Constant kitten diarrhea

Hello,

I am new to this site, and I have been searching and searching for something similar to my kitten but haven't found anything as of yet.

For the last 3/4 weeks my kitten has had diarrhea. She was on Felix kitten food and everything was fine. Then I gradually changed her to hi-life as it is better quality, but that is when her diarrhea started. Coincidence? I'm not entirely sure. During this time, she also had her vaccinations. The vets gave her canigest, which didn't help. So I went back and they said to use Synulox antibiotics for a week along with the canigest, and also gave me Hills prescribed cat food. This didn't help. So I went back to the vets and they have given me more canigest, and given me a different antibiotic 'Metronidazole'. This was 3 days ago. I have also switched her diet to just boiled chicken (with the occasional mashed sweet potato). Her poop seemed a bit more formed yesterday but it's bad again today. She has been wormed so it's not that. She seems fine in herself, still eating and drinking and playing with the other cat.

Nothing seems to be working, and although she is still energetic, she has lost weight.

Does anyone please have any suggestions? I have an appointment booked at a different vets on Monday (today is Friday) to see if they come up with anything different. But I don't want to keep pumping her full of antibiotics.

Help!

Thank you,
Suzie

have you tried any probiotics?

I had a similar problem with the Rogue when he was a kitten. Vets didn't have a clue. I finally made his food myself and found out he couldn't digest any cooked poultry. So I put him on raw. He was fine with raw anything (grew to be 20+ lbs).

In a case like this, the first thing I would do is put her back on the Felix food which she ate prior to getting the diarrhea.  It may be coincidence, or it may not, but by doing that you are going back to Square One to try to track down the problem.  It's also possible she has giardia or coccidia or both and they aer only just now blooming.  I'm not familiar with "canigest" but the metronidazole targets giardia.  By now she has had so many medications in her gut that I would tend to complete whatever regimen she is on now and then put her back on the original food and give her pre & probiotics for awhile and see if that won't settle her down.

Thank you for your replies.

I did try her back on Felix but it made no difference. I also tried giving her fish, which went straight through her in a matter of minutes.

I haven't given her probiotics. Can I give them at the same time as antibiotics or shall I wait?

Thank you

My cat had this problem.  I phoned the vet and got advice. It was from only serving soft canned food.  I added another bowl with dry and semi-moist food and the problem stopped.

If the problem persists, see a veterinarian.  I would not trust anonymous web-board advice.

Good luck,

KT

I have taken her to the vet for this problem several times, and I have an appointment on Monday with a different vet for another opinion.

So far nothing has seemed to have worked, which is why I am asking for general advice on this site

SuzieB said:

Thank you for your replies.

I did try her back on Felix but it made no difference. I also tried giving her fish, which went straight through her in a matter of minutes.

I haven't given her probiotics. Can I give them at the same time as antibiotics or shall I wait?

Thank you

Click to expand...

Yes, you can give probiotics while giving antibiotics, just not the same time of day.  space them out at least 4 hours.  Are you feeding canned or dry food.  If dry, when you went back to the Felix, did you go gradually?  Anytime you make a food change with dry food, you need to slowly incorporate the new food...1/4 new food, 3/4 old food for several days, then half and half, and so on.  I've also found FortiFlora to be helpful for one of my cats with soft stools.  It's a "probiotic" of sorts, although I also give my cats a different probiotic, one that has more of the good stuff in it

Hello,

I am feeding both dry & wet. I do food changes gradually As I work all day, I leave dry food down for them to nibble of they get hungry. But I feed wet food in the mornings and evenings.

I went to the vets today and they recommended probiotics too. So I will pick some up Do you know of any UK shops that will sell it?

Thank you

Some of my standard advices.  They arent medical, but they may give good help in many situations for the overall condition.

First, as she has much diarrheas, she needs more fluids and compensation of the loss of salts and electrolytes (this is essentially the same).

The trick is to use pedialyte.  Either bought, best is a clear flavorless pedialyte for babies.  

Or homemade.  Easiest is to use a good minerale water with lotsa of different salts (see the label) and add some glucose sugar.  If you dont have glucose sugar proper so common honey is OK.  Warm up a little and stir.

Use this as her drinking water, and be sure she drinks a lot - more than usually, because the diarrhea means much fluids goes away.  Or possibly add some to her drinking water.

Second, is as several mentioned, some good probiotic.  Its also standard to use probiotics while going through an antibiotica treatment, no?  The easiest home remedy probiotic is to use some mild, full fat unflavored youghurt, preferably with added acidophilus and bifidus bacteria....

Third,  if you can get raw goats milk, fresh or frozen, it may help in many such cases.  Bottled full fat or powdered goats milk are also OK to use, but its not the same potential edge as raw goats milk - which does has some healing properties by itself, containing some natural enzymes and antibodies, which are otherwise destroyed in the pasteurizing process.

Use it as supplement, or in emergency cases, may work as the sole food, both for kittens and adult cat animals.

The sick ones are often freezing, so make sure she has it warm, comfortable and cozy.  Even if she doenst seem to be really  a bed patient but is a going patient, so to speak.

This wont heal by itself if she has a real disease or parasit infection, but it will surely make it easier for her body to copy with the problems.

SuzieB said:

Hello,

I am feeding both dry & wet. I do food changes gradually

As I work all day, I leave dry food down for them to nibble of they get hungry. But I feed wet food in the mornings and evenings.

I went to the vets today and they recommended probiotics too. So I will pick some up

Do you know of any UK shops that will sell it?

Thank you

Click to expand...

If you are looking for just a general probiotic, then look at a health food store would be my suggestion.  I feed my furries the same probiotic that my hubby and I take (except for the FortiFlora, which your Vet should have on hand)   For the cats, we give 1/2 capsule mixed into their food in the a.m. and 1/2 in the p.m.  For kittens, I'd start with a little less.