Medicating Feral Kittens
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Some Helpful tips for MEDICATING FERAL KITTENS
With sickly feral kittens try to use your vets most effective but least invasive treatment available. Forcibly restraining kittens unnecessarily to medicate them can set back the taming process and sometimes make complete taming impossible. Along with any medical treatments remember to feed the most nutritious food possible. A healthy immune system can combat many ailments, but it needs premium quality food to feul the battle. Natural Balance, Petguard, Wellness, Nutro, Eukanuba are among the best for nutrition. Friskies and Wiskas are inferior, but the better of the grocery store brands. Stay away from grocery store brands when you have a sick cat. The moisture from wet food is much preferable to dry food. (Disclaimer: Keep a sick cat eating even if it only wants a less nutritious brand. Eating "something" is the most important thing.) Building a healthy immune response through a top quality diet can often heal a feral cat when you can't handle her safely to medicate properly. Here are some of the simpler medical treatment options which don't require stressful or traumatic restraint:
FLEAS:
When safe-handling is impossible, forget about a flea bath! CAPSTAR pills crushed in food are a safe and
effective flea treatment for cats and kittens 4 weeks and older. A half pill is the safe dose for 4-8 week old
kittens. CAPSTAR does not require a prescription and can be purchased online at any of the PetMeds-type
websites, or even some pet supply stores. CAPSTAR kills fleas in 3-6 hours at which time the cat/kitten may be
brought anywhere without fear of risking flea infestation if you dispose of the old infested bedding. The pills
can be crushed and sprinkled onto a small amount of a tasty food. They have no unpleasant taste. CAPSTAR has no
residual effect so the cat/kitten must not be re-exposed to fleas. It does not kill eggs on the cat so follow up
with a long-acting topical treatment when you can handle the kittens safely. Advantage, Revolution, Frontline, etc.
continue working for one month). IF you find you CAN handle the kittens in time, a bath with Dawn dish-washing
detergent kills fleas on contact. Sometimes a flea comb dipped in the soapy water is enough to comb out a few fleas.
Put a soapy ring around the neck and anus at the start to prevent the fleas from escaping into ears and you know where.
REVOLUTION has the benefit of also treating ear-mites and roundworms(see below).
EAR MITES:
REVOLUTION requires a prescription but will effectively treat Ear-Mites; (it also treats fleas and roundworms
at the same time). Briefly handling of the cat/kitten is necessary to squeeze a small amount of the REVOLUTION
liquid onto the cat's skin between the shoulder blades. This can be done at the time of a vet exam or after the
Spay/Neuter surgery. Other EAR MITE treatments require fourteen days of twice daily ear drops with a refrigerated
product like TRESADERM. This is stressful and traumatic for fearful kittens. Cold ear drops twice-a-day for two
weeks is not a good recipe for taming. Some say REVOLUTION needs two treatments, but in the right dose, it has
worked well for us every time. The vet can clean and treat the ears with Acarex or Ivermectin to kill the mites
when the kittens get their Spay/Neuter surgery if you can't treat before then. Ear mites are contagious and
uncomfortable, but not life threatening. If you find you must wait for a vet visit to get them treated the kittens
will be ok to wait a bit, but treat a.s.a.p.
VIRAL INFECTIONS:
Treating eye infections can be very difficult but must not be neglected. Scarring and loss of vision is common
with untreated Herpes Virus eye infections (Herpes is the R in the FVRCP vaccination). Make sure you have the
correct diagnosis since treating with the wrong eye medication can be useless or even harmful. Let the vet
prescribe the eye med since you could do harm with the wrong one. For example: if the surface of the eye has
been harmed, a steroid ointment could cause permanent damage. If you are required to use the standard tubes
of eye ointment (Terramycin, Vetpolymicin, etc.) or drops, remember that if the tip of the tube touches the eye,
you may spread the virus to everyone else you treat with that tube. Ideally each patient has their own individual
tube. If this is financially impossible, take your time and be extra careful. To undo the bad experience of being
restrained and treated for the eye problem spend extra nurturing time with the kittens before and after treating
the eyes with the proper eye ointment or drops. Terramycin ointment is said to be the most effective against Herpes
however it also stings the most. If the eyes aren't in too, too bad shape, the vet may agree that gentler drops
and gentle cleaning may be enough rather than the irritating Terramycin. Antibiotics have no direct effect (read
about Zithromax below) on viral infections like URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) but often vets will prescribe
one to treat or prevent a secondary bacterial infection. This is usually easily mixed into food without handling
the cat. Make sure you can follow the directions precisely or don't treat the cat with ABs. Antibiotics are not
a "hit or miss" medication to be played around with. Ask the vet if you're not sure! Kittens with URI that are
bouncing around and playing and most importantly eating normally,
may not need an antibiotic at all.
Zithromax (Azithromycin), has been found to be very effective for resolving kitten and adult Herpes eye infections.
Although it is an antibiotic and we all know they can't cure viral infections, vets are documenting that an
Azithromycin course of treatment often resolves Herpes eye infections. Azithromycin can be compounded with flavors
and stirred into food, avoiding the need to restrain the animal to treat it. It can be ordered with a prescription
from VetCentric.com and mailed to you if your vet or pharmacy doesn't do compounding. The medicine itself is not
perishable, so stick with the non-perishable flavorings. We use the "Roasted Chicken" and not the perishable "Tuna"
which needs refrigeration. The success of this treatment for herpes is unexplained and "off-label" so your vet
may not be aware of this seemingly miraculous if counter-intuitive treatment for Herpes eye infections.
When eye ointment treatments are impossible, Azithromycin could save the day. It can also be used as the
preventative treatment for a secondary bacterial infection. There is another drug Famciclovir which is
sometimes used for a difficult viral or herpes eye infection.
PARASITES:
Most vets give STRONGID for ROUNDWORMS as a matter of course (must be repeated once 14-21 days after first
treatment). This can easily be put in food and gobbled up without detection. Strongid is a very effective and
safe medicine but will not resolve other parasites such as COCCIDIA or GIARDIA. These others are less frequently
seen, but very common. Diarrhea can be very serious to kitten health and should not be neglected. An exact
diagnosis can be difficult to get but if diarrhea persists, take a stool sample to your vet for testing.
The test for Giardia is more expensive and not normally run as a matter of routine. Be sure to ask the vet
if he thinks it is necessary and offer to pay the extra for the Giardia test. The routine treatment for
Giardia is 10-14 days, twice per day of a very bitter drug called Metronidazol or Flagyl. It is impossible to
disguise this drug in food and usually makes the most tame housecat impossible to pill after one taste. Ask
for the caplets that are coated and NOT the dog size pill that breaks into powder when you dose it for cats.
A MUCH better alternative for treating Giardia in the feral cat or kitten is PANACUR liquid suspension. Don't
use the powder, the liquid suspension is easier to mix in with food. It has a chalky taste that gives you a much
better chance of sneaking it into food. It's a once per day treatment for only 5 days which is much shorter than
the bitter pill regimen. Whenever diarrhea is present, feed a high fiber cat food like W/D to physically push
out as many of the parasites as possible. Adding a tablespoon of unspiced canned pumpkin to the food can add
fiber to regular wet food. High fiber food may sometimes be enough to clear up a simple case of diarrhea but
be ready to get a proper diagnosis and treat with meds if the diarrhea persists.
RINGWORM:
One of my professors told me, "It takes 21 days for Ringworm to heal if you treat it, and 3 weeks if you don't
treat it." I found this to be true once treating two young feral kittens. One with sulfur dips and conifite
lotion requiring repeated vet trips which terrified her. As a result, she was never comfortable being handled.
Her sister was too feral for the vet techs to even handle for the treatments, and she healed on her own with
good nutrition in the same amount of time. She is now a loving lap cat while her sister still hates being
touched. One effective oral drug we've used, Itraconazole can be flavored at the Pharmacy and you can sneak
it into the food for ferals. For years PROGRAM, a flea treatment, was being used to treat Ringworm but the
recent vet literature says it doesn't work at all. For hard to treat ferals, we recommend you target good
nutrition to build a curative immune system response if a vet treatment is impossible. It does resolve in time.
ANTIBIOTICS:
There is an "off label" use for Cefovecin (Convenia™) which allows a one-time injection that provides 7-14
days of antibiotic treatment for cats. This means that a feral cat which is discovered to have an infected wound
or needs teeth pulled at the time of TNR could get this one shot while still knocked-out for the neutering. This
allows antibiotic treatment for many feral cats that previously went without antibiotics. It's termed "Off-label
use" because Cefovecin (Convenia™), has only been tested and approved for treating dermatological problems but
doctors have found that it works for many other things AND has the 7-14 days of residual effect. Studies have
shown that the only side effects (rarely seen) may be some nausea for a couple days but don't last for the entire
7-14 days.
If your vet doesn't understand the challenges of taming and building the kitten's trust, there are many other vets who do, and will work with you to get the kittens to optimal health without using treatment methods that undo your hard work toward socialization. Ask around for a recommendation from one of the many groups working with feral cats. In NYC get a referral at nycferalcat.org from the NYC Feral Cat Initiative.