5 week male kitten help

Hi all. So i have a 15 month old black cat named Dexter and my wife and I love him to death! We decided to get him a buddy to play with as I travel for work a ton and my wife is busy with nursing school. An acquaintance had a litter of kittens and was giving them away for free.

We decided to adopt one as she was going to the them to the pound. The downside was it was only at 5 weeks. We tried to have her keep him with his mom for another week or two but no go. Day one was fun as he explored the house. He was already on wet food and was litter trained! After tons of research on introducing new kittens to other cats, we put him in another room for a couple hours and after Dexter started scratching the door and was calm we brought him out and skipped the research. After a little hissing and weird looks from Dex, we put him back in the bathroom. Later that night we brought our kitten Rajah (as in the tiger from Aladdin cause thats who he looks like!) back out and Dexter didn't hiss and they started playing! Dexter was a little rough at first but the more they play the more gentle he is. Ok enough back story. Now to the concern lol

Its now Day 7. Everything is going good except his diarrhea and a little vomiting. On day 1 and 2 his poop was solid. Day 3 and 4 he started with black, smelly diarrhea and day 3 he vomited. We were feeding him science diet wet kitten food and think the vomit was because he scarfed it down so fast. Day 5 we took him to the vet and got him on deworming, some powder probiotic (we gave him revolution flea medicine the day we got him) he tested negative to everything including worms and besides emptying his anal glands (they were full) seem to be healthy. The vet said diarrhea was common as his Gi tract was still adjusting to food and had us switch to royal canin baby cat wet food (1 to 4 months). we are to headed back to the vet in a week. Well the last two days he still has diarrhea although its gotten a little better (not as black with a tiny bit solid), he threw up again once yesterday quite a bit of food. My wife feed him a fork full and after he scarfed it down fed him another. I think he threw up cause it was a lot of food at once.

I keep reading about Kmr and am wondering if that would help. Its now day 7 though and we've already switch his food once. Would it be worth it to add that to his food or is it too late? Should we tough it out till the vet in like 5 days or try something to help or is the diarrhea and vomit a common thing for a young kitten getting use to food? Help!

I feel like the diarrhea is normal (our kitten - 8 weeks, adopted from a shelter - experienced diarrhea of varying extents for the first month or so in our home), but I would be concerned about the vomiting, especially since this in combination with the diarrhea very easily leads to dehydration and other problems from there.  Is he really keeping any food down at all?  Does his tummy look bloated?  I am not sure what your feeding schedule looks like now, but I would try feeding him at different increments during the day, very small quantities (maybe so small as even just a tbsp or less).  I personally would give the KMR a shot, then slowly introduce some wet food until about 8 weeks, then start in with very small amounts of dry...he is still very young, so I think there may be some digestion issues there with just straight dry food, not to mention it is probably very hard for him to chew.  I think that the KMR is most certainly worth a try, and if it doesn't work out, wet food will help prevent him from getting so dehydrated from the vomiting and diarrhea until he is to that 8-week mark.  I hope that helps!

Yeah he only eats wet food. We bought some blue buffalo kitten food and i gave him like 4 little pellets. He liked them but was having issues chewing and swallowing so were gonna wait a couple weeks

Diarrhea does seem to be common in young kittens. Your little one is very young to be away from mom and siblings, but I know there was nothing you could do about that. At least you saved this one from the pound.

The vomiting is worrisome. It could be from eating too fat or too much at once, but it is concerning along with the diarrhea since
dehydration could become a problem. Is he drinking plenty of water? If not, then KMR is certainly worth a try to get some extra fluids and nutrition unto him. Also try feeding him smaller but more frequent meals.

Be careful of food changes at this point. His system is still adjusting to solid food, so any changes might upset his system even further.

Lastly, wet food is much better for all cats of all ages than dry. Please go to www.catinfo.org to learn more about feline nutrition. Written by a vet, it's got a lot of great info for cat lovers.

Thanks for all the advice. He only eats wet food. The vomiting has only happen twice after eating a lot thats why I'm not sure if its a super concern. He does drink a lot of water. He even drinks out of Dexters bowl! Im gonna take both advice and feed him small amounts ever 2-3 hours for now. Thanks again!