The KInd Life Community Forum

A friend of mine just rescued a kitten. She found it on the side of the road, fur matted, tiny...probably shouldn't have even been without it's mother yet. She's been feeding him milk w/an eye dropper and has been doing considerably well. He's now eating regular food and growing steadily. The thing is...he's "itchy". She's afraid he's going to scratch his skin right off! She doesn't know if it's a food allergy or something in her home. She doesn't have too much money for the vet, and I was just curious if any of you knew of any good remedies for kittens/cats or what it could be. Any suggestions on food too. I've never had a cat, so I don't know much about them.

Thanks...it's at least some information I can get to her :-)

One of my cats experienced terrible allergies the first year we moved and she had to be given a shot at the vets because giant patches of her fur were coming off. After that, she never had them again. She could try searching for home remedies online. Just tell her to be very careful, because there are a lot of things that cats shouldn't be exposed to (like when I was researching natural flea repellant remedies, I found some nice ideas about essential oils to place on collars and stuff anda citrus spray for my dog, and found that cats aren't supposed to come into contact with a lot of stuff - citrus and a ton of essential oils, they're toxic to them). Maybe she could switch his food just to see? Also, has she given him a bath? Some cats actually are very easy to bathe, one of mind is very complacent on the rare occasion I give her a bath (but use a very mild soap). If you havea holistic pet store with knowledgable workers, there may also be an herbal remedy she could try (or at least find out what might work and then go to a Whole Foods to buy it because it's usually cheaper than at a pet store - for instance I had to give my dog arnica once). I do not endorse this, but my grandmother's cat gets such bad allergies that her vet told her to give her children's Benedryl (sp?). Her cat was really bad, itchy, terribly watery eyes, and sneezing all the time, the poor thing. If she tries that I would be very, very cautious of the dosage, like a couple of drops if he's still a kitten. Maybe she could call a vet that would be willing to tell her if that's okay? Or are there low cost places in your town? My city has a low-cost place for young animals, and there's a vet that works on a sliding scale for low-income.

Yeah, she might just have to go to a vet if she can't find anything that works. When my cat had those really bad allergies, they had to do a skin scrape to make sure it wasn't anything else. I was really freaking out because of the giant patches of exposed skin, her whole belly was nearly bare, but then it was determined to be really bad seasonal allergies, but they had to do the skin scrape to make sure it wasn't a bacaterial infection or mites.