sick pitiful little foster kitties

[believer]

We took the wonderfully healthy foster mama cat and 4 kittens back to the animal shelter because the kittens are now all 2 and 3 pounds each and ready to be spayed and neutered and adopted out. And we brought home four little sick and dirty foster kittens. There are 2 siamese and 2 black ones. They have an upper respiritory infection and I told the shelter lady that and she gave them all an anti-biotic shot. They also may have worms or coccidia - have not had them long enough to determine that - only have had them for about 24 hours now and I worked all day today, but dh was here with them. They are filthy - little black specks in the fur - I think that is from fleas - and poo stuck on their hineys and back legs - I did clean some of the worst of it off.
I really want to bathe them but I think that needs to wait until they are no longer sneezy. They seem active and friendly despite the sneezieness. I am adding powdered step 2 kitten formula to their kitten food to try to help strengthen them.
These guys are just pitiful.
Any other suggestions for care?

[Johns_Gal]

You can add lysine to their food. The human stuff, yes. Just smash up a tablet and stir it in, if they eat dry food you can add it to a jar of meat flavored baby food and they'll inhale it.

I would bathe them, sneezy or no. Being sick is miserable enough, sick AND dirty? Yuck. Trim their nails, scruff them, and scrub. Probably with a bit of dawn for the bugs, and finish with a baby shampoo/cheap conditioner if you wish to restore some of the oils to their fur more quickly.

Poor kits.

Oh, and yes, I'd worm them in the next day or two. Sounds like they've been through so much. :(

[believer]

I got the worm medicine and gave it to them today. And I gave them all baths. They were so filthy and covered in fleas. I had to change out the water in the sink on one of them because it was so dirty. I suppose I drowned some of the fleas, but I probably need to put flea powder on them tomorrow. I am keeping them in the bathroom now until the worm medicine does it's work. I let the two friendly ones out earlier and one had a long worm hanging out of it's hiney. :sick We are just going to feed them a lot and hope it all pushes the worms out quickly. Ick. We are feeding them dry food and also wet food a few times a day.
They do smell a lot better now.
They are so scrawny and pitiful.
Two are friendly and two are scared.
And they are still sneezing.
I have not tried the lysine yet. What does it do?

[Johns_Gal]

I had a preemie kitten who forever had colds as a babe. The lysine, as the vet explained, boosted him immune system enough he could kick the nasties.

Trying to think what else we've used for fleas; you can split up a bigger dose of frontline... if you can get a vet/the shelter to give you a vial...

[itzj]

I would ask the shelter for flea medicine. I believe there is a kitten revolution. Flea powders are pretty nasty and bad for anyone in contact with them. A flea comb might be a good idea.

How old are they? It's possible they don't know how to clean yet. A warm washcloth with short brisk strokes will help them learn and simulates mom's cleaning.

[Chaos Coordinator]

couldn't read without :hug2 i wish i could do such things....perhaps after i'm done having littles in the house :hug

[believer]

I would ask the shelter for flea medicine. I believe there is a kitten revolution. Flea powders are pretty nasty and bad for anyone in contact with them. A flea comb might be a good idea.

How old are they? It's possible they don't know how to clean yet. A warm washcloth with short brisk strokes will help them learn and simulates mom's cleaning.
The shelter is pretty stingy about meds. I am sure they just don't have the budget to do all that they would like to do. They gave me the flea powder several batches of kittens ago. That is all that they would do and it is what they do there. The powder says it is safe for kittens 6 weeks old and up and these guys are probably around 6 weeks old. We have not powdered them yet. They are still very congested and sneezy despite the anti-biotic shot they were given and I will probably go in tomorrow or Tues. and ask for anti-biotics if they are still not any better.
They are active - except for the sickest one who is more lethargic than she should be - I actually may go in after work today for med for them if she does not perk up.

[Johns_Gal]

When kittens have colds, they often don't eat or drink near as much as they should. Stuffy noses mean they can't smell and the food tastes weird, so they stay away.

I tempt babies like that with meat (watch your fingers... nothing more ferocious than a six week old kitten offered chicken!) and baby food. I can usually get them to drink broth if they're getting dehydrated, but if not, I have done subq fluids to get them over the hump. You can generally get syringes needles very cheaply from a drugstore, just call the pharmacy. You may be able to get lactated ringers from the feed store or a local vet if you call and tell them what's going on, I've had luck there in the past.

Lethargic makes me think dehydrated/not eating enough. Add in fleas (anemia)... yeah. :(

OH! If you have access to heart, that would be great for them. Either a tub of chicken hearts or sliced beef heart is fine, I've used both. Anemic little puppy in my situation, but... eh.

Flea powders, IME, don't work and only make a sneezy creature worse. :shifty They stink. If yours works, great and please share the name of this miracle product! :lol :shifty

I hope they make it.