My cat ate a dead kitten. Should I worry about them getting sick?

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Animals are very good a 'cleaning up after themselves', so if there was a dead little kitten then it isn't that surprising that the mom would eat it. In the future, removing the dead kittens before the mother can eat it is a good idea. In the mean-time, please monitor Venica for signs of illness (vomiting, diarrhea, painful abdomen, weakness), and if she shows any signs please bring her to a vet. Best of luck with Venica.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Oh no, things sound not good at your house! Despite the fact that the situation is a bit gross, Gus is likely to be fine. Animals and people can share the same viruses but not commonly. And there are many ways he could get your kids virus besides eating the vomit. Cats definitely can get gastroenteritis, which just means inflammation of the stomach and intestines, from many things. I would just watch Gus. I hope everything gets better for you!

Probably. The whole mouse is technically edible for cats. A lot of hair or bones could cause an obstruction in a kitten, so I would monitor Holly for decreased appetite or vomiting. If this occurs, have her examined by a vet.

Sorry to hear this! Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon situation with small kittens. They usually die suddenly like this due to a heritable defect, poor immunity, or a severe disease like panleukopenia. There are very few diseases that a kitten can pass onto people and considering that she died so quickly, I would not be concerned about any diseases that could be passed to people. Most of the diseases carried by cats that can be passed to people are not a problem for healthy people and would not be nearly as deadly. If you did get a disease like toxoplasmosis or bartenolosis there would be warning signs such as feeling malaise, or Flu-like. Again, it's extremely unlikely for this to happen to you, but if you did feel sick in the next two weeks, then it would be good to mention the kitten to your doctor. Either way, the diseases that you could get from cats can be treated and would not be deadly (besides rabies, which is extremely unlikely in this case). I really wouldn't worry though. I've seen many of these little kittens die suddenly in shelters and have never had a concern about a zoonotic disease (disease passed from animals to people). I hope that helps.

Your kitten cannot get maggots from the food, maggots are basically the larval stage of a fly that is layed directly onto the skin, usually when an injury is present. Maggots could cause the food to get spoiled though so Junior might be suffering from a gastrointestinal infection, the main symptoms are usually vomiting and diarrhea.

It's not typical that cats eat their kittens, you would only see if the kitten was very sick or Rihana was a poor mother. Continue to monitor her, and if she does begin attacking all her kittens, then you will need to take them away from her and bottle feed them yourself. It's rare though, so I would not be overly concerned about this potentially happening.

Oh no it's not good that Kitty ate that vomit! At most, I would expect that eating this vomit could cause some GI upset, causing her to vomit and/or have diarrhea. It's good that it doesn't look like she has eaten the plastic bag, and if she ate the bag, I would be concerned that the bag could cause a foreign body obstruction. Keep an eye on her for now, and if you see any vomiting or diarrhea, I can give you a home remedy to see if that helps her. I recommend withholding food for 12-24 hours, then feeding a bland diet of boiled white meat chicken (no bones) in small amounts several times a day for a couple of days. Then slowly add back in her normal diet. If the vomiting continues in the absence of food, she vomits the bland diet, the diarrhea continues on the bland diet, she stops drinking water, starts vomiting water, or becomes very lethargic, she will need to see a vet right away. Good luck, I hope this helps!