What is the most important thing to know about raising a healthy kitten?
One of the most important things to know is definitely getting appropriate veterinary care for your kitten. Bringing them into the office can help us guide you in person by doing a physical exam on your kitten and letting you know what your baby kitten might need for health care to make sure that they grow into a healthy cat.
Lori Mathews, DVM
Green Valley Veterinary Care
How can I tell if my kitten is happy and healthy?
We definitely want to keep in mind growth. So a kitten should be rapidly gaining weight. They should have a nice clean coat. They should be eating well, not having any gastrointestinal symptoms, and also make sure that there's no nasal discharge or nose boogers for kittens because that is a sign that your cat has an upper respiratory infection which is really common in kittens.
How should I feed my kitten?
That is a good question. So if the kitten's eyes are not open yet, most likely they're going to be in need of bottle feeding and most commercial retail stores can sell you something called KMR, which is kitten milk replacer, and it'll come with a bottle so you can bottle feed your kitten. Once they start opening their eyes and walking, you can soften up some wet food mixed with KMR and what we would call a gruel so they can start lapping that food up. And then lastly, as their teeth get stronger, you can wet dry food down to allow them to get used to eating solid food by chewing.
How soon should I bring my new kitten to see a veterinarian?
Within a couple days of acquiring your new baby kitten, we would recommend that you call us to make an appointment, especially if you have other cats at home. We want to meet your kitten before you introduce them to other cats in your home, but we also want to do a thorough physical exam to make sure that this kitten is happy and healthy and we know we're on the right path.
What are some early signs and symptoms of health issues in your kitten?
Good question. So weight loss, lack of weight gain, gastrointestinal symptoms like we already talked about, which is vomiting and diarrhea, fleas can make a kitten very sick, and also sneezing and nasal discharge. Those are indications that you need to give us a call at Green Valley Veterinary Care so we can help you.
If you have any other questions, please give us a call at (937) 358-8142. You can also email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you as soon as we are able. Don't forget to follow us on social media: Facebook and Instagram