Kitten Stools

Okay, I have an adult cat about 13 yrs old and 3 weeks ago I received my replacement kitten. He came with a bonus, his half sister who is a week or 2 younger than him. Jingles (the boy) had his kitten shots and was dewormed but snow because she was younger had not been wormed or had shots. My adult cat had a huge appetite normal stools until the babies arrived. The babies had extremely soft stools which I attributed to the stress of their new environment. They were on an excellent kitten food which the old lady promptly started gobbling up. Since isolating wasn't an option we incorporated her food with the kitten food hoping to transition the kittens to her food.  When the little ones continued to have trouble and the little girl developed really bad diarrhea, literally leaking from her bottom. I took her to the vet and with a fecal test it was determined she had either Gardia or the other infestation of "T" can't remember the name. The vet put her and her bro on antibiotics for a week and although she's got a really sore bottom the diarrhea is now really soft stool again. The old lady seems to be experiencing soft stool as well and I'm wondering if it's still a stress issue, I'm feeding them all a ID Science diet from the vet but I'm hoping I can get their stools formed so I can reintroduce a good combo of dry and wet food. Any thoughts out there are appreciated. I still need to get the little girls baby shots.

congrats on your new babies .   (what do you mean "replacement" kitten?  Is your 13 year old ill?)

Giardia is contagious, so I'm surprised your Vet didn't mention anything about your older cat.  How's she doing (the older one)?  Any signs of diarrhea? 

How are the babies doing?  How old are they?  I honesty don't know if the Science Diet I/D is suitable for kittens or not.  Since it's a prescription food, are you sure you want to feed them that?  It's pretty costly, isn't it?  Are you wanting to do that for convenience sake, so you don't have to separate their feedings?  I understand that, but still not sure if it has everything a growing kitten needs.  For that you might ask your Vet.  I can't find anything about it indicating whether it's for "all stages" or not. 

Sorry it took so long to respond. The kittens are Snow Pixie Bobs ; Snow 16 weeks and Jingles 17 weeks. To answer you questions - Jingles is the replacement kitten. The kitten I purchased originally had FIP and had to be put down. This was last fall. In February, a week after Jingles was born another queen gave birth to Snow but couldn't nurse her for whatever reason so the breeder put her in with the litter Jingles was in and the mother nursed her too. My other cat is a Bengal and she's about 13 years old. The vet wasn't too concerned about Lillie (the Bengal), although Giardia is contagious he felt she probably had a natural immunity and would be okay. Snow and Jingles were both treated for the Giardia and their boxes are cleaned several times a day to maintain a clean environment. The ID/Science Diet was to help calm the kittens tummies and I've now introduced Merrick Perfect Bistro Kitten food which is grain free. Because the Bengal thinks she's missing something and will eat the kitten food we just put the kitten food in all the bowls that way they are all well fed. I do have canned food as well but for now they seem to be doing okay without it. I do have 2 concerns though, 1 is their stools (the kittens) are formed but very soft. and 2 Snow has a problem with either leakage or failure to completely eliminate. Sometimes she'll have poop on her anus and I have to wipe it off or else she gets it on the furniture, floor etc. Not quite sure what to do to resolve these issues so any ideas would be appreciated.  

If Snow was diagnosed with Giardia OR T-Foetus, my understanding is that one week of treatment might not be nearly enough.  That may be why she is still having issues.  And might also be why both of them are still having soft stools. 

Have they been re-checked to see if they are clear of it?

They were on meds for ten days and were rechecked and are clear. She was given her first kitten shot and put on an antibiotic for sneezing, wheezing and runny nose. Vet said she had a hard start but that she'll be okay. I think things are becoming a new normal, it's just the occasional pasty poop that seems to leak out.

The other thing with giardia is you have to clean really well after you're done treating your cats. The eggs can live for a long time outside of the cats' bodies and can then re-infect your cats. That's what happened to mine. Good luck!

Sophie

Thanks for your concern. The litter boxes get cleaned several times a day. In fact sometimes I feel like that's my job, cleaning litter boxes. I have an automatic box so that got taken apart and washed. The little box is cleaned several times a day as well. Right now these kittens are quite robust and the occasional poop ball hopefully will resolve itself.

It's not a good thing when my loving husband steps on a loose cat turd in his bare feet. LOL

Do the new kittens share the same litter box your older cat? That might not be a good idea for the time being- However, I don't know if that can be controlled if they are already used to it. Even if you clean the litter box often, automatic litter boxes can hold germs unless you literally broke it down and cleaned all the parts every time they used it. Maybe switch to a regular until everything is cleared up so you can quickly clean is and disinfect between uses?

I will be taking Snow in for another shot sometime in the next week and at that time I will be taking Jingles in also. At that time I'll have the stools retested and we'll go from there but at this time I think these two are doing very well.  Thank you all for your concern, I just think that Snow is a little slow to develop good grooming skills. As I said, she's had a hard start and didn't have her mom to teach her what she needs to know.