Kitten has diarrhea?

Hi everyone! So I'm looking for a bit of advice on a first timer. Two weeks ago Monday, I found an abandoned kitten at my auto body shop and I estimated him to be roughly two days old. I began feeding him powdered KMR which he had no problem gulping down happily. However it caused him to be very constipated. I took him to the vet 3 days later and they gave him an enema and a whole lot of poop came out. Over the next couple of of days he was still was constipated. I was then given advice to switch over to the liquid KMR. That seemed to do the trick. Since then, he's been pooping regularly, however it has been very liquidy. He has been gaining normal weight (weighing 8.3oz now) and seems very healthy and active. He does not seem dehydrated because I check his skin every feeding and his pee is a very light yellow. I feed him about every 3 hours and he eats a tablespoon every meal. Am I overfeeding him? I tried feeding him smaller portions every two hours but he seems to wake up more and cry that he's hungry. Someone advised me to switch back to the powdered every other feeding but I feel that would upset his digestive system. Could it be a parasit? He seems healthy but I feel like I'm stressing myself out over this for no reason. Any responses or questions would be great!

So the little guy is hungry.  If you multiply his weight in ounces by 8ml/cc and divide by numbers of feeding in 24 hours (8.3 x 8 = 66.4 round up to 67 and divide by (24/3 hrs) or 8) right now he should be getting a little over 8mls at each feeding he should also be eating around the clock.  You may want to consider feeding him every two hours if he is starving after 3.   It isn't possible to over feed a kitten.  Give more if he is still hungry.

It's funny that you switched to the liquid KMR.  We are always telling people to use the powder because the liquid causes diarrhea.  

It's not that he's starving. He eats well. He eats close to 12mls every 3 hours before hes satisfied and then purrs up a storm. I tried the smaller portions every 2 hours twice before I went back to the regular feedings. I'm just concerned with the liquidy poop. He's been pooping the same way for over a week now but seems perfectly healthy. I guess it's normal for him? He looks perfectly hydrated. I just don't know if I should continue what I'm doing and hopefully it'll work its self out when I start weening him in a couple of weeks. Or if I should change something now.

His poop should be the consistency of toothpaste.   You can try switching back to the powder KMR and just add a drop or two of olive or veggie oil to it.   It will change again when you begin introducing wet food.

So I think he has parasites. I looked at his stool earlier and there are small white things in it. Almost looks like really really small grains of rice.

Those are probably tape worms. Does he also have fleas? Tape worms come from fleas. He'll need to be treated for the worms by a vet.

gstatus said:

So I think he has parasites. I looked at his stool earlier and there are small white things in it. Almost looks like really really small grains of rice.

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I agree, this sounds as tapeworms,  which is unusual in small kittens.  Cats usually get tape worms from prey.   But fleas are inbetween hosts for tapeworms, so it happens also small kittens may be infested.     But round worms are common, they get them from moms milk  (which yours had barely, but probably the first one or two days).

Pyrantel poamate are mild, and may be get OTC, here in Sweden Banminth,  in USA is Nemex2 a good brand.

All round preparates taking round and tape worms are more difficult, they tend to be sharper on the little stomach...  That is why you got the advice to ask your vet...   If you can get Milbomax, you can use it proabaly already now, its a rather mild all round dewormer.... for using on healthy kittens 2+ weeks.

Can you get raw goat milk?  This is always a good alternative.     Otherwise,  PetAgs  KMR in powder is usually the safest.  You may perhaps dilute it a little more.   Or add one or two drops of coldpressed olive oil.  Coldpressed rapeseed oil is good too...   Most vegetable oils are OK, but these two are healthy by themselves.

Btw, dont bother about stage 2 when the time comes, proceed happily with stage 1.

And if you are happy with this premade liquid, and it works for you and this kitten,  proceed with this.   Its after all no bad, the nutrients are OK.   Even if some gets runny poo and some others get constipated...

Anyways, better a little runny poo than constipations...

He does not have fleas. Other than having runny gassy poo, he seems perfectly healthy and playful. He eats well and is gaining weight steadily. This morning I didn't see anything in his stool, so I don't know what to think. I don't have any raw goat milk so I'm going to switch back over to the powder for a day or two and see if that works out the runny poop.

Well, then the white particles are round worms. Not uncommon in kittens either. Some pyrantel pamoate will cure the worms, but you would need to take a fecal specimen to the vet and ask for the proper kitten dosage since he is so young.

Parasites can cause diarrhea.

Switching back to the powder may help with the diarrhea. Try to stick with one or the other as changing can cause stomach upset. We have found in general that orphan kittens do better on the powder.

In our articles section above we have information on kittens and worms.