4 month old kitten suddenly eating much less and has strange poop

I've been away for 10 days but my girlfriend was taking care of Tamago while I was gone. She only eats raw, two different proteins each day, chicken and rabbit. She almost always prefers the rabbit and I know she doesn't love the chicken.

I serve her 3oz portions twice a day. SInce I've been home I've barely seen her eat anything. I put a fresh batch out this morning and she maybe ate 1 total ounce of it. I gave her two of her favorite snacks (freeze dried chicken, and tiny dried sardines) and she gobbled them right up. I just put a fresh batch of food down about 30 minutes ago and she didn't even give it more than a sniff. I stuck it back in the fridge and will present it her again in a few hours. Is she just being picky all of a sudden?

The other thing is... I noticed she went to the bathroom and the poop looked more like yellowish-clear gelatin...basically it looked like the kitty litter was being held together by goo. I know, it isn't a pretty thought. So she went to the bathroom again like an hour later (which is actually pretty rare because she usually only goes once a day because of the raw diet) and she had a more normal looking (though still soft) poop. The thing is though, it absolutely STUNK. I've had her since she was 11 weeks old and I've never smelled her poop EVER (which I attributed to the raw diet). I took a look at her butt and it had some of the yellowish goo stuck to it... normally she's really clean but maybe she just hadn't had a chance to clean herself up yet. 

Do you think I have anything to worry about here?

Oh, and I want to add that she still runs around and plays like a madman! 

Any change in behavior or elimination is always cause for concern.  I'd get her to the vet sooner rather than later.  Has she been dewormed?  She might have parasites.

stephanietx said:

 
Any change in behavior or elimination is always cause for concern.  I'd get her to the vet sooner rather than later.  Has she been dewormed?  She might have parasites.

Click to expand...

Yes she's been dewormed. 

How long ago was it?  How long have you had her and how old is she now?  I'm wondering if the stress of you being gone has something to do with her situation.  Maybe some of the food she was served had gone bad.  (Thinking out loud here.)

She's exactly 4.5 months old. I've had her since November 23rd. We gave her Albon Suspension for a week which apparently cleared it up. I've traveled before and she was OK with it, and obviously she knows my girlfriend. 

On a raw diet, that poop (and loss of appetite) is definitely not right!  What's happened since you last posted?  Any changes?  If she's not back to normal, I would definitely be getting her to the Vet.  Sounds like she's picked up some sort of parasite in her intestines...  But at least she's eating the freeze dried chicken treats to sustain her, although they aren't 100% nutritionally complete.  

You're giving her probiotics, right?  Kitties    always a worry

She's the same today. She had maybe 5 total bites of her food this morning. At first she ignored it, then I took it back, and gave it back to her an hour later. She's still playing, running around, purring, meowing, etc... If I didn't watch her eat (or not eat) I wouldn't even notice there was a problem. I'm withholding treats until she eats her food. I feel like she's just being picky. Bad idea?

She has two recipes:

8lbs ground chicken with bones, extra 1lb ground chicken organs, extra 1lb ground chicken breast, appropriate portion of Alnutrin, and after it's in the bowl I add lysine and one squirt of unscented salmon oil.

AND

8lbs ground rabbit with bones, extra 1lb ground rabbit organs, extra 1lb ground boneless duck, appropriate portion of Alnutrin, and after it's in the bowl I add lysine and one squirt of unscented salmon oil.

No additional probiotics except for what's in the Alnutrin.

I don't think there are any probiotics in Alnutrin, are there?  If so, I never knew that.  Well, I used Alnutrin, and always gave mine a separate Probiotic capsule, just to try to ward off any potential gut issues.  (I say used to, because two of mine are on a raw strike now, and they are being so picky even about canned that I'm not adding anything to their food just to get them to eat.  

Withholding her treats to try to get her to eat is probably not a good idea IMHO.  Cats will starve themselves into sickness  rather than eat something they don't want .  It's absurd, but true.  Amd with my Tinky, he used to love Radcat lamb, then he started hesitating when I served it to him, then one day that was it...he walked away from it and NEVER ate it again.  I ended up having to give 6- 24 oz containers of it away, because the other two never liked it in the first place.  And that stuff was expensive.   So I finally convinced him to eat Hare-Today turkey, and tried and tried to get him to eat other proteins as well because I knew the day would come when he would react the same to that as he did to the Radcat.  I never could get him to eat anything else, though, and he started hesitating on the turkey, like I knew he would.  And again, one day he just walked away, and there were several day when all he had to eat was Stella and Chewys freeze dried (in the dry state) until I finally found some canned food he would eat   Since then I've brought out the turkey once, and once again, he walked away . And I had recently rec'd an order from Hare Today of lots of ground organs and such for HIM.     My other cat still on raw doesn't eat ground, so once again I'll be giving away lots of meat.  Anyway.....the  moral of my story is, cats WILL starve themselves even if hungry rather than eat something they don't want.  When I finally found a canned food Tinky liked, he literally gorged himself he was so hungry. 

Now, how are Tamago's poops today?  Are they still not right?  That's my main concern, indicating an issue.  It's very possible she's just tired of the same old chicken and rabbit.  Maybe you can order a different protein and then bring them back out later?

Oh I don't know if there are probiotics in Alnutrin... I was just indicating that that is all I'm adding to her food. 

I don't think she's had a poop today, but I just cleaned out her ScoopFree so it'll be easy to figure out when she does. Also now that I'm thinking about it, she's farted at least twice in the last 2 days which I've never witnesses her do before! 

The other thing is, while I was cleaning out the litter, her weird poops from yesterday had "dried"   and now look more or less normal? Maybe I just had never seen fresh ones before? 

I am pretty paranoid about her health, and I feel like this ISN'T something that the vet can help with, and that she is just being picky. However if she refuses to eat, I will bring her to the vet.

Gas is  generally a sign of parasites.  She might need another deworming, which isn't uncommon.

Ok I'm gonna grab a poop sample and drop it off at the vet tomorrow.

Just got some grilled chicken delivered (one of the benefits of living in NYC) and I tore some up for her and she barely touched it at all. Hopefully she has a poop tonight so I can take it to the vet first thing tomorrow. 

Could also have a blockage.  Have they done an x-ray?

No because the problem has just started. What kind of blockage are you thinking?

my cat had this problem all her life (or at least after eating some icicles off the xmas tree) and it sounds like she needs her anal glands expressed asap

there are u tube videos on how to do this yourself

when the vet did it to my cat he said it shot across the room

if she's that blocked up I suggest u make a quick decision

are u SURE she didn't eat something while u were gone?

rubberband, string...icicle?

I don't know what you mean by "blocked up"... she's going to the bathroom just fine. It just happens to stink to high heavens all of a sudden.

I was thinking that what you are seeing is just the mucus that comes out of the anal glands(on either side of the rectum) rather than actual poo-sorry

So now, hours later, she decided she wanted to scarf down the grilled chicken that's sitting in a separate bowl next to her rabbit mix. Of course, she's pulling each individual strip of grilled chicken out of the bowl first, and then eating it off the floor, but I guess it's better than nothing. Unbalanced, but I'm assuming 1 meal won't hurt, and it's better than her not eating at all. Still going to take her to the vet tomorrow.