My kitten has anemia. Does it need vitamins or other medication?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Mellow. This would only help if the anemia is due to an iron deficiency. This is not that common though. Most cases are due to an immune mediated disease. Kittens though can be affected with parasites leading to anemia. It is best to work with his veterinarian to determine the source of the anemia so that most appropriate treatment can be started. I hope this information helps!

Anemia is not, by itself, a disease, and therefore there is not a medication that I can recommend that will treat it. The cause of the anemia - whether blood loss, a tick or flea-borne disease, or an immune-mediated disease that is destroying the red blood cells - must be first discovered and then appropriately treated. You need to take your cat to a vet in your area who can run tests and then give him the appropriate medication.

As long as they are eating a high quality diet made for kittens they do not need any extra vitamin supplements despite how much or how little they eat. If you want to give a vitamin you can but it needs to be one made for cats.

An RBC of 7 is seriously low. It will take quite some time (around three weeks to get a normal RBC count) for your kitty to make new blood, so it is important that it eats and drinks. I would actually feed it canned food only, and even add some minced beef (hamburger) to it to make sure it has enough iron and moisture to make new blood. He should get a little bit better every day. Such severe anemia weakened your kitty and that is why he is so lethargic.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Many vitamins can be toxic to cats or kittens if given in the wrong dose. I would instead make sure the kitten is on a good quality kitten food or milk replacer if not nursing the mother.

If Harry is very anemic and dehydrated he needs to be seen by your vet in person. They will likely have to give him some IV or subcutaneous fluids along with medications to help treat the anemia. If he is refusing all food, your vet may also recommend inserting a feeding tube to help make it easier to force-feed food until he starts to recover. If he is at home with you, you can try to keep offering bland wet food, however it sounds as if hospitalization or at least in-person care from your vet is needed at this point.

Hi there. Unfortunately, it's not likely that liver or any other food will make much difference in his red blood cell count. Anemia in chronic kidney disease is due to the body not producing erythropoietin, which is the hormone that drives the production of new red blood cells. This type of anemia can be treated with erythropoeitin injections, so I would recommend talking to your veterinarian about this option. I have had several kitties with chronic kidney problems and anemia who responded well to this treatment.