a vet!

[Cadi]

I just started volunteering at Paws two days ago, but they might not take in feral cats/kittens since they are a bit of a problem here (they outnumber rats/mice and pigeons - major over population and people have gone so far as to poison them to control it. Its quite heart-breaking.)

I'm hoping they'll make an exception to this case, perhaps I can claim her mother was a victim of poisoning or something to garner sympathy...

[Squirrel]

Thing is... if you let her go and she does survive, that one little kitten can cause a huge increase to the feral population. And right now she's so young that she could easily become non-feral - with a bit of care and attention.

As for weaning... I'd say that if she will eat without the bottle that's fine, but that it all depends on the kitten themselves. Normally I think they'd still be on bottle/mum at that age, and I've seen weak cats of many weeks older still being bottle fed.

Good luck - and please do get help!

[Cadi]

Hey!

Thanks for all the help and advice! And very good point about the population explosion from one cat. I will have her spayed or neutered once she is old enough for sure.

So, figured I'd give you an update. She lived through the night, had more bowel movements (wooo!) and ate without a bottle! I am really proud of her. She is still relatively dirty but she feels too fragile to clean and I don't want to get her too damp. Her pee is a bit on the gel-y side and her nose is still dry - I'm assuming that means she is still dehydrated. She isn't interested in the KMR but /loves/ the tinned baby kitten food (Royal Canin.) Poor thing still sleeps most of the time.

She is already getting pretty domesticated which worries me - as soon as I sit down she gingerly makes her way into my lap and nuzzles at whatever corner she can find. ARGH! She is so good at stealing my heart! I just want to make sure she learns the necessary trade of being a cat if she is to live outdoors...

A friend of mine has graciously offered to take care of her once I no longer can, until she is old and strong enough to be an outdoor cat. I have another stray-turned-indoor cat that belongs to my sister (used to be ours), however he is a bit of a bully when it comes to other cats and I'm worried about introducing them to each other for that reason.

One more question, anyone know how I can rehydrate her faster? She isn't interested in milk or water, just the tinned food (which, while I understand has some moisture I figure it can't be enough...)

[Squirrel]

Can you add water to the tinned food to make that more liquid? If she is willing to eat that, and will still take it with water added, that might help... Though she may fill up quicker because of the extra liquid...

Beyond that - the vet is the first port of call...

[Cadi]

Ooh, that's a good idea. I tried adding the KMR figuring it might help build her immune system, but at this rate I just want her to survive. She didn't like it with milk but I may have added it too late when she was already rather full (since she didn't go back to the clean food either.) I'll try it again later tonight with filtered water, figure you're right and it won't affect the taste as much.

[Squirrel]

I hope that does work - sometimes the extra liquid makes the texture less palatable or something... Well, I've known Cloud to go away and come back again if she feels I've made it too watery. On the other hand, she does eventually accept it!

Hope all goes well.