Being paranoid- new foster kitty

[kathryn]

So someone dropped a kitten off at my house the other day, it's a super long story that i'll having to explain tomorrow when I'm not half asleep

She's about 7-8 weeks old, no older than that. She looks really healthy and everything, but obviously from past events with my fosters like my one having you know, a 1 in billion heart defect... yeahh I'm a bit paranoid.

1. She's not eating now. The first full day I had her I tried to find her food at the shelter when I brought her to work with me, but we were all out.. so I gave her a can of A/D and she ate the entire can in a matter of 20 minutes which I totally wasn't expecting. Now she is slowly eating less and less. Wednesday is when she ate the full can, ate throughout the night and was doing great. Thursday- ehh was eating some more A/D until I got to the store to get kitten food, had some dry food and was fine. That night she started getting weird. Yesterday she didn't really want to eat at all no matter what I did. Today the only thing I could convince her to eat was some Tiki Cat which isn't even for kittens but the smelliest food I had on hand. Now she won't even touch it. I gave her some nutrical to hold her over.


2. She smells really bad... I gave her a bath earlier but she just doesn't smell like a "kitten".. she stinks and it's not like a gassy smell or something but she just is stinky. And her poo smells really bad compared to normal smelly poop.

3. She keeps going to the bathroom like a maniac.. both pooping and peeing. She was drinking a good (but normal) amount of water before as well but peed a puddle and is still peeing puddles. She's pooping alot too. It's not really diarrhea or any weird colors though.


The only thing medically I've done for her was on Wednesday I gave her the first FVRCP vaccine (by Schering-Plough), initial test for FIV/FeLV on the Idexx snap test (negative), gave her some pyrantel and put some Advantage Multi Kitten on her because she had really bad fleas and mites.


Am I overreacting? I was planning to bring her to work with me monday and have her looked at, but the vet that is in is basically a student and doesn't even have his license yet so I imagine his guess will be as good as mine? I think maybe have someone help me do a fecal test on her?

[growler~GateKeeper]

Absolutely anything you can do to get this baby eating - do it. Top it with bit of parmesan cheese or teensy-tiny pinch of catnip, tiny bit of melted butter, warm the food, add warm water, add cooked meat, KMR or cat treats.

The smellyness could be whatever she was eating from before, could be her digestive system trying to cope w/changes, could be parasites. Anything odd on her skin / in her fur that you can see other than fleas/mites? Scratching/biting/hairloss? Is her fur greasy?

Is there not a senior vet in to oversee the student vet?

It's possible she is also reacting now against the vaccine/worming meds, they're an awful lot to handle for such tiny bodies. Hopefully this is all it is & she's raring to go tomorrow



oh and pics please

[kathryn]

Yeah it wasn't really a planned thing and it was sort of "take her or she's going back out into the cold".. and my computer was out for repairs at the time so I had alot going on at once and couldn't get on here.

She's awake now, but keeps falling back to sleep, but maybe she is just a sleepy baby?? She wasn't like how most kittens cry and cry and try to break out of their cages, she wasn't really like that except the first night.

Her fur wasn't greasy.. yesterday I gave her an oatmeal bath with dye-free natural shampoo and dried her off really good. I've been adding warm water to the food then heating it up to try and make it extra stinky.

The senior vet that is in tomorrow is only there for a limited amount of time and already has an exam booked from someone else and he's actually an equine vet but just helps the shelter out on the side... So the other vet just graduated recently and has his temp. license. I mean he's not bad or anything, but just hasn't had that much hands on experience.


Here she is when I had her at the shelter. I'll get better pics later lol. I actually ended up getting in a fight with the shelter over this.. because you guys know how I do fostering and everything.. well the new girl in charge didn't want to hear it. I brought kitty in and what I normally do is "surrender" the kitty(s) to the shelter under my name and put them out to foster under my name as well. So that way I can use all the services at the shelter for free like get the shots and fix and stuff and not have to pay out of pocket, and when kitty is ready for a new home I adopt him/her out under our contracts (to cover my own butt) and return the adoption fee to the shelter to reimburse them. Never had an issue with this! The new girl decides I "don't get special treatment just because I work there". So needless to say I got a bit upset

[kathryn]

Sooo no change since last night She just drank a tiny bit of KMR, wouldn't touch any food. I tried Avoderm crab and shrimp or something like that since it's so fancy and all but nope.. doesn't want anything to do with anything.

Also, she still SMELLS really bad!

[Winston]

Kathryn maybe its just the stree of everything?? She looks older than 7 weeks to me? but its hard to tell. Poor thing. What was her environment before she came to you? was she with a litter outside? inside? maybe it was the bedding she was in? maybe a couple of baths and it will improve.

I imagine you have checked her ears and stuff?

My those are big looking paws? is she polydactal?

Thanks for being her kitty angel!!

[Koteburo]

An adorable creature!
She's so so lovely <3

Once I found a really young kitten on a side walk at night. Not so far away there was a dog tracking the little guy so he started walking towards me and well I just picked him up and took him home.

For a couple of weeks or more even he smelled really bad. We cleaned him but then again the smell. One Sunday (weekend as usual) he wouldn't eat and vomited about 4 times so I started giving him water, next morning he was fine and he had his first foodie again but for a while he still was smelly now he's all grown up and not smelly at all.
His mom gave birth in an abandoned house semi finished so my guess is maybe what he ate or the place but it faded.

How about some baby food? Like plain chicken with chicken broth no vegetables at all...
Also in the pharmacy you can get those food dispensers that look like a syringe but without the needle and give her some baby food.

Blessings to you and that adorable baby.


Keep us updated please

[growler~GateKeeper]

Oh my goodness!! look at that face She's adorable

Originally Posted by kathryn

She's awake now, but keeps falling back to sleep, but maybe she is just a sleepy baby?? She wasn't like how most kittens cry and cry and try to break out of their cages, she wasn't really like that except the first night.

Is she showing any other signs that might point to hypoglycemia? weakness, muscle twitching, dilated pupils

Or is the sleepiness just since the vaccine?

Originally Posted by kathryn

The new girl decides I "don't get special treatment just because I work there". So needless to say I got a bit upset

If the shelter gets the adoption fee what's the issue?

[kathryn]

Hey guys, I'm just about to leave for work now and am bringing her in to have the other girls look at her. She is not showing any other signs of "sickness". She is bright, alert, pink gums, keeping warm on the heating pad, eyes, ears nose look great... no more bugs on her since I gave her Advantage.. I gave her nutrical yesterday to make sure she didn't get hypoglycemic.. she seems fine otherwise.

She still isn't eating, drank a TINY bit more of KMR last night.. She still keeps going in the litter box!! Last night I heard her in there a couple times and she cried a bit. Is it possible to have a UTI this young? I think I'm going to see about putting her on a light dose of antibiotics and see maybe she has a bladder infection or something? She and her potty still REEAKKK. It woke me up last night when she pooed! I don't even know how she is still going when she hasn't eaten.

I'll either give you an update tonight or if I can hop on the shelter computer real quick today I'll let ya know!


Oh and no polydactyl, just big feet :P

[14+kitties]

Sounds to me like she may have a really bad case of giardia or other worm infestation. But the only one who will be able to tell you for sure is your vet. Maybe take her to a "real" vet if you are uncomfortable with the newbie one at your low cost clinic.