Caring for a Rescued Kitten

If you find yourself in charge of raising a kitten that is too young to have been separated from its mother, you may find that there is very little information available on exactly how to do the job of a mother cat. David from the Japan Cat Network has kindly offered his advice about this tricky undertaking based on his years of experience with rescuing kittens in Japan.

(Please note that this advice is for taking care of VERY YOUNG kittens who are too young to take care of themselves. A kitten that is old enough to be separated from its mother does not need this much maintenance. We don’t want to scare off any potential adopters who might think that raising a kitten is this much work!)

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One of the most useful skills a cat rescue group could have is taking care of kittens. It is, frankly, a skill many vets do not have. If you feel your otherwise good vet is not so good with kittens try another vet, and learn to do more things yourself.

Rescue

If you see a tiny kitten, and want to help it, you probably have just the one chance. If you wait til a more convenient time, or call someone else to please help it, it may be too late. If you see it with a mother cat, don’t remove it, but if it is by itself then it was probably abandoned there by a person. Search the vicinity for other kittens. There could be more a few steps away. If you don’t have much
experience with kittens like with feeding or recognizing the signs of dehydration, then get to a vet right away.

First Aid

Little kittens won’t get a fever even if they are very sick. They can’t because their bodies can not control their temperature. They will easily die from exposure to the heat or to the cold. So get them to a room or basket where there is a good temperature. Kittens will dehydrate easily, You can syringe liquid into their mouth for them to swallow. Light sugar water or pet milk is good. Check well for cuts and scrapes, bumps and swellings. A small cut can abscess and kill in no time. Kittens get icky eyes for lots of reasons. Most are not serious but need medicine. Medicines that are fine for adult cats may
not be ok for kittens. Ask your vet.

Bottling

Little kittens need milk about every 4 hours – Try to get 6 hours of sleep if you can – feeding last thing before bed and first thing in the morning. We greatly prefer the esbilac powdered milk, and the esbilac bottles and nipples. Get extra nipples at the start. They will wear out, be bitten through and you’ll screw some up cutting too big a hole. In bottling kittens, the goal is to get the kitten to suck. If the kitten is merely swallowing the milk that you drip into their mouth, they will not drink enough to survive. That is really just first aid. If they are too stressed they won’t suck. So be patient. Try and if you don’t have success after a few minutes, set the kitten back in its box and try again soon.

The Poop and the Pee

They can’t do it on their own. They will need to pee soon after bottling. There is some technique but basically take a tissue and pat pat pat. Then out it should gush into your tissue. Have the box handy. Depending on the age they will not poop every day. Keep ‘em clean but be careful not to irritate. If their genital area gets red and sensitive, they may need ointment from your vet.

Separating

Let’s say you rescue 3 different kittens from 3 different places, and they have the typical things kittens get. One has a sneeze maybe from exposure to herpes. One has diarrhea from coxidium. One has ringworm (a fungus not a parasite). If you bunk them in the same box, after a few days all three will be sneezing, pooping diarrhea and losing hair and whiskers from ringworm. You have to separate kittens until you know they don’t have something which can be passed to another kitten. Also wash or disinfect your hands when going from kitten to kitten, which are from different litters

Cleaning

Little kittens did not enough of mothers milk so are vulnerable to all the germs we live with. Cats may clean themselves but kittens don’t. That’s momma’s job. So, you will have to learn to wash the kittens. Don’t get water in their eyes. Don’t get soap on their face. Don’t let them be exposed even for seconds to the cold air while they are wet. Use a blow dryer to dry them completely.

The Long and the Short of it

Some kittens will not make it no matter what you do. It’s hard to lose them because of the intensity to which you have cared for them. Even the most skilled kitten carer (their mother) would lose some. There is much more detailed information to be found on line through many sources. And a good kitten vet will give you the practical help that could only be given when the kitten and vet are there in person.

JCN Needs Air Conditioner

Japan Cat Network (JCN, http://www.japancatnet.com/), a group based in Kansai, works to rescue cats and teach people about the benefits of having their pets spayed or neutered (which is not as common in Japan as it should be). JCN recently rescued a huge number of kittens from a park and they are all staying in one room of the group’s founders’ house. As you know, it has been getting VERY hot recently, and the kittens are suffering from the heat. The group’s leaders, David and Susan Wybenga have sent out a plea for someone to donate an air conditioner so that the kittens can be made more comfortable.

See:
http://japancatnet.com/blog/2008/07/desperately-seeking-air-conditioner/

If you can help, please contact Japan Cat Network. Many kittens will thank you!

Japan Cat Network Article in Japan Times

The Japan Times has done a great feature on Japan Cat Network, one of AwF’s greatest supporters.

For anyone who has wandered the streets of Japan, the sight of a woman carrying her designer-clad lapdog will be a familiar one.

Also familiar will be the sight of a dirty, scrawny cat, perhaps covered in bloody sores and missing clumps of fur, running for cover in the nearest nook or cranny.

It doesn’t take an animal lover to realize that cats are widely neglected in Japan, and foreigners here often wonder why that is and what is being done about it.

Read the full article

Controlling the Pet Population in Japan

The Ministry of the Environment reports that 160,000 dogs and 240,000 cats are killed by public authorities every year in Japan (source). That’s an average of 438 dogs and 658 cats killed in Japan EVERY DAY. The majority of the cats that are destroyed are kittens. Cats who copulate have an almost 100% chance of becoming pregnant and a cat can have kittens two to three times per year. Since there is a tendency in Japan not to have cats spayed or neutered, this problem has become outrageously out-of-control.

I’m sure that I am not the only one on this list who gets a sick feeling deep inside hearing these statistics. I hope that we can all work together to try to educate the public about having pets spayed or neutered and being responsible pet owners.

(Japan Cat Network is one organization that is working to solve this problem. Please visit their website for more information. And do consider donating to support their humane trap drive.)

The Yanaka Situation

Regarding the Asahi Shinbum article about stray cats in the Yanaka area of Tokyo:

I believe it is wise to scrutinize these kind of stories a little heavier than the media would tend to.

There is a sociological term called “broken window syndrome” which states that “if disorder goes unchecked, a vicious cycle begins.”

If an area becomes known as a place where there are free-roaming cats, it will become known as a place to throw away cats. And with about 80% of the cats and dogs being killed by the authorities (Hokensho in Japan) actually being puppies and kittens surrendered by owners and irritated neighbors, that makes a lot of cats ready to be thrown away every day.

Among the top 10 most influential animal experiences I have had in Japan, (sometime ask me for the full list of ten) was encountering a woman in my town stuffing live kittens into a plastic bag in preparation for throwing into the river. According to her, this was a yearly neighborhood occurance, and sure enough when I first saw her, there were 2 other neighbors helping with the roundup. Local stray cats would have kittens in her shed and that was their way of keeping the issue at bay.

In any place where many cats are running around, allowed to breed unfettered, for the pleasure of some – there are also people tearing out their hair because of the bother, nuisance, smell, noise, food stealing behavior, or ghastly sight of the sick and dying. And a neighbor, or neighbors, may start to take the situation into hand.

Fun for Your Indoor Kitty

A concrete block is fun to rub against. (Try it sometime.) If you have outside animals they will rub against it and that will add to the cornucopia of smells you will let your cats tangle with. The texture is also great for them. If you have sick cats in your neighborhood, then cancel all this advise. You don’t want to import sneezes and eye infections.

To cats, smells are like going to an art museum, or better yet to see Pink Floyd the Wall. Look for ways to bring in interesting smells even if they will last for a short time. Sometimes we will take a big cardboard box, freshly picked up from the supermarket and sprinkle in mata tabi (Japanese cat nip). That is a nice toy for a couple days – then recycle it.

In our house, the cardboard scratching boards don’t last long. What we have done is wrap rope or twine around a wooden post. That allows them to scratch, and climb. Inside cats miss climbing. We also created runners so they cat actually run above my head.

For a more inspiring version check out the Cat’s House.

Indoor Cat vs. Outdoor Cat

In general, l feel that letting cats go out greatly shortens their lifespan. (And worrying about why they didn’t come home will shorten yours.) The greatest danger seems to be cars. In spite of that, we do allow some of our cats to have an inside/outside life. We have some cats that were likely born outside and grew up outside. Though they have gotten friendly with us, even sleep on our bed sometimes, they have not tolerated inside life very well — or got along with other cats in an inside-only community. We felt our only choice was to allow them outside.

If your cat has not yet tasted the pleasure of the world beyond the genkan, I would not let them out. Instead, find ways to bring the outside in. Cut them some grass or green bamboo stalks and leaves. Watch them eat it up, and then likely vomit it out to clean their stomachs. Get a concrete block and leave it outside for a couple weeks. Bring it in, watch your cats sniff and rub against it. Give them a place in the sun or an open to air window to enjoy inside, that they can not escape from. If you have a veranda or a little garden space (lucky you!), look for ways to enclose it. You can give your kitties a little piece of paradise: include a dead tree to climb, remove dirt cause they will certainly do their business there.

If you have other ideas, please share them in the comments.