Kitten problems?

Question

I found an orphan kitten last week, still can't walk properly, and I was just wondering:

1. How to find out the age of the kitten?
2. I brought him to the clinic, and the vet gave me an immune liquid which I fed him twice a day according to the directed amount, and powdered milk, every 2 hours. When should I start giving him dry food?
3. Until now, I only feed him milk, but it pooped today 2-3 times, and they were liquid poo. Is it normal that he starts to poop like that, and had only a small amount of milk today? Should I take him to the vet?
4. He starts to smell really bad. Should I do something about it?

I'm really lost in this. I want to make sure the kitten grows up healthy :(

Answer 1

Poor little thing! If he isn't walking properly yet he's still very young & wouldn't normally have left his mother yet.

A kitten's eyes normally open after two weeks, at three weeks he's starting to get about, but still bumping into things as he still can't see properly.

When your kitten gets to four weeks, you can start to introduce kitten food in small amounts, but keep on with the milk you were given by the vet. This is the begining of weaning, your kitten should be ready for just solids (with water to drink) by about six or seven weeks.

Your kitten's poo sound ok to me (his mum would be cleaning him to make him go when he's this young and it's easier to digest that way). If you are concerned, take him to the vet ASAP. It's better to be told you're worrying about nothing than find out you should have acted sooner.

All the best.x

Answer 2

Hmmm. If the kitten is not walking yet than I would say it must be less than a month old. Maybe younger than that.

You are basically going to have a full time job being a cat mom for the next couple to three weeks from what it sounds like.

Little kitten poo is softer than adult poo. Don't worry about it unless it is basically liquid which means diarrhea. Then you have to think about it getting dehydrated which is not a good thing.

The only milk a kitten or cat should ever get is the milk formula that you get from your vet. Kittens especially cannot tolerate cow milk because they do not have the enzyme in their system to digest lactose. They will develope diarhhea from that.

Basically you need to take over all the functions that a mom cat would do which includes feeding, grooming, nurturing, etc.

Kittens need to be kept warm at all times. It should have a cozy spot where it cannot wander off from with soft and clean bedding. After a kitten eats it is a good practice to take a warm and moist (not dripping) cloth and with short gentle strokes clean their faces of any remaining food like a mom cat would. A mom cat also stimulates their rear ends to help them go to the bathroom. You can do that with the cloth after it's face is clean. Kittens need a lot of attention and a lot of sleep at this stage.

I will leave the rest up to these links that I found. It should help you out. I went through some of this myself with out three little kittens that we found abandoned in a field over a year ago. They were approximately 5 weeks at the time.