Expert: Ali - 6/20/2009

Question
i found a kitten in my garden and took him to get milk and let him go again but then i found him cold and shivering. i don't see his mum around. i took him to a vet and they give him an injection. iv never owned a cat and i have out door rabbits and a dog. should i keep him? I'm not sure what to do. e.g. what toys, proper food, bedding etc. please help. thanks x

Answer
Paula,

I can't tell you whether or not you should keep this little stray, ultimately that's up to you. Being owned by a cat requires a commitment to provide wholesome food, clean water, shelter, love, training, attention, exercise and medical care at the very least. Overall caring for a cat isn't terribly difficult, as for bedding you won't need to worry about that, your kitten will let you know where he's most comfortable. You can of course provide him with a commercially available cat bed, but he's more likely to be resting in the most comfortable chair in your home. As the old saying goes - if you want the most comfortable seat in the house, move the cat!

You will need to invest in a medium sized plastic travel cage for trips to the vet and I'd recommend placing a clean towel in the bottom of the cage so your kitten doesn't slip and slide around on the slick surface when you take him for his check ups. Many pet parents have a difficult time getting their cat into their travel cage for vet visits, this is often because the kennel is hidden away and only taken out for vet visits. I recommend finding a place where your kitten can have access to his cage at all times without it being in the way of daily life - if the cage is a fixture in the kitty's environment he's not nearly as likely to put up a big fight when you want to place him in it.

You'll need to provide him with a high quality nutrition, there are two ways to accomplish this - you can choose to feed your cat a well balanced homemade diet (or a high quality raw diet that's commercially prepared, these options require some education in order to provide for all of the nutrients a cat needs in order to be healthy, I'd suggest checking out catinfo.org or a more traditional high quality canned or dry cat food. If you want to go with a traditional canned or dry food I'd recommend feeding one made from human grade ingredients that's never been recalled such as Wellness or Spot's Stew by Halo. I'm not sure if these brands are available in the UK, but you can check out their ingredient lists online and compare them to other brands sold in your area to get an idea of how to choose quality pet foods. I'd be happy to provide you with additional information about the pet food industry by sending a rather eye opening article your way if you're interested in learning more.

A cat should always have a reasonable sized bowl of fresh, clean water available to drink and it's best to wash the bowl and refill it with clean water at minimum once daily - I prefer to do so twice daily because my eldest cat washes her paws in the water bowl after using the litter box and some cats enjoy playing with their water and splashing it everywhere. The cat's food should be located in an area where they aren't likely to be disturbed while they're eating so if you have a large kitchen or dining room I'd suggest the corner where nobody will regularly need to be during meal times.

While many pet parents allow their cats to roam freely outside I don't recommend this, in my opinion cats aren't as likely to become victims of trauma such as human cruelty, traffic accidents or animal attacks and overall cats provided with an appropriate diet, proper care and routine medical check ups generally tend to live longer, healthier lives indoors.

Many cats enjoy being pet gently, having their ears, under their chin and chest scratched and in some cases their belly rubbed. Your kitten's reactions will tell you what he likes and doesn't like in terms of attention and physical touch. If your kitten starts whipping his tail around he's trying to communicate displeasure and it's best to stop whatever you're doing. Sometimes kittens will whip their tail about when they're playing, that's perfectly normal and if you continue playing there shouldn't be any issue. In my opinion it's important to talk to your kitten because he can determine a great deal from your tone of voice - a softer tone is generally positive and a lower growling tone indicates that your kitten has displeased you.

Cats should be handled gently and respectfully, if you want to pick your kitty up it's best to gently slide a hand under the kitten's back end and simultaneously use your other hand to life the kitten's front end. If you aren't comfortable using that approach to lift the kitty you can pick your kitten up the way that my guys have always enjoyed being lifted - slide your hand and forearm between the kitten's back legs until your hand rests on your kitten's chest and use your other hand to gently restrain the kitten so he doesn't accidentally fall if he tries to jump out of your arms. Having your hand on the kitten's chest and supporting the kitten's body with your forearm will usually be well accepted because lifting a kitty by the armpits without supporting the back end is uncomfortable for the cat and can cause some injuries because the weight of the back end pulling from the part that's supported can cause damage to discs in the cat's back which is very painful. Young children should be supervised at all times when they're interacting with any pet, this will allow you to teach the children how to properly handle the kitty without the risk of injury to your children or your kitten.

Contrary to popular belief cats are very intelligent and trainable, my 3 resident cats know a few obedience commands more typically associated with dogs including sit, stay, sit pretty, beg and down. The methods I've used to train my own cats really aren't so different from those used to train dogs, all you need to do is find out what your kitten is willing to work for and use that as a reward, for some cats that special reward will be food, a toy, praise or affection. When cats are handled with gentle respect and common sense they generally won't bite or scratch you, that being said any animal that's experienced abuse will be more likely to lash out at a person. If you suspect that your kitten has been the victim of abuse you can use homeopathic remedies such as Bach's Rescue Remedy to help him work through the trauma. It's completely natural for a kitty to exercise his claws, if you don't provide him with appealing and suitable items to scratch he's going to use your furniture. I recommend investing in a sturdy, high quality cat tree or several small but sturdy scratch posts. Early on you'll want to make the scratch posts appealing, a good way to do this is to make them the centre of play time and be sure to give lots of praise and treats when the kitten uses them properly.

In order to have the best possible relationship with your kitty he'll have to learn some basic skills fairly quickly including how to use a litter tray and where he's allowed to exercise his claws.
Most young kittens pick up on how to use the litter box very quickly with minimal teaching on our part - if you fill the litter boxes with a basic unscented, clumping cat litter and gently place the kitten into the litter box after he wakes up from a nap, after he's been playing for awhile or when he's just eaten and gently use one of his front paws to make a digging motion most kittens get the concept quickly. If the kitten immediately hops out of the litter pan you can gently place him back into the litter box and repeat the above steps several times. It's very important to have enough litter boxes - I normally recommend that pet parents with young kittens have one litter box per cat plus one per level of their home because like toddlers kittens may not always realize they have to use the toilet immediately which can lead to some accidental soiling. Litter boxes should be cleaned at minimum twice daily to avoid unpleasant odors and minimize the chance that your kitty will house soil. In terms of how many litter boxes you need to be honest, from a cat's perspective you can never have too many litter boxes.

Many pet parents routinely declaw their cats, in my opinion this is a cruel and unnecessary practice. Declawing a cat is often referred to in human terms as being somewhat like amputating our fingers up to the first joint, but the reality is that this surgery is much more complex than that because cats retract their finger tips so the amputations involve the removal of bone, tendons, ligaments and the soft tissue down to the first joint. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recognizes the fact that this is an exceptionally painful elective surgery, cats are very difficult to treat for pain since they may not respond to certain medicines designed to treat existing pain and many pain medicines are not safe for use in cats. Since declawing a cat is such an incredibly painful procedure the focus must be on preventing pain and when this elective surgery is performed. The AVMA recommends that a cat undergoing a declaw surgery receives a long acting dose of a powerful narcotic after being sedated and prepared for surgery. The AVMA additionally recommends that the veterinarian performing the declaw uses injections of local anesthetic to numb the nerves leading to the cat's paws in several places. In addition to the pain medications administered in hospital before and after the declaw is done the AVMA also recommends that cats be sent home with additional doses of powerful pain medicine in the form of a Fentanyl patch to be changed at specific intervals as prescribed by the veterinarian. Potential risks associated with declawing a cat include significant blood loss, infection and an increased incidence of behavioral problems like biting or house soiling in the future.

Healthy kittens are usually quite playful by nature, they enjoy playing with small toy mice, balls, kitty teases and even simple toys like a piece of string, shoelace or ribbon. It's extremely important that toys like strings and other similar items only be played with when you are there to supervise because cats can swallow toys like this and require extensive and expensive surgery to remove these items from their digestive tract before they cause potentially fatal damage to the cat's system.

In terms of providing medical care for your new kitten I'd suggest seeking the advice of a holistic veterinarian, these doctors are trained in conventional medicine as well as one or more alternative therapies which could include homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine or massage to name a few commonly available options. My own family vet is a holistic vet who uses homeopathy whenever appropriate in her practice and I've seen some pretty amazing things happen when the right remedies are administered at the right times.

There is an incredibly serious pet overpopulation issue that affect shelters and rescue organizations. Unfortunately many animal loving staff working for animal welfare organizations are forced to euthanize healthy, adoptable animals simply because they don't have the time, space or resources to devote to each animal until their forever family comes along to adopt them. The euthanasia rate for cats tends to be much higher than that of dogs, this might be related to the fact that there are so many unwanted cats and kittens, though the overall euthanasia rates for cats is a much higher percentage than they are for dogs. The incredibly high numbers of cats and kittens admitted to shelters in North America (and I suspect worldwide# could possibly be an indication that cats are seen as disposable, another possible explanation is simply that pet parents aren't taking the important and simple step of controlling pet overpopulation humanely by spaying/neutering their cats before they reproduce.

Many folks are uncomfortable with the idea of spaying/neutering their pets which may be a direct result of not knowing what to expect before, during and after these routine surgeries. If you'd like I can send you detailed information about spay/neuter surgeries and I'll answer any questions or concerns you might have about spaying/neutering your cats or direct you to someone that can answer these questions if I don't know the answer. Loving and caring for our cats and providing them with the incredible gifts that go along with spaying/neutering them at an early age is an important part of humane, ethical pet parenthood.

There are many good behavioral and medical reasons to spay/neuter our cats. Cats that have been spayed/neutered are spared the pain and suffering that can happen as a result of developing uterine, ovarian or prostate cancers. The earlier in life that a cat is spayed/neutered the less likely s/he will be to develop prostate or breast cancers. Unspayed female cats are at risk of developing a potentially life threatening uterine infection called pyometra which causes the womb to fill with pus, if the uterus ruptures and spreads infection throughout the abdomen the cat's chances of survival are pretty low. The only treatment for pyometra is to perform an emergency spay, this procedure is much riskier than a routine spay because the cat is already quite sick which is associated with an increased risk of possible complications while the cat is under anesthesia as well as after she wakes up from her anesthesia. The emergency spay required to treat a cat with pyometra is more complicated and time consuming so it often quite a bit more expensive than a routine spay.

The leading cause of death in cats living in North America is euthanasia secondary to behavioral issues. This statistic is heart breaking because many behavioral issues can be prevented or minimized by spaying/neutering our cats. Common behavioral problems including inappropriate elimination #urinating or defecating outside of the litter box#, fighting with other cats #the resulting injuries from cat fights often require medical care because bite wounds tend to get badly infected forming abscesses which must be drained under anesthetic, flushed with sterile saline and treated with antibiotics), queens howling to advertise their availability to mate, tom cats caterwauling and fighting to win the right to mate with receptive queens and wandering over a large area are all issues which can be prevented by having the cat spayed/neutered before they reach sexual maturity. Behaviors like house soiling or fighting can sometimes occur with cats that have been spayed/neutered however these behaviors are often related to things like improper introductions to new cats in the household, poor litter box hygiene, scented litter, and other issues which can be easily solved.

Ultimately spaying and neutering our cats is a responsible and ethical choice which saves countless lives each year. For pet parents that are having difficulty getting the money together for routine vet care I may be able to help find a solution to those issues. I keep an ever growing list of resources that may be willing to cover part or all of the cost of routine care like kitten vaccines and spay/neuter procedures. The only information that I ask for in these cases is that the pet parent provide the general area they are writing from - in Canada or the US the province or state is fine. Spaying and neutering helps cats to live longer, healthier lives and as kitty caregivers that love our pets we all want to have as much quality time as possible with our furry friends.

I would recommend that you consider checking out the following websites for additional information that you might find helpful.

- http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/petvacc.htm

- http://www.preciouspets.org/newsletters/articles/bach.htm

- http://www.holisticat.com/vaccinations.html

- http://www.halopets.com/pet-education/pet articles/pet_food_what_you_need_to_know.html

- http://www.declawing.com/htmls/declawing.htm

- http://www.catnutrition.org/index.php

- http://cats.about.com/od/newtocats/tp/topmistakes.htm

I hope that this answer has provided you with some basic answers about caring for this kitten and I'd be more than happy to answer any further questions or concerns you might have. Please feel free to contact me again. Good luck with your new kitten, enjoy the special moments he brings into your life.