# I'm fostering, kind of. 4 week old kitten.



## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

Welcome, Pipsqueak (what we're calling him for now) 

A good friend of mine rescued him from a tom cat the other night. He was outside in the parking lot by her house screaming his head off. She brought him inside, bathed him and warmed him up. (she said he smelled of dead animal, so I assume his siblings weren't so lucky) I sent her out to buy milk replacement, and she stopped in at petsmart's vet there and got a (semi) clean bill of health. Looks like he's got a spot of ringworm on his front paw, but outside of that, no wounds, eyes are clear, and although he fought eating for her, I was able to entice him to eat the critical care soft food and take a bottle with the replacement in it. 

I brought him home last night from her house, and he's currently snuggled in his carrier with a heating pad under a towel. Full tummy has him purring away. He's soooo tiny. I've never dealt with ringworm before, but I did pick up some Clotrimazole 1% ointment. I've been washing my hands after every handling, and the other cats have been kept separate from him. They don't seem to be interested anyway unless he's howling his head off, which he only has really done last night when I first brought him in. 

The vet he saw didn't give any medication for the ringworm, as my friend has no job and no money essentially, I bought the milk replacement off of her and gave her money for the vet bill after the fact. On Monday, I'm calling my regular vet to see if his wife (Who has been known to foster upwards of 20 underage kittens at a time) will take him. Honestly though, I know I can do this on my own as well, however, having 4 cats already, I'm inclined to want to keep him. If my vet's wife can't take him, I'm at least going to get a diagnosis on the ringworm (If that's what it is, I'll try and get a picture and update on this thread and see what you all think) I wonder if they can do a fel leuk test this young, so I can at least integrate him somewhat in the time that I'll have him. Anyway I'm rambling, on with the cuteness!


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## pchel (Aug 16, 2011)

He might even be 3 weeks old. His ears aren't fully erect yet. He is sweet!! It is definitely much harder to give them up when you've 'nursed' them to health. That's why I kept my Sylvester. I swear I would have carried the guy in a little pouch around my neck if I'd had one. lol He was such a pitiful wee little thing. Good luck. I hope he continues to do well!


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

He is such a love. We just put some ointment in his little foot where it's flakey, and he yawned super big three times and went right back to sleep. I guess it helps that I washed and dried his 'baby blanket' and snugged him in it while it was still warm from the dryer. He's definitely passed out.


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## Penny135 (Apr 6, 2011)

He is gorgious! I would definately have a hard time giving him up. He's very lucky he found you and vise versa.


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

CUTE OVERLOAAAAD! :love2

He is gorgeous. I agree he must be 3 weeks, 2-3 because of his ears. Keeping him warm and fed is the right thing to do, he'll be ok.

I can help you with ringworm, I've just finished with a 2 months treatment for two kittens (one was adopted, the other one a foster failure hahaha I have four cats now!) if you have pics it would be great.

Keep us posted please! Good luck!


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

Here's a few more, and a good close up of his foot that is suspect of ringworm. 

We had just given him his bath (As he CAN eat soft food, but tends to push his face and anything else he can into it while he devours) He definitely needed it. We wrapped him in a fresh hand towel from the dryer to keep him warm afterwards. Also, since he does tend to use his face as a shovel to plow through the food, should I be worried about him getting it stuck in his nose? I mean we wipe his face often during feedings, but wow, he's like a human baby, food EVERYWHERE. We got him to produce a good solid bowel movement earlier today, and he's peeing every time we wipe him, so good sign right? 

We really haven't been measuring his feedings, but when he wakes up and mewls, we let him eat soft or bottle KMR until he's had his fill. His tummy's always nice and rounded after feedings, and typically he falls asleep during his meal in the middle of nursing the bottle, purring his head off... so I figure we're good on that front. If there's anything I'm missing about hand rearing, or any suggestions, let me know 


Now, here's the paw in suspect. (and a few cute pics in between)


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## Greenport ferals (Oct 30, 2010)

Photo 1 made me laugh out loud. Poor little guy. You are doing a great job!


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

Greenport ferals said:


> Photo 1 made me laugh out loud. Poor little guy. You are doing a great job!


If that made you laugh, what we caught on video about 30 mins ago is going to make you pee yourself. He was sleeping, and getting a little twitchy, having a dream I assume. When he woke up, his expression was priceless!


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

yeah....hard to be 100% sure from the pics, but I would say it is ringworm. Are those like skin scales? If they are, it definitely is (ringworm). He's too young to try any oral medication...the vet should guide you on that. 

It is so good that you are bathing him, does he like it? I mean, bathing an older cat if you don't have them accustomed to it is nightmare 

Good luck! keep us posted!


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

He whines and wiggles, so he doesn't enjoy it ... but as soon as he was wrapped in the warm towels, that was it, he purred his head off and passed right out. Right now I've been putting a bit of clomitrazole 1% on the scaling to help hydrate it and hopefully calm itching. He has been licking at it on and off, but seems to stop licking and messing with it when the cream is on there. So I assume it's giving him relief.


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## Rebbie (Jul 11, 2011)

Oh my good lord.

He is the cutest little thing. Ever. I think that video has filled my cute quotient for the YEAR.


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

AAAWWWW what a great video! I can't believe how cute he is, you are so lucky! 

(yeah, his expression, priceless )


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

Pip slept through the night last night, he was kind of sitting there quietly when I woke up. As soon as I took him out of the carrier, he started mewling, and I fed him soft and a good bit of a bottle. He'd pooped in his crate so I had to wash one of his blankets, and some of him. But after feeding, he hiccuped a few times and then went back to sleep. I have a towel in the dryer warming up for him.

He's such an angel. But should I get up in the night to feed him if he's not acting hungry?


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## Luvkitties (Jan 22, 2009)

That video... CUTE!!! I don't think I could stop watching him if I had him near me... he's gorgeous! Can't wait to see him grow up! 

You're doing such a good job taking care of him. I wish I could help you but I don't have any experience with young kitten. Good luck!


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

What a cutie! I love your updates :love2

Well, when I was fostering 4 kittens I just couldn't get up in the middle of the night to feed them, 'cause I was working and studying from 6 am to 10 pm and I needed to sleep. So I just fed them at midnight, and then at 6 am. However, they were quite older than your little one, 4 weeks or maybe 5, and 3 of them were eating from the plate (or at least trying to, every morning they were all covered in wet food). I would wait at least one more week, and then try to teach him how to eat canned food by himself. He seems so little! I bet he was not even 3 weeks when you found him.

Good luck!!! :smile:


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## OctoberinMaine (Sep 12, 2006)

I don't have any experience with kittens at all, but WHAT A CUTIE! Love those orange kitties! It's fun to see what Murphy looked like, at least a little, when he was a kitten.


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

I took him to the vet today, he does in fact have ringworm. JOY. We have a spray we are going to be treating him with, it smells like rotten eggs. JOY. But outside of that he's healthy and fat and good to go. He's already eating soft food on his own, and Mary, our vet's wife (She's got many many babies right now she's fostering and can't take one who's as contagious as he is) said I can try watering kibble to make if soft and leave that for him in a bowl overnight in case he needs it. She told me I can start weaning him in a few days from the bottle, since he's already scarfing soft food like a little piggy. 

I got him a large guinea pig cage to live in, since we've got to keep him until his ringworm clears up, and keeping him in a carrier all the time just seemed too small, especially now since he's walking around and wandering more. Here's his new digs.


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

I'm sorry about the ringworm, just be careful with the rest of your kitties. Wash your hands and arms after touching Pip (and change clothes if you can) and before touching your cats. If you have him confined in his ginea cage, excellent. Vacuum and clean as much as you can.

I'm happy that besides the fungus everything is fine! Congrats  and thank you for your updates!

PS: what's the name of the spray? (the rotten eggs one :dis )


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

It's called Lymdyp, It requires 1 cap full, diluted with 24 cap fulls of water, mixed into a spray bottle. You spray the kitten, and then let them air dry, using a q tip to dab it on near the eyes and face area. It's some sort of sulphur derivative, which is why it smells so bad. 

Mary (the woman who fosters so many stray kittens) Pulled me aside and basically told me that the quickest and most effective way to treat ringworm is to use a 50/50 solution of bleach and water. She said it was unorthodox, and that no vet would recommend it now a days, but that's what they used years ago, and she's used it all the time to stop an outbreak in it's tracks. As compared to 4 weeks of treatment, the bleach works in 4-5 days. She told me if I felt comfortable, that I was just to swab it on with a q tip on the areas effected, and then blow on it until it dries (working with fish tanks for so long, I do know that once bleach is dry, it's basically harmless, we use it to get algae off of our plants etc and then let it dry, once completely dry, you can put the stuff back in the tanks) I'm apprehensive about doing this, and she told me that yes it would cause discomfort for the kitten until it dries, but outside of that, it's a lot quicker to clear up, and less likely to spread to us and our other animals, since it works so fast. 

As for the other cats, the spray I can use on them even as a preventative, and they gave me more than enough to treat the menagerie if I need to. As far as Pip goes, I'm treating with the prescribed medicine as directed, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts.


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

Yeah...I read about the bleach and water thing, and I actually talked to a girl who dedicates her life to rescue cats and dogs from the streets, and having no money to treat all those cats and dogs she does the bleach/water treatment too. She said it was pretty safe, but that she never used it in kittens under 4 weeks. 

Maybe I'm a coward, or just too worried that I could harm the little white ones, but I just couldn't do it. It sounds too dangerous. Bleach is toxic and the cat will lick himself later on...
However, I realized soon enough that topical treatment (clotrimazole, baths with anti-fungal shampoo) wasn't really doing the job considering my situation (the owner had a litter of 5 kittens, plus mom and dad all infected. I took two of the kittens home since I realized they would never recover in that house, I found a home for one of them, the other one is my new "foster failure") so after much consideration I started oral treatment with itraconazole on July 16th being the kittens 8 weeks old. Vet run a lot of blood test to check how they were tolerating it since itraconazole is highly hepatotoxic (liver-toxic) Right now they are cured but still under treatment to avoid recurrence. So I'm a big fan of itraconazole.

Being Pip so little, I would just stick with what the vet gave you. If you can bathe him with an antifungal shampoo, that could help too, since ringworm spores are all over his fur (and since he's little, it will be easier than bathing two 8-week-old strong kittens who left me all scratched and deaf and feeling like a torturer). If that goes too slowly, I would start with oral treatment as soon as the vet indicates it is ok (that I bet it won't be earlier than 8 weeks  ) Itraconazole dosage is 1 ml each 2 kilos (4.4 Lbs) so I started with 0,7 ml and right now I'm giving Ice 1 ml. 

Become a cleaning machine is the most tiring part of ringworm battle. Vacuuming every day and cleaning all surfaces and washing bedding and "naked moments" on the hallway (cause I changed clothes before coming inside their room and afterwards) were just too much after a month. But it worked for me, my 3 other cats didn't get it, or if they did their immune systems were strong enough to fight it (tho I doubt it since one of my cats, Gatito, is a very special, delicate boy)

Sorry I can't be of any more help...good luck with the little one, and please post more pics if you can! 

Lenka


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

I will definitely post more. At this moment, I'm pretty sure once he's better and old enough, we'll be adopting him out to a forever home. My boyfriend has put his foot down at 4 cats. Who knows though, he's a soft heart like me. We'll see what the future brings, but I'm going to do my best to not get my hopes up. 


I'll call the vet tomorrow, and ask about anti fungal shampoo, that seems like it would be beneficial on top of the spray. 


On a side note, and completely off topic, but where has praline been? I'm wondering how sparta is coming along in regards to her leg.


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

I'm hoping to get some more pics of Pipsqueak, possibly tonight when he wakes up from his milk induced nap. He's finally latching on the the bottle better, and I've been trying to catch when he does on camera, since his little ears twitch with every suckle, it's so friggin cute it makes my heart hurt lol. He's a lot more active now that he's gotten comfortable and he wakes up to my voice and mewls for me when I come in his room. 

Funny story though, last night, the boyfriend was ADAMANT about not being able to keep him (Basically it's not a financial thing, it's just we have 4 cats in a 700 sq ft place and he feels like one more is going to be too many... although the vet and his wife basically said that since we named him, we would probably end up keeping him, and telling us that since you already have 4, what's one more etc... encouraging us to keep him) ANYWAY, so today, after the bf dropped me off at work, he had to go back to the house to pick up something, and stopped back to visit for a few. We sat outside on the sidewalk and his EXACT words were 'If we keep him, we have to hide him from my parents when they come visit' LOL I just kept my mouth shut. He's hooked and I KNOW it. Looks like he's a keeper at this rate. AGAIN, I won't get my hopes up though. He is right in a way, we have 4, and that's a lot for such a small place. BUT Pip is so dern cute, and as much as he's attached to us, we're definitely attached to him. How do people foster so many little kittens, watch them grow and get healthy, and then give them away? I can't imagine doing it, though I may have to in a month or so, once Pip is old enough.


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

Oh Beckie I have no idea how they do it! I have two foster failures! the first one, Rulos, was such a lovely thing that I just couldn't think of the idea of saying goodbye to him, so I understand you completely.

And with my last one, my bf was just as yours, saying that having four cats was just impossible in our apartment, but we just couldn't refuse this cute white kitten who is related to Sun, a cat we lost... so we adopted him.

I really hope you can keep him...I understand the attachment part, I mean, it requires a heart of stone not to get attached to such a tiny cute little thing you nursed back to life.

Vertical space is more important than horizontal space for cats, so maybe if you have lots of cat trees or that cool stairwell someone built for his/her cats... http://www.catforum.com/forum/36-cat-chat/145292-kitty-wall-playscape.html

good luck with everything!  (and fingers crossed)


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

Beckie210789 said:


> On a side note, and completely off topic, but where has praline been? I'm wondering how sparta is coming along in regards to her leg.


I have no idea. I miss her and I also want to know about Sparta... I hope they are all ok.


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## Beckie210789 (May 9, 2011)

Not the greatest picture, but after his bottle, he played a bit, teething on my fingers, and then passed out again. He'll be awake soon though, bath time, and then ringworm treatment.


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## Luvkitties (Jan 22, 2009)

He is adorable! :love2


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## love.my.cats (Jan 29, 2009)

He is SOOOOO cute!!! Hope the ringworm clears up soon.


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## Janeway (Jul 9, 2011)

awww that is just sooo cute l hope he dose well.


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