Kitten diarrhea - in developing nation

Hi, I recently rescued a kitten whose mother had abandoned it. I live in a developing nation with no veterinary care, veterinary medications, or cat foods. I believe the kitten is about 5 weeks old now and she has been fine and healthy for the last week and a half that I've had her. However today is now the third day in a row where she's had diarrhea. The last two days she only had about 2 or 3 bouts of diarrhea during the day, but today I woke up to 5 piles. Her stool is yellow and mucus-y but there's no blood that I can see. Ive been feeding her boiled rice mixed with cooked egg whites and water. I've read that yogurt, pumpkin and goats milk are good, but I don't have access to these. Also chicken is difficult because I have no refrigerator for storage. Her appetite is good, and she seems to be acting mostly normal, but I'm very worried because the diarrhea is getting worse! I read that yellow diarrhea could be coccidia, but she doesn't have vomiting or lack of appetite. I have no way to test for the parasite, but could give her human antibiotics. I am also giving her smecta with her food this morning in the meantime to try to stop the diarrhea temporarily. Is this likely coccidia or could it be something else? Any advice is appreciated!

kokolr said:

Hi, I recently rescued a kitten whose mother had abandoned it. I live in a developing nation with no veterinary care, veterinary medications, or cat foods. I believe the kitten is about 5 weeks old now and she has been fine and healthy for the last week and a half that I've had her. However today is now the third day in a row where she's had diarrhea. The last two days she only had about 2 or 3 bouts of diarrhea during the day, but today I woke up to 5 piles. Her stool is yellow and mucus-y but there's no blood that I can see. Ive been feeding her boiled rice mixed with cooked egg whites and water. I've read that yogurt, pumpkin and goats milk are good, but I don't have access to these. Also chicken is difficult because I have no refrigerator for storage. Her appetite is good, and she seems to be acting mostly normal, but I'm very worried because the diarrhea is getting worse! I read that yellow diarrhea could be coccidia, but she doesn't have vomiting or lack of appetite. I have no way to test for the parasite, but could give her human antibiotics. I am also giving her smecta with her food this morning in the meantime to try to stop the diarrhea temporarily. Is this likely coccidia or could it be something else? Any advice is appreciated!

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What is smecta?   Against diarehea, it is important to help with electrolytes and salts.  Give a homemade pedialyte.

Easiest is you use a well overcooked rice with some salts added.  Common kitchen salt is OK.

Another perhaps even better tip, is if you do have mneral water containing different salts (you see it on the label) use this as the salt source...

Either together with the rice water,  or you add some honey to the minerale water....

In her diet at this moment, there is a big lack of fats... You give cooked egg white, but why not the yellow too??  You can also add some melted butter.  Cocoa oil is good.

To speak the truth, the diet you are giving her at this moment isnt good...  No CALCIUM, no fat, no taurine, too much carbohydrates...

Sure you cant find youghurt??  Nor goats milk?  fresh or powdered??  Do you have any other animals there??  Milk from some other  is OK.

Cheese??

You have chicken, good.  If you dont have big problems with salomonella in your country, you could give her RAW chicken - almost all parts are useful....

We have several participants from developing countres, who manage wonderfully on what there is to get... both raw chickens and buffalo milk...

StefanZ, thanks so much for your help. Unfortunately it is a small island country so we don't have a lot of variety in imports. There is no milk available other than cows milk. I had been giving her half an egg with the whites and yolk mixed with a little powdered cow's milk when the diarrhea started. I worried that maybe the milk or yolk were hard to digest which is why I switched to the whites only with rice. I do have some oral rehydration salts which I gave her with water. I will try the melted butter and cheese with the egg yolk and white and see if it helps. Do you recommend to mix with rice or cow's milk? I know cow's milk can cause problems in kittens but she had been fine with it for the previous week. Thanks

Is the egg cooked? Raw egg white should never be given to cats because they contain a protein that affects the cat's body to absorb vitamin B.

kokolr said:

StefanZ, thanks so much for your help. Unfortunately it is a small island country so we don't have a lot of variety in imports. There is no milk available other than cows milk. I had been giving her half an egg with the whites and yolk mixed with a little powdered cow's milk when the diarrhea started. I worried that maybe the milk or yolk were hard to digest which is why I switched to the whites only with rice. I do have some oral rehydration salts which I gave her with water. I will try the melted butter and cheese with the egg yolk and white and see if it helps. Do you recommend to mix with rice or cow's milk? I know cow's milk can cause problems in kittens but she had been fine with it for the previous week. Thanks

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I suspect cow milk is more dangerous in our high tech countries, its another strain of high producing cows which contain some less friendly proteines, compared with cows of old type.  Also, raw cow milk is probably milder than the processed milk. and it may be why the raw buffalo milk was such a good results with our Pakistanian forumist

@indie-n-button

If she was OK with cow milk earlier, proceed with this, esp if you can get raw  (and you dont think there are major hygiene problems with this)

Yes  rehydration salts should be fine.

I suspect her problemes may very well be a result of the uneven food you give - even if its not as bad as I thought at first...

Rice isnt really necessary for them.  A little doesnt hurt and may be useful in some situations, but they arent build to manage on a rice based diet. Not even japanese cats manage well on rice diet.  

It surprsies me you dont have youghrt there--- its usually local produced  without problems.  Do you have any other similiar product?  There is a variety - kefir and so on...  Most of them should be OK too, especielly if its naturally producued, no fancy diet variants...

You can crush the egg shells into fine powder, and sprinkle a lite alike salt on her food.  Its a good calcium source.  (I misspelled earlier, wrote calium - I meant calcium).

YOU can eat this too.   

Some meat is necessary, as taurine is naturally in meat, and especially kittens do need taurine.   Raw is fine for cats.   Mice they hunt and take are seldom ready boiled, no?   Also, bones and cartilage is easier to eat when raw - its softer.  While cooked it becomes harder - and may even become dangerous if unlucky.

Please, make a list on what you DO have, especielly of products of animal origins, so we will help you choose what to give her.

I suppose you dont have access to ready made cat food?  They arent necessary, but they are handy...

Thank you, this is really helpful. I gave her half an egg with yolk included and some melted butter and she loved it. Still having lots of diarrhea, but hopefully it'll clear up soon.

I actually did find some natural greek yogurt in the import store, but it is sweetened and pasteurized, so I'm not sure if it would be good for her. I've never seen local yogurt here but I will ask around.

I'm going to look for some chicken tonight and see how that goes. I like the crushed egg shell idea, I will definitely do this!

There's no cat food here whatsoever, most cats are strays and eat whatever scraps they can find. As far as animal products, we have fresh fish (mostly tuna), canned sardines, beef, chicken, milk, eggs, butter and sometimes cheese (but only the "laughing cow" kind).

I'm really hoping this is diet related because that will be the easiest problem to solve. Just to be sure, do you know how I can tell if she has a parasite or infection in her intestines?

K kokolr

It sounds like coccidia, which can be very dangerous to a kitten. She needs treatment with an antibiotic asap.

Are you able to get Albon?

If not, what antibiotics can you get?

@sarthur2

There aren't any animal antibiotics available here, but I do have Ciprofloxacin and Cefadroxil for people. Both are 500mg but I could potentially break them down. If one of these is possible, what would be the correct dosage?

K kokolr

Neither of those drugs will be effective against coccidia. Can you get amoxicillin or clavamox?

Where are you?

Oh shoot, I will check the pharmacy. I'm in the Comoros Islands off the coast of East Africa

I just realized I didn't have amoxicillin but it expired in June of this year. Would this still work?

Sorry, I do* have amoxicillin

kokolr said:

@sarthur2

There aren't any animal antibiotics available here, but I do have Ciprofloxacin and Cefadroxil for people. Both are 500mg but I could potentially break them down. If one of these is possible, what would be the correct dosage?

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Please contact a vet for the proper dosage of these medicines, assuming they will work for whatever your kitten has. If not, the vet will be able to prescribe a medicine that will help.

I would not use expired medicine.

kokolr said:

There's no cat food here whatsoever, most cats are strays and eat whatever scraps they can find. As far as animal products, we have fresh fish (mostly tuna), canned sardines, beef, chicken, milk, eggs, butter and sometimes cheese (but only the "laughing cow" kind).
 

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Look into a raw or home cooked diet since there are no commercially available cat foods where you live. See these threads for proper complete balanced diets:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263751/cooked-recipes-thread

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources

kokolr said:

I just realized I didn't have amoxicillin but it expired in June of this year. Would this still work?

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When was it produced?  If the preparate has a long life time, several month extra dont matter much, if  you had it in proper conditions.

I mean, I wouldnt use too old antibiotics me either, but if there is nothing much else to choose among...

I know for example, old medicines are sometimes send to Africa - not to cheat, but along the thoughts: better this than nothing...

But now we are on the calculated risks area - this is no safe advice.

ah, Graecian yoghurt is normally one of the best.  It its sweetened it isnt that great, but you can still use it.

Thanks, I went ahead and gave her about 5mg of the amoxicillin. I think it's my only option at this point

Update: After only 2 doses of antibiotic, little Koko is already feeling much better! Her diarrhea has almost completely ceased (only one bout since last night) and she's back to her playful, energetic self. Thanks everyone for all the help and advice, I'll be sure to continue looking into additions to her diet.

Continue with the amoxicillin for 7 days. Glad to hear that she is better already! [emoji]128522[/emoji]