If my 5 month old kitten has been de-wormed, why would he have such loose stools? Even after I quit

I thought it was the canned food, then I thought it was me changing the dry food too soon. I put him back the original dry food (Katz-n-flocken) it's been  about a week. He still has runny stool, golden color, VERY stinky, and it seems like he goes 3-5 times a day. (judging by the cat box leavings.....)

I've been researched on TCS, I'm about to try the canned pumpkin. I see that a lot of the times when someone has had a fecal test done that they come back negative. I don't want to give him pumpkin if he actually has worms, but I can't help but wonder why he'd have worms, which leads me to the canned pumpkin. Ideally, I'd like to get him settled before I try to figure out what food he can eat. (I don't want to give him another food and make matters worse. ( I may go with Blue Buffalo Basics limited ingredient formula -No wheat, corn, soy, dairy or eggs).

Should I try the pumpkin and slowly switch him to Blue Buffalo?

My two other cats have been eating the Katz-n-flocken for years with no problems(that I know of, so he ate that (along with canned food) when I first got him (as a baby stray orphan).

I ultimately wanted to switch all cats to canned food, the stuff I was giving the kitten, but one wouldn't eat it. That's when things got crazy, me trying to please all cats-I got confused and frustrated. Now I back to square one but need to fix the loose stool situation. Actually, he's had loose stools since I got him, I had to give him baby food / canned cat food to get him healthy(he was flea infested and dehydrated etc) I've seen him have "actual" poop maybe three times since October when we go him. (and by seen I mean actually being there when he goes.....there may have been more times that I was not witness to -lol )

He's lively, getting big (he's going to be a big one I think!) alert, acting normal so it doesn't seem like he's sick.

I would recommend having the special PCR test done. There are certain parasites that do not show up in a regular fecal test and are not killed by the regular dewormers.

It's common to have to deworm cats more than once due to the life cycle of the parasites.

Do you guys think I should do that before anything else?

Thank you in advance

JuJubee said:

 
Do you guys think I should do that before anything else?

Thank you in advance

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I would deworm him again.  I'm dealing with worms for the first time in my cats and it appears you have to have them dewormed more than once to catch all the parasites through their cyles.   No fun I can tell you.

Mr Poopy Pants has an appointment at the vet this Saturday. Now I get to try to collect a stool sample.........

I second the PCR test, there are several different parasites that can cause loose stool.  You can try deworming again, but worms aren't usually a cause of diarrhea unless they have a severe load of them. 

Is a PCR test different from a parasite screening?

I've been watching him more closely when I'm at home. It seems he poops every time after eating. (the cow patty type of poop )

Worms and internal parasites, can cause diarea, and there are about a zillion of them out there, and it can be quite the challenge, to find out, which is the cause. Here is a site about worms and internal parasites. 

http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm?c=1+2236

There are even more causes of diarea, and that, is an even bigger challenge. Here is a site on digestive issues. 

http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm?c=1+2122

on diarea

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2122&aid=3573

Here is some information on the PCR test from Texas A&M, one of the better vet universities, if ya got a big problem, A&M, is where ya want to go. If ya can't get to Texas, then have your vet call them. 

http://vetmed.tamu.edu/gilab/service/assays/tritrichomonas

Ask your vet about Revolution, its commonly given as a flea treatment, its a spot on, but it can be used, to treat internal parasites too. Had a friend that had to go that route, when nothing else worked, they will dose all the kitties in the household, believe too, its done in 2 treatments. 

Kitties, I don't know, I never had that issue, but I do know, with another type of animal, it can take several does, and sometimes rotating, the different classes of wormers, to fix the problem, so it may be the same with kitties. 

Kittens do have sensative little systems, some more than others, I have one, and constant changing of food, or what is being fed, can cause diarea too. A grain food, can cause digestive upset, gluten in food, can cause digestive upset, just like in people.  Not familiar with the food you feed, but I feed Blue Wilderness Chicken, its grain free, soy free, by product free and gluten free. Its by Blue Buffalo, you can get it at Petsmart or Petco.   

I would rule out the worms or internal parasites first, do the PCR test, and have your vet call A&M.  Please let us know, how the kitten is doing.    

I was feeding him the Blue wilderness canned chicken. I switched (back in Dec) to wellness canned chicken because my other cats would eat it (I want to make the switch from dry to wet for all of them).

That's when the _____ hit the fan, no pun intended!!!!  lol . I'll have the parasite test done and go from there.

I hope the vet doesn't want me to give him prescription food (meaning science diet.......)

If the diarea started, when you switched him from Blue Wilderness to Wellness, then I would put him back on the Blue Wilderness.  If you get a chance, you might want to do a search on Wellness, they have had alot of "issues" and "recalls", due to salmonella, which, would cause diarea.  If you need the links, let me know, I know where all the recalls for all the foodies are, all brands, all issues.  Please pawmail me, not allowed to put stuff like that in here, lol.   

Do the other kitties not like Blue Wilderness?

  

The older cats did not like blue Wilderness. I had him on that after about a week of baby food (back in late Oct); actually he had the loose stools way back then. I figured it was because he was young, sick and the baby food/canned cat food.  I did do the 2 step de-wormer back then.

As he got healthier and my older cats where all "geez why does he get the fancy food?" (they used to get a little spoonful of canned food a couple times a week as a treat. I wanted to switch the whole crew to wet food, that's when I tried the Wellness...... .

When we first got him he was on antibiotics for a couple days, per the vets instructions I stopped. Poor little thing would poop where he was laying asleep (on my daughters bed, next to her head!!!) I thought he was sicker but decided to read the antibiotic pamphlet, that was a side effect. So he got the meds for a couple days, and seemed to recover once the meds got out of his system.

I hope he doesn't have one of those diseases I saw on one of the above mentioned links......

I've changed the appointment to Friday afternoon so fingers crossed.  It's going to be fun getting a loose stool sample....

Other than the poo issues he seems healthy and thriving. (very bossy to the middle cat still. he kept us both up last night attacking her)

BTW thanks for the links FlintMcCullough!  There is a LOT of info on those sites, I had no idea of all the problems our kitties could have..

Well, I finally got a stool sample and took it to the vet. Nothing in there.

I'm going to try the canned pumpkin, and I'll try to find a dry cat food without carrageenan. I want to get him "normal" before I try to switch all the cats to wet.

You can also try giving him a good probiotic.  I don't think I say that anywhere in this thread.  Lots of us give our cats probiotics, just like the ones we take ourselves.  Here is an article about them:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/should-i-give-my-cat-probiotics  and here is a thread about them:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/271383/probiotics

Sounds like what I've been through with my kitten. It seems he's had problems with loose stool since I started adding solid food to his kitten formula. It wasn't bad at first and I figured it was worms and stuff cause he was still getting his dewormers and other kitten stuff and whatnot. But over the months it just got worse.

It was just like your kitten's yellowy, runny and really stinky. His fecals were always clean. Metronidaloze made it worse, pumpkin didn't help, and he never ate anything but quality grain free wet food.

I put him on probiotics and it seemed to help firm it up a bit but then he'd have random days of full blown diarrhea and then he got a UTI and was put on antibiotics and that just made everything horrible again. I kept him on the probiotics for weeks after he was done with the antibiotics and it wasn't helping at all.

And then I watched him throw up his food for the first time and I did some research and decided to give him a novel protein diet for awhile to see if he might be allergic to his food.

He wouldn't eat any of the limited ingredient diets, but he liked the Nature's Variety Instict Rabbit food which has rabbit and pork liver which he has never had. It also has peas and small amounts of other random veg which he has had in his food, but I gave it a go anyway since he would actually eat it, and I also stopped the probiotcs since they weren't helping anyway and I wanted to be sure it was the food causing it if there was a change in his poop.

Well, within 2 days he was pooping normal brown kitty logs than didn't smell like Satan and it has been two weeks now and his poop is still perfect.

So maybe try a novel protein diet and see if that helps? I didn't think of food allergies all that time because he didn't have the classic symptoms of itching, hair loss, etc, or even throwing up, except that one time recently. It was all just loose stool problems.

I'm crossing my fingers that he does okay on this food for a few weeks, and then I'll start introducing foods one by one to try and see what was giving him the runs!

My 5 month old kitten has the same problem, runny smelly poop. He has been dewormed twice and we also took a sample to the vet and it revealed nothing. Did you ever resolve this and if so what did you do? The smell is awful but like your kitten he acts and appears healthy. Used to give him a spoonful of wet food in the morning as a treat now just give him his dry kitten food, Royal Canin Kitten for digestive health. No change whatsoever!  He has never had a regular poop!

Did you resolve this? What did you do?

MR LING said:

 
Did you resolve this? What did you do?

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Sometimes it takes more than just a fecal float to find an issue.  There is a test called a PCR that detects more.  Unfortunately, it also costs more.  But it can detect things like T-Foetus, which can cause runny, very stinky stools.