Gah! Kitten has nuclear gas!

I am a new cat mama, but have been a dog mama for awhile. I've been reading some of the old threads and plan on havong my boy tested for words, even though he was given the all clear for that from the vet treating him while he was a foster. but still wanting to ask: do I HAVE to feed my 13 week old kitten wet food? Is it more likely that it's the WET food causing the gas or the dry? We feed him Simply Nourish dry and same brand wet kitten food. We give the wet at night, dry for free feeding and with his wet a night. Any input on the gas OR the food we are feeding him are welcome.

Testing for worms is a good idea.  

How long have you had him?  And how long has he been eating that food--is the Simply Nourish a new food for him?  Sometimes changing foods abruptly can cause digestive upset, too.  

I don't know anything about that brand of food--others may have input on that.

Another possibility is stress from the new environment.  I adopted two healthy 3 month old kittens.  The girl was fine but the boy had the stinkiest bottom!  I couldn't believe a thing that small could produce that big of a smell.  His name is Rico but we called him Reeks for a while there.     After a couple of months he calmed down and we never had that problem with him again.

We have had him for two weeks this coming Saturday. He was on something else when he was a foster. He likes the food, plays like a crazy person. He is VERY relaxed and fit right in right away, so I would be shocked if it is stress, but who knows. I was just curious if gassiness is a kitten issue???

Gassiness is not a "typical" kitten thing. I agree that I would get the kitten dewormed again. Would also be worth going a fecal test.

Dry food tends to cause more GI issues than canned. Which formula of Simply Nourish are you feeding?

You might consider putting him on a probiotic. There are several options with this. Vets often carry FortiFlora and/or Proviable. I prefer the latter as it contains more than 1 strain of bacteria.

This is another option:

Well, just got back from the vet about an hour ago. Turns out Tux Had NOT been dewormed yet, and while we were there, out comes a tiny worm. The vet went ahead and dosed him and I am to dose him again at the end of the month. Hopefully this is the cause of the gas and bloating. It was reading posts on this site that had me investigate more and decide NOT to wait to take him to the vet. Thanks to those that responded and to those that had discussed it in the old threads I read!

soonermitzi said:

Well, just got back from the vet about an hour ago. Turns out Tux Had NOT been dewormed yet, and while we were there, out comes a tiny worm. The vet went ahead and dosed him and I am to dose him again at the end of the month. Hopefully this is the cause of the gas and bloating. It was reading posts on this site that had me investigate more and decide NOT to wait to take him to the vet. Thanks to those that responded and to those that had discussed it in the old threads I read!

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That's great you got him in to the vet so quickly.  Hopefully that will clear the air.     

Thank you for the update.  

My dogs usually feel poorly after vaccinations.... It seems Tux is feeling poorly too. Is this typical? Lethargic and sleeping a lot?

That can be a side effect.  Scroll down to the bottom of this article where it discusses kittens specifically:  https://www.vetinfo.com/cat-dewormer-side-effects.html

babies and small kids are often cranky sleepy feverish and have a swelling or sore arm? Some seem fine.
My last tetanus shot for a cat bite [emoji]128580[/emoji]Made my arm sore for days . So I am sure some cars feel poorly too.

How's Tux doing today?

He woke up all fresh and rested and back to being a crazy energetic kitten! Also, his bloated belly has gone down a bit so that is great news! As to the nuclear gas, I'm not sure yet because I've been at work. I am headed home for lunch so we will see how the belly looks and see if he is still back to his normal crazy self!

I had one rescue kitten who developed "nuclear gas and diarrhea" when switched to Simply Nourish dry food, which the owner bought because the Petsmart Vet recommended it (I believe it's a PetSmart brand).  Evidently this kitten was allergic to something in it.  I had raised her and she never had a problem.  I told the new owner to put her back on the food she had been on and see if that made a difference (she was on canned Friskies Pate and fancy feast pate wet food and those were not the problem because the owner had kept her on those too.)  The only change was the Simply Nourish dry food.  When she took that away, the gas and diarrhea went away in one day.

This may not be the cause with your kitten, but I suggest putting him back on whatever the shelter was feeding him and see how that goes.  If that fixes it, but you want to feed a better food, try something else, but add it very slowly, don't just suddenly give him a different food than his system is used to.  Many cats will get gas just from any sudden change.  Wet food is better for him anyhow in the long run, as it is the balance of moisture and meat that he is designed to eat.  More and more vets are coming to that conclusion now.

I have him eating a wet "pate" (sorry, can't figure out how to do the accent sign over the e) and he seems to LOVE it, while the dry has begun to go uneaten. He DID need to be dewormed, as we saw a worm make their exit while at the vet) so hoping the gas and bloating gets better as worms do contribute to gas and bloating. I HAVE noticed less gas since our vet visit!

If you saw a worm make an exit, it was probably a tapeworm segment.  Did it look like a wiffly grain of rice?  If so, that's tapeworm.  Easy to get rid of, and don't normally cause a lot of bother to cats, not like the other types of worms they get.  It does sound like eating less of the dry food may be helping as well.  Hope the air continues to clear!

Yes, a skinny wiggly grain of rice. There's still SOME gas, but MUCH less than there was. And his belly bloat has definitely decreased. So, there air has definitely cleared quite a bit.