Another Poop Question

We're having trouble getting Tumbles' poop to be a consistent firm texture. This morning I woke to find a couple of nice tootsie-roll like segments, a little bit of softer looking segments, and then all kinds of little bitty pieces of poop in the litter box. For lack of a better term, it looked like some had exploded. There were pieces on the sides of the box, on the wall, and in the box. He does NOT have diarrhea, just soft poops.

He tests negative for worms, has been dewormed twice, has been treated for tapeworms, has had 3 applications of flea medication (Revolution) since July, and finished his booster and rabies shots 2 weeks ago. He's eating EVO kitten/cat canned food and TOTW dry, which is what he's eaten since we got him. We've had this problem the entire time. Some days his poop is normal, other days it's too soft, but not watery. He's not frequenting the box, but it's getting frustrating that his poops are not consistently firm.

Any ideas, tips, or things to try?

It could be the food. Others on here have complained about EVO being rather rich and not settling well.

It was the same when he was on Wellness, too. It just seems like it won't stay a consistent firmness.

I would try him on some probiotics. His little system has been through a lot, and he may be a little out of balance.

Hope this helps.

Cally

What type of probiotic?

When did it start? If it is only a few days and kitty is doing ok otherwise I will monitor it for another few days.

From my exp, it can be food(hopefully), flea, Hyperthyroid or FIV.

If it continou I will have to vet to do a quick blood work for those.

Good luck.

You can get special probiotics for pets but I just use the kind I sell in my web biz (I sell dietary supplements for kids with ADHD and autism) and the kind that my family uses. It's a blend of several different beneficial bacteria. I'd be happy to pop a few capsules in the mail and you can open the capsules and sprinkle on his food and see if that helps. I always do a couple of weeks of it when I bring a new kitty home, or when they've had antibiotics.

Cally

We've been giving him acidophilus and Lysine because his eyes have been so watery. He also gets Missing Link.

stephanietx, my cat is having the same problem. We did BW and it came back normal and we just sent out a stool sample and a swab but haven't gotten the results back yet. Right now he is eating dry wellness which might be too rich for him but I don't know what to change it to because he has some kind of allergy (we think to chicken and corn products) so it's hard to find a dry food without either of thoese in it. If you take your kitty to the vet please let me know what they tell you. My vet said next we could do an ultrasound but I don't know if that would be worth putting Paulie through the stress of that or not, like you said it's not direaha just soft stool. I hope your kitty feels better soon.

Here's the update: We've not changed Tumbles' food, but we did start giving him 1/2 of an acidophilus pill with each meal. We also made sure he stayed out of the other cats' food and didn't forage for any dropped human food in the kitchen. After a couple of weeks, his poops have been normal every single time! They also haven't been as smelly.

An interesting side note, though. His adult canines have also broken through and are growing well. Now I'm wondering if his "teething" caused the problem.

Glad it is working! As far as probiotics goes, I like Bene-Bac and Probios... If the acidophillus alone stops working, it is something you might want to try - a more complete blend of different strands of good bacteria.

I thought about getting some Bene-bac since I can walk down to PetsMart during my lunch break, but the acidophilus seems to be working. Besides that, it's dangerous for me to go into that store!! I'll file the info away for later use, though. Thanks for the links!