Feril Kittens

Last year someone gave my daughter 2 kittens that were loaded with fleas so bad they were bleeding. I put a cap of clorox in the bucket of water and washed them in it every day for a week. The water was red with the blood the fleas had left behind on them. It worked great. So great that when I got them well someone stole both of the beautiful kittens from my home. I also got a cup of alcohol and some tweezers and picked the ones off each day that did not come off with the clorox bath and dropped them in the alcohol and it will kill them immediateley. Be careful not to get the clorox water in there eyes. These kittens were so sick from the fleas when we got them they could hardly walk. After about two days of TLC they were running around.

Hey P.,
The only thing you can use on a kitten that young is the orginal Dawn Dish Detergent. It really works, I hope this helps. Thanks Sam

hello P.. if you have been handling the kittens and they are not wild you may be able to bathe them. use ivory soap. it's a very mild soap and it will kill the fleas. most cats do not like water so you may have to wrap them in a towel while you bathe them. good luck!

If there are fleas on the kittens, there are many more fleas in their environment. You could treat the environment with DE (diatomaceous earth). You can probably find DE at a local feed store, or sometimes at a health food store like Whole Foods. Make sure it's food-grade DE (it should say this on the label). There is another grade used for pool filters, and this will not work and is also harmful. If you can't find food-grade DE locally, you can order it online.

Food-grade DE is totally nontoxic--people even give it to their livestock and pets in their food (for intestinal parasites, and as a mineral supplement). It's a dry powder that dries out any kind of bug or insect if they have enough contact with it.

It won't work instantly, but it will gradually kill off fleas, ticks or any other bug where you have sprinkled it. You can also sprinkle a little DE in the kittens' fur. It will make the fur a little dry and tangly, temporarily. Don't get DE in their faces; it can irritate the eyes, and breathing in the dust is a bit irritating, too. So apply it gently so you don't raise dust. You could rub a little into their bellies and along the back. The same goes for you; it can dry your skin a little, or irritate you eyes/lungs slightly, so when sprinkling it around, do it gently so as not to raise dust.

If you apply DE where they hang out under the porch, spread it as much of the area as you can. It doesn't have to be in a thick layer--just a little is fine, like a sprinkling of snow. There are about 100 times more fleas off the animals than on them, so treating the area helps a lot.

You can also flea-comb the kittens. Feed stores and pet stores sell flea combs. It takes a lot of time, though--you need to go over the kittens pretty thoroughly. Some longhaired coats are hard to comb through, and if you put DE in their fur, the tangles might make it impossible to comb them. But if you can, take each kitten and comb, and check after each pass through the fur. If there is a flea on the comb, dump it into a pan of water with a little soap or detergent in it--the flea will drown right away. Keep the bowl or pan next to the kitten. Keep combing till you don't get fleas. This needs to be done on each kitten, every day.

Another way to treat the kittens is to bathe them. Any mild, plain soap will kill fleas on the kittens, if you leave the suds on for five or ten minutes. Not easy with a squirming kitten! But you can use very mild soap--anything gentle made for babies. You don't need to use a lot of it, either. When you wet down the kitten, wet the head and neck first. Soap up the neck and the back of the head, avoiding the face. That way, when fleas run for higher ground, they won't be able to avoid drowning by getting up on the cat's face. Then wet and soap the rest of the kitten, and you can keep rubbing in the suds for five minutes or so, or just hold the kitten. Make sure you soap the belly area. The fleas on the kitten should be drowned in five minutes or so.

I like to use Dr. Bronner's liquid soap for babies--it's unscented and gentle. Another plain castile soap would be good, too. Try to avoid perfumes and definitely don't use anything with strong essential oils in it--those oils can be very toxic to cats (like tea tree oil, eucalpytus, lavender, etc.). There are pet shampoos with these oils in them, and some of them are labeled as flea shampoos. Essential oils can kill cats so use something plain very plain. You could a simple bar soap that has no perfume.

You don't have to use anything strong like Dawn, or something with citrus in it. Some of the citrus shampoos have d-limonene in them, which is made from citrus peel. It will kill fleas, but can be very toxic to cats. Stick with something gentle and unperfumed.

There may be rescue groups in your area that can help you with the kittens, and neuter the feral cat. They may be able to do that, give her shots, and then release her again to your yard, or find another home for her if that's what you want. You can check at Petfinder.com--they have lists of local rescue groups you can contact.

People have suggested calling Animal Control or your local shelter, but you are wise not to in some areas. The suggestions are right about some shelters, but not about all of them. Many shelters will euthanize almost all animals, and some don't give any health care or neuter, and don't find homes. It all depends on their capacity. Check Petfinder.com for local rescue groups first. They may be able to help you, and rescue groups usually don't euthanize.

Thank you for taking care of these babies!

J.

I am not sure what to do about the fleas but as far as adopting them out I have experience.

I live in an area where it is very difficult to adopt any animal and the shelters are pretty full of drop offs.

I adopted a stray kitty who was pregnant and after she had her kittens I advertised "Free Kittens" - I received NO calls. I then switched to "Pure Breed Barn Cats, $10.00 each" and sold every single one of them within a week.

I found it odd that a bit of creative advertising worked. I also knew that since families were "paying" for the kittens that they really wanted them and would love them dearly.

One note: I photo'd each kitten in a cute place (flower bed, on a fence post, next to my sunflowers) and put a name with each one of them. When someone called I told them I would email the pictures first and if interested they could stop by and take a look. I do believe if I had 30 kittens I could have adopted them all out this way.

Good luck and be creative when adopting them out - you would be surprised how well it works.

I don't have any advice. Sorry...but I wanted to thank you for caring for the kittens. They might not be here if you hadn't helped them. God Bless!!

C.

I am no expert, but I think you may be biting off more than you can chew with this, unless you are willing to let them stay inside your home. It is hard to get rid of fleas for any animal that stays out doors, unless you dip them from my experience. The flea drops can be bought in kitten formula, thats the ones you put on their neck, but again, with them being outdoors, they will probably just pick up more.

http://www.friendsofferalfelines.org/links_main.htm

This local group will help you and the cats!!! Definitely call them not animal control :)

You can use most flea shampoos in small amounts (Adam's is a great one). Good luck!

There are two ideas that I have read about but have not yet tried. Borax is a natural killer of insects but it is safe enough to use on your baby.

Also there is a organic pesticide called Diatemascious earth (forgive the spelling). I bought my bag @ Lowes and what it is ground up shells that insects don't like. In fact a friend told me that it is used in filters for aquariuams.

You could probably find more about these on the internet. There is a site called the Daily Green that deals w/ organic and natural items. Also another good site is a company called Gardens Alive in Indiana and they have a lot of natural pesticides that are even safe enough for animals.

Hope that helps.

We had the same problem and were told to use Dawn dish soap. It is gentle enough to use for animals that young and will kill the fleas. It worked wonderful for us! Hope this helps!

I have a friend that washes her kittens with dawn dishwashing liquid when they are that small.

A bath with Dawn... dawn kills fleas pretty well.

CAPSTAR® is an oral tablet for dogs, puppies, cats and kittens 4 weeks of age and older and 2 pounds of body weight or greater.

http://www.capstar.novartis.us/dog/en/label.shtml

Check out this website, it's the only thing I've heard of that can be used on kittens that are young. Otherwise, you should contact your vet, immediately. The longer you wait the more likely those kittens won't survive. Those fleas are literally sucking the life out of them.

P.,
A couple of yrs ago, a cat had kittens in my garage and when I saw them, my son had a fit to catch one of them. We did and that cat had alot of fleas. We figured it was about 4.5 to 5 weeks old when we got it. We figured it was better to bath her in flea shampoo verses letting the fleas in our house so we bathed it in flea soap. You are supposed to let it set on them for about 3 to 5 minutes and so we did. When we rinsed, you wouldn't believe the fleas that came off that poor kitten. Moral to the story: It didn't hurt the kitten at all. In fact, it probably helped more because she wasn't scratching constantly and she would actually eat better.
They say that you can't put the flea soap on them when they are little but we did and it didn't hurt her at all.
I would take them in and put them in your sink, one kitten at a time and then dry it off with a towel. I think they will be just fine. And better than that, they will be soft and will be really easy to give them away.

You must catch them and take them to a vet if you want them to survive. The vet will give them shots to get rid of the fleas and the worms -- they will have intestinal parasites and the vet will tell you about Cat Angels who try to place kittens in homes.

I had some small kittens also infested with fleas. I took them to the animal clinic and the people there gave them the best of care. They cleaned them with flea killer and nourished them back to life. Unfortunatly one did not live but the other two did very well and were loving companions.

This sounds odd but the best thing i found for flea's is dawn dish soap the orignal... Just a lil bit though goes along way... The flee collars are useless.. My daughter got a kitten from a friend when it was 6 weeks it was infested with fleas we washed it up with dawn and it killed all the flea's...

Hi P.! I had the same issue behind my house. I started feeding about 8 stray cats because I didn't want them to starve. After some time, when I went to feed them, they would let me pet them but I had not tried to pick them up. Over the past 18 months, they had a couple litters of kittens. I found 3 of them and took them to a pet (cat) adoption ____@____.com past spring, my daughter started walking and I did not want her walking in areas where these cats had been as 2 of them ended up with cat lukemia, so I caught them and had Animal Services come pick them up. I later found 3 kittens, approx 3 weeks old and had animal services come for them as well. It's very hard to take care of these cats they way they need to be taken care of due to diseases, weather elements, etc. I would take them to a cat adoption place or the shelter. Hopefully, they will be adopted out. Good luck!

Hi, P.! About two years ago, after my husband and I were married, and when fleas were especially bad, we had to "bomb" our apartment because one of our cats was indoor/outdoor, and brought in fleas that affected our indoor-only cat. It worked to a degree, but we also had to buy a carpet powder to help get them out. We found a brand of products called Nature's Guardian, made by Sergeant's, that uses different oils to help repel fleas, ticks, etc. We've used the spray on our cats and our puppy, and I think it would be safe for the kittens, depending on their age, they even have "drops" like Advantage or Frontline (haven't tried those yet). You can purchase the products at Wal-Mart or Target or even the grocery store. Hope this helps! Good luck!

You could take one kitten (or all) into the vet and have them checked out...once they are 8 weeks old you can use frontline on them...which works great!

the only thinng you can do with little kitties like that are to bath them in mild shampoo...special kitten shampoo or dawn dih degerent will work in a fix. After they are bathed you comb the fleas out wit a fine tooth cat comb. time consuming i know but until they are older that is the only thing you can do.

P.,
Be careful with wild cats that have not been cared for or live in the wild. We had some come to our neighborhood and some of us started feeding them . It ended up they had feline aides and both our neighbor and us had to have our cats but down because
they caught it. (tread carefully and talk to your vet.Have them checked and vaccinated.A no kill shelter might help.)

I have 6 cats, 2 of which came to me as kittens with lots of fleas. It's a bit of work, but the best way I found was to use a flea comb (which you can buy at a pet store) and first comb them (if you've never used one you need to have mild soapy water close by to dispense the fleas in once on the comb), and then after combing I was able to bathe the kittens in the sink using a mild natural pet shampoo, one that says its safe for kittens. They don't care for any of this but it's safe and natural, assuming you can safely handle the kittens. You could also try doing all of this outside so as not to bring the fleas inside, using a bucket for the bathing. Once they are dry you'd need to use a safe herbal powder which you can make yourself, to ward off future fleas. You can google any number of natural pet sites to find the ingredients for an herbal flea mix. There is also a product called "Flea Treats" which I'm sure you can google and order. It's a tasty large pill which cats love and fleas hate, so as cats get that in their system it's supposed to help keep fleas away! Bless you for taking care of feral cats!!

There is a pill you can give even small kittens that will kill the fleas in 30 minutes. However, it has to be given by a vet. They know how to get it in their throats. I found an abandoned kitten, very tiny, and that is what they did. Also, if you are wanting to give them away, you must have them dewormed. Somehow you will need to get the kittens away when mama isn't around if you plan to be successful at this. But it is expensive to get this all done. Instead of calling animal control, try the Humane Society or a similar organization. As much as you would like to save them, if you cannot afford all the costs of getting them healthy enough to give away, a local animal shelter may be your only recourse.

i used to working at a grooming facility and used to get this question all the time. let me tell you what we used... lemon joy dish soap. i know it sounds crazy but just give them a bath, soap them up with lemon joy dish soap (careful not to get it in there eyes) and let it sit for about 5 minutes. you will probably have to repeat the process several times depending on how "loaded" they are with fleas.personally i have done the wash, rinse and REPEAT many times before clearing off the all fleas. it has to be the lemon joydish soap something in the lemon kills off the fleas and it also helps to have a flea comb to comb them out while the soap is sitting on them. also don't be alarmed if the water looks red or brown when you rinse them off just keep soaping, letting it set and rinsing till you get clear water and eventually no more fleas. once you have them cleaned and dryed take a q-tip with a little rubbing alcohol on it and clean out there ears the fleas love to hide in there ears while you bathe them. hope this helps.

I know it will sound weird, but since they are so small you can use DAWN dish liquid to get rid of the fleas! It actually works wonders when they are that small!!!! Good Luck---A.

most shelters only put animals down as a last result. i would call them to come out and collect them, get them all cleaned up and immunized. then you can have them put up for adoption, but tell the shelter that if they have been there so long they will be put down, have them returned to you.

I don't have a cat but my dog is a flea magnet!

We give him a Capstar pill (available from the vet) to kill the living fleas.

2 Hours later I wash him in Dish detergent (all those fancy shampoos are worthless).

We remove him from his environment.

For our house we use flea foggers/bombs (which are great bc they kill spiders and other bugs too!) and for the yard I have a special spray from the vet from the company Virbac.

The Virbac is great and also kills ticks so I don't have to worry as much about my kids and ticks. We also used Seven Dust... it worked great but one of my dogs was very allergic.

All I can say is GOOD LUCK! This system has taken us years to "discover" and many many vet trips. It works for us but it has to be repeated about every 6-8 weeks. You can't get rid of the fleas without doing something to treat the environment.

P.S. You can throw a flea fogger under the house just make sure you don't stay in the house. I do my whole house, all my utility rooms/buildings, and under the house and porch at the same time. We usually visit family or go to the park in the 3-4 hours that we can't be at home.

you can call animal control and they will come pick up the kittens and the mama is you want them too. they will spay mama, and treat her and the kittens for fleas/ticks, give them all their shots and try to get them adopted out. kittens and puppies usually get adopted quickly. thye only resort to euthanasion as a last resort...usually very old, sick, or potentially viscious animals. you'll probably have to get a bomb or call an exterminator to get all the fleas out from under our house.

We got a 6 week old kitten from a friend and found out after we brought her home that she was covered in fleas. We bathed her with a citrus liquid detergent (Dawn). It helped for a couple of weeks. We discovered last night that she has more fleas again, I'm assuming they laid eggs and they are now starting to hatch. (which is just wonderful) But, the bath seemed to help a little while, now she's old enough to be dipped. It's worth a try, good luck.

try giving them a bath in dawn dish detergent with them being kittens use just a small amount in the water. Then go to your local farm supply store and buy a spray that farmers treat their livestock with and spray the area where they sleep.

Hi,

You could call a vet and ask them what to use since they are tiny kittens. I know you can put seven dust directly on a large dog and it won't hurt them, but we now use advantage. I'm sure the vet will tell you what to do without taking them in and if they won't, just call another vet. I'm proud of you for trying to help the kittens. If you could catch "mama" there is a program called "Rover" in Nashville and they will spay her for free. I know about ferril cats. We have been feeding two for over a year now. There were three, but we caught one and he is now living with us in the lap of luxery. He is really sweet and tame now. It took 8 months to gain his trust.

Good luck to you and bless you for helping them.

You can try dish soap, but if they are really so infested as to be getting sick, you might want to buy a flea comb and give it a flea bath none the less. You can do it gently and mildly, and for not as long as recommended. Use less soap than you would normally. It is your best bet.

P.,
You can use baby shampoo or Dawn dish soap. We have actually had better results with the Dawn but you have to make sure you keep it away from their eyes. I'm sure it's gonna be nice giving them a bath on either. Have fun!! LOL K.

As for getting rid of them their might be some NO KILL shelters in your area!! Call around or look on the net!

You can use one drop of revolution per kitten applied between the shoulder blades. This is not written on the label and a vet wouldn't know this, we called the drug rep, Pfizer, and were given that information. It will also help with internal parasites.
Revolution should be available at a vet near you. It works great and is the only thing safe enough for babies that young.

Try to find a No Kill shelter in your area. They could probably find a home for the animals and give them the treatments they need for the fleas. Of course, the mama cat probably wouldn't be able to be adopted if she's wild, so you probably wouldn't be able to take her. It sounds like she needs to be spayed ASAP!

How old are the kittens? If they eat cat food, start placing brewers yeast on the food, this absorbs into the blood stream and makes them untastey to fleas. And if they are old enough that they are weaned, remove them from under the house and place them in a room in your home after giving them all a thourough washing and continue the brewers yeast on the food. It should keep the fleas away. And I would bomb under the house to get rid of those as well.

I would also take them to a vet to get checked, and ask them if they have something like a trap to help you capture the female cat and get her spayed to ensure no more kittens :). Good luck in finding homes for these ones, if you lived near me I would take one ;D My husband would probably kill me though, as we have 6 already lol.

you can get advantage or frontline at your local vet's that is designed for kittens. also, you can use a flea comb on them; which is tedious but works.

i was told dawn dish soap to bath them in..i have a kitten that was born arpil 10th and i have done thing to her and it works...plus the vet gave me some special shampoo to use also.we have 5 older cats and then a kitten so a total of 6 cats!

Flea combs are great, but require a lot of work. Fleas also die in regular water, so you can bathe them. Definitely avoid flea powders. My friend owns a dog that was dipped too early and his neurological system is messed up.

wash the kittens in ivory dish soap. It kills the existing fleas without using the chemicals that the kittens are too young for. This only kills the existing fleas. It doesn't prevent them but its the safest thing.
Good luck!

look in the phone book and call a local vet. tell them what is going on they should be able to tell you what to do for such little babies. good luck!

It sounds like Judith has some good ideas about the flea situation..I would ask your regular vet about food, as "grown up" food may cause the kittens some difficulties. FYI, vets often let people post fliers in their offices for animals who need homes.
C. F

I would let the animal shelter come and get the kittens AND the momma cat. They will take care of them and find homes for them, and if not then yes, they may put them down - but at least you will know that most of them will live healthy, happy lives and will be spayed or nuetered. If you let the momma cat stay wild, she will just keep having kitttens. It's not fair to them to leave them like that and there's probably no way you can treat them yourself.