My rescue kittens have infected paws, flaky nose, and hair loss.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! The pictures are good but it's still tough to see what is going on. Hair loss with dry/flaky skin is often indicative of ringworm especially in kittens. This is highly contagious to other animals and to people making it a zoonotic disease. I would definitely have a vet evaluate the litter and start treatment for a fungal infection right away to prevent this from getting worse. I would quarantine the litter away from all other pets and humans especially young children and the elderly since they are most likely to get infected. Even the shed hairs can contain fungal spores so direct contact with the animals is not required to get infected. It could be something else but in the pictures it is highly suspect since it looks like the paws and tail are affected. Other possibilities include mites, bacteria, external parasites (fleas, etc), dietary problems, intestinal parasite problems, among other things. Your vet can evaluate them and advise a woods lamp exam, skin scrape, fungal culture, hair analysis, etc to determine what is going on. The ears could be infected with ear mites and they could evaluate those also. Eye problems in young kittens are often due to viruses which infect the eyes and cause upper respiratory infections. These are contagious also along with the ear mites to other cats and dogs. Your vet can evaluate everything that is going on a make a plan to solve the puzzle. They can advise a sound treatment plan in addition to guiding you in preventive health care items including deworming, vaccines, flea/tick products, etc. Good luck and I hope it's not ringworm.

I would bring them in for an exam to check for ringworm. That is a fungal skin infection that many kittens have. Please wash your hands well after handing them as people can get ringworm too. They will check to see if it's a bacterial or fungal infection and usually get you topical medication to use. Bathing the kittens may help and make sure they do not have fleas or ear mites. This will get better with treatment so no reason to be overly concerned. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for your new kittens.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Oreo. Skin and hair coat problems can be caused by a variety of things including external parasites (fleas, ticks, mites, etc), nutritional problems including loss of nutrition/blood by intestinal parasites, other dietary issues, bacterial/fungal infections, among many others. I don't think the food is causing a problem unless you are not feeding kitten food and I have never heard of the litter causing a problem like this unless it is getting caked onto the hair and skin. They are definitely old enough to be dewormed and I would highly advise that. Deworming should start at 2 weeks of age and be done every 3 weeks for at least 3-4 times. If these areas of concern worsen and persist, I would highly advise you have your vet evaluate Oreo to try to figure out what is going on. It doesn't seem like it's something contagious but sometimes not all kittens are affected. Your vet can advise some tests if needed (skin scrape, skin cytology, fungal culture, woods lamp exam, etc) to try to determine what is going on. Once a diagnosis is made or suspected, a sound treatment plan can be put into action. Your vet can also advise you on a sound preventive health care plan including deworming, testing, vaccines, flea/tick control, etc. Good luck with Oreo.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. If these kittens are exhibiting signs of a respiratory infection, I would recommend having a veterinarian examine them so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. They may need a short course of an oral antibiotic. The sooner they are seen and treated the better as infections can become quite severe in a short period of time in young animals. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Based on your description I would be suspicious of ringworm, which is a fungal infection that commonly affects young animals. If you can find a shampoo with ketoconazole that may be helpful, but she likely needs a prescription of an oral antifungal such as itraconazole. Please practice good hygiene after handling her as ringworm is contagious to people as well. Of course this is not a diagnosis, just an assumption based on your description. Best of luck and I hope she improves soon!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I would actually be more concerned about an upper respiratory infection. This is common in young cats and in most cases it responds to antibiotics. I recommend that you have him evaluated by a veterinarian for further assessment. They would be able to check for this and start therapy accordingly. Good luck and have a good night!

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Poor kitten! The skin looks very uncomfortable! It looks as though she may be dealing with skin mites or a severe skin infection. If her URI signs have not resolved, I would consider nebulization therapy with antibiotics along with Orbifloxacin. For the skin, I would discuss administering a product called Revolution for cats to help out with the possible skin mites. I would also recommend using a shampoo such as Douxo PS Chlorhexidine combination shampoo which can be found online and bathe twice weekly until resolved. I hope this helps and that the poor little kitten gets better soon! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please remember to rate this answer as helpful or not. Thank you!