My new kitten is sick

She is approximately 9 weeks old. Since we brought her home, she has had diarrhea more often than not and passed gas quite often. About a week ago, she threw up white foam, so I brought her to the vet immediately. The vet gave her antibiotics and told us to wait and see. Unfortunately, we weren't able to give her the medicine three times due to our inexperience and her refusing to take the pill (one pill in the morning, one in the evening).

Today was her last day of treatment, and she had solid poop for the first time in a long time, followed by diarrhea, again. She refuses to heat wet food, and only eats Blue Wilderness dry food. She is drinking water. I called the vet today and she seemed to think that we shouldn't give her more medicine even though her pills ran out too early.

What could be causing her to have an upset stomach? We have had her since she was 2 months old. We feed her only premium quality foods (Blue, Wellness, Merrick, etc) and she isn't even eating that now). lol
When we first got her, she was eating lots and lots of wet food (1 can per day). She is still energetic and playful, although when we brought her in to see the vet, she was sick, lethargic and hiding for a while. Then it got better, but she is still passing gas and has diarrhea (occasionally).

One noteworthy piece of information is that coming home from the vet, she pooped out the water the vet gave her.

Thanks everyone for reading my post. It's late at night and I probably made this longer than it needed to be; I just hope she gets better soon.

bump! Anyone, please?

Do you only feed her the Blue wilderness? Or have you switched brands a few times?

Has she been checked for worms and de-wormed? That's a very common cause for both gas and diarrhea in young kittens. Also, she'll need to be treated for tapeworm which isn't treated with other dewormers. In addition, it could be that the food is too rich for her system and she needs to be on something else. We used to feed Royal Canin kitten and regular Wellness (the kitten formula causes VERY stinky poop!!) or the Taste of the Wild kitten/cat formula. When Tumbles was young, he couldn't handle the Taste of the Wild dry as it gave him the runs, so the vet put him on Royal Canin Gastro HE and he's done very well with that.

Isabelle was checked for worms when we first got her. The medicine that was given to her was metronidazole 50 mg tablets. The vet just called and we picked up a powder made by Purina. This is to be given to her for seven days. Hopefully this takes care of the problem.

And yes, we did switch foods quite a lot actually; but could this really cause her to throw up white foam, feel lethargic, pass a storm of gas, have diarrhea? The vet is trying different remedies right now. What worries me a bit is that she has had diarrhea and passed gas since we first got her.

Once a kitten is tested negative for worms, stays inside, can she get worms?

Thanks for your input!

Switching DRY food can cause stomach problems and diarrhea. It should be switched gradually. I usually make it 5-7 days to be safe. This doesn't seem to apply to wet food though. There are some cats, like one of ours, that can't even eat dry food. He gets stinky diarrhea from it.

Try to find something that works for her and stick with it.

Originally Posted by LuvMyParker

Switching DRY food can cause stomach problems and diarrhea. It should be switched gradually. I usually make it 5-7 days to be safe. This doesn't seem to apply to wet food though. There are some cats, like one of ours, that can't even eat dry food. He gets stinky diarrhea from it.

Try to find something that works for her and stick with it.

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Are you thinking that her symptoms are caused more by her diet than a bacteria/virus? The only food that we have constantly switched on her is the wet food. We did feed her Wellness dry and she didn't seem to like it. She does enjoy eating Blue Wilderness. Also, she did have problems with diarrhea and passing gas from day 1 before we could even switch her food, poor little baby.

How strong are these antibiotics prescribed by the vet? Would it really matter that she missed a few days of antibiotics (in other words, 1.5 days of missed pills are the reason why the bacteria didn't disappear).

Thank you so much for helping out.

Yes, changing dry food quickly very often upsets a kitty's system. You can blend food and do it over a week or 2 for best results and little upset to the system. Wet food you don't have to be so concerned about. Be sure you're feeding her some wet food daily.

Gas & diarrhea are big signs of parasites. I'd go back for a second deworming.

Originally Posted by stephanietx

Yes, changing dry food quickly very often upsets a kitty's system. You can blend food and do it over a week or 2 for best results and little upset to the system. Wet food you don't have to be so concerned about. Be sure you're feeding her some wet food daily.

Gas & diarrhea are big signs of parasites. I'd go back for a second deworming.

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We never had her dewormed, for she tested negative for worms at the vet when we first got her. She has stayed inside since. The vet has prescribed metronidazole 50 mg to her, which we gave her for approximately four days. Now the vet gave us a Purina powder of some sort to place in her food. Could she have gotten worms from being inside?

Our current vet is very sweet and cost conscientious (from the customer's perspective), which I like. She has a one-step at a time solution method. If this doesn't work, she said we would try a metronidazole 50 mg treatment again. I suppose I am just worried that there is a more serious underlying medical condition.

She already had diarrhea when she was tested negative for worms.

Thanks again for everyone kind input. Little Isabelle really appreciates it.

It wouldn't hurt to have her tested for worms again. She could also have something such as giardia which also causes diarrhea. Metro is often given for diarrhea. We went that route with Tumbles and all his tests came back negative and the metro didn't work. That's when we went to the Rx food.

The three nasty intestinal parasites are possibilities, too. Coccidia, giardia, and tritrichomonas foetus. They don't always show up in a fecal exam, but they are very serious. All are treatable, too.

Is your little darling getting 50 mg. of metronidazole each day???? Divided into two doses? A nine week old kitten probably only weighs maybe two pounds. The dosage for metro is about 5mg to 10 mg per pound. And 10 mg. Per pound is max. So a two pound kitten should get 20 mg twice daily max and it really should be about 15 mg. If she weighs less than that you will need to give a quarter of a pill which is very difficult to divide. Ask your vet to give you the liquid form which comes is a chicken flavor. Metro is very bitter and if the kitten tastes the pill at all, you will have a battle on your hands and a lot of foaming and spitting. The liquid is much better for dosing kittens that young too. Be careful not to overdose her on the metro.

I would also deworm her anyway regardless of the negative fecal. She didnt get worms from being inside. All kittens usually get roundworms from their mothers. I would run another fecal. Ask the vet about Drontal or Pyrantel and the kitten should be dewormed two weeks apart. There is also Profender (a spot on treatment that goes on the back of the head) but I don't know if it is safe for kittens that young. Ask the vet. for Isabelle (cute name . I really hope she gets better soon

My kittens are now 6 months, came home at 3.5 months.

I feed Wellness Turkey wet, 5.5oz cans. 1 can for 2 cats per day. I split into 2 halfs in AM and feed second half in PM. If they're hungry or beg for more wet, which they do, I feed another can during the day.

Boy is big now, 12lb, girl is slender at 7lb.

I feed Royal Canin 36 Kitten Dry, free feed all day with l-lysine mixed in. I also mix in 500mg into their AM wet meal, each.

My kittens have normal stools. Kittens were fed same meal at the breeder. Sometimes I read here if you switch foods they may get the runs until they adjust.

My boy will eat more dry, girl will eat more wet. Both poops are REALLY STINKY. I hope getting them after 1 year on regular Royal Canin will hopefully help with stinky poops.

When our car was a kitten she got sick with an ear infection, the vet prescribed an antibiotic, near the end of the seven days, that's how long we were told to administer it, our kitten started throwing up and foaming at the mouth. We immediately stop giving her the medication and brought her to the vets, he checked her out and said that she looked fine but that the antibiotic was probably too strong for her stomach. He checked her ears, and luckily the medication did a least get rid of the infection. Some of these medication are just too strong for the sensitive digestive system of a cat. When our second kitten had a cold, I asked our vet for a more natural suggestion that would not cause our kitten to throw up or foam at the mouth, he recommended L-lycine, hope I spelled it right, it helped our kitten get over her cold without side effects. So sometimes it's good to ask your vet if there's a lighter medication option.