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My weak feral kitten won't eat and smells strange. What should I do?

Updated on September 23, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | unneutered | 1.65 lbs

Tom is a feral kitten suffering from spinal injury,has ticks and fleas and is very weak.i brought him home a few days ago.he disliked dry kitten food so I bought whiskas chicken gravy food and he liked it but he hasn't eaten anything today.he is totally ignoring food and he smells weird.I don't know what to do.Already shown to get but I'm unable to contact him right now

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Vanessa Yeager DVM MPH

Veterinarian

Published on August 27, 2018

Hi there and thanks for posting on PetCoach!

I'm sorry to hear Tom is having all of these health issues. Poor guy!

Spinal injuries can take a while to heal and some do require surgery. Spinal injuries are also often quite painful so making sure Tom has some pain medication on board would be helpful. If no pain medication was given, you may ask your veterinarian about this.

Special food can be prescribed by your veterinarian or an appetite stimulant medication can be prescribed by your veterinarian to help increase his appetite. You can also heat up the wet food at home a bit to bring out the flavor and may entice him to eat a little bit.

Ticks and fleas in small young kittens can actually cause anemia (low red blood cell count) which can cause weakness and lethargy. The ticks will need to be safety removed either by you or your veterinarian. If you are unsure how to remove a tick, I have linked a video below. You may use a bath of dish soap (Dawn dish soap works well) to help get rid of flea infestation until he is old enough to be on a month flea preventative such as Revolution or Advantage.

If Tom is still not doing well, I would recommend he see his veterinarian again to see what else your veterinarian would recommend.

I hope this helps and best of luck to you!

https://youtu.be/0wotB38WrRY

1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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