my friend gave me a eight week old kitten but im a bit woried what do i do?

Question

is an eight week old kitten to young to be taken from its mother, i have had her for about 4 days it seems healthy but i just checked on the Internet and it said a kitten shouldn't leave its mother and siblings till twelve weeks i also believe it has had no vaccinations or deworming treatments, has fleas and smells i don't know what to do this is my first kitten and I'm on a low income and can't afford a vet at the moment can someone please give me some help

its eyes seem to e weeping a little bit too and green goo keeps forming in their corners

it would be helpful if someone could give me the number of a pet charity in the uk who can help

Answer 1

Hi hun,

The PDSA will help you if you are on certain benefits; their website is http://www.pdsa.org and you can get their number (and read up on a few things) from there.

The Cats Protection League may also be able to help you out. Visit http://www.catchat.org for more information and to find your local shelters.

8 weeks old is fine to be away from its mother hun. At the end of the day, hundreds of kittens are hand-reared due to the death or abandonment of their mothers, and they end up just fine. So don't worry about that :-)

Before you continue looking after this kitten, however, there are a few things that you must consider really carefully:

> Do you have the time and dedication to look after this kitten? Not just in terms of her fleas and other health problems, but also in general? (i.e. have you thought this through carefully, or was she given to you on impulse?)

> Do you have the money to look after her?

It would be great if you can get help with the vetinary costs, but you must also be able to afford her food and litter, etc. You must also be able to afford pet insurance. It is much cheaper for you in the long-run. We use Pet Plan ( http://www.petplan.co.uk ) and it only costs about £7 a month. We are really glad we decided to get it, because last week our kitten hurt her leg and it cost £100 for X-Rays, bandages, etc. Very expensive, but because we had pet insurance, we got £60 of it back!

If you cannot get help from the PDSA or Cats Protection because you are not on the benefits that qualify you for their financial aid, you will have to carefully think about whether you can afford to keep this kitten. Contact the charities above first, obviously, but if they cannot help, contact your local vet and find out how much everything will cost. The first few months of having my kitten cost about £70, and neutering cost £40 (at 6 months of age). You will need to get your kitten spayed when she is 6 months old.

I hope that you can get help from the charities I mentioned above, and if you decide that you cannot afford to keep her, please just give her up to a rescue shelter - it's the right thing to do and there is no need to feel guilty about it.

If you do decide to keep her, here are some websites you might find useful:
http://www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk/Articles/Bringing_up_a_kitten.htm
http://www.kittencare.com/
http://uk.merial.com/pet_owners/cats/kitten_care.asp
http://www.whiskas.co.uk/whiskas/en-GB/kittenpack/kittenpackform.asp
http://www.petcare.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=378&Itemid=139
http://www.catchow.com/KittenCareCenterHome.aspx
http://cats.about.com/cs/kittencare/a/lessonone.htm

xx Emmie

Answer 2

8 wekk sold is ok. A lot of people say dogs and cats should not be away from their mother until 12 weeks that is rubbish. 8 weeks is about the right age as the animal needs socialising and unbeknown to some they do better at certain stages in their life hence needing to leave mom at 8wks. You will get peeps telling you if u cant afford a vet dont get a pet, BUT love is more than money so if you find yourel in a situation like you have then dont worry as long as you can either afford to pay your vet in weekly/ monthly installements or you receive housing or council tax benefit. If you receive HB or Ct benefit then you are legible for free treatment at your local PDSA and you DO need to make an app straight aay for this lil mte. He needs worming and defleaing straight away. And antibiotics for his eyes. Check inside his ears too they are probably dirty from what you say.

DONT BUY WORMERS OR FLEA TREATMENT FROM PET SHOPS they can actually poison your animal. Only use prescription only ones like advantage and frontline. Also puppies and kittens have lots of wormers over a smal period of time so you do need to go see your vet. It is free at any vet for a flea or and worming consultation so this wont cost you anything except the cost of medicine, but the fact that your kitten obv has eye problems and neds a general health check it will cost you a little bit of money. However it is FREE at your PDSA although even they do not give you free flea treatment medicines. They do offer vaccination and neutering at a very very very reasonable cost.

Good luck and let us know how yo get on.

Answer 3

Eight week old kittens can do just fine if given the proper care. Unfortunately, this kitten is already in danger. If you cannot afford to see a vet, you need to find her a new home. It sounds like she has many problems. You could look for low cost clinics in your area, they may be within your means and should be able to treat her. The green eye goo is not good, she may have ringworm which is contagious to humans (also hard to treat in cats; I know, I went through it with a new kitten a year ago, infected my other cats as well). Worms and fleas can really endanger a tiny kittens life. Hope you can save her ad have a nice little girl for a friend.

Answer 4

Kittens usually start eating on their own at 6 weeks. At 8 weeks they can be taken away from the mother & do just fine. Deworming & vaccinations are important. Try to find a local clinic that does low cost shots. Start out with the deworming, an antibiotic eye med & use Frontline for the fleas. For now you can use a baby shampoo to kill the fleas. Start at the neck, just behing the ears & work your way down. Repeat as needed. Also check the ears for mites. Take a cap full of baby oil, dip a Q-Tip in it, shake off the access & clean the ears. After a couple of times use a dry Q-Tip to get out the access baby oil. Baby Oil will suffocate & kill the ear mites. The cat can be fully vaccinated at 4mths old. As for the eyes, keep them clean for now & keep a eye on the nose, clean it if needed with tissue.

Answer 5

Firstly, you'll need to deal with the fleas and worms as these can make a kitten really sick. You can buy Frontline from the vets, but they'll need to have seen your cat before they'll be able to sell you any. Frontline is the best you can get to deal with fleas and the spray bottle is more ecomnomical than the spot on which can't be used until a kitten is a certain age. As for worming, I use Bob Martin's drop on wormer for my cats (I'm also on a low income) from Tescos, but they sell it at petstores too, you can use it on a kitten from eight weeks old.

Vaccinations are more expensive (to do all three of my cats from the start cost me close to £200) but neceassary, neutering comes when the kitten has reached 6 months old and is between £60-90, but you can get help from the Cats protection league if you are on benefits or a low income. I just had one of mine done and it cost me £84 for that and microchipping, which I view as a must, but you may not.

Insurance will help with any vet costs resulting from illness or accident in the future and can be as little as £5 a month for one animal. Go to http://www.confused.com and search for the cheapest one, remembering to get one with an excess that you afford. Having your cat mircochipped and vaccinated helps with the premium, as well as having them neutered at the appropriate time.

Hope all this helps. Good Luck with your new kitten.

Answer 6

At 8 weeks, kittens are physically old enough to leave their mother. However, they may not be emotionally mature enough, so many people prefer to keep them with the mother for a further 2-4 weeks. It's during this time that they learn feline etiquette from their mother.

If you are on a low income, check locally to see if you have any branches of these welfare organisations as they can help with free or low cost vet care;

PDSA
Cats Protection League
Blue Cross
RSPCA

If you are in the London area, the Celia Hammond Trust has clinics in Lewisham and Canning Town that offer medical treatment for pets whose owners may not qualify for PDSA or RSPCA assistance. See the web link below for more info.

http://www.celiahammond.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=4&MMN_position=12:12

As this is your first kitten, if you do decide to keep her, the Messybeast web site has lots of helpful articles about kittens and cats that you may find useful.

http://www.messybeast.com/catarchive.htm#health

Answer 7

You can't have a kitten if you can't afford a vet. As simple as that. The kitten is not too young, but it needs de-worming, de-fleaing, and general tests of his health, vaccinations too. At this age it is essential to go to a vet. If you were very experienced you could buy deworming and defleaing stuff from the pet shop, but you have to know what is appropriate for this age. Also, if the eyes are runny the kitten needs medication.

Anyway, you can give BAnminth for the worms, repeat after 14 days. Frontline spray, not spot on, for fleas, make sure you follow the instrucctions on the bottle and you don't let the kitten lick itself when it is wet. Also don't spray in the eyes and mouth. And Tobrex eye drops (human), one eye drop in every eye 3 times a day, for a week.

Answer 8

A kitten can survive without its mother at 4 weeks-they should stay with her until 6 to 8 weeks-so your in good shape there. You can bath the kitten with ivory soap and use a flea comb to remove the fleas until she is 12 weeks old and then you can use commercial flea remedies. The discharge from the eyes may be a simple eye infection, or it could be a symptom of a respiratory infection. Until your able to get vet attention, a compress of a warm damp tea-bag held against each eye for 5 minutes twice a day with help draw out infection from the eyes. Read labels carefully for age restrictions if you decide to deworm the kitten yourself.

Answer 9

i do think it is a bit young,but i found my kitten and it was 9 weeks old. you can buy cat milk at the suppermarket. bathe the sticky eyes with a cotton wool ball dipped in boiled water and left to cool before gently wiping each eye seperatly.you can also buy kitten food just try a little bit in a saucer sqashed with a fork. you dont have to worry about vets yet. injections start at 12 weeks time to save up.you may get help from cats protection if you are on a low income.you can also get flea powder and worm tabs at the supermarket.keep her warm and cuddle her a lot.she will miss her mum.she will give you lots of fun

Answer 10

kittens can leave as early as six weeks, but require alot more attention and care if they are under 10 weeks.

take to the vet. they can't give vaccines until 6-8 weeks. distemper vaccine is a must. also bring in a fresh fecal sample for a worm check. kittens can be born with round worms and they can contract tapeworms if they eat a flea.

you can use frontline for fleas early in kitten development. if also kilss eggs as well as fleas.

vet will give you a kitten care package as well.

iams is the best food for cats. make sure to buy kitten food (purple bag).

you can only buy round wormer from pet store, not tape wormer. most store bought de-fleaers are little to not effective at all. you can not use over the counter de flear for cats under 12 weeks.