Sunday morning at 5:30 am my husband and I were awoken by a horrible meowing noise. MY husband tried to scaring the cat away, but that was not going to happen. The more we looked at it we saw that the kitten was starving. All back bone and fur. We fed it and went back to bed. It spent the rest of Sunday under our deck. It fell asleep on the front door mat. My husband, a huge softy, said why don't we bring it in a take care of it. We live out in the stix and think someone might have dropped it in the woods to die.
We named it Lola. I think it is about three months old, but not for sure. I have never had a kitten before. We have a cat, but it is older. Any suggestions on caring for our new kitty?
Take it immediately to the vet to check for worms, communicable (to the other cat) diseases, fleas, mites, etc!! Hopefully you've kept your older cat and the kitten apart just in case. After that and if everything checks out well, love, water and feed often!!!
If it's losing it's fur get it checked for ringworm too. My in-laws recently rescued a kitten and the vet thought it just had mange so she gave it stuff for that. My boys started getting a rash around their necks where the kitten likes to sit and the school nurse called me to tell me she thought my son had ringworm. It isn't a big deal but the vet had completely missed it and she's a good vet.
Mostly enjoy the kitten, they're tons of fun when they're little.
I can't recommend enough that if you are introducing a new cat into the house that is a stray or from the humane society to have it checked by your vet first before introducing them to your pets.
My mom's cat picked up a strain of something from a cat that my mom got from the humane society. He was getting sick constantly and my mom couldn't keep paying for the medical bills, so she took him back. They put the cat to sleep because the vet's office thought he had feline leukeimia or something. About 2-3 years after that my mom's cat started having problems.
When introducing a new, young pet to an older one that has been there for awhile...keep a close eye on the new one. The older one might become aggressive and could kill the new one. When I introduced a homeless kitten to my cats, I got a cage for the kitten. He stayed in there for a good week, especially while I was at work. The other cats could roam by the cage, see inside, sniff, and do whatever else they needed to do without hurting the kitten. Eventually I was able to let the kitten roam around with little of my attention and eventually they became associates. They're all older now. The "new one" and one of my cats never became friends, but they recognize and respect each other. One of the other cats and the new one are good friends.
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