kitten sick

:cry: help, my 6 mth old kitten is sick.
she sneezed for two days and now she feels like she has a fever and is just laying around today. she is not eating or drinking. i have been giving her water thru a dropper. vets are closed because of holiday weekend. any advice?

 

She needs to see a vet right away especially if she's not drinking or eating and has a high fever. Try calling the 24 hr animal hospitals or clinics and see if they'll take her. In the mean time try Pedialyte. She also need food right away. Take her in the bathroom and give her a steam bath for 10-15min every few hours. It'll help clear her sinuses. You can also try feeding her there. Use the stinkiest soft foods you can find and see if she'll eat. If not try a drop of Karo syrup on her tongue and see if that'll stimulate her to eat. PM Mary_NH, EternalFlame, Chessmind, Nern, and Karen80 just to name a few for better advice. They are seasoned veterans when it comes to kitty care.

Please read:

http://www.cftech.com/BrainBank/OTHERREFERENCE/ANIMALWORLD/AnimFirstAid.html

 

I have to agree with vene....the puss really does need to see someone. Cats can be okay for awhile without food but they can't do without water even for a little while, and the only problem with giving liquids is that they might breathe it in or have too much, which can cause even worse problems. Your clinics should be open today (Saturday) for a little while and should see you if you explain what is going on - if not try to find an emerg or a shelter. The steam baths will hopefully unstuff her nose enough for her to eat a bit - in an absolute pinch you can try meat-only baby food (make sure it has no onion or onion salt because that can cause anemia in cats) but only for a short time because it doesn't have much nutrition for them, or a little canned salmon, tuna, kippers or sardines in water or oil might be smelly enough for her to eat. Try to keep her nose and eyes wiped clean, too.

 

if you absolutely cannot find a vet this weekend (and you will have to get her to a vet as soon as you can as there is really no substitute for a sick kitten) to perk her up for a little while you can give her a tiny amount of Karo syrup.

A good mixture is canned cat food (something smooth like Iams canned kitten food) mixed with pedialyte, karo syrup and NutraCal - make it soupy and get a plastic syringe or eyedropper (don't use glass) and get this into her. You don't want a kitten (or cat) to go without food for too long as it doesn't take long for them to develop liver problems due to lack of food. If you can get approx. 1/2 a can of this mixture into her per day she'll be fine as far as any potential liver problems go.

Hopefully it's not distemper (has she had her vaccines?) and it's just an upper respiratory infection (how would she have been exposed? Any stress in her life going on?). If a cat or kitten has a healthy immune system they can get over a URI by themselves...but if her symptons get worse she'll need an antibiotic to help her along.

Try to keep some food in her system (chicken baby food as mentioned is good but check for onions in the ingredients - onions aren't good), tuna fish juice is good too if you can get her to lick it up.

Let us know how she's doing and what happens after your vet appointment.

 

just to let you know, she had a grub in her neck. after the fever broke i noticed a sore on her neck. put some bag balm on it and this white thing popped out. got some tweezers and pulled out a 1 inch grub. took her to the vet and he said it is quite common for cats that go outside. she must have stuck her head in a rodent hole and that is where the parisite came from that grew into a grub. and her fever broke after a day. and now she is back to being a wild woman

 

my sister's dog once had a blow fly burrow into her back (dog not my sister - although......) it was disgusting. I'm glad your kitten is back to normal - now can you rethink the outside thing? :wink:

 

LOL's Mary. You are so descriptive!
sledhead753 - I'm so happy your kitty is ok. I agree with Mary. Is there anyway to keep your little one indoors. I lost my Venus to a hit-and-run last July and her brother Milo recently got sick from injesting too many rabbits, mice, and moles. He's permanently banned from the outdoors and is doing fine so far. Do you have any pics to share and what is her name?