Outdoor baby kitten help! (Edited to add pic!)

[bicentennial_baby]

Hi all,

At my parents' house, there's a female outdoor cat that had kittens, I'd say about 6 weeks ago, and only 1 survived. Despite being an outdoor kitty, it is the friendliest little thing you've ever seen. If it has no problems like feline leukemia or anything else communicable to our cat, I'd like to adopt him/her in a few weeks. Here's my problem:

Lil guy has some serious fleas. I want my brother to bring the Mom and the baby inside asap, and get the flea issue taken care of. B/c the kitten is so young, and she's nursing him/her, I want to find the safest way to get them both taken care of.

Help!

:hi:

Here's the little adorableness:

[Pavulon]

1. Calls a Vet

they may have products for little kittens that can remove fleas. DO NOT use stuff from a store.

You can try a bath and flea brush (like a fine comb) this will cut back on them.

You may also want to catch the mother cat with a have a heart trap and have her spayed. Google for you local feral cat group. They will do it for free.

Good luck.

[bicentennial_baby]

2. Sounds like good ideas...

And it won't be hard to catch the Mom, she's not feral, just prefers it outdoors.

[flvegan]

3. Since she's still nursing, you'll need a flea comb.

It's really important to get the kitten done asap. "Serious fleas" could cause him to become anemic in a short period of time.

[bicentennial_baby]

4. Yeah, that's what I figured.

I'll have my brother get one today and get right on it.

Thanks! :hi:

[PunkinPi]

5. We had flea trouble with one of our kittens

and tried several different tactics, but the one that seemed to work best was Dawn (yes, the liquid dish soap). (It doesn't hurt if the soap happens to get in their eyes and is not too strong for them.) If you lather the kitty up really well and then rinse him off, any fleas left on him should be drowned, but you may need tweezers to remove them from the fur.

As for the mother being a source of fleas, you may want to try Frontline Advantage for cats. It works really well and is supposed to be safe for queens and lactating cats.

Good luck -- dealing with fleas isn't a picnic.

[distantearlywarning]

6. Flea comb first.

Do a good job with that, then get the little guy to the vet. The vet can make a recommendation about a safe flea medication for a kitten that small. The mom can probably have a dose of Frontline or a similar *good* OTC product (NOT HARTZ!!!), but you might want to check with the vet to make sure it's ok for her to have that while still nursing.