we have recently taken in an emaciated male kitten from a neighbour -
she was not feeding him regularly, shutting him outside to fend for himself all day and night, and leaving him alone for days on end while she visited friends and family, and after watching her treat him this way i gave her 2 options - either she gave the kitten to us, or i rang the RSPCA and reported her for neglect.

i am not sure on his exact age but i know he is roughly about 6 months... he is currently teething but still has all of his kitten teeth... he is painfully thin, all hips and legs, his spine and ribs are quite prominant... he has quite siamese facial features.... but im thinking thats to do with his weight.... and he is polydactyl.


we have 2 other cats and a husky whom he gets on with great and he is the most affectionate cat i have ever met.

we have flea'd and wormed him, and he is currently on a diet of kitten food, kitten milk, and oily fish

we have only had him 3 days but he seems to have a bit of a dicky tummy (3-4 stools a day - sometimes very loose) and he is not litter trained.
he also was vomiting earlier this morning...

i have booked him in for the soonest available apointment with our vet, next saturday
where he will have his first course of kitten injections, a full check up , and posibly his microchip depending on how the vet feels on his size and weight wether we should wait a little longer for it.

the previous owner had a lot of problems and im sure she was not all there, she had several social workers, and was constantly putting her house up for sale and then changing her mind, she has been broken into and beaten up a lot and although i am disgusted with her care of him i can only be annoyed that someone let her take him on in the first place.

we have changed his name from matthew to mittens and he seems happy in himself....

was really just looking for some tips on how to put a bit of weight on him as looking at his leg and paw size when he grows up he is going to be quite a stocky cat also any tips on getting him to use the litter tray would be brill as we are currently putting him in the downstairs loo with a litter tray to encourage him to use it but he is just ignoring it and going on the lino....

This isn't my area of expertise but I should think he probably needs flea treatment, worming and a vet check up - that will help him gain weight as the worms won't be draining him - he's also not going to be used to loads of rich food - so start him off on something really bland - like boiled chicken and maybe scrambled egg made either with water or replacement cat milk (NOT the cat milk treat that you find in supermarkets, but the stuff to replace a mother's milk), and if you get replacement milk mix some of that for him to drink. Keep him on the chicken for about 48 hours and then very slowly mix in the food you want him to eat. Once he is stomaching reasonable amounts without throwing up let him eat as much as he wants - kittens should be able to eat as much as they want and need.

Hope that helps a little

EDIT - litter training - he is probably used to going in soil so fill the tray with soil - and pick up his messes (in a tissue) and put them on the tray so he can smell where to go. Show him how to dig by scrapping his paws in the tray etc and pop him on there quite frequently. Clean the areas you DON'T want him to go on with Simple solution or baking soda to get rid of the residual smells we can't smell but he can. Don't use anything ammonia based - like washing powders or bleaches. Once he is going consistently in the tray begin to mix in your preferred litter to get him used to it.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

thanks spid, he has been flea'd and wormed, those were the first things i did when we got him .... i think it could possibly be the wormer affecting his belly as he has lost his *pregnant belly* but nw you can see just how skinny he really is,

i am curently feeding him the same food he WAS being fed when our neighbour actually remembered to feed him
however she was feeding him adult cat food so i have just switched to the kitten version he should have been eating...

thanks for the advice about the kitten milk i will look into buying some of that

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Lola - Siberian Husky (4 yrs old)
Gomez - White & Ginger DSH (2 yrs old)
Fluffy - Black & White DLH (1 yr old)
Mittens -Black & White DSH (6 months old?)

If you feed him a good quality food you don't need kitten food - it's a right con - however it does depend on the brand - if he is having the ones readily available in the supermarkets then yes kitten is better. Wet is also way better than dry, and yes the wormer and the stress of the move can give him the runs (for which the chicken is the best course of action). Cimicat is a good kitten milk.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

Honestly if I were you I would get him to the vets today, not next Saturday ... going by your description he may well need some medication other than flea or worm treatment. Also bringing an animal in to your home that has not been vaccinated and freely allowed access to the outdoors is risky business when you have other pets. You should really be following quarantine proceedures.

Poor little boy Well done for taking him on!

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ok will cook a chicken tonight and put some aside for him... he is on whiskas wet kitten in gravy we usually use royal canin dry for our others but i thought i was best using what he was used to until hes put on some weight and settled in. personally i hate the stuff and despise buying it.

where can i buy this cat milk from?

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Lola - Siberian Husky (4 yrs old)
Gomez - White & Ginger DSH (2 yrs old)
Fluffy - Black & White DLH (1 yr old)
Mittens -Black & White DSH (6 months old?)

He's 6 months old right? No need for any milk at all. Boiled (and it must be boiled with no bone) chicken for a day or two is a good idea to help settle his tum. But once that's happened (though it might not because he could have an infection of some sort, hence the need for a vet visit today) just feed him as much of the wet food as he can eat and provide him with fresh water. Though not in big portions, maybe up to 10 small meals a day, perhaps more with him being so emaciated.

Think about changing to a high meat content food, but if you do change it has to be done very very slowly with kittens, particularly kittens that are so underweight. Diarrhea will only slow down his weight gain, or worst case increase his weight loss.

It might also be a good idea to get some Prokolin from your vet and give him about 1ml 3 times a day for a couple of weeks to build up the good bacteria in his gut, it will also help firm his poop.

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Aurelia - i agree entirely, i have tried so hard to get him into a vets sooner rather than later. however the emergency vets isnt willing to see him as he isnt considered an *emergency* and all the other vets in our area have any spaces so thats the soonest we can get him in.

the other cats are always fully vaccinated, and have had extra precauutions taken of late as they have recently been in a cattery, and are also flea'd and wormed so is the dog and its impossible to quarantine him in our house without locking him up in the downstars loo all day which i feel is cruel.

i know it may cause me extra vet bills down the line but i couldnt leave him to suffer on the street any longer.

the place where he was living before was also shared with another cat who is in excellent health so im pretty certain he has nothing the others will catch.

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Lola - Siberian Husky (4 yrs old)
Gomez - White & Ginger DSH (2 yrs old)
Fluffy - Black & White DLH (1 yr old)
Mittens -Black & White DSH (6 months old?)

With regards to the vets ... I wouldn't ask I would just pop him in a carrier and take him up there and refuse to go until you're seen Many do this, and at the end of the day it could save his life being seen today instead of waiting until it is a dire emergency.

With regards to your other animals, it doesn't matter that they are vaccinated (though obviously it's good that they are ) there are still things they could all get from the little guy. It's not about (IMO) having to pay out more vets fee's it's about unnecessary suffering for them as well as the little one.

To be honest, confining him to a bathroom might actually be a relief for him.He's been out there trying to fend for himself all this time. Being in a room on his own with warmth, food and a litter tray ...plus some human companionship sometimes will still be a vast improvement on how he was before.

If it turns out he is infectious, it could turn out that quarantining him means he gets to be integrated into the family sooner. Ringworm for instance is a nightmare, and you would have to quarantine all your pets for weeks, possibly months if they have been exposed and subsequently caught it.

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Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here, but wouldn't some full-fat goat milk be good for packing on some weight?

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