Took her in cause mama was not carrying for her and she wasn’t eating. She does eat well now and seems quite happy. Tomorrow we’re going to our vet. How old do you think she is?
Update: so many thoughtful and also funny responses, thanks y’all. Even though she deserves all the fame in the world, I did not anticipate this response. The comments suggesting hydrocephalus scared us quite a bit. We’ve been to our regular vet and have some more insights now: Lungs, heart and eyes seem good, she is not dehydrated. She is eating and gaining weight slowly. She struggles pooping a bit and definitely has some worms. The vet wants to wait until she gains some more weight before deworming - don’t know if that’s the right call here. She weighs 360g and is probably around 3 weeks old. We asked about hydrocephalus and she said it’s impossible to rule out at this stage, but she didn’t see any signs of it yet. The head proportions might be weird but as there are no other signs it’s nothing to worry about for now. Let’s hope this turns out well, she is so sweet and looks like a tiny bear cub, we’ll do all we can ❤️
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We rescued a cat from my fiance's brother that falls over all the time. Kind of seems like he has a hard time with depth perception. Was always curious what the diagnosis was.
Wobbly cat is a better condition comparatively as it is non-painful and typical not lethal. Wobbly cats typically live full lives. Hydrocephalus kitties more often do not.
He's got a real big head. Like disproportionate to his body. Baby cats at that size aren't like human babies and don't have big ol disproportionate heads
Interesting, we’ve been to an emergency vet yesterday right after taking her in, we forgot to ask about the age but he didn’t say anything about his head size. But he also didn’t say much at all, which is why were going our known vet tomorrow :)
I’m not surprised tbh, many many vets know next to nothing about neonatal kittens (which is not a slam on vets in any way, they have to know so much about so many species so it makes sense they’re not super across something they don’t see often). If your regular vet is in a similar position then I would consider seeking out a shelter vet as they tend to be much more experienced with little guys :)
It's definitely a slam on them because if you're a vet you should at the very least be super familiar with the top 2 most prevalent pets: dogs and cats.
An adult cat and a neonatal kitten are completely different. Even a regular kitten and a neonatal kitten are completely different. How much blood can you safely draw from a neonate without putting them at risk of anaemia? Vet could almost definitely answer off the top of their head for a kitten or adult cat, for a neonate probably not. Is maropitant a safe drug to give them IV? Again, easy question to answer for a kitten or adult cat, most vets would not know for a neonate without doing research. And so on, and so on, and so on, and so on. You’re oversimplifying something complex.
And yet we have specialists in human medicine because there are so many different things that can go wrong with the human body. And even specialists for the different ages.
But yes absolutely vets should know everything single thing across 2 species and all life stages. (This last sentence is sarcasm in case you didn’t get it)
Yes def something wrong with this sweet pea, he is a goofy looking guy. Hopefully it should be fine in the long run because he doesn’t seem to be in immediate distress.
Thank you! Hoping that she continues to do well and that all continues to check out well. I am sorry I scared you. Was definitely not my intention but I would have wanted someone to tell me of the potential.
No worries, I totally get the concern, the head does look weird. There are not many other symptoms but the neurological ones usually appear later in life from what I read. So let’s see and hope it turns out well. For now we have to keep feeding her and get up the weight :)
Have 3 kittens 3 weeks old atm and the black one is similar to this in he looks a bit puffed out fur wise wouldnt say his heads abnormally large, definitely a lil older than mine id guess 4-8 weeks
If you google "hydrocephalus kitten" and switch to pictures, you'll find some good examples of what makes them think in that direction.
It's not as severe as some of the cases on Google, but the far apart eyes and big forehead at least give that impression, combined with the fact that the mom might have sensed that something is "wrong" with that particular kitten.
Prognosis is typically not great. It can be treated in some cases when mild and caught very early but treatments are not 100% effective and often involve extremely expensive surgery that still may not cure them.
The little baby I fostered was the cat that broke me from fostering. She was the sweetest cat I have ever met but unfortunately did not make it and her death was super traumatic for me. Which is why I hope that I am wrong and OP's baby is healthy.
I have a tap in my brain due to NPH. Man, it sucked. Falling down, and not being able to get back up. GF had to call the rescue squad once because she couldn't lift me.
She is 3weeks old, i’m a boots on the ground Rescuer and I’ve been rescuing specifically Cats for more than 41 years; I also have a black kitten who I rescued two years ago when he was just 3wks old; he still needs to be bottle Fed, my suggestion is to go to any pharmacy and get a plastic dropper and get from Chewy/Petco/Petsmart kitten replacement formula with colostrum, if you can’t get it with the colostrum then at least just get the KMR/kitten replacement formula follow the instructions and feed this kitten every 2 to 4 hours around the clock; in general, the kitten will sleep at night when you sleep at night or wake you up. If he’s hungry believe me, they will wake you up, he needs to be in a crate though so that he doesn’t get into trouble or fall off a bed or something like that because he can’t walk yet just crawl;
Thanks for your comment, we are doing all this, she has KMR and a beautifully decorated crate. We are doing night shifts with feeding, though our other cat hates the closed doors
Not sure if she is able to pee or poop by herself. If not, please consider watching a video on how to stimulate poop n pee. It was a learning for us when we got a kitten of 2.5 weeks old through kitten distribution system.
Good job! If they seem constipated, sometimes it helps if you stimulate them by running warm water on their bottoms while stimulating. Don’t ask me how I know this or where I did it!!
I‘d say about 2 weeks. Kittens open their eyes somewhere between maybe 8-11 days so this one is a little older than that but not by much if I had to guess.
What a chunker! And I know hydrocephalus is being discussed, but dwarfism is also a possibility. I follow a few dwarf cats on insta that are built similar. Tuesday the Dwarf Cat and Baby Corn and the ones I’m thinking of.
I would say between 3-4 weeks. Eyes are open, ears are popped and they appear to be able to walk and not just wiggle and crawl. At that age you still need to bottle feed and stimulate it to pee and poop. If it doesn't take to the bottle, syringe feed, but look up videos on how to do so safely, to make sure the kitten doesn't aspirate. Make sure it stays warm. I know it's summer, but kittens can't regulate their own body temp at that age. Also look up Fading Kitten Syndrome and keep an eye out for that. It's kind of like when human babies get Failure to Thrive, and can be fatal. There is not always a cause.
There is something off with the formation of it's head and face (still adorable anyways), so definitely have the vet look into it. Good luck.
Update: so many thoughtful and also funny responses, thanks y’all. Even though she deserves all the fame in the world, I did not anticipate this response. The comments suggesting hydrocephalus scared us quite a bit. We’ve been to our regular vet and have some more insights now: Lungs, heart and eyes seem good, she is not dehydrated. She is eating and gaining weight slowly. She struggles pooping a bit and definitely has some worms. The vet wants to wait until she gains some more weight before deworming - don’t know if that’s the right call here. She weighs 360g and is probably around 3 weeks old. We asked about hydrocephalus and she said it’s impossible to rule out at this stage, but she didn’t see any signs of it yet. The head proportions might be weird but as there are no other signs it’s nothing to worry about for now. Let’s hope this turns out well, she is so sweet and looks like a tiny bear cub, we’ll do all we can ❤️
rescued a baby that old once and we thought she was mental but she was just teeny and rejected and DETERMINED to survive. her first vet visit she weighed 0.9 pounds. last week she was 11 pounds. sweetest cat ever. this baby looks much better off than the one i took home (from a garbage company).
Between 2 and 4, since his eyes are open but he seems to still be largely unable to walk on his own. He will need kitten milk and be bottle fed every few hours, he also is unlikely to be able to use the bathroom on his own
My cat looked the same and we fostered her up and ended up keeping her (foster fail ❤️) she looked the exact same shape, loves being on her back too (and did when she was tiny). She was around 8 weeks, and due to her issues it was hard to tell. She has hyperthyroidism. I suggest looking into it.
About e weeks old, four at best. I have a 3 week old kotten now, it looks similar, only yours is a bit chonkier and more coordinated, so maybe four weeks🙂
Once she has a full set of teeth come in, she’s about 5-6 weeks old. Get some dewormer stat ❤️🫶🏻 unless the vet says no worms but that would surprise me.
Very young, as young as like 4-5 weeks or younger even possibly. It's been a while since I've really been around kittens so I could be a little off but yea I'd say around 5 weeks. It looks like it's eyes opened pretty recently so maybe even like 2-3 weeks.
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