So a bit of background information...
Last Halloween, I brought home a kitten. Some clients who regularly rescue kitties were given him by their friend who found him outside of a AAA. Like most of the cats they find, he needed a home. I simply couldn't resist myself and I gave it a shot, since I thought my older cat would tolerate a kitten more than another adult.
Anyway, brought him home and he had pretty nasty stools from day one. I've never smelled a cat like him. Obviously poop stinks but he's bad enough to clear a room, and working in the veterinary field kind of desensitizes you to those odors. Sometimes his stool was slightly soft, until it went to straight up diarrhea and I sent out another fecal. First one while his stool was semi soft was negative, that one came back positive for giardia. Giardia was treated, fecal came back negative after that.
His diarrhea went away but his stools were still softer than I had wanted them to be. He's had several blood/urine tests and he's only a year old, but everything checked out great. He was on Wellness CORE kitten wet food, which he absolutely loved. Since everything looked good... It came down to the food. I bought a variety of brands, some not as good as others, but I wanted to see what would solve the problem. The only one I tried was Natural Balance Wild Pursuit, since upon feeding that his stools were a bit more solid AND not quite as smelly. Until recently... They've been softer again(still formed, but not as solid as I want) and they're back to kicking you out of the room.
Suggestions? My initial thought was maybe he's not doing well on the richer food, but I'm not sure. Something is causing this reaction, that's why I bought a variety. He will literally eat anything, he'd be a perfect candidate for raw feeding. That's not happening right now, as the risk of contamination to my chinchilla is too high and I already almost lost him once this year. Once I move to a place where my chinchilla can have his own room, I'll give it a go.
Despite working as a veterinary nurse, I do not trust the Drs food recommendations. They'll just tell me to feed Royal Canin or Hills i/d, neither of which I want to feed for obvious reasons.
Last Halloween, I brought home a kitten. Some clients who regularly rescue kitties were given him by their friend who found him outside of a AAA. Like most of the cats they find, he needed a home. I simply couldn't resist myself and I gave it a shot, since I thought my older cat would tolerate a kitten more than another adult.
Anyway, brought him home and he had pretty nasty stools from day one. I've never smelled a cat like him. Obviously poop stinks but he's bad enough to clear a room, and working in the veterinary field kind of desensitizes you to those odors. Sometimes his stool was slightly soft, until it went to straight up diarrhea and I sent out another fecal. First one while his stool was semi soft was negative, that one came back positive for giardia. Giardia was treated, fecal came back negative after that.
His diarrhea went away but his stools were still softer than I had wanted them to be. He's had several blood/urine tests and he's only a year old, but everything checked out great. He was on Wellness CORE kitten wet food, which he absolutely loved. Since everything looked good... It came down to the food. I bought a variety of brands, some not as good as others, but I wanted to see what would solve the problem. The only one I tried was Natural Balance Wild Pursuit, since upon feeding that his stools were a bit more solid AND not quite as smelly. Until recently... They've been softer again(still formed, but not as solid as I want) and they're back to kicking you out of the room.
Suggestions? My initial thought was maybe he's not doing well on the richer food, but I'm not sure. Something is causing this reaction, that's why I bought a variety. He will literally eat anything, he'd be a perfect candidate for raw feeding. That's not happening right now, as the risk of contamination to my chinchilla is too high and I already almost lost him once this year. Once I move to a place where my chinchilla can have his own room, I'll give it a go.
Despite working as a veterinary nurse, I do not trust the Drs food recommendations. They'll just tell me to feed Royal Canin or Hills i/d, neither of which I want to feed for obvious reasons.