6 week kittens with diarrhea but otherwise thriving

We have 3 foster kittens 6 weeks old today. Over the past 5 days or so, their stools have gotten gradually softer to where now they are varying degrees of diarrhea. They are still nursing and only really started eating wet food about a week ago (introduced it at 4 weeks, but they didn't have much interest until 5). Their stool started like toothpaste, and then got a bit firmer, then softer, softer to where now it seems like one has good stool but two of the others have declined to where today it is liquidy. They were dewormed and vaccinated for the first time 3 days ago, and at that time I thought maybe they were a little soft, and mama cat definitely was having some issues (just a little mushy, not liquidy). Now mama cat is having normal stool again. My only thoughts are that it's just due to the switch to solid food in increasing amounts, or that it's a reaction to the dewormer. I put some pumpkin in their food tonight and sprinkled a bit of probiotic powder. I didn't have any good probiotics left, so I need to get some more as I'm not sure these ones will do any good (they're cheap, non-refrigerated human ones).

Any other ideas? Our last foster litter arrived to us sick and had absolutely terribly diarrhea issues for weeks on end and it was a nightmare to deal with and keep everything clean and disinfected. I really, really had hoped not to have to deal with that this time! I thought with having their mama from a month before they were born, we would be unlikely to be dealing with any infectious diarrheal diseases. Dearly hoping this is nothing infections and I can nip it in the bud. I will be taking stool samples in to the shelter if it doesn't resolve in the next day or two (my schedule the next two days is such that it would be extremely difficult for me to get samples in, so that will only happen if it becomes emergent)

Kittens seem good otherwise. They have all hit 2 pounds already at just 6 weeks.

this human probiotic is probably good enough.  these who knows tells human probiotics are OK to use for cats, they are sometimes even better than this whatsitisname made for animals.

This with pumpkin is too a good idea.

I dont have more to add at this moment.

Good luck!   *vibes!*

I just went through this! I have 9 week old rescues that I got at 6 weeks, and they had bad diarrhea the first couple weeks I had them. My vet put them on a course of metronidazol (hard on kitty tummies long term but a short term dose worked WONDERS!) and some special tummy food for them. They were on both for a week and then I gradually switched them over to their kitten food and they've been perfect ever since.

Also yours are BIG! Mine are less than 2lbs at 9 weeks!

Yes, your kittens ARE big!! 6 week olds are just over a pound usually.......wow, that's incredible. Like, are you sure that scale is right??! lol~

Anyway, you are fostering for a shelter, do they NOT use ponazuril?

Some vets use it but alot of shelters do since diarrhea and uri's are the biggest infectious issues they face.

Ponazuril kicks butt, I couldn't imagine life without it now.

Used to use Albon, which slowly works, in time, or Metronidazole/Ronidazole but ponazuril is super fast and incredibly effective.

Momma needs some too!

I forgot to mention this part!

Mom very likely has parasite(s) and passes it along to her kids. Super common in outdoor/feral/stray cats.

Ponazuril is a broad spectrum med that will fix several intestinal parasitic issues like the common coccidia, by actually killing the cysts rather than inhibiting the growth of cysts leaving the cats own system to fight them off in time as albon does.

Kittens all got worse after I posted this, and have since had Ponazuril and are on their last day of Panacur. Mom as well. They will have a second dose of Ponazuril later this week. Fortunately, they seem to be rebounding. They ended up not eating at all. We had to force feed two of them for 2-3 days and take them in for fluids. They had a Pepcid AC injection their last trip in and that seemed to help the appetite return. Today was the first day all ate hungrily without any cajoling to get them started. None of their samples have been positive for anything, but with their symptoms, it's being assumed this is likely a parasite of some kind, thus treating with both Ponazuril and Pancur. Mom wasn't a feral or stray, but was an owner surrender, but she got pregnant when she escaped their house, so maybe she picked it up then. I'm adding probiotics to their food as well. I'm considering getting some Bene Bac as their stool still hasn't firmed up as much as it should. It's far better than it was though (it eventually degraded for two of them to liquid with occasional blood and mucus, and many, many times a day). Poor things. I was so happy to see them all head down, eating hungrily this morning for the first time. I'm hoping to see better results in the litter box.

If they have any food sensitivities, that could complicate figuring things out because right now I'm giving them the foods they'll eat best, which all have various grains, additives and some have corn starch and/or wheat gluten. Hopefully that isn't an issue for them and they will just firm up. I have a hunch that mom cat is better without grains, as her stool is up and down (nothing terrible since she started treatment) and seems best when I feed her the grain free food. A problem I have is I would like to leave food out for the kittens to eat between feeding times, but their mom scarfs down anything I leave (and in the case of Baby Cat dry, she goes nuts for it but it also seems to give her diarrhea). I can't find a way to leave them food where she can't get to it. I tried rigging up something she couldn't get into, but she defeated it. She is nuts about food.

Yeah I know all about the momma eating the babycat, they go nuts for it.

You know them being 7 weeks old, they can be seperate from mom, even helps give her a break from them too. By now she is pretty tired of being ganged up on, chewed on, messed with

Glad to hear about the ponazuril, but it doesn't sound like it is being dosed for consecutive days. It should be 3 days, once a day, 0.2 mls per lb, but for very mild diarrhea.

I base the length on how bad the diarrhea is, and have given it as long as 7 days in a row because I stopped after 5 and a few days later it was back, so 7 days straight after and it was gone for good.

Bloody mucousy diarrhea is dead on like coccidia but it doesn't show up well with a fecal float in little kittens especially.

We usually take the mom in the adjacent room while we feed them, but since they weren't eating anything at all for awhile there other than nursing, I wouldn't have wanted to completely separate them from their one source of hydration and food. Even when they're weaned completely (which I do think is likely to be very soon now that they've just started eating so nicely), I don't have another room to keep fosters other than the room they're in, so they'll have to stay together. We have our own resident cat and I don't want to mix them. Particularly now with intestinal issues going on. We let mom cat come into the adjacent room with us without the kittens for good periods of time. As far as the Ponazuril dosing, that's all in the rescue's hands. They're a large, very well run rescue, so hopefully they're using this regimen because it's been working for them. It does seem like either the Ponazuril or the Panacur helped get their guts back in order, so I do hope the dosing is enough to keep it there. I am definitely glad they will get at least a follow up dose of Ponazuril.

Oh, and yes the scale is correct! They'll be 7 weeks tomorrow and the smallest just crossed 2 pounds. The biggest is now 2lbs 6oz, and that's with 5 days in a row of weight loss this past week! The shelter was surprised with their size when they went for their first visit, too. They were born at 130-139 grams each and then gained 30 grams a day most days for the first couple weeks. Mama must have had some good, good milk.