Hi all. I have got a kitten which was the runt of the pack but she's gorgeous. She had a bit of a dodgy eye and i suspected she was blind. She was dangerously underweight which we weren't aware of, even though we didn't see the mother.

We took her to the vet who was very concerned about her, to the point where he thought she may die. He told us to give her a water/salt/suger solution every 2 hours and try to feed her solid food when we can. He thought by her weight and by looking at her, she must have been 3 weeks old; in fact she was at the time 6 weeks 5 days old. He gave her antibiotics for her eye.

For the following two days we did as the vet had instructed and then returned. She couldnt believe the progress we had made as she had put on a third of her body weight in that time and her eye was much better. Also during this time her eyes had gone from the usual kitten blue to a more adult colour as expected at age 6-8 weeks.

She is still wobbly on her feet as expected in a kitten of 2-3 weeks and still has stick thin legs and very poor eyesight, almost, we think, non-existant. But she is 7 weeks old now. On the plus side, her stools are fine and shes eating very well, unlike two days ago.

Should we assume her development stage at the moment is that of a 2-3 week old kitten and that all the normal stages will occur in the next few weeks? Such as better eyesight, better hearing, stronger legs with more stable walking etc?

Have you or someone you know had a similar experience with a kitten and would like to tell us how it went for you? Any tips on what we can do to help her?

We obviously asked the vet these things and she was just hopeful that she would develop and told us to come back in two weeks time. We think she was rejected somewhat by the mother shortly after birth hence the look of a 2 week old kitten rather than 6 ish.

Thanks for reading !

Why would you take a kitten who was so obviously unwell with a 'dodgy eye'? Why didn't you see the mother, where did you get her from? Strange...

Is she eating solids? If so i would feed a high quality wet food, such as Hi-life or Nature's Menu, as much as she will eat. If she's not on solids you need to be feeding kitten milk. I don't mean the treat kind, i mean either Royal Canin, KMR, or Cimicat. The vet should advise on how to give this but if she's weak a bottle may be best. 6 weeks is too young to leave mum...

I wouldn't assume anything as it's hard to say really. Depends if there has been permanent damage done, or if the kitten is indeed deformed or underdeveloped in some way.

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Ali.

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my girlfriend got her from an old acquaintance as her cat had just had kittens. she had briefly kept us updated with her progress during the 6 week period between picking her (the day after her birth) and the day we got her. we had no specific details other than 'her mother is ill, she's small, she's the runt and is going to take a short while longer than the other kittens to be ready' apparently she lets her cat have kittens often. when we got her she was covered in fleas and when we realised how poorly she actually was we confronted the person we got her from but she denied any kind of neglegence. i believe that if we had got the kitten a week later she would have died. we have since reported her to the rspca but whether or not anything is done we don't know. some people don't appreciate how precious animals are!

she is currently on whiskas kitten food mashed and mixed with a bit of her water solution and is loving it and eating it well and the vet said this is fine. i appreciate your suggestion about the kitten milk, i think we will get some for her to help build her strength.

thank you

I don't want to say too much about this situation as it's the kitten i'm most interested in so i'll make it short and sweet... If i was your girlfriend i would have done more than report this idiot! Shocking!

'Her mother is ill' and 'she lets her cat have kittens often' makes me sick, disgraceful and i wouldn't stand for it
'Covered in fleas' is animal cruelty.

Whiskas food is one of the worst you can buy. It's around 4% meat. Foods like High-life and Natures Menu aren't much more expensive, and can be bought in pets @ home etc. They are more like 60% meat and much much better. What you feed will make a big difference.

Have you weighed the kitten? I'd weigh every 24 hours at least and keep a log of the gain.

Please also be aware that vets do not know everything, sometimes their advice is in fact not correct.

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Ali.

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Thank you for the advice, i will look at what we feed her

Be very very careful with any food changes now. If she is already poorly you could well make it even worse. Whilst Whiskas isn't the best of foods, right now it's better than nothing and also better than inducing diarrhea with a sudden change in food.

Something to bare in mind and ask your vet for ... testing for intestinal parasites other than the most common worms (this will involve taking stool sample over a few days) and infectious illness and disease. Your kitten could well have something pretty nasty that has been passed on by her mother. If you have other cats please please please separate them and follow quarantine procedures until your kitten has been tested and a 4 week period has gone by from any illness/infection clearing up. Some illnesses can develop weeks after they have been exposed to them.

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sorry but I wanted to comment on this. It has 4% declared meat but whiskas is at least a complete food which is better than foods imo such as applaws which are complementary but have a higher declared meat content. I also think even a very cheap wet food is better than feeding dried especially dried with grain. I understand it's best to feed a cat the best quality wet you can get but saying whiskas is a terrible food isn't correct, it's not the best food but it's complete so has the nutrients that a cat needs. My mum when I was a kid fed our cats whiskas and they both lived to a grand old age and were healthy cats.

I have heard (on here) that the worst wet food is still better than any dry food. Might have been our resident food guru Hobbs who said that. Anyway, Hobbs's Food A-Z guide might be a good place to start

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Thanks for your advice, she is the only kitty in the house so dont worry about that. We are going to keep her on the same food as she looks to be doing fine and she loves it! As for getting her stools tested for parasites, is this a costly thing to get done?

I still stand by what i said. Whiskas is a low quality rubbish food.

Your mum's cats might have lived till they were old, but so do a lot of people that smoke heavily, drink a lot and eat takeaways!! Just because they look fine, doesn't mean they couldn't have done better with a better lifestyle.

Feeding a raw diet for example transforms the quality of the skin and hair and can even change behaviour in some cases, proof enough for me.

You are what you eat!!!

__________________


Ali.

A life without animals isn't worth living.



CHECK OUT MY DOG GROOMING SALON! http://www.prodogstyling.co.uk