sick kitten

[booboo1969]

my kitten is drooling,gets cold and low crawls and seems not to know when she is on the edge of something.She also acts as though she cant see food that's in-front of her face. She gets better after shes on an anti biotic for a week then right back to the same symptoms,We've gone through this process 2 to 3 times now.Shes had several tests done and we still cant figure it out.Does anyone have a clue what might be wrong?

[LindaTX]

I'm not so sure there's not a little heridity involved in the kneading issue.  My Heidi is a kneader and so is her mom.  None of the other litter were. TJ will knead some now, he's 14 but as a kitten growing up he never kneaded, however like his mother before and his sister Masena, they were a family of droolers.  So I think there's definitely something genetic going on.  My cats do have one thing in common....they are all extremely affectionate...at least towards me...they know how much I love them and they reciprocate....they really are all a little "needy"  LOL.

[29sillygirl]

Thanks nancyjac!  It was a bit annoying at first........now he is getting to be a big boy and yet still at night or early morning gives me a good sponge bath.  He is always purring like mad. He pushes his nose into my face too, never opens his mouth when doing the rubbing and drooling...i just feel his teeth on my skin....no bites.  Or kneading...just his way of telling me I'm mom and he loves me.

You know he was found with his sis in a field when only 2 lbs, so his first few months were without his own mom, as far as we know.

[nancyjac]

What you describe is called "kneading" and is a behavior rather than a medical issue.  It is often the case with litters of a runt or kittens that were taken from their nursing mothers before they were self weaned.  They will mimic the motions of nursing on you, other cats, or even themselves.  Drooling is the continuous discharge of excess saliva without any sort of stimulation such as eating or kneading..

[29sillygirl]

Not sure I can add anything of value to this thread, but here goes.

My now 7 month old kitten, was a real drooler.  My face was covered with his saliva for ages.  He still does it, and my vet said his sisters cat continued with the drooling (on her favorite stuffed animal) until he was about two years old.  In my kitten's case believe it is an excess of affection.

He has feline herpes as well.  We went through a course of antibiotic drops for eyes and nostrils and now I give him a L-lysine chew once or twice a day to help keep his immune system healthy.

The low crawl and apparent 'blindness' to his food are two other behaviors he has shown.
The crawl I don't worry about.  The inability to 'find' food in his bowl did worry me, so I gently take him to his bowl or put a bit of wet food on my finger and lead him to bowl, and he is fine.

Hope these issues resolve themselves without too much aggro.  I do agree that testing kitten for viral diseases is a very good idea.

I think our little ones are actually very healthy.   As they grow, the symptoms may lessen.

Best to you and kitty.

[nancyjac]

How old is your kitten?  I have one in a somewhat similar situation.  He contracted pneumonia when he was about 3 months old and nearly died from it.  He slowly got better after several rounds of different antibiotics but then had a relapse a week or so after we stopped the antibiotics.  The second time wasn't as severe.  He got well from that but then again after stopping the antibiotics he got URI and again had to go on antibiotics.  He is off the antibiotics this time for about the last 5 days.  He still has some clear eye draining from one eye but otherwise seems fine.  He is now 6 1/2 months old.  I'm still waiting for the results on some of his lab work, namely a viral panel, done from a throat swab culture.  

I suspect your kitten is dehydrated.  Cats eat by sense of smell rather than sight, so if she seems to be looking at her food but can't smell it, she won't eat it. Drooling is often a sign of an intestinal problem.  Mine didn't have the drooling or low body temp (he usually runs a fever when he is sick).  Young kittens don't have a fully developed immune system yet, so they are more likely to get sick than adult cats.  Mine may be a herpes virus carrier which has delayed and depressed natural immune system response.  And of course being on antibiotics for half his life hasn't help to get his own immune systems to kick in to fight off illness.  I supplement his diet with l-lysine and probiotics which seem to help his symptoms from being as severe.