I found a baby cat lying next to it's dead mother....?

Question

I found this very tiny white kitten this morning lying next to her dead mother. i took her in my arms and i just cried. she has either a double eye infection or upper respiratory infection. i have pictures of her if you want to contact me i will give them to you. anyways, i went to the store and i bought her kitty milk. she was so hungry she drank the little bit i gave her. so i gave her more and she drank 1.2 of that. she's so tiny. my cat is in my bedroom. i dont know if this cat is contagious so i am not letting sasha near this baby cat until i get ahold of Love- a- Stray later this afternoon to see what they can do. Anything I should know about baby cats? I've never had one before. I dont suppose since i found her outside that she is litter trained, but i can always try. she's sleeping right now. her belly is full. i cry every time i look at her. you have to see the pictures. contact me if you'd like to see them. any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Yahoo Answers won't let me send u a message (w/ my email address) it says that your email is not verified... I would like to see the pictures.

Definately don't let that baby near any other cats until a vet checks her for feline lukemia. Make sure you wash your hands after touching her ... before touching anything else. If her mom died from a disease or infection -- its possible that the baby has it too. If your cat is up to date on its shots though, you should be in good shape. But it's always better to be safe than sorry :)

If you go to the pet store they have cream for eyes/nose infections.... but taking her to the vet would be your best bet. If you can't keep her, just make sure to give her to an agency like love - a - stray.

Make sure that you don't feed her too much at one time w/ that milk... if she hasn't eaten for awhile, her tummy will upset a lot more easily... put her in a litter box, and she'll know what to do :)

Keep me updated please! ([e-mail]) Good luck!

Answer 2

Immediately take the kitten to a vet to have shots and to be checked out for diseases. You are right to keep the two cats seperate just remember that disease can be transmitted through saliva such as licking and sneezing so avoid too much contact unless you wash carefully and change your clothes before coming in contact with Sasha. I would be curious to find out why the mother cat died..hope the kitten doesn't have the same thing. Once you get the ok from the vet please keep it if you can. The rewards are great! The kitten and you will have a special bond that won't be forgotten and Sasha will be ok with this. If there is a problem with Sasha don't worry she will get over it.

Answer 3

Try to find a foster mother for the kitten. Call anyone you know that has a farm or a nursing mother and see if the mother will take care of her. Watch closely for a few days, because some mommy cats may not want to take the energy to care for a sickly kitten. If you have a local shelter or humane society that you trust, you can call them to see if they have a mother and if you want to care for kitten yourself, ask if you can keep the mother/babies in your home until old enough and healthy.
Without looking at the picture, I can tell you the kitten probably has a common eye infection from one of the common viruses that many kittens with unvaccinated mothers get. Usually they only get sick once when they are babies and then never really get sick from it again, unless they are stressed out. If your other cat have been vaccinated, they are unlikely to catch it unless they are overly stressed or are kittens themselves. The kitten could also have a more serious herpes infection, which can blind them, and is extremely contagious to other cats. If you can't take the baby to a vet, the best thing may be to take her to a shelter where they can find a foster mom, test her for Luekemia and Aids, get her vaccinated, dewormed, give her medicines if she is old enough for antibiotics, have her spayed, and get her adopted. If you want to keep her, it would probably be less expensive and safer for your other cats if you adopt her from the shelter when she's healthy. As long as her nose is clean and she can breathe OK, she has a good chance unless she get pneumonia or stops eating. Use a warm cloth to keep her face clean. Many kittens have worms, fleas, ear mites, etc, so put a towel on your lap when holding her and wash your hands well before you go near your other kitties.
Until you decide what to do, kittens are a lot of work to nurse until they are 5 weeks old or so. Every couple hours you have to syringe feed them kitten formula until their tummy is round and they stop crying. Then wipe their butt with a warm cloth so they pee and poop. It's a good idea to hold them on your shoulder and rub their back to see if they burp like a baby. If its a really tiny kitten under a couple weeks old, you have to get up in the middle of the night to feed them, otherwize they can probably go 6 hours or so at night. Keep her in a dog crate with clean towels, with a heating pad under half, preferably with a thermometer to make sure it doesn't get over a comfortable temp. Once she's 4-5 weeks old (about 1 pound) you can gradually mix a little canned kitten food in with some of the feedings. If she's doing well with that (no diarrhea) you can offer some kitten kibble mixed with formula a couple times a day, along with syringe feeding. By the time she is 6 weeks old, she probably can be fed just kitten kibble. Offer a tiny litter box with plain clay litter when she can poop by herself by 4 weeks, probably. If she doesn't figure it out by herself, put her feces in it and she will figure it out. Be sure she gets spayed and an indoor home to prevent the same dilemna from happening again. Hope I had some info that you haven't heard a thousand times before!

Answer 4

Sound to me that you're doing all that can be done. A heating pad on low is good. Check often to make sure she doesn't get too hot. It sounds like she needs a vet for some antibiotics. Wipe her bottom with a warm wet washcloth so she will poop and pee. She may be too far down the road her mother took. I don't want to depress you but kittens sometimes don't make it and you are trying so hard. Later on keep her in a small space with a tiny litterbox. (a bathtub with a towel to sleep on works great. Put some tissue that has her poop on it in that litterbox and usually they get the idea. If I can help,listen or anything, E me, [e-mail]

Answer 5

I believe there is a special formula u can give them by eyedropper. Is the kitten's eyes open? Sounds like it has an eye infection and i do believe it's contagious so be careful with your other cat. The people at Love-a-Stray should be able to help. Thank God u came along otherwise it might not have survived!

Answer 6

It depends on how old she is to what you need to know. E-mail me and let me know that. I can help!

As an answer to your question you e-maile me about (it wouldn't let me email you back): I thought you could estimate the age. If she can't walk yet, she's only a couple of weeks old if that and she needs fed every two to three hours and you will have to make her pee by rubbing a warm paper towel on her private area. If she can walk fairly well, she should be around 4-6 weeks and you can start to try to wean her by mixing kitten milk with dry food ( I use Royal Canin babycat food, it's small pebbles and made for baby kittens). Around this age, she can be fed every 4 hours with either the kitten milk or the mixture if she'll eat it. You will have to help her urinate until she starts to do it on her own. If she can walk very well, she's old enough to be eating babycat food by itself or kitten food. Since you said she was sucking, she's probably fairly small yet, but sometimes they suck from their mom until they are about 16 weeks old and eating on their own just because they want to! Good Luck!!.

Answer 7

That was very noble of you to take the little helpless guy in....some people are cruel and may have left the kitten to die. I sort of know how that feels I hit a cat the other day. He died instantly I went back to see if he was someones pet and he was! His name was Otis just so happened I had a towel in my trunk so picked him up and called the owner. They really appreciated my act of kindness. I cried too...I have never killed anything and it hurt. You are a good Samaritan. Maybe you should take him to the vet and if you don't want to keep him find a good home for him. Goodluck

Answer 8

Put her in a very warm place, in a box with a small blanket, under a lamp for heating it. Since she is eating that's good. Help her poop by rubbing her bottom a little bit with a humid cloth after eating, her mother would lick her. Ask a vet to see her for the infection and stuff. It is difficult to survive, but not impossible. Do your best!

Answer 9

if you bring her to the vet, the vet will know exactly what to do...id reallly like to see her pictures email to ([e-mail])
i know she probably doesnt look that good right now with kind of a nasty infection...but when your holding her and pettting her try really hard to just think of her as a normal kitten because (this might sound dumb) but she can sence that something is wrong if you cry around her.
i know its tuff, cuase im an animal lover too...but i think your doing the right thing with your other cat. ask the vat the same thing youve typed out and he or she will tell you everything you need to know

Answer 10

Okay that is really sad. I LOVE cats and i am like a cat expert. Now i dont know how old your cat is but for all baby cats they need to have special food. dont five her too much kitty milk because it CAN give baby cats diareh (dont know how to spell that off the top of my head lol). so just treat the little cat like a fragile baby