How to help a weak, emaciated rescued kitten survive and thrive?

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Storm. Applying some Karo syrup or honey to her gums and tongue will provide some rapid glucose for her body to burn. You should try to force feed her with a good kitten milk replacer via bottle or syringe but if she is weak she might not nurse. Your best bet would be to get her to a vet immediately so they can evaluate her and then treat her accordingly while trying to figure out what is going on. Make sure she is nice and warm since small kittens cannot regulate their body temperature. Their normal temp should be around 99 degrees to 102 degrees farenheit. Not sure how old she is but you need to be stimulating her genital area also to get her to eliminate. Again these little guys can get sick very quickly and it's important you get her help as soon as you can. Good luck with her. I would also advise deworming her unless that was already done. Deworming should be done every 3 weeks after 2 weeks of age for at least 3-4 times.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your new kitten. I recommend that you seek veterinary care. The kitten appears quite thin. If he is not eating and drinking properly, this can be a sign of illness. It is worrisome that he is inactive as well. Kittens should be very playful. Infections (respiratory or gastrointestinal intestinal) are common causes of illness in kittens. Once the cause of his problems can be identified, treatment can be started. I hope this information helps!

He is not so far away from his normal weight,, actually. Count 100g/per week. So if he is a week old and weighs 90 g, that would still be ok, especially since he may not have been fed for a day before you found him. Keep feeding him kitten milk (pet-lac), as much as he wants, and keep him warm. Do not forget to stimulate his genitals and anus after feeding so he urinates and defecates and keep him clean (use a moist warm paper towel or tissue to rub gently, like a mother cat's tongue). If he is healthy, ie does not have any congenital conditions, he should grow normally. If you have any other cats in the household, it might be a good idea to let them interact with him, you might actually find a mama that way who may not have milk, but takes on the hygiene and babysitting and eventually teaching him to be a cat! It is very rewarding to raise a kitten! Enjoy!

If you can't take it to a vet then there is a higher likelihood that the kitten won't survive. Based on your description it is possible that the kitten could have aspirated some fecal matter into it's lungs which will cause pneumonia. If it has pneumonia you cannot treat that at home. There is not much I can tell you to do without examining the kitten myself so I just suggest you refer to this link about how to care for an orphaned kitten. Watered down cow's milk it not recommended to feed. You need to either get kitten milk replacer or you can make homemade replacer (recipes in link). If it is suckling the bottle that is a good sign; if it is not, you really need to find a way to get it to a vet. ( https://kittenrescue.org/2017/03/raising-orphaned-kittens/ )

What a cutie! Determining a kittens age can sometimes be narrowed down by the appearance of the baby teeth and then the adult teeth, as well as the kitten's size. You can read more about this at https://bestfriends.org/stories-blog-videos/latest-news/determining-age-orphaned-kittens and https://www.aspcapro.org/blog/2014/07/03/tip-week-4-ways-tell-kittens-age When the vet examines your kitten, they will weigh her and look at her teeth which will help determine her age. I would bring her to a vet as soon as possible as it is very common for these guys to have intestinal parasites (bring a stool sample with you) and she may be old enough to start her vaccines to protect her from illness.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your foster kitten. His hair coat appears rough and he may have a crust on his nose. Has he experienced any respiratory signs such as coughing or sneezing? This would be unrelated to the diarrhea, but a compounding illness could result in poor weight gain. I would recommend checking him for panleukopenia just to be sure. If the vet will not run bloodwork, you can test a fecal sample with the dog parvovirus test. Otherwise I would consider a new diet if seeking a second opinion is not an option. I like Royal Canin Veterinary Diets Gastrointestinal High Energy canned formula. The veterinarian should be able to write you a prescription for the diet. I hope this information helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! In this case, it would be best to have him removed. You can continue nursing him with kitten formula until he is about 6-7 weeks old at which point you may switch him to a kibble or canned food diet. I recommend that you have him evaluated by a veterinarian who can check him and see if he needs any therapy and they can then recommend a preventative plan including vaccines. Best of luck!