Kitten Diarrhea - Change in Food the Cause?

randy

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Have had 2 new kittens for 2 weeks now, both just under 3 months old. Zero problems. Ran out of food and got some different dry food. did not do the mixing of old and new food. That night the small runt got tummy trouble. Her behavior has not changed at all. Sleeps, plays like a cat possessed and meows a lot. We gave her a piece of chicken and she almost inhaled it and spent the next hour going crazy around the kitchen looking for more. She is not acting like she is sick at all. Gave her a bit of a small can of food mixed with the dry and she ate almost all of it. Had a very small amount of blood in the stool later that night. This morning her stool was a little better, but no sign of blood.

going to call the vet this morning to run through what I just said and get some ideas. They were both just at the vet this last Thursday and got a clean bill of health. they are both indoor cats.

It all started when we changed foods, from Purina Kitten to Iams kitten chow.
Seems awfully coincidental but who knows. I have been a labrador retreiver guy all my life so this new adventure into the cat world is quite new to me.

thx for any advice.

Randy
 

sharky

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Yes many kittys need SLOW SLOW change overs in food...otherwise tummy upset can occur

Have they been wormed??

If you want advise on IMHO better foods just ask or search cat food on here

Welcome to TCS
 

icklemiss21

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Welcome to TCS

A sudden change in food can certainly cause tummy upsets and nasty litterboxes, it is best to change slowly, and keep them on one for a long period of time rather than switching.

It could also be that something did not agree with him in the ingredients in the new food
 

mike&becky

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sorry to jack your thread, but out kitten has been having sorta the same problem... weve been trying to feed her kitten chow (Iams) but she doesnt seem to eat it, so lately weve been mixing the hard food with gerber turkey baby food... she seems to enjoy it and eats both parts... other things weve given her were a thimble of 1% milk, very small bowl of baby formula, a little bit of our adult cat food (purina)... could those things be the cause of her diarrhea? is there any methods that we could try to get her to eat just the dry food we have for her? this is our first younger kitten (maybe 6 weeks, vet told us 8-10 but she looks younger)


any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by mike&becky

sorry to jack your thread, but out kitten has been having sorta the same problem... weve been trying to feed her kitten chow (Iams) but she doesnt seem to eat it, so lately weve been mixing the hard food with gerber turkey baby food... she seems to enjoy it and eats both parts... other things weve given her were a thimble of 1% milk, very small bowl of baby formula, a little bit of our adult cat food (purina)... could those things be the cause of her diarrhea? is there any methods that we could try to get her to eat just the dry food we have for her? this is our first younger kitten (maybe 6 weeks, vet told us 8-10 but she looks younger)


any help would be greatly appreciated!
Many cats are lactose intolerent soe PLEASE get cat milk over cows milk,.... I dont like cat chow but if memory serves it is an all stage which means a kitten could eat it ... Baby as in kitten formula?? or human???.... Does the baby food have ONION OR GARLIC in it/?? if so STOP as those can be toxic
 

mike&becky

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Originally Posted by sharky

Many cats are lactose intolerent soe PLEASE get cat milk over cows milk,.... I dont like cat chow but if memory serves it is an all stage which means a kitten could eat it ... Baby as in kitten formula?? or human???.... Does the baby food have ONION OR GARLIC in it/?? if so STOP as those can be toxic
weve already stoped giving her the milk, as for the baby formula, its powdered human baby formula (similac)... shes only had a very small amount. the kitten chow that we have its made for kittens, should we try to find something else? it was that same stuff we fed out first cat (she was a bit older when we first got her though)... as far to my knowledge the baby food that weve given her doesnt contain any onion or garlic... label reads "Turkey & Turkey gravy" ingredients: Ground turkey, water and corn starch...
 

sharky

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DO NOT use HUMAN formula it too is cow milk based or soy( big allergen for cats..)

DO you know how to use the search function on this site>???
 

mike&becky

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Originally Posted by sharky

DO NOT use HUMAN formula it too is cow milk based or soy( big allergen for cats..)

DO you know how to use the search function on this site>???
ok... no more formula...

i do know how to use the search function... what shall i search for? kitten nutrition?

also... i just checked on her, and her recent stool is harder than it has been which is good... but it doesnt look that she ate any of the food i gave her (the kitten chow wetted down with warm water)
 

icklemiss21

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If you go to your pet store, they have both kitten milk replacement and cat milk (up here the only one I have seen is made by whiskas for the catmilk) they can be safely used.

It is generally not a good idea to mix dry food with liquid for bacteria reasons, give a bowl of kitten wet food and a bowl of kitten dry.

Changing the type of food or 'snacks' she is getting can certainly upset her stomach, get her used to one food and stick to it (as they get older you can do a slow changeover)

Hope that helps
 

mike&becky

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Originally Posted by icklemiss21

If you go to your pet store, they have both kitten milk replacement and cat milk (up here the only one I have seen is made by whiskas for the catmilk) they can be safely used.

It is generally not a good idea to mix dry food with liquid for bacteria reasons, give a bowl of kitten wet food and a bowl of kitten dry.

Changing the type of food or 'snacks' she is getting can certainly upset her stomach, get her used to one food and stick to it (as they get older you can do a slow changeover)

Hope that helps
next time were at the pet store, well pick some up...

now when you mention a bowl of kitten wet food and a bowl of dry food, do you mean the canned wet food and do you mean to give her both to maybe see which one she eats? and in other words, we shouldnt be moistening her hard food with a little water?
 

icklemiss21

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As long as it is kitten dry it shouldn't need to be moistened (unless she is too young for it in which case it should only be the milk and wet fed). Yes canned (or pouch) wet food, in a kitten formula.

At the shelter, we give them a bowl of wet, a bowl of dry and a bowl of water and let them pick and choose what they want to eat.
 
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