Kittens diarrhea won't go away

Hi everyone, I have 2 bengal kittens, about 4 months old. They were both tested for worms, parasites, etc, and they were both negative.

I feed them Weruva canned food, turkey and chicken flavor. And they eat dry food, which is Halo's Spots Stew.

They love both foods, but obviously prefer the Weruva canned food.

Some days their stool looks okay, but other days it's diarrhea.

I took away the Weruva and they seem a little better, but still not great.

So I tried the canned food from Halo's and they still have diarrhea.

The vet just tells me to keep trying different foods. I am getting frustrated because it seems like wet foods are the cause.

I really don't want to just feed them dry food because wet is healthier and they really enjoy the wet.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Have they had a PCR fecal test?  It is a test where the sample is sent out and takes several days to a week to come back.  It can find some parasites that the in office test can't find.  

Sometimes kittens just have sensitive tummies. My kitten Hugo does--he used to get diarrhoea every time there was a tiny alteration to his food.  I've had good results from adding a bit of plain pumpkin puree to his wet food, and also once in a while a bit of plain Greek yogurt. That contains good active bacteria and seems to soothe his tummy, plus he loves it and laps it right up. 

I hope your kittens get better soon! 

Denice said:

 
Have they had a PCR fecal test?  It is a test where the sample is sent out and takes several days to a week to come back.  It can find some parasites that the in office test can't find.  

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I agree with this - T Feotus is sometime tricky for a vet to diagnose. It takes a specialized test, one that the vet can not run in the office. From what I have read this parasite was fairly common in this breed at one time.   I don't work with this breed so am not familiar if this is still true.

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for the responses.

I did have the stool sent to a lab. It was not an in-office test. We did this twice. Sent it to the lab, waited a couple days and the results were negative both times. So I can pretty much rule this out as the problem.

I also tried adding the pumpkin to their wet food. This did not seem to help either.

I am beginning to think that they are going to have this reaction to any wet food, but I cannot be sure. When I got them, the lady I got them from was giving them Royal Canin, both wet and dry food. That food is not great nutritionally, so I switched them to the Weruva and Halo's dry food.

They were doing okay on that for a bit, but then I started noticing the diarrhea on and off. I have to observe them a bit better, but I also think it might just be one of the cats that has the diarrhea.

Has anyone heard of Weruva causing diarrhea? My vet suggested adding a probiotic to the food. Do you think this would help?

The problem I am having is that if I switch the food, it will take a while for them to adjust to that food, so I really won't know if the new food is any better right away.

This is frustrating. If anyome has any other ideas I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

As much as it pains me to say it, I have a cat who gets a lot of diarrhea. The kind that is hard to clear up without a vet visit and antibiotics.

She does not do well with food changes at all. Some foods are better than others and I've experimented with nearly every food out there.

She does really well on Royal Canin but only the Oral Care Sensitive or the Sensible. She also tolerates Applaws 50 dry, I think because it's high in fibre.

Wet food she does okay with Royal Canin Instinctive and Applaws chicken and rice or Chicken and Duck.

Everything else so far has resulted in gas that could clear a room and diarrhea, even the expensive grain free foods (I tried weruva and Wellness in the wet).

She does super badly with fish. Maybe make sure there is no fish present in any of the foods first and foremost and see how that goes? Fish oil she's okay with but fish protein and she's off.

I feed a mix of dry and wet. She gets half a pouch of wet 3 times a day. Any more than that and she's loose.

Last but not least a pinch of plain psyllium husk powder in her food once or twice a day really helps too. I generally try to stick to a single protein source for her because mixed one's set her off.

Good luck, I hope you get them sorted, I know how frustrating it is.

JS12 said:

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for the responses.

I did have the stool sent to a lab. It was not an in-office test. We did this twice. Sent it to the lab, waited a couple days and the results were negative both times. So I can pretty much rule this out as the problem.

I also tried adding the pumpkin to their wet food. This did not seem to help either.

I am beginning to think that they are going to have this reaction to any wet food, but I cannot be sure. When I got them, the lady I got them from was giving them Royal Canin, both wet and dry food. That food is not great nutritionally, so I switched them to the Weruva and Halo's dry food.

They were doing okay on that for a bit, but then I started noticing the diarrhea on and off. I have to observe them a bit better, but I also think it might just be one of the cats that has the diarrhea.

Has anyone heard of Weruva causing diarrhea? My vet suggested adding a probiotic to the food. Do you think this would help?

The problem I am having is that if I switch the food, it will take a while for them to adjust to that food, so I really won't know if the new food is any better right away.

This is frustrating. If anyome has any other ideas I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

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I am not trying to be a pest, and I do apologize if I am coming off that way, but ask your vet what test was performed. The T. F. test is not the same as the ones done for giardia or coccidia. Did he do a complete panel? I only ask because I know someone who had a cat with same issues. She had a test run, vet said was negative for all parasites. She asked for a T.F. test and it came back positive. It has been estimated that 30- to 40 % of cats are infected, but after a year or two they stop having symptoms and just shed the parasite in the feces.

If you are going to change foods I would do it very slowly - a teaspoon or so of the new food added at a time to the old, increasing every few days. I would also try a single protein source. Chicken and beef are both known for causing allergic reactions, so maybe try rabbit or some other meat protein.

Hi Everyone,

So here is an update. Spoke to the vet and she said she did the TF test. She said that was negative, so she is ruling out anything having to do with parasites, worms, etc.

She thinks I need to change the food. I find this weird because they are on healthy food. The dry is halos spots stew, and the wet is weruva turkey and chicken. It doesn't get much better than this.

The vet mentiomed royal canin, science diet, or natural balance. I looked at the ingredients in these foods and to be honest these don't look like healthy foods. They have all sorts of unhealthy ingredients in them, so I can't imagine that one of these foods will work.

I am thinking I need a new vet at this point.

Does anyone else have any advice?

Thanks everyone!

That is good to hear. Sorry you are still having issues. I did have a kitten like that years ago. The only thing that helped was using Iams Hairball formula. I hated it because I feel like it is junk food, but when we used it he stopped having loose stools, if I changed it, he started with them again. I don't know if the formula is the same now as then because Iams has been sold since then.

Ok, so I decided not to listen to my vet yet. Vet wants me to go back to Royal Canin or one of those other junk cat foods. I refuse to do it until there are no more options.

So for now I am feeding them no dry food at all. Just wet food. And no chicken, as I have read that many cats have allergies to chicken which causes diarrhea. I am actually surprised by that, as I felt that chicken was a sort of universal cat food that every cat could eat without issues. But from what I have read, chicken can be an issue.

So I am going with Merrick limited ingredient duck wet food. I will do this for 2 weeks and then reassess the situation.

I have to put some effort into this, as I don't just want to give them junk food to eat. I just don't think it's right.

I am also looking for a new vet. In my opinion, any vet who recommends Royal Canin is not a good vet. If you read the ingredients on the bag it will make you want to vomit.

Anyone think I have a good plan? Bad plan?

I am open to suggestions.

Thank you everyone!