Hi all, I could really use some help! I am at my wits end! We have had our kitten for a little over a month now. He is living with us, my daughter(7yrs.), older cat(7 yrs.) and my partner. Anyway, he is and has been adjusting so well. He is playful, loving, outgoing, snuggly!, everything we had hoped for. When we first got him he was using the box no problem, but there are some challenging diarrhea and going outside the box problems now. This is my first experience raising a kitten and it is proving to be much more challenging than I thought! Here is the deal as accurately as I can describe it:
Oliver has been with us for a little over a month now. He has had diarrhea for the entire time. First the vet told us to change the foods. She said to switch to purina cat chow(as basic as you can get) from what we were feeding, which was a grain/fish combo from Acana, which is what our other cat prefers. The problem is still the diarrhea. I am hoping for other suggestions for food, since he has yet to respond to the diet change, or the added FortiFlora powder from Purina that the vet recommended. That is the first problem.
The second is that he is defecating outside the litter box. After having read many articles online about this I can say that I cannot figure out from his behavior why he is doing this. He will go in the box often (more than not) but at least 3 or 4 times a week he will choose to go on either a bed or behind the clawfoot tub(VERY hard to reach to clean!) This is done when his litter box is completely clean(literally nothing in it) or with other feces. He doesn't seem to be picky when it comes to his litter, he uses his own litter box and that of our older cat, he seems to just go wherever he pleases and when he wants. The other problem with the diarrhea is that not only does he go outside the box but he doesn't seem to smell that he still has poop on himself. I read and hear about how cats are fastidiously clean, but he doesn't clean himself which results in him jumping to sit on our laps during the day or night, and trailing runny poop everywhere he goes. Is he still learning to keep himself clean, is there a way that I can help with this?
I am taking him to the vet in a couple of days to check again on the diarrhea and other behavior modification ideas but I would really appreciate any help or constructive advice you may have. As I mentioned this is my first time raising a kitten, and although I read books and have the older cat, I am feeling a little helpless and very frustrated with an overwhelming amount of runny poop everywhere. Not to mention how the poor little guy must feel! Although honestly, he seems so happy all the time, I sometimes wonder if he even notices, which is another puzzle to me.
Anyway, thank you so much for your help.
