variable poo ?

Hi all! I'm new here, but this seemed like a great place to get ideas and answers that other sites aren't forthcoming with.

Anywho, I've recently adopted a new little guy, Toulouse (he's got short legs ). He's about 8 months old, and was a stray living next to an abusive household for the first 7 months of his life. He was very shy and didn't know what to think of people at first, but he's really warmed up and loves to sleep and play with me.

The first day he was with me, he had normal bowel movements, but he soon started having soft stool and diarrhea and farting a bit, and he barfed up a LARGE quantity of food. I think the food i initially had him on didn't agree with him, plus the stress of going from stray to animal hospital to me, and the fact that he WOLFS everything down as fast as possible, were wreaking havoc on his insides. I got him on some better food (eagle-pack?), give him small portions throughout the day, and gave him distilled water to drink in hopes of getting rid of it.

We've been together now about 5 weeks and he has his good days and his bad days, poop-wise. One day he'll have solid, well formed stool, albeit stinky and soft, and the next he'll literally be making noxious puddles in his litterbox I'm not really sure what to do, I can't seem to pinpoint a cause and I've never run up against this with cats before. On two separate days he also had little dry heaves and several hours later barfed up, though not a lot of material. I've called the vet where I adopted him and brought in stool and barf samples, and thankfully hes physically fine (no worms or parasites) They said to more or less keep an eye on him and if it continues to take him in for a checkup.

Whats most distressing about it, is that he's very thorough in the litter box! If he can smell anything at all, he'll keep digging until it's covered to his standards. I hear him in there for more than 5 minutes sometimes. But the liquid poo doesn't really clump and the more he tries to cover it, the more it breaks up and gets spread around. I can tell it's frustrating him, especially if he gets a paw in it, and it's very difficult to keep his box clean because of it.

If it's not worms/parasites, and he's got manageable portions, better food, and he's much more comfortable with me and his surroundings, then whats making my poor little guy take two steps back everytime he succeeds in the litter box ?? how can I help him through this?

Tomas has the same problem, albeit not watery -just too soft.

He's been checked and checked again, I've tried low residue that the vet suggested... no idea if it helped since he can be fine for two to three weeks at a time, but it had corn and Sho munched on a bit of it (not good...). And tried no chicken - no change. He too was found outside and a bit on the thin side. No idea what horrible junk he had been fed before.

...I've ordered some probotics for him. Now I'm just waiting to get them.

I hope they help Tomas, and I hope they help your kitten too if you choose to try them.

Originally Posted by laureen227

oh, another possibility - Cable will have extra soft stool if i feed too rich of a food. i've tried switching them over to a 'better' food a couple of times, & this happens to her every time.
so i feed a 'medium' grade food, & she does much better.

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That's what I dealt with for a long while too...finding the right food for YOUR cat can be very hard to do.....for us and Zoe's poop issues, Iams Hairball was recommended and it did the trick right off for her. I gradually added in some Iams kitten with it too with the majority of the mix being the hairball and she's still good.

Best of luck finding what works, I know it can be frustrating for many pet owners....

Oh and congrats on your new kitty...I love the name!

Originally Posted by RaggieKitty

Oh and congrats on your new kitty...I love the name!

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hehe, thanks! it seemed to fit him

We had another poo-incident this morning. Toulouse scattered little clumps of it aaaaaaaal over the surface of the box, and just gave up trying to cover it all, which is a first. For a stray, he's very meticulous about his box. I caught him making exploratory digging motions in a stack of towels in the closet, presumably trying to find another place to poo, and i'm concerned that if this isn't fixed soon, we'll cross over into the "behavior problems" category He also stuck a whole paw in it by accident, so he's spent the last 30 minutes trying to make his back legs white again...

I'm calling the vet to see if i should bring him in. Maybe he's got that overactive bacteria thing you mentioned. Sounds kinda like an "algae bloom" in his tummy, haha. On the plus side, he's not loosing weight, and he drinks like a fish so he's not dehydrated. The eagle-pack food that i give him actually includes the active stuff that yogurt has and is supposed to help with things. I think I'll try that canned pumpkin idea too, since he's fascinated by everything that I can put in my mouth (no table scraps though. except for a mouthfull of plain egg he was able to swipe a couple days ago)

Thanks again! I hope we can clear this up soon.

Originally Posted by SchreuKat

For a stray, he's very meticulous about his box.

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Actually, strays and ferals are usually the ones who are the most meticulous about covering their waste. Think about it: If their scent is too easily detected by predators, they're not going to live very long. So, his behavior makes sense.

This won't help with the underlying cause of his digestive issues, but could you maybe supply him with at least one additional litter box? Give him more clean acceptable areas to go so he doesn't try to find inappropriate places to go instead, and so that he doesn't have to clean "that stuff" off himself.

And as far as the wolfing food down is concerned, many people recommend putting a large sized object like a golf ball in his dry food bowl. This will force him to slow down as he has to eat around the golf ball. Just make sure that whatever object you choose, it's large enough so he won't eat it! I've also seen people recommending spreading the food out across a cookie sheet or something similar. Lastly, you might want to buy a play and treat ball, which dispenses dry food as the cat rolls the ball.

I too hope that his issues will get remedied soon.

Thanks for the advice! I hadn't heard of the golf ball in the food trick, so i'll give that one a try too. I do have another litter box, and it makes sense to put out another one if he's completely messed the first. They're not small boxes, and he's not a large cat, but liquid poo gets around apparently.

I took him to the vet this evening after the two days of extreme diarrhea. They gave him a shot to help "firm things up back there." Not meant as a cure, but a one time thing to help him "keep it together" while we ride it out and maybe ease into another food that will help a bit more. In a brilliant move, i left the stool sample I had at home, so i'll head back tomorrow on my own and have them check it for other parasites and bacteria and such. They gave me a bit of Science Diet I/D(?) for digestive problems to try as well, and i've mixed a little in with his normal food. I dont' think he much likes the taste cause he keeps licking his chops even when he's been done for a couple minutes. Even though he was really good in the car and at the vet, he's still walking around kinda zoned out, calming down from the whole event. Hopefully tonight he'll be back to himself, and tomorrow we'll start making headway.

Thanks again, all!

You may want to see if the vet can run a giardia screen. The usual check for parasites may not include this. Giardia is not uncommon in kitties that have been on their own for a while. If he was on his own in getting water, he could have easily been drinking out of areas contaminated with the protozoa.

The extreme liquid diarrhea you describe is something that is common in kitties with a giardia infestation. Treatment can take a long while.

It could also be that his digestive system is just trying to find a balance with his new and improved diet.

Vets have always told me that a stool sample has to be from the same day to be useful, so be sure to collect a new one to take to the vet.

My Grabben is going through the same thing right now. It's pretty much ruled out that he has a parasite. His blood tests indicate that his liver isn't functioning properly... most likely because when we got him, he was malnourished.

He's now eating a food mixture of Hill's I/D and L/D. My vet also recommended a probiotic (dunno if they have it in the US though - it's called Pro-Kolin). Since he has been using the probiotic, I've noticed an improvement. He also used to have stinky breath, and that has also improved.

You mentioned that your cat is drinking like a fish... my vet told me that this is abnormal (my cat does the same thing)... this likely indicates a liver problem. He's also over-burying his poopy since it smells so bad. Grabben did that too, but since the addition of his L/D food, and probiotic, I've noticed that his poo-poo smell has improved, and he doesn't over-bury so much now.

If he was malnourished when you got him, then your kitty's problem may be the same as my kitty's. Maybe your vet can verify that his liver is or isn't functioning properly with a blood test.

Hope Toulouse gets better soon!

that's what I was thinking too.

Drinking a lot of water is never a good sign as healthy cats get about 75% of their water from their food.

This could be due to dehydration from the diarrhea but it could also be liver or even kidney strain from chronic dehydration.
Ask the vet for a stool smear, a blood test and some sub q's to help kitty feel better. Might want to consider a little kitty dose of pepcid as well to help with inflammation and protect against ulcers.

good luck!

hehe, maybe "drinking like a fish" was the wrong phrase to use. He was drinking a little more than i'd expect, but he's definetly keeping it within acceptable quantities. But thanks for the info though, I'll keep it in mind to look out for.

After the vet, we've had two, going on three days of good b-m's Solid formed stuff with hardly any stink. No more of this pancake batter or running faucet consistency. eugh, gross analogies, i know. I've kept him on his regular food instead of switching him to the Science Diet I/D stuff. He is FAR from a picky eater, but he managed to separate all of that food off to one side of his bowl and didn't touch it. Even when he's hungry, if i put it in front of him, he'll make his little disgusted face and mow for the good stuff.

Since the vet said that the shot was just a one-off treatment, I'm not getting my hopes up that we're over this ordeal, but it's looking on the up and up for now at least. If or when we do start seeing problems again, they want me to bring in the fresh sample and they'll test it. If that doesn't narrow it down, they'll do the blood tests and I'll ask about the info you've given me! Thanks all !!!!!

I've been adding the eagle pack holistic solutions to Tomas and Sho's food once a day so far. I haven't smelled a single fart from Tomas in over three days - which is really something, he's a gassy cat. No diarrhea or soft stools either, and it seems to take the edge off the smell when he does go.

Try a probotic or a probotic + digestive aid along with the other stuff. The Bene-bac, if you can find it is, is relatively cheap.

I had the same problem with my little guy. His stool situation lasted from about the beginning of September til this past January. Once we ruled out all medical issues with the vet we tried finding a food that would be easy on his system. We finally found that California Natural Chicken & rice dry really helped him. For Wet we use Merrick's with a little bit of the Eagle Pack Holistic Solutions sprinkled on it. So far so good....but for a good 4 - 5 months we never knew what to expect when cleaning the litter. That loose stool & litter combo can really fly....We had some amazing art work on our wall.

Good luck!!

my max and sophie have been having loose stool for several months and we've tried nearly everything. max's recently got worse and we saw the vet today. the only thing he hadn't tested for was tritrichomosis, so we did that (another $88 fecal, ugh). he said the results can take a while to come back. we tried the low residue diet and that did nothing. i've been using the eagle pack holistic solutions and it seemed to be working for about a week then everything went back to the way it was. so now we are going to use hill's i/D dry, which they LOVE! they scarfed it down! max is also going to be getting metronidazole, he is suprisingly a good pill taker. i hope this does something...

I've been having this problem with my girls... all fecals came back negative.

The vet prescribed Ronidazole, which they've been on for 5 days so far and stools were firm after day 2. It's a 10 day run. From what I understand side effects are fewer with this than with the metronidazole.

As long as things stay as they are I think we'll be in the clear!