First, a bit of background. I currently work in Singapore. While there are many things I love about the place, the attitude here towards animals is not one of them, their lives have no value.

There are thousands of tiny, starving, stray cats everywhere. These cats are half the size of what we would consider a normal cat to be due to malnutrition, and if you have ever been to an Asian country you probably know what I mean.

One of them has been adopted by the office where I work and is fed occasionally. She has recently had a litter of 3 kittens which are around 4-5 weeks old and are still suckling. Herein lies the dilemma.Next door is a open air food market that is being renovated. They are laying down poison to kill all the stray cats (nice, huh). It is a few weeks before my little feline family go out into the world and while looking for food get something nasty from next door and it's all over.

Now I can't save them all, and normally I would never even consider getting a cat as I'm not a cat person even a little bit, but if I can save one then I have to, don't I! My question is, how soon can I take one from it's mother. As soon as they're independant, they will run into trouble so I have to time it so the cat is young enough to not be roaming around but not so young that it will die without it's mother.

Also, their current home is an open drain - very hygenic- and the kittens all have eye infections and god knows what. What shots will it need and how do I take care of any possible infections, parasites etc that I'm sure it will have. I know nothing about cats, help, please! How do I look after a kitten?

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2001

Answers

Sarah -- try this site http://www.angelfire.com/ il/kimlance/ for help with dealing with baby cats and taking them from Mom and be careful if you do, 'cos Mom will NOT be happy and may bite you which could be all kinds of bad and mean a rabies shot.

Four to eight weeks is the general weaning period, but you may need to hand feed, or supplement the baby cat's diet with kitten formula on the earlier end of the spectrum.

For the eye infections: you need an optical unguent antibiotic, you can get this from a vet and it needs to go on twice a day or so, very gently with the tip of your finger or a cotton swab

Shots: Distemper and rabies.

And deworming probably, either the banana stuff that you feed to the cat, or the shot, depending on if they're roundworms (the medecine they can drink) or tapeworms (often requires a shot)

Talk to a vet about flea treatments ... I don't know if you can get Advantage in Singapore, but the stuff really works, but you can't always put it on little bitty kitties, so flea bath is probably in order.

Having nursed little Tiger to health, I can say that handfeeding is tough, so waiting at least 5 weeks is probably a good idea, try to attract the kitten with food so that it is used to coming to you for nourishment before you separate the baby from Mom and that may help with the weaning process as well.

Tiger refused the bottle, so I had to hold him up to Mom's side to get him fed.

We gave them Iams kitten cat food with replacer formula to fatten them up and they're sleek, happy, healthy cats. Very robust.

Good luck ... and if you can't find what you need in a store in Singapore, order it online from a petopia or someplace like that if they'll ship to you. They stock replacer milk, for one, and all sorts of flea handling products as well.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2001

Sarah -- lifted from the previous site, this link has a good guide to dealing with 'orphan' cats who've lost their moms:

http://www.feralcat .com/raising.html

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2001

Hi Sarah

There is a pretty well known Cat Welfare society in Singapore too. Their URL is http://www.catwelfare.org

They are probably experienced in dealing with that situation, so it might be a good idea to contact them.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2001

How bout starting a promotion to stem the number of stray felines in Singapore? You know, the one person, one woman can make a change angle. You can do it! Billboards, tv, newspaper - cats take some of the cutest pictures (especially with a ball of yarn). In order to successfully impact a whole culture, you'd have to have a catchy slogan to go with it though. Something short yet powerful enough to convey that people will have something to gain by taking action. Something with a ring to it. Something unforgettable. Something like, "Cats, the other, other white meat."

I sowwy.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2001

or "Cats -- the Asian pork."

or "It only tastes bad if you swallow fur." (I'm thinking a picture similar to those on "Got milk." ads. Maybe a little white and orange furry mustache on the top lip?)

or "Chicken -- it tastes like cat!"

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2001

Sarah, not to sound cold, but why bother? The longer your prolong this cat's life, the greater it's suffering will be. leave it alone. If you were planning to tkae the cat in, or start a spay cmapaign, that might be better.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2001

So nobody's gonna chime in with the oligatory crude female body part reference. C'mon - it's staring you right in the face (or maybe, like me, you only wish it was :) Ok - if I don't see anything soon, I'll be forced to come up with some of my own.

You people, you make me do this.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2001