Questions about new kittens

[NewKittenMom]

I just adopted two adorable female kittens on Tuesday evening. They were rescued from Brooklyn, NY and were found without a mother. Because they don't have a mother, I was able to adopt them even though they are very young (about 5 weeks old). The first night the girls came home they were playful, ate wet food, drank water and used their litter box. Yesterday they seemed to fall into a routine of sleeping, eating, playing and napping again. My fiance gave them breakfast this morning and said that they both ate well. Since that point though, I'm noticing that one of them is sleeping more today than she did yesterday and has not been eating as much up to this point as she did with me yesterday. She has a little bit of a cold, sneezing a bit, but the vet I took her to with the woman who rescued them said that he didn't want to put her on antibiotics because she seemed to be in good shape. She has been playing a little bit today, but not as much as yesterday. Do I have anything to worry about? Am I just being overly nervous because they're so little? Thanks in advance!

[LittleOrangeKitten]

Sounds like she has a bit of an upper respiratory infection. Just watch her and if she gets worse, call the vet and ask about bringing her back in. Is her nose warm and dry? If so, she may have a bit of a fever. Naranj had a URI when I brought him home. He finally, after two rounds of antibiotics, managed to fight it off. My vet told me kittens are much like babies - they are born with an immune system meant to fight things like colds, etc.

And congratulations on your babies...if you have pictures everyone would love to see them!

[Lizzie]

The kitten's immune system needs to fight off the cold because it's caused by a virus and no medicine will help there. However, what you have to be concerned about is secondary infections caused by the virus, and that's why most vets will use antibiotics. I have kittens also and they've had to be on antibiotics for weeks because their eyes were very affected by the cold virus. The calici virus (fortunately my kittens didn't get that one), which is one virus that can cause colds, can affect the eyes to the point of loss.