foul, foul poop

Hi everyone,

I am fostering a mother cat with four kittens. She has the most disgusting-smelling poop that I have ever smelled from a cat (or maybe ever, any species). She is confined to one small room, and it stinks up the whole basement when she poops. Unfortunately, she poops frequently, too, at least twice a day. It is always solid.

She is currently free-feeding on Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain Feline (dry) and Triumph Kitten (at least a 5.5-oz can a day, depends on her appetite). She had been on Authority Kitten (Chicken and Liver, I think) but I ran out of that and switched to the Triumph. She drinks lots of water, I have never even seen a nursing cat drink as much as she does. Kittens are fat and healthy.

Anything I can try to keep my nose hairs from all getting singed off? Seriously, guys, in case I haven't conveyed it, this is baaaaad.   

She may have parasites, in which case treatment may have to wait until the kittens are weaned. Having a stool sample tested is a good idea, anyhow. Is she burying her stool? Using a multi-cat litter (like S'wheat Scoop Multi or World's Best Multi, considering there are little ones) can help, and the odour control on those two natural litters is pretty good. You can speak to your veterinarian about adding probiotics to her diet, which can help, but it isn't instantaneous. Finally, you could try switching foods, keeping her on something plain and easily digestible. If she wasn't used to canned food before you got her, try stopping that for a few days and see if that makes a difference. If it does, reintroduce it slowly.

I have been amazed myself at the amount of water some nursing moms drink, incredible. Crazy amts!

Poop being so foul is usually from changing foods.

While parasites can cause gross smelling poop, like coccidia, ew, the reeeally bad is usually from their intestines trying hard to settle down and adapt to the new foods.

Thanks for the thoughts, chromium and catwoman. (you have been following me, catwoman! ) I foster through a local humane society, so it is relatively easy for me to discuss with a vet or at least someone knowledgeable. I did reach out to my contact who asked for a picture of the poop.   So I will send her a pic next time I am gifted. Which may progress to a stool sample - oh joy. Mama doesn't tend to bury poop that much. (c'mon, how about a little decency?!) Sometimes she buries her pee, and when she does, she is very enthusiastic and there is a mountain of litter outside the box (sigh).  

I have been lazy about getting out and getting a non-clay litter, but the kitties are about 3 weeks old so I need to unbury myself from the snow and get to the store soon. We just use the Petco brand, which has always been adequate for our two resident boys, but alas, this poop would probably smell through a litter tray of only baking soda.

She was a stray when she was found (although she is super-friendly and great with my toddler who is a very enthusiastic petter, so I wonder if she was dumped when she got knocked up). So it's really hard to say what her diet had been like before I got her. She's been with us 2 1/2 weeks now - if it's just adjustment, how long do you think it might be? Will her water intake be okay if I eliminate the wet food? And any specific recommendations on probiotics? I know the vet might have a rec, but I figure I'd see what the cat health people thought, too.   

Most cats are just fine going short-term without canned food (some go their entire lives on only dry). In my experience, eliminating canned food for a few days will often help, with a slow reintroduction.

She has now been without canned for 36 hours. Things are a little better. Now my nose hairs are only getting burned rather than completely singed off. I think I've also just had luck in catching them right away and being able to put them in the trash can. How long would it be until I could expect super-noticeable results from this?

Meantime, the humane society I work with gave me some Purina EN (gastroenteric) canned food, although my contact has been off so I didn't get any real instructions on how to use it. Should I give it a few more days of dry food first? I try to be careful about using their expensive stuff since they are so limited.

Try giving it a couple more days and then just give her a little bit of the EN to start. I'm glad things have improved a little bit!

Probiotic I recommend Nexabiotic.

Does your hs use/have ponazuril?

Catwoman and Chromium, I'm so sorry I didn't see your responses until just now!

I just took everyone in for the kittens' one-month appointment yesterday. Everyone is getting fun and ridiculous - starting to wander on wobbly legs. 

Mama cat's poop is still pretty bad. It was a 10 on the stinkiness scale before, now it's an 8.5. Her poop has gotten a little runnier (though not diarrhea), I think it might be due to the EN since that seems to be when it started. She got a dose of dewormer yesterday, and I was given some fortiflora to try. So hopefully that will help soon. Between the baby and the cat ... man this house stinks sometimes!

I switched from science diet to taste of the wild and also got stinky poop. We first did the venison flavor and are now on the salmon (I think haha) and it seems to be better, still stinks more than on science diet though. Maybe it's the brand.

gussy14 said:

 
Catwoman and Chromium, I'm so sorry I didn't see your responses until just now!

I just took everyone in for the kittens' one-month appointment yesterday. Everyone is getting fun and ridiculous - starting to wander on wobbly legs. 

Mama cat's poop is still pretty bad. It was a 10 on the stinkiness scale before, now it's an 8.5. Her poop has gotten a little runnier (though not diarrhea), I think it might be due to the EN since that seems to be when it started. She got a dose of dewormer yesterday, and I was given some fortiflora to try. So hopefully that will help soon. Between the baby and the cat ... man this house stinks sometimes!

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I have to add, this next week is my all time fave age of kittens!

They begin to interact with siblings in a teasing kind of way, go up to the sib and tap them and then leave, with a sort of spunk in their step, I love that! So innocent. 

Then a week later it is a calmer form of WWF. Then is escalates from there!! 

This is when they will learn their lifetime interaction skills, for instance when one tackles another, the underdog hollers and the dominant one lets up, only to go right back to it.

Also why a lone kitten does not learn limitations early on as they need to, and is too over the top rough in play, etc.

Also when they learn about human interactions when playing, in other words don't allow biting or climbing on you, it is a learned trait at this age and once it's allowed it's alot harder to break.

Thanks everyone! I had not thought of the ToTW causing the poop problems - I've used it on all my other fosters without a problem. Uuuugh, and I bought a big bag of it, too, and my cats can't eat dry (struvite crystal issues). 

Indeed, they are SO cute right now! It is hard not to let them wrestle with my hand because it is so cute, but you're right, it is not advised for their long-term well being.   I love watching them wrestle with each other (or in the case of one, he often likes to wrestle with himself? The air? I'm not sure.) 

I know what you mean about foul, foul odor. When I first got the girls and then Henry, their poop smelled so bad that my nose wanted to secede from my face and leave. 

I found that when I got them off dry food entirely and onto premium canned that their poop does not smell at all. I use Dr. Elsey's and Fresh Step Extreme litters and both are great at odor control but they don't really need to do anything but clump since there's no smell. Lily and Sophie were on Science Diet dry at the Humane Society and Henry was on whatever they had on hand that was donated. Some dry but I don't know what brand- Purina maybe and various canned foods every now and then like Friskies I think

Yeah, I would love to get her off of dry food. My cats eat mid-grade canned food (Toyota, not BMW-level) and their poops don't smell, either. It's amazing what a decent-quality diet will do! Unfortunately, it comes down to a budget thing - they're foster animals and I don't have the budget to do an all-canned diet for mama. (and then the 4 kittens when they very soon start eating solids, too!) And boy can she eat, I definitely don't have the budget for her appetite.   Which is why I've liked ToTW, it is decent quality without breaking the bank. I'm sure I could be provided with all the Hill's my heart desires, but I just can't.

Actually, Diamond, the company that makes Taste Of The Wild, is well-known for having really STUPID quality control issues (like using cardboard on their lines) and are currently having some kind of lovely snafu once more. Hills is a lot more meticulous when it comes to quality control. If you want to go grain-free, good quality, and not too expensive, why not try Merrick?

I'm amused to see these posts. We had two cats - Mr. Grimsby, who ate nothing but wet food, and Bertha, who ate nothing but dry. His poop never smelled; her's was pretty bad until I switched her to Royal Canin Oral Sensitive (it was really for Mr. G. but she liked it, too) and Blue Wilderness Healthy Living. Bertha's poop could, as we used to say when we were children, knock a buzzard off a poop wagon.

I tried Science diet once for Mr. Grimsby after he was diagnosed with CKD. Ugh! Never again.

I've decided to try to switch Bertha from dry to raw. Any suggestions on the best choice for raw diet? Thanks very much.

Best regards

Really, Chromium? Yikes! I definitely don't want my foster mama eating cardboard! I will go to my local pet store and check out the Merrick and see how prices look. Thanks for the brand suggestion, dry food is out of my comfort zone.

PHarber - I have no idea, but there is a whole forum here for raw food: http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food I hope that's helpful to you!

Not eating cardboard - cardboard on the lines. Which meant that it was absorbing bacteria and contaminating food. There was a massive recall a couple of years ago and their problems haven't stopped.

Yuk! Thanks for the clarification, but maybe eating cardboard would be better than that 

Well, cats who chew cardboard have nice clean teeth...Don't know about eating it, though!