We think this one is genuinely feral, as we've had her for a couple of weeks now, and have only just begun to be able to handle her, very carefully, or claws and teeth start to come out. She's about 10 weeks old, looking much better than she was at first, but as I held her properly for the first time today, I found her whole body covered in scaly crust! I have never encountered this in a cat/kitten before. I'm guessing some kind of mite/mange?? What can we do about it?
I don't want to stress her out by the vet yet, but it's got to feel awful. It's worse on her head and ears, less so on her body. She's eating cat mix from the pet meat place, and has a great appetite. She has also been wormed. She gets fresh goats' milk (just a splash, every couple of days, and just loves that. Her stools, which were foul and smelly at first are now compact and hardly have any odour. She also has an intermittent sneeze, but her lungs sound clear.
Still haven't been able to catch sibling or mum, and mum keeps terrorising the chooks...
Do you know anyone who has an ultraviolet light, also known as a blacklight. Lapidary enthusiasts sometimes use them as some gemstones fluoresce under the light. Vets will certainly have one. The reason for this is to examine the scabs, because things like mange and ringworm also fluoresce, rather dramatically actually and if ringworm it is easy to detect the circular pattern made by the fungus that causes it. Dermatophytosis (ringworm), Notoedric Mange and flea allergies are all possibles with a young cat living rough and skin scrapings may be the best way to tell for sure what the kitten has, but I realize that is difficult at present. You might be able to give the cat a sedative to take it to the vet. Something you could perhaps talk about with your vet.
Did you know, that what you thought I said, was not what I meant :S
I had to treat mange in a hedgehog recently and the first step was Frontline for kittens to kill the mites under the skin, then oil to smother the mites on the outside. I can't imagine it would be advisable to oil a kitten (!) so you might be advised to check with the vet...
We took her to the vet yesterday. He said that it MAY be a non-specific skin infection, and gave us a broad-spectrum AB to give her for a week. If it doesn't go away, then come back to see if it's ringworm. None of us has turned up with ringworm so far, so he seemed to think that it probably wasn't. Her lungs sound clear, her weepy eye may be cat flu. That's all the info we got... Anyway, since I held her last Friday, while I was holding her at the vet I could tell she had put on more weight and the crustiness on her body wasn't as bad. Claws and teeth stayed where they belong, even though she was quaking with fear. As soon as my son held her again, she stopped shaking, and treated us to a little, tiny purr, which is the first we've heard from her.
The reaction from 'Puss' while she was at the vets tells me she trusts you, your family. Purring can mean she is happy, it also can mean she is stressed but no teeth and claws and your son holding her afterwards and her reaction, I feel, is good.
Our Phoebe doesn't use her claws or teeth on anyone and at the vets she gets very stressed and sheds hair everywhere. As soon as the vet has finished looking at her, she snuggles up to either me or Kim, whoever is closest.
Some vets are very much 'down to business' other vets treat the animal like a friend they haven't seen for a while. The vet I was using in Auckland would say hello to me then his voice would go up about 5 octaves... into a falsetto voice, he'd talk to Nako, give him a tickle around the ears and give him little treats. Nako got to the point where I would carry him to the door and put him down with his harness on and he would pull me through the door. He rather liked 'Dr Russell', so did Bria, he gave her wee doggy treats so he was the bees knees!
Oh and if your vet wasn't sure about the ringworm, why didn't he just shine the ultra violet light on your cat.
Nakos vet in Chch diagnosed ringworm in about two seconds. We went into a little dark room with Nako, he shone the light and a wee ring of dots appeared. I was given medicine for it and that was that.
Andrea;374342 wrote: tell she had put on more weight and the crustiness on her body wasn't as bad. Claws and teeth stayed where they belong, even though she was quaking with fear. As soon as my son held her again, she stopped shaking, and treated us to a little, tiny purr, which is the first we've heard from her.
Awwww, so sweet. Lucky little kitty to have found such caring humans.
, that is so contagious and hard to cure / get rid of.
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