Roundworm medication

On Saturday, I went with my kitten to them vet for him to have his last vaccines. I brought a stool sample and the vet told me he felt more stools in Happy's belly than he should. To give him more canned food would help.

On Monday, the vet called me to tell me Happy has roundworms. It could have something to do with him straining to pass stools. That it was important that 24hours after giving Happy the medication, I would have to empty and clean all the litterboxes to make sure no worms would be left. I answer his questions: no, my kitten never vomited, and never had diarrhea. Yes, he stills vocalize a lot when he poops.

All week I gave him strictly wet food but this morning I had to go back to work and gave him good portions of wet food (he has 2 bowls) and a small handful of kibble to ensure he wouldn't be too hungry during the day.

When I got home, I see Happy's rear is all dirty (he is a long-haired kitten. Didn't think of how inconvenient it could be until today!).

I washed him and quickly blamed the kibble in my head. Then I thought about it and I read some people's kittens here experienced diarrhea a couple days after the medication for roundworms.

Could he also be trying to vomit the worms? Sometimes he starts to make a weird sound as if something was coming up his throat and he takes quick breathes but then he just swallows and it's all right. I never saw a cat cough a hairball so I'm not sure how it happens and/or a 16 weeks old kitten should have already had his first hairball.

Is he still getting rid of the worms by pooping? Was it OK to empty the litterboxes on Tuesday or I should have waited a bit? Was I right to blame the kibble?

I'm very sorry for this super long post, I've been anxious about his health all week and I just wish he would be fine. I'm also sorry if some sentences aren't clear, English is not my first language and my grammar kind of sucks sometimes.

There are probably a couple of things going on here.  It is common for kitties to have diarrhea when their food is changed abruptly and it could very well be the dry kibble.  Your vet is correct that wet food is much better for kitties.  You can feed wet food in the morning and in the evening.  He probably gorged himself on the food and that's upset his system.  I would recommend feeding him a wet food serving in them morning before you leave and then another when you get home.  He probably won't even need dry food during the day, or leave him a very small serving like enough to cover the bottom of the bowl of 1 bowl and no more.  You can give him a little dry food snack just before bed, too, but only about 10 crunchies.

Many times, kitties will have loose stools as a result of the deworming medicine.  You can a little bit of plain pumpkin puree to wet food and that should help firm up his stools.  It's also common for kitties to need more than one round of deworming before all worms are eradicated from their body.  Many will vomit them up (mine never did, thank goodness!), but most pass them through their stool.  Worms can cause blockages and make it difficult for stool to pass. 

How old is your kitty?

stephanietx said:

There are probably a couple of things going on here.  It is common for kitties to have diarrhea when their food is changed abruptly and it could very well be the dry kibble.  Your vet is correct that wet food is much better for kitties.  You can feed wet food in the morning and in the evening.  He probably gorged himself on the food and that's upset his system.  I would recommend feeding him a wet food serving in them morning before you leave and then another when you get home.  He probably won't even need dry food during the day, or leave him a very small serving like enough to cover the bottom of the bowl of 1 bowl and no more.  You can give him a little dry food snack just before bed, too, but only about 10 crunchies.

Many times, kitties will have loose stools as a result of the deworming medicine.  You can a little bit of plain pumpkin puree to wet food and that should help firm up his stools.  It's also common for kitties to need more than one round of deworming before all worms are eradicated from their body.  Many will vomit them up (mine never did, thank goodness!), but most pass them through their stool.  Worms can cause blockages and make it difficult for stool to pass. 

How old is your kitty?

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He is 16 weeks old.

I've always fed him wet food and kibble, what the vet was suggesting was to stop the kibble for now to help with the stool problems.

I read on the forums here that cats are OK with changing their wet food without mixing but new kibble would have to be introduced gradually with the old one. I had intended to switch to wet food only anyways after reading advice (I'm not sure where I could get raw food around my place, so I'm going one step at a time!) I have been feeding him Weruva chicken flavors (he REALLY likes the ones with pumpkin, I was so glad!)but I've also read that Weruva is somehow lower in calories and kittens might need more of it to meet their needs. He has been eating really well, and I might be foolish to do so but I give him more or less 2 servings at night (one big and one smaller) and one big in the morning.

I hope you are right and maybe his stomach was just upset of having so much food available, he went to poop 3 times tonight already and when he gets out his rear is a bit dirty and he smells bad I'll try to find canned pumpkin at the grocerystore tomorrow.

I didn't realize he was so young!  No wonder you're leaving food out for him. Sorry I misunderstood his age and I was thinking he was older.

Since he's so young, I would feed him wet food AM & PM and then a little snack size portion of wet food just before bedtime and right after play time.  We did that with our guy when he was a  kitten.  We also gave him wet food mid-day and offered him dry food mid morning and mid afternoon.  We couldn't leave food out for him because we had 2 other adult cats who would've eaten all his food! 

I don't know where you are, but I really like Royal Canin babycat dry food.  It's not grain-free, but you can always mix it with grain-free and he'll get all the nutrients he needs.  We also did that with our boy when a kitten.  At 16 weeks, he was eating mostly the kitten dry food with just a little bit of the grain-free dry (maybe a 90-10 mix).  As he got around 6 months, we decreased the kitten food to about 75% of the mix.  As he got older, we continued to decrease the kitten food as well as the number of times a day we fed him and the amount we fed him.  He weighed about 8 pounds when he was 6 mos old!

Since we feed our kitties mainly wet food, he was also getting a grain-free cat & kitten food and we gradually transitioned to the grain-free adult canned food over time as well. 

Since he is alone now, I can leave food for him, but in 3 weeks we are getting a little brother for him, I wonder how I'll manage the feeding issue.

I continued to only give him wet food, up until last week I was giving him Chicken Soup for the pet lovers soul for kittens and he loves it. The vet had told me maybe the diet did not fit him which could be why he had trouble with his bowel movements.

The vet sells the Royal Canin kitten food, is that the same thing has the babycat food you mentioned? I didn't read great reviews about it plus they sell the 3 pounds bag at like 29$ (canadian) which is really expensive... :/
On weekends I'm staying home so I can give him all the canned food he wants but when I'm working it's hard to judge what quantity of wet food I should leave for him. Thankfully my boyfriend is off 3 days on weekdays so he can feed him when I'm at work.

I'm feeling so bad for him because with the worms his belly was all plump, now he's a lot slimmer and I don't want him to be super hungry or to lack any of the nutrients he needs. He's a siberian kitten and should become a big cat.

What about the hairball problem? I do think it's a hairball since I watched videos on youtube and it doesn't look like asthma (see how anxious I am about his health?). It happened to him an hour ago when he was falling asleep while I was petting him but it was really mild and he just swallowed again. Do you have any advice? What can I give him to help him get rid of that hairball(s)?