13 week-old Oci kittens with (mild) diarrhea, please advise

bahger

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Hi everyone. As some of you are aware, we recently became the proud owners of two gorgeous Ocicat kittens.

I may have to adjust their diet, however, because the following combination of foods appears to be giving them both a mild-to-severe case of diarrhea:

Wet food: Hills Veterinarian Science Diet (liver/chicken)
Dry Food: Evo Cat/Kitten

I rang a couple of specialist pet food stores and was advised each time to feed them only the dry food for the time being. They assured me this would be sufficient nutrition for the kittens.

I'm a little bit concerned about this; can you help?

Many thanks.
 

sharky

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In about 50% of cats EVO is too rich...

I dont like Hills ingrediants and would say try a simple can like California natural or Natures variety

What were they on when you got them???
 

catsarebetter

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IMO, Evo is much closer to the diet that they'd have in the wild, or a raw diet. It's what I feed mine, but it's really rich. I do notice if mine eat a lot of wet, that I have more trouble with bouts of diarrhea.

Do you know what they were being fed previously, and did you slowly switch them over or are these changes rather sudden? My personal opinion is that Evo is a more nutritionally sound food than the Hills, but I'm also certain that others here will disagree.

Um, keep an eye out for them being lethargic, and just to be on the safe side, I'd check them for dehydration every so often. Evo does make a wet food, which might benefit you in that it's the same brand, and probably similar ingredients. The diarrhea is most likely diet related, but I would keep an eye out for any other unusual signs that it might be something else. If you're not sure what those signs would be, feel free to PM me or just reply here, otherwise, I figure you probably know since you've had cats before.

I'm also assuming that you're working with cans that you've just purchased, and not cans that you had left over from before (just double checking on the recall of foods, since it's unbelievable how many people had no idea that food had been recalled)..

oh, and I wanted to say, best of luck
 
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bahger

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Thanks everyone. They had been on Royal Canin dry food and, yes, Whiskas kitten food at the breeder's. We transitioned them quite slowly.

Yes, and all the food has been bought new.
 

sharky

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EVO IS cooked and thus NOT CLOSE to a natural diet
///

IT is a very good food and with out grain one of the best diet foods and for about 50% who try it a wonderful food... BUT the other 50% have similiar issue s to what your having now... Many other grain frees seem to be better tolerated IMHO

EVO wet may be tolerated better but I would go simplier...

WAS the transition over 3 or so weeks??? Kittens can be very sensitive to change.. If EVO is what you want in the dry I might suggest redo ing the switch over if you still have some... My dog did well on Evo for a while , My cats on the other hand neither could handle it and I finally got the what that was the issue
 

goldenkitty45

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I don't like Science Diet, so I'd cut that out for the time being. Try giving them some cooked rice with chicken flavor (boullion cube or chicken broth). Might just boil up some chicken breast and shred that into tiny pieces and add the rice to the broth.

We feed our cats Royal Canin. Charlie's breeder feeds that. Personally I'd keep them on RC Kitten. Many top breeders are feeding RC with great results.
 
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bahger

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OK I'm weaning them off the Evo and onto California Natural dry food. I'm still giving them the Hills but in smaller quantities (i.e. on demand)...
 

renovia

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make sure to do it over a long period of time.

and yes dry food can help diarrhea some.
 

sarahp

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Good luck, let us know how it goes! I assume they've been vet checked to make sure it's not something else?
 

pamalajane

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I had the same problem with the Innova Evo and my siamese. He had bouts with loose stool and when I stopped the Evo dry it all cleared up. I am also using the California Natural Dry and have have had no problems with diarrhea since the switch.

Good luck with the switch.
 
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bahger

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I'm beginning to be a little concerned and have placed a call to the vet. They have an already scheduled appointment on Saturday morning and I'll have to decide whether I want to wait until then.

Both cats are frisky and lively but they both have diarrhea and the little girl has it so badly that she treads in it in her litter and tracks it through the house. Not fun.

As a kind of emergency measure, I have taken up their wet food and for today I'm giving them California Natural dry food only, the chicken and rice. And of course they have fresh water.

This is a bit disconcerting.
 

xxtashaxx

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for 24 hours i would cut out all other foods except for the boiled chicken and rice give this in small portions but frequently, and make sure they have plenty of freash water at all times. i perfer the RC foods they cater for all different ages and diets and iv never had a problem with any of the cats on this food. and they also do wet and dry.
 

goldenkitty45

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I'm thinking those guys could be allergic to chicken! There is no reason they should continue to be having problems.

Try giving them cooked hamburger and rice for a few days and see if it clears up. If so, then they are probably allergic to anything with chicken (which means hunting for non-chicken based foods).
 
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bahger

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I'm thinking those guys could be allergic to chicken! There is no reason they should continue to be having problems.

Try giving them cooked hamburger and rice for a few days and see if it clears up. If so, then they are probably allergic to anything with chicken (which means hunting for non-chicken based foods).
Wow, I never thought I'd meet a cat that's allergic to chicken!

Thank you for your advice, everyone. My assumption is that if this continues with only the California Natural being given then, because this brand is designed to be gentle on a cat's stomach, the root cause may well be an allergy to chicken. Their breeder fed them Whiskas wet food (which everyone despises) and Royal Canin dry. I got them off the Whiskas and onto the Science Diet wet, and Evo dry. Then the diarrhea started so I transitioned them from the Evo to the Cal. Nat. but unless there is a marked improvement then I fear I'm making things worse for them, not better... Oh dear.
 

goldenkitty45

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IMO if they were fine on the RC, then I'd be using that. Charlie is on RC Beauty & Fit. He was on RC Kitten. Maybe the key is to give them the RC dry.
 
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bahger

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

IMO if they were fine on the RC, then I'd be using that. Charlie is on RC Beauty & Fit. He was on RC Kitten. Maybe the key is to give them the RC dry.
Is the RC dry chicken-based?
 

catsarebetter

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If they didn't have a reaction like this to RC, ... was that chicken based? I'm figuring there was probably some sort of chicken in that. I personally think it may be that they just simply haven't had enough time to adjust to the wet/dry new combo yet. I'd put them on a single decent food, and see how they are in a week. It takes a while for their system to adjust to it. (Still take them to the vet on Saturday), but if they're running about and acting normally, drinking water like normal, it's probably just simply diet-related. And sometimes, they can't eat a combo... my Mau cant'..or she's got chronic diarrhea.

It's good that you've an appointment, though. How long have they been on one food now?
 
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bahger

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They've been on the one food since this morning (Tuesday 17th). After the latest diarrhea-related disaster (that almost literally involved cleaning poop off the ceiling!) I took up the Hills Science Diet wet I'd been giving them and left them with fresh water only last night, hoping this would settle their stomachs down. This morning there was more diarrhea but the kittens otherwise seemed fine. Before I left for work I gave them the California Natural dry food only (with water, of course) and await the results of that.

I was thinking of driving home at lunch and buying some RC dry but I might be better off waiting to see if this Cal. Nat. dry-only diet helps. I do not want to make sudden, arbitrary changes in their dirt but I really must get to the bottom of this and I'm a little worried.
 

goldenkitty45

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I believe it is chicken-based, so maybe its wiser to give them the RC that they are used to. Like I said, if they were fine on RC and no diarraha, then put them back on that.

Also are you using regular tap water for them to drink? If so, switch to bottled water or filtered water. Sometimes kittens (and cats) have problems with diarraha when they are drinking "new" water. They are used to the breeder's water and it can vary from city to city.

We also take our own filtered water the cats (and dog) are used to drinking whenever we are on the road/trip, etc.

When we first got Charlie (picked up RC before we came home) we had him drinking bottled water for a good week to ease the change over. I would never let him drink some of the other city's water when showing! I've tasted some of it - you get used to good filtered water
 
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