10 day old kitten losing all fur

[SHcope]

I am fostering a new mom with 10 day old kittens. There are 5, all seem fine, except one. He has lost all his fur and looks bald with just a little left on his head. Is this something that could be life-threatening or contagious?
Thank you.

[Jackiewd]

I have the same problem.
My indoor rag doll had 5 kittens one tiny and sadly died today (10 days old) my other 4 kittens big healthy kittens but today I noticed they have lost fur! not in chunks or anything but went so thin that you can actually see there pink skin.
This was such a shock as there coats were fine!
they eat fine,no rash or anything on skin, nobody seems to know whats going on.
I did order a blanket off a shop on ebay what came yesterday and I put it in with kittens which I didn't wash which is a possibility but surly the fur would come out in chunks rather than go this.
I really don't know whats going on, loosing the small kitten today then this!
ive broke my heart, its just worry.
Will the fur grow back, whats going on, does anyone know... please.
Jackie

[snowpuff]

hi - we found 3 kittens newborn literally, placenta still attached! almost 3 weeks ago. We lost one kitten but the other 2 are doing well just one is loosing hair. He did have a crusty eye and we were advised to bathe it with warm water. it is not too bad and he drinks milk well , toilets and walks around the room. The other kitti is really well, placid and cleans himself. This sounds awful but a trip to the vet can be costly as we found out when we asked for a check up. I do have homes for the kittens and have throughly enjoyed looking after them even thought at 3 am I could go back to sleep when feeding. Any help or advise I would be grateful

[Kaydey]

How did they get paint on them?

btw, isn't it odd that we are both answering a concern from 9 mo ago????

[Kaydey]

If this kit is the runt, it may very well be malnutrition as Zodiac first suggested.  

Runts are treated very much in the same way in all of the Animal Kingdom (this includes us humans).

They are most likely to picked out as the weakest, therefore they are 'pushed out' of the 'clan' by either the parent or the siblings.  

I have seen this happen before with a dog i fostered long ago. The 'runt' was pushed out,  but i did not notice this until she was losing hair and not growing.  Hand feeding and removing her from the litter was the best thing.  

She actually lived in one of my dresser drawers with a bunch of clothes and a heat lamp for several weeks.  Because of her, went back to school for vet tech and then on to behavior.

It is important that she not only be treated for disease that the vet 'thinks' might be the problem (which probably isn't or the others would have it also) but also that she be kept warm and hand fed when the others nurse.

[Kittenfostermom]

I foster, also.  I have never had kittens loose their fur unless it was ringworm.  That is until now!!!  My kittens came from a mother that had licked them and then died.  One of the litter died just a few hours after I got them.  Two of them had some dried paint on them (I think it was paint) as well as some fleas.  I bathed them and cut the paint out of the fur of 2 of them.  They were fine, although fragile.  They had problems with dehydration.  They were on KMR then the vet moved them to goat's milk. They were 8 days old when I got them.  Now they are 6 weeks old and all of them are loosing fur all over their bodies.  It started on their backs.  Then behind their ears.  They are very happy and playful.  They are all gaining weight on a regular schedule.  They vet doesn't know what is wrong.  I have started them on some extra vitamins.  Any other suggestions?    

[PrettyKitty1]

Good deal, at least it can be treated. Good luck!

[zodiacqueen]

Thanks for the update!!  I'll keep my fingers crossed that the other kittens don't get it!!

Best wishes

[SHcope]

Update on bald kitty...the vet, and everyone else, is not sure what has caused the loss of hair. There are no sores, ect. We are treating it like ringworm with medicated baths. One other kitty has started losing hair, but the bald one is now growing back hair all over!! Luckily, otherwise they seem fine.
Thanks for the input.

[marissposa]

The cat clinic I volunteer at had a cat come in that was bald except for his head.  The doctors there seemed to think it was allergy related.
Poor kitty :(

[zodiacqueen]

Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and the kitten!  Hopefully, the kitty's condition is as simple as not enough nourishment as I had suggested.  Please keep the updates coming, I love to hear how the kitty's are doing!

[SHcope]

Thanks for all your thoughts! I took the mom and her litter back to the animal shelter so they could look at the kitten. She is definately the smallest of the litter and may not be getting enough nourishment. But, they have never seen her condition before. There is no skin irritation. They took a hair sample to test and she will see the vet on Wednesday.
She is really bald, except for her head! It may be an underlying condition that could be life threatening. That's why I posted this, to see if anyone has ever dealt with this problem. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and watching all of them carefully.

[PrettyKitty1]

Since we’re talking about a kitten here, your best option is to take him to the vet. A kitten shouldn’t be losing its fur unless it has a dermatological condition caused by bacteria, fungus or genetics. How does the skin look? It would help me to know how the skin feels and looks.  I would isolate this kitten since we don’t know what we’re dealing with. I would take care of the kitten until a vet or a specialist can see him and assess what is wrong with him. I would not say that losing hair makes it automatically life threatening, but it is worrisome and should be addressed as soon as possible.  You want to do this before you do anything else because you don’t know what his condition is, you don’t know if it is contagious, and you don’t know if it can affect other parts of his body.

Best wishes! I will also be fostering a kitten that recently had a litter of kittens. She is only 6 months old. It feels great to help animals in need, doesn't it? :)

[zodiacqueen]

After reading your post, my first thought was that maybe the kitten is not getting enough milk from the mom.  Maybe the other kittens are crowding out the other kitten out.  Besides the hair loss, does the kitten seem smaller than the other ones?  Really, I am only making a guess here!  I have no experience with kittens!  But, I do know that nutritional deficiencies CAN lead to hair loss.  I'd do some careful observing to see if the kitten is getting crowded out by the other kittens.  You might have to hand feed the kitten with some milk replacement, like KMR!

Good luck, and please come back with some updates!