Stinky Poo Rescue Cat

So I will try to be as non gross as possible on this one. I adopted an 8  month old female from the shelter where she spent from 9 weeks to 8 months. I have now had her about a month on a very consistent dry food diet but her poo is the foulest smelling stuff I have ever experienced. The problem is kind of two fold, first shes not so good at covering it yet and second I wouldn't call it the runs but its very.... soft and very light light brown lets say for comparison sakes exactly like peanut butter. I would have figured after a month on a steady diet and now being very comfortable in her new home that would have cleared up.

I dont want to hit google, and this being my first rescue cat I was hoping some folks on here could give me some insight as to if this is normal or not. Does she need more time to get her belly right or should I talk to the vet?

If her poop is very light in color she probably needs a vet visit and a fecal sample taken and probably a deworming. I had a kitten with the same issue and she has a bad case of round worms. It's probably a good idea she doesn't bury because it may have taken you longer to spot this. Assuming it's not worms or some other ailment her kitten food may be too rich and you may need to gradually switch her out to another. As far a burying her business you can actually teach her by putting her in the litter box and taking her paw and dig with it 3 or 4 times. Do this a few times and she may pick up on it. If you have other cats that do bury you cat put her in eyeshot of the other cats and have her watch how they bury. I have taught a few cats both ways. The poop being the color is a definite sign something is wrong and a vet visit is in order very soon.

Actually shortly after I got her she got really sick, a full blow URI and I took her to the vet and had the full workup done for tests, of those test they did do a fecal test and she was clear of everything.

she is now 9 months old and the shelter said she was good to go on adult food but I am wondering if maybe she still needs kitten chow. The food she is eating right now is nothing fancy just meow mix. My other cat who is 11 loves it so thats what we have always had, but if we need to change then I guess thats what will have to happen

First of all I would like to say how good it makes me feel knowing you are going to give her the life she has waited for for such a long time, poor little girl!! Makes me sad that she lived there all of her kittenhood..........

I see this often, whether it's the high kill shelter I pull cats/kittens from often, or the humane society I deal with and a board member with, or in my own cat rescue group, how sad I feel when I work adoptions and see the same cat there every weekend, who was just a little kitten and is now grown, who still has not found their perfect forever home.

My heart aches for them, so thank you for adopting her!!

There are 2 causes for stinky poop. Food, parasites/worms.

Despite a clear fecal float, the 2 most common parasites (coccidia and giardia) have cysts that will hide and only shed every so often, so they will get overlooked, it is common.

Or, it's the food. Granted, meow mix is basically crap. That's not said to make you feel bad at all, promise. But truth is, the store bought foods are junky and garbage really, then they will coat it with animal digest to make it loved by cats.

Lots and lots of cats do just fine and live long lives on it, however there are some who just don't seem to tolerate it as well.

So it's up to you where to go from here.

Anytime you change a cat's food you will want to do it slowly, over a week's time, so as to not upset her system more than it already is.

An affordable dry food that is not half bad actually is Natural Balance. You still have to buy it at a pet supply store, but it's fairly inexpensive, and you will also notice she won't eat quite as much as she does on the junkier foods.

Grain free of course is your best option, but it is not cheap, I get that.

Then if you REALLY want to get down to what's best? Lose the dry completely and feed an all canned diet. You can feed fancy feast classics, which are grain free and tasty to cats.

Or ff in the morning and even friskies for dinner, with maybe a bit of dry during the day if you'd like.

Always go for the pate types though. That sliced in gravy and all that, yuck. Gets too crappy at that point.

The cheaper way to go to get this poop issue resolved is to start with switching her food. Give it a couple weeks to level out and her body to settle into it, and see if you notice her poops getting better.

If not, bet she needs parasite med. Often vets, because they are aware that fecal exams don't always show when something is there, will go ahead and give you med to treat her.

To get down to the dirt, coccidia has a sickeningly sweet smell in a way, will often have some blood, giardia has a bit of rank mothball smell to it, and is mucusy. haha sorry, had to do it!!

so her poo has none of the characteristics you describe other than just extremely pungent. I will say when i got her she seemed ok but as I said she was actually very sick when I got her home she turned out to be a herpes kitty and had quite a bad flare up, she also passed it on to my adult cat who is 11 years old and although never been sick a day in his life is on a ton of meds right now because his immune system could not handle it at all but hes gonna be ok. All that aside I made the choice to bring her home and I will make sure she is taken care of no matter the issue or cost. Thats just the right thing to do.

I am actually working to switch over to Blue Buffalo Indoor Health which i believe is chicken and rice. The reason I am going with them is because it has lysine in the dry mix already which helps stem off the herpes virus that is causing so many issues in both of them. it may cost a bit more but at the end of the day it doesnt really matter, they make me happy and better yet they already make each other happy and thats all I wanted to begin with.

If the the food change doesnt work within the next month I will take her back to the vet yet again and we will get to the bottom of it and make her right.

The adopted kitty is the lighter one, Beaker and my 11 year old Gonzo is the black one, they get along so well so soon there is no way I would separate them, they both needed each other and I need them...

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Ask for the pcr diarrhea panel at the vet. This test for many parasites, viruses and bacterial that can be growing in your cats poop. Is there any traces of blood in it? If so could be coccidia. I'm thinking tritrichomonas

There is definitly no blood in her stools, it is the exact same color and consistency of peanut butter, If it doesnt clear up in about a week after we have completely switched to the higher end food then to the vet we go.

Would a treatment of Revolution take care of any of the possible things mentioned above?

Depends. Revolution kills fleas, groundwork, hookworm, and heartworm not any other parasite or bacteria. The mention if the very foul smelling poo is what got me thinking about tritrichomonas as well as the color. There are other parasites or bacterial too so the pcr is important so you know what to treat.

Not groundwork, roundworm...sorry

we have an appointment to see the doc on wed, I will update once I have the results.

Well we still have the appointment for tomorrow but I can tell you switching cat food appears to have done the trick. Just 2 days on the higher quality stuff and everything is what I would call almost normal, definitly a huge change in smell color and texture. (shiver) I just grossed myself out.

Last follow up, the the vet ran all the tests and came back negative, and gave me a pro-biotic powder to add to her food, between that and the higher quality food her plumbing seems to be back to normal.