kitten with chocolate syrup stool!

Hi

Kate is a five month old adopted kitten. She has a great disposition. Loves to play. She is an orange and white domestic short hair. She is just a lovely little kitty! But, we adopted two. And the her partner, Archie (who the vets loved and said was the cutest kitten they had seen in a long time - he was black with a grey outer coat, super sweet) died. He ultimately had FIP, which I had suspected due to protruding abdomen, lethargy, diarrhea and generally lost the energy to play. It was two days ago that they put him down. Ugh. Beyond sad, since I also just had to put my 15 year old cat to sleep a month ago and based on a leap of faith I decided to adopt these two rescues (who, btw, are going to be featured on Too Cute on Animal Planet in Sept because they were raised by a Hurricane Sandy Rescue named Juno - if you watch it, Archie was Paddington at the time and Kate is the white/orange one).

Anyway, long way of saying this: for the past three days she has had chocolate syrup stool. Kind of smelly, but not the worst. I have changed her litter several times, for fear of parasites. She has had one round of panacur in the past, because they suspected Giardia. She also has had a perpetual pink eye - for which she has had drops and ointment on and off for over one month - and now her third eye lid is showing in that eye (only that eye). But, her eye is less pink now. AND finally, she does not go anywhere but the litter box and is very very clean. Neurotically so, poor thing, probably worried. Anyway, she is a very caring kitty.

After being on Weruvia (chicken), Blue (duck and beef) and Abady (beef, wet verson) she still has stool like a brown river. I decided to try Purina Naturals - this cheap food goes against my every inner cell not because it is bad, but because well, I am programmed to think WET FOOD is best. Is it really, though? Will it help her? I am willing to try whatever works and if it turns out that I have to ween her off of it later, I will, but she is not happy, nor am I.

She is going to the vet Tuesday, and has been on Hills Rx diet (wet) for digestive issues - still poo like a brown river. I empty her litter every time she goes (scooped) and I wash her paws for fear of another parasite.

Any and all advice is welcome!

Bless you for saving this kitty and working to get her well.  It is so frustrating at times as it seems just as one thing gets better something else happens.  First of all, getting her to the vet for a fecal is a great idea, so I'm glad that's already set up.  Be sure to take a fresh stool sample.  It's very likely she has a parasite.  Be sure the vet tests for tritrichomonus foetus, which doesn't show up on a regular fecal float test.  It requires a special test.   You can read all about the parasite and how to treat it here: 

Secondly, I have a kitty who we got at about 11 wks and he was unable to handle an all grain-free diet, so after trying several rounds of metronidazole, the vet prescribed Royal Canin Gastrointestinal HE.  That was 2.5 yrs ago and he still can't tolerate an all grain-free diet, so he still gets a few of the Rx crunchies daily.  His diet is 95% grain free canned and 5% dry mixture of grain-free and Rx.

Thirdly, wet is really the best for them, as is grain-free.  You can add a bit of plain canned pumpkin to the wet food and mix to see if that will help with the diarrhea a bit. 
 

First of all, I'm so so sorry about the loss of your kitties. :heart2:

As to the runs... The first thing we do with rescues that have diarrehea is fast them for 24 hours. System reset. Then feed a bland diet: either Beechnut chicken babyfood (it has no cornstarch like Gerber) or plain boiled, shredded chicken with broth. Provide a safe, GI soothing and coating fiber with anti-inflammatory properties, slippery elm bark powder. The proper dose, even for kittens (if older than 11-12 weeks) is 1/4 teaspoon twice a day. Mix it with 1 teaspoon of George's aloe vera juice (has to be George's, its made without the latex which is toxic to cats, and it has no preservatives). Let it gel up, and mix into the food. I would also give a human acidophilus supplement, something with 5 billion CFU. All of these you should be able to get at a health food store. Feed this for up to a week.

If this doesn't resolve the problem, you have to check for nasties, which is best anyway, and you have the appt. You're not checking for just T. Foetus, but coccidia, giardia, and various clostidium strains, and maybe E. Coli. All of these are a lab test, not done in house.

All of the food changes may not be helping. I'd do the bland diet for now, even though it's not nutritionally balanced, for the short period, it will be ok.

Get the fecal tests done; see how she responds to the bland for with slippery elm, George's aloe vera, and the 5 billion cfu human acidophilus probiotic supplement in the meantime, then slowly reintroduce a high protein (animal based protein), low-carb food, like By Nature Organics, and keep us posted. :heart2: