Nursing cat with bad diarrhea - need advice!!

yaoiphobic · Mar 20, 2017

I'm new here so forgive me if there is a better place to post this

My roomate and I recently took in a pregnant stray and she had her kittens four weeks ago. She's a sweet little cat, and probably not much older than a year. The kittens are developing as they should and seem very healthy and active; they're hitting all important milestones on time or even before they should. However, as of the past few days their mother has been having really bad diarrhea. She drips EVERYWHERE she goes, you can find little trails all over. It doesn't seem to be getting any better and it's driving us nuts and we're both really worried about her and the kittens because she sometimes gets her poop on them.
We went out and got a probiotic today and some chicken based wet food to try and help the problem, and if she doesn't get better by tomorrow we'll take her and the kittens to the vet. I've been making sure she drinks plenty of water so that she doesn't get dehydrated, and she's currently shut in the bathroom because we just can't keep cleaning the poop off everything.
The poop is very very liquedy and light in color, there's no blood and she hasn't had any other symptoms. As I said, the kittens are fine and their poop is not runny at all.
We didn't change her food at all before this, she definitely hasn't eaten anything that she shouldn't. I've heard that roundworms could cause these symptoms which would make sense as she was a stray, but I'm unsure.
Also-- my roommates coworker suggested that we give her a tiny amount of Imodium and that it worked when her cat had the same issue. I don't feel comfortable doing that without some advice first just in case it hurts her or the kittens. Does anyone know anything about this? If so, how much and how often should we give her some?

What should I look out for and does anyone know what this could be and how I can help her? She's been acting completely normal and is as active and affectionate as ever, but this is definitely a problem and not normal at all.

yaoiphobic · Mar 20, 2017

Oh and I forgot to ask! Should we allow the kittens to continue nursing from her or should we switch them to formula? They eat a little bit of dry food but still get most of their nourishment from mom and she gets anxious when I don't allow them in the bathroom to nurse.
I mixed formula with some wet food earlier and they loved it so I know that they will eat it if I need them too. Thanks!

stephenq · Mar 21, 2017

yaoiphobic said:
Oh and I forgot to ask! Should we allow the kittens to continue nursing from her or should we switch them to formula? They eat a little bit of dry food but still get most of their nourishment from mom and she gets anxious when I don't allow them in the bathroom to nurse.
I mixed formula with some wet food earlier and they loved it so I know that they will eat it if I need them too. Thanks!

Do not give Imodium without a vets ok, and it doesn't go to the underlying cause which is very likely to be a parasite like coccidia or giardia which can can cause severe diarrhea. She needs a vet and a stool sample brought in. She should continue nursing the kittens.

Sarthur2 · Mar 21, 2017

I agree that she needs to see a vet for meds. It's likely she has a parasite or bacterial infection, or both. The kittens may need to be treated as well. Can you get them in today?

Please let us know how this turns out.

StefanZ · Mar 21, 2017

yaoiphobic said:
I'm new here so forgive me if there is a better place to post this

My roomate and I recently took in a pregnant stray and she had her kittens four weeks ago. She's a sweet little cat, and probably not much older than a year. The kittens are developing as they should and seem very healthy and active; they're hitting all important milestones on time or even before they should. However, as of the past few days their mother has been having really bad diarrhea. She drips EVERYWHERE she goes, you can find little trails all over. It doesn't seem to be getting any better and it's driving us nuts and we're both really worried about her and the kittens because she sometimes gets her poop on them.
We went out and got a probiotic today and some chicken based wet food to try and help the problem, and if she doesn't get better by tomorrow we'll take her and the kittens to the vet. I've been making sure she drinks plenty of water so that she doesn't get dehydrated, and she's currently shut in the bathroom because we just can't keep cleaning the poop off everything.
The poop is very very liquedy and light in color, there's no blood and she hasn't had any other symptoms. As I said, the kittens are fine and their poop is not runny at all.
We didn't change her food at all before this, she definitely hasn't eaten anything that she shouldn't. I've heard that roundworms could cause these symptoms which would make sense as she was a stray, but I'm unsure.
Also-- my roommates coworker suggested that we give her a tiny amount of Imodium and that it worked when her cat had the same issue. I don't feel comfortable doing that without some advice first just in case it hurts her or the kittens. Does anyone know anything about this? If so, how much and how often should we give her some?

What should I look out for and does anyone know what this could be and how I can help her? She's been acting completely normal and is as active and affectionate as ever, but this is definitely a problem and not normal at all.

I want to add. As she has a severe diarrhea, she looses lotsa of salts and electrolytes, not only water.   So you must give her extra salts too!

Best to use pedialyte, bough or home made.

Bought, best is a flavorless type for babies.

Homemade, you do it essentielly from minerale salts (kitchen salt) and glucose / dextrose sugar.     Exactly what you use depends on what you can get in a hurry.

Very good is minerale water - you see on the label it contains lotsa of different salts, and add some honey, say half a soup spoon to a 330 ml bottle... Mix it up by warming up - you may even boil it.... give at body temp, or at least, room temp.

Another recipe may be to use water from heavily overcooked rice, and add some minerale kitchen salt to it. Or use such a minerale water.   The dosage is typically a tea spoon to a litre fluid.

Such pedialyte is essentially same salt and glucose concentration as body fluids, so its impossible to overdose.   But is a great help in cases of difficult diarrhea.

Begin asap on the double!!!

You had got some probiotic - good. Can you get some raw goats milk?    It may help both her, and useful as alternative for the kittens.

Processed goats milk as bottled or powdered, is OK to use, but not the same potential edge.

So, these home treatments you begin as soon you can, and please contact your vet - its surely a vet errand, as my collegues already said.

May be giardia, or coccidia. Its not THAT bad (but such a diarrhea you describe IS life-threatening), but she must get vet prescribed meds to have a chance to be healthy again.

But you can begin NOW by sprinkling a little of common kitchen salt with her food or water.

Ps. you asked if the kittens should continue to nurse. The deed is already done, if there is a contagion so they have already got it, So you may proceed to let them nurse. But if momma is noticeably weak and dont manages any longer, do pause. Of course.

Nursing cat with bad diarrhea - need advice!!

yaoiphobic

TCS Member

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yaoiphobic

TCS Member

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stephenq

TCS Member

Sarthur2

Cat lady extraordinaire

StefanZ

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