Need advice! Baby kitten! Messed up butthole?

Hi I'm new here. Hoping to find advice! I'm hoping someone else has dealt with this issue! I've had cats my whole life but never seen anything like this before. I rescued a 9 week old kitten from a lady who had no idea what she was doing. She was feeding the poor baby adult purine indoor dry food along with wet food mixed with cows milk. The poor little thing barely weighs a pound I think because she was having a hard time eating. I've since switched her over to a higher priced kitten food and cut out her dairy intake. She struggles to poop. She'll go in the litter box and push and push for a minute and the poop barely comes out leaving me to get it out for her. Her little butthole is completely mishapen I thought maybe it was just swollen and irritated due to poor diet and diarrhea? I took her to the vet today. Vet said her anus is so swollen she can't even determine the poor things sex. She gave me a couple topical creams and advised that I clean her butt and apply the cream every couple hours. She said she doesn't know if it'll make it better or not but I'm hoping it will. She said she could just have a birth defect. [emoji]9785[/emoji]️ I hope she's okay. I've only had her a short period of time and love her so much. Any help or expirience you guys have had with this would help tremendously!! Thanks in advance!

this is what it looks like. Hard to get a good picture.

It's protrudes like 1/2" from her poor little body and its red and swollen.

I think it's caused by her bad diet and diarrhea. Did the vet give you anything to settle her stomach? I've used powders with kittens younger than her that you mix with a little food and they clear the diarrhea up in a few days. Sorry, I'm in Japan so not much point giving you the name of the medicine, but there must be something similar available where you are.

Has she been tested for worms? These can cause stomach problems and weight loss too.

Can you find another vet who has more experience of dealing with cats? I think it's quite common for a kitten to have a swollen, protruding butt like that if she's having severe diarrhea. Unlikely that she has a birth defect.

That poor little baby. I'm so glad you rescued this wee one. Is your kitten actually constipated? I've never treated a cat for this myself but know that feeding canned pumpkin (not the pie filling) can help. Try searching the site for constipation - there are many possible treatments. Hopefully someone who knows more about your kitten's issue will come along. Poor little baby - I hope s(he) shows some improvement soon. And welcome!

EDIT: just saw Norachan's reply and realized you were dealing with diarrhea. Sorry, I misread your post! But still wanted to welcome you!

They didn't give her anything to settle her stomach the last few days she's been pooping normally. The vet gave her a full check up so I'm assuming she would have checked for worms? I hope! She took one look at her butt and said omg! That's not normal! She seemed like super taken back by it and very concerned. She gave us an anti fungal cream and a steroid ointment to apply to it. Also she put a cone Aaron d her neck so she'd stop licking it. I'm just scared for her I'm trying to be positive it'll get better but I'm nervous it won't. I normally work a lot and can't squeeze poop out of her butt every two hours for the rest of her life. As far as her weight I think I've literally had her for like 3 days? And she's eating like a champ now. The first night we had to drive like 3 hrs to go pick her up and it was late so we didn't have time to get her new food. I watched her try to eat the old food and she struggled to chew it. I think that's why she's so skinny. Hopefully she'll pack on a little weight.

I don't think she's constipated she actually poops a lot the vet said her butthole is so swollen that her muscles aren't working right to push the poop out. [emoji]128533[/emoji] The problem is that she doesn't know if it's permanent or not. I've never ever even seen anything like it I'll try to get a better picture in the morning.

Pumpkin is good for both diarrhea and constipation. If she has diarrhea she needs a bland diet. I would give her some unflavored pedialyte. Also you can give her some cooked chicken without any spices. Chicken baby food also works well, make sure no onions on label. You can mix some very mushy rice with the chicken. Boil 2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of rice no salt and boil it until really mushy and mix it with chicken. 

Louann Jude said:

Pumpkin is good for both diarrhea and constipation. If she has diarrhea she needs a bland diet. I would give her some unflavored pedialyte. Also you can give her some cooked chicken without any spices. Chicken baby food also works well, make sure no onions on label. You can mix some very mushy rice with the chicken. Boil 2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of rice no salt and boil it until really mushy and mix it with chicken. 

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Okay perfect. Thank you. What kind of chicken should I use? Like ground chicken? Or white or dark meat? Does it even matter?

I always used chicken breast but i dont think it matters as long as there is no bones. In a pinch I have even used ground turkey which might make it easier for her to eat.