Bottle kitten with diarrhea cries loudly

Hello again all. You've always been extremely helpful to me with foster kittens, so I'm back to ask again. I have a litter of 6 little ones that are mostly doing well. They are in the process of transitioning to solid food, so while they're eating some wet food, I still offer the bottle too.  One of them has developed a diarrhea that I've not seen before and I wanted to ask the experts here for input. 

I believe he is around 4 weeks, but that is guesswork.  He has completely liquid stool that is the brown color that we always hope kitten stool would be.  (I've dealt with yellow, cottage-cheesy, and the dreaded white, but never this.)  It has a pretty foul odor even for stool.   The kittens were wormed two weeks ago, and again today with Pyrantel. 

In addition to the diarrhea, the kitten carries his tail close to his rear and curled under his body most of the time.  Even when he goes to the bathroom, he goes on his tail, which has precipitated several baths that he has not particularly appreciated.  He also cries loudly a lot of the time.  I don't think it is hunger, because he often won't take a bottle or food when he's crying.  It may just be for attention--sometimes if I'll hold him and cuddle him he'll stop, but it seems more desperate somehow than the emotionally needy cries I've heard form kittens in the past.  Today he was doing it while he was relieving himself.  I think all of his litter mates have healthy normal stools now (though we passed through a phase of diarrhea with 4 of them.) 

I have offered him canned pumpkin, and have given him dry food moistened with formula.  He eats some, but not robustly.  The whole litter is tiny, but he is very thin.  The rescue's vet is notoriously unhelpful with bottle kittens, but her stock advice is "worm it and see if it dies."  I have wormed it, and I'd rather it not die.  Does anyone have any suggestions of what I may be dealing with.  I don't know that the foul smell or the crying are related to the diarrhea, but would be glad of any input from the community.

Thanks

C crowinghen

Poor little guy sounds like he's in pain. Brown diarrhea means he probably needs an antibiotic for a bacterial infection in his intestines.

So he's probably experiencing discomfort, and his bottom is likely raw from the diarrhea. A dab of A&D diaper ointment will soothe his bum. He cried when relieving himself because he is so sore - bless his heart!

If you have no ointment on hand, you can use petroleum jelly or veggie/olive oil temporarily.

Once he's treated and feeling better, he'll stop holding his tail under him.

Do you have antibiotics on hand as a foster? If not, please get him to the vet asap!

In the meantime, he needs extra fluids so he does not get dehydrated. Please give him extra formula, or clear pedialyte.

Let me know if this helps!

Thank you for your reply and for your advice.  I put neosporin on his bum and have started him on Albon, but don't have anything else to give him until the vet is in on Monday.  I did push a couple of ml of formula down him, but he didn't care for it.  He'll eat some wet food every few hours, and his weight, while low, isn't falling.  But he seems very distressed in general.  The five others are all playing and exploring and he just hunches up and sits uncomfortably wherever he decides to park.  He likes attention, and will purr if I cuddle him, but he's clearly in some trouble.  

I'm so glad you started Albon and used neosporin. I'm hoping it helps, though he may need a stronger antibiotic in the long run. It will help for now anyway!

Poor little guy! I feel so badly for him. I hope we can get him straightened out soon. Lavish the TLC on him for now since he's not well.

Keep me updated!

Also, how long has he had this liquid diarrhea?

I'm wondering if the Pyrantel has upset him. Or anything else in his diet.

I want to add, with liquid diarhea do use clear pedialyte, bought or home made.  Its necessary to compensate for the loss of salts and electrolytes - and fluids.

If you can get raw goats milk, it may be an idea to try.   Bottled or powdered are good supplement food as such, but hasnt the edge raw goats milk has.

If you cant get this, some sort of probiotic is wise.  But as support against diarrhea  and as help with antibiotics.

C crowinghen

How is the little guy today?

Thank you, all of you, for your continued help and advice.  The little guy made it through the night okay, and ate his wet food at breakfast, but didn't want the bottle.  Since he did take water from the water bowl, I didn't force him to take the bottle too.  He just had a bowel movement and it was half liquid, but also half soft solid.  That's a HUGE improvement since what he passed the last two days looked like chocolate milk.  He is still carrying his tail low, but not as tightly as yesterday.  But he still doesn't want to play like his litter mates.  He just eats, drinks, poops, and lays around.  He doesn't even always sleep, but he'll just lay down in an out-of-the-way spot and watch the world.

As to when the liquid diarrhea started, I can't be absolutely sure because, while I watch the litter tray, with six in the litter I may have overlooked something, and also could have mistaken it for a urine clump since it is so very liquid.  I know for certain it had started by the day before I posted the question, but may have been going on a couple of days sooner since he started to get a little staid and withdrawn then.

He is not losing weight, but is also not gaining.  The whole litter is very small, but he is about an ounce smaller than they are.  (He is 11.5 oz and they are in the 12 oz range, with the biggest at 13.2)

I hope that, with such improvement after the first dose, that the course of Albon will straighten him out.

It sounds like the Albon is working! [emoji]128077[/emoji] I would keep him on it for 10 days.

Keep putting the neosporin on his bum too.

Are you feeding these little kittens often? Since they are so tiny, they need feeding about every 4 hours right now. You can also put down a dish of formula for them to lap on their own. I'm hoping they will all grow soon!

I'd love to see a picture of this litter and the little guy.

This is the whole litter.  The yellow tabby is the one struggling with illness right now.  


He looks a little icky here because he'd just eaten his wet food and I hadn't washed his little nose yet.  

In spite of what it looks like, he doesn't have a lot of discharge from his eyes or nose.  Just a messy eater.

and just for a sense of scale, here's his sister.  She is the next smallest.  

He and his sister are so adorable! [emoji]128149[/emoji]

I also love your feeding tray. It's purr-fect! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

How is the little guy doing today?

Oh my gosh they are little living dolls!

Albon will help firm up his poop while he is on it, which is great, giving him at least a chance to heal his sore butt, but while it MAY take care of his issue, it often times will return, simply because if it is parasitic, albon will only inhibit growth of cysts and it is up to his system to be rid of them, and he is too young and his system is so immature, it likely won't happen without his maturing some.

My personal feeling is, rather than parasitic, which would be among the whole tribe, I think he has a sensitivity to his food/formula.

Would it be possible to put him on goat's milk by chance? If so, ONLY that for a few days to calm his little system down, then back to canned with the goats milk added.

Anytime there is one kitten in the herd who acts like a loner, and is not interested in playing and interacting with sibs, something's up.

Rescue's vet's lack of knowledge in babies/kittens is frustratingly common among most vets........

Most just say how kittens just will die, it's common. Sure, they die, but often times it's for something that could be helped if their caregivers had better advice or guidance! 

Had to share with all of you who have been so helpful, while litle guy's stool is still too runny, he's cleraly feeling better. He is playing with his litter mates today.

Hooray! [emoji]128077[/emoji][emoji]128522[/emoji]

That is music to my ears!