Kittens, wet food, and diarrhea

Full blown kitten season (a little later this year) at the shelter for which I volunteer, and we have a problem with very loose stools.  The kittens are fed Science Diet kitten dry food except for those who had been started on other dry foods.  Typically, they get a little wet food at closing in the evening.  Those in the organization with much more knowledge than I believe that the wet food is the culprit.  Does this sound reasonable.  I would expect to hear plenty from the anti-dry food crowd (with whom I generally agree) on this subject.

Many shelters feed dry because of the cost (and inconvenience) of canned, but it's highly unlikely that it prevents diarrhea. In fact, because of the grains it contains, the converse is likely.

It's more probable that the kittens have coccidia, giardia or the like. Have they been tested and wormed?

These kittens have all been wormed. 
 

DrBobCat said:

These kittens have all been wormed. 

 

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The protozoa that jcat mentioned can be pretty resistant.

I have seen dry food relieve symptoms of diarrhea, but only because the kitten was dehydrated. The kitten's stools still stunk terribly and she started urinating more concentrated urine.

If the diarrhea persists, I suspect we'll re-worm the little ones.  I may be oversimplifying, but could the wet food just be too rich for kittens that were more or less fed on dry food?

It's unlikely the wet food is the problem. Have brands of dry been switched? That can cause loose stools.

What dewormer is being used?

As opposed to the food, it is more likely something like coccidia or giardia. VERY common, and traditional wormers don't treat them. Giardia requires Panacur: it used to be treated with flagyl (metronadizole), but many strains have become resistant. Coccidia is usually treated with Albon. So if you don't nail down what's causing the problem, you're potentially just wasting money, stress, and time.

We rescued two kittens in June that had coccidia. We successfully treated them with a probiotic, S. Boulardii. The problem is that it's very bitter, so we had to buy smaller capsules and a manual filler, because the only way we could get it into them was via pilling. It also has to be given for at least a month - twice a day. That doesn't seem practical given a shelter situation.

I think you should have at least someone's stool checked for coccida, giardia, clostridium strains, or T. foetus.