6 month old kitten had loose stool since rescue 4 months ago...help!

Here is the backround:  she has had this loose stool issue since we rescued her from the farmers barn, she has been tested for worms/stool sample twice and clear both times

as long as she is on a ground chicken, rice, pumpkin, wet cat food she does ok...stool still soft but formed

she is crazy for our other rescues dry food but if we go straight dry she has loose stool.  I mean liquid, but no blood or mucus.

put her back on chicken diet and she is ok

we need some suggestions/help for her since we have 3 other rescues all eating dry food and it is extremely difficult to feed two diets since they are all inside cats.  Also the chicken diet sours after 2-3 days even with refrigeration so must be made every 2-3 days!

1) we have tried diferentf brands w/wo grain, etc. and no difference

We have also tried mixing in gradual amounts of dry food into the chicken diet but always results in loose stool when the proportion becomes too high,

2) she is almost hyperactive all the time, never still..if this plays a part in the problem

3) the loose stool starts within 12-24 hours of dry food introduction

we really want to continue to have her as a part of the "family" but the strain is telling on my wife and I.

we are looking for answers to what might be wrong

we are looking for a feeding solution if the cause can't be determined

we are on a fixed income and can't afford the vet to test for everything and try this and if it doesn't work pay again and try this, etc.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

When kittens have loose stools for that long and you have ruled out worms, it often can be either Coccidia or Giardia. Coccidia works in cycles so if a test is done for it, it doesn't always show up positive. Giardia can also be difficult to test for. Both are easily treated with medications (although the coccidia medicine tastes NASTY) and I don't believe that the tests cost too much.

If it is something like this, no diet will clear it up. I have a dog that has chronic digestive problems, and putting him on chicken/boiled rice for a few days completely clears it up. If your kitten never has solid stools, even on your special diet, there is probably something physically wrong with her.

Perhaps call your vet and ask about some additional, low cost tests to rule more things out. The other thought is to contact local shelters and find out if there are any low cost vet clinics in your area.

Thank you for rescuing the kittens.  I'm not sure from your post, are they now strictly indoor cats?  If the are indoor/outdoor, then the female cat (or really all of them) can get infected with worms, especially Giardia, which is often found in contaminated water.

Ritz lived on the streets for the first six months of her life, that's how she contracted Giardia.  And MOM is right--the medicine is nasty tasting, but you can get it compounded into a flavored liquid.  Taste-tabs may also be available (essentially, a pill that has been flavored).

Good luck!

First of all, have her checked for Tritrichemonas foetus (a parasite) not tested using the regular stool sample.  It requires a special test.

My Tumbles can't handle grain-free dry, so he's on Royal Canin Gastrointestinal HE formula from the vet.  It has worked like a charm!  We feed mainly wet food, but he does get about 1/4 C of dry food daily, so this works well for him.  Prior to this, he had such loose stinky stools it wasn't funny.

thanks for the quick response

I will have her rechecked and focus on cocc/giar/ or titrich.

The thing I can't understand is if she is infected with either of the above why does she improve stool wise so drastically when we put her on the chicken diet?

trudy1 said:

thanks for the quick response

I will have her rechecked and focus on cocc/giar/ or titrich.

The thing I can't understand is if she is infected with either of the above why does she improve stool wise so drastically when we put her on the chicken diet?

Click to expand...

You are wonderful for rescuing those kitties. At this point I would be afraid to make an educated guess.  I think the other tests might be in order and a long talk with your vet regarding diet is extremely important at this point. Please keep us posted on the kitties progress if you have time.  So sorry you have to go through this.

trudy1 said:

thanks for the quick response

I will have her rechecked and focus on cocc/giar/ or titrich.

The thing I can't understand is if she is infected with either of the above why does she improve stool wise so drastically when we put her on the chicken diet?

Click to expand...

I've worked with a lot of vets over the years and the one thing they all agree on is that switching your cat/dog over to boiled chicken and rice for a while almost always firms them up. It has always completely cleared things up for me if the problem is temporary (they ate something that didn't agree with them), but only temporarily masks the problem when there are parasites or illness involved. Since the stool is never completely firm, that tells me that the chicken is helping, but not healing.

thanks everybody for your suggestions and help

we have 4 rescues at our house...Dolly being one ...and eight others at "the barn" who are all finally neutered/spayed (catching the last one was a job)...the barn cats get boiled, deboned chicken and dry cat food every other day...yes, they are fat and happy.  A side note is that since we spayed/neutered and re-introduced them back to the barn over the last 1 1/2 years we have had no new cats appearing!   The colony appears stable.

back to Dolly: I suspect you are right about the chicken diet "masking" something so now its' up to us to find a vet who can research this without costing and arm/leg.  I went to PS today and read dry cat food labels...a really interesting task...and during this process will try Inova sensitive diet which seems to have the lowest fiber and good specs for the other stuff...for a store-bought...at least and are in the process of gradually introducing it into the chicken mash.  I think we will know something in 24 hours and will let you know.

Again, Dolly and I say thanks ...she insisted in insert this picture of her...she is a little vain..

Oh my! Dolly is a red girl!! :love::love::love::love:

Only about 10% of red tabbies are female, which makes Dolly somewhat rare. My house princess is a red tabby and she instinctively knows how special she is. I see Dolly is already working you by insisting that you post her picture. Just wait - it will get much worse, er, better! :nod:

What a darling!!

Sending vibes that you get to the bottom of this.