kitten with diarrhea

Hi, I talked about this in a previous thread about Hill's Science Diet but it is still bothering me so I'm starting a new one.... My 3.5 month old kitten has diarhhea. I tried a new food on her (Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul) and now she has digestive problems. I only have her a bit with her regular food. Today is the third day with the runs. She goes quite often, always in the litter box. She is acting normal otherwise. I have been feeding her with her normal old food trying to clear this up. Should I stop feeding her? I do have a call into the vet and I'm waiting for a reply. Of course it is Saturday so they don't have their regular hours. Why do things like this always happen on the weekend? It really seems like I've had non-stop problems with Nepheline. I do feel guilty for this because I caused it. The very worrying thing is that I found a larger, not as loose stool this morning that wasn't buried with a streak of mucous/blood on it. The other ones have been quite small and very liquidy. What should I do? Thanks for the help.
Laurel

Has kitty been treated for internal parasites? Coccidia comes to mind when you mention loose stool with mucous/blood on it ... a vet visit is in order for this baby.

Sorry I haven't heard any previous history about Nepheline. Have you taken her to the vet for her diarhhea? I don't mess with diarhhea in kittens and always get them into a vet, particularly if you are finding blood in the stool. Could be a parasite, virus, bacteria, or could be food issue. Some diarhhea issues in kittens can be fatal so never second guess them.

I had 2 kittens with chronic diarrhea that had coccidia. While they were on medicine for it, it still took about 6 weeks to clear it up. In the mean time, the vet switched me over to a different brand of prescription kitten food a few times to help firm up their stool. First brand didn't work and the second helped a bit. Both were high protein formulas.

Please get her to the vet!!

If it is any comfort, my Little Oscar was so named because it took him close to a year to really start thriving. He was always sick with one thing or another and always on the small side. When he hit a year it was like he outgrew his early issues and went from about 7 pounds to 11 pounds almost overnight. Some kittens with bad starts just need some extra time to get over their health issues. Oscar was one of my kittens with bad diarhhea.

I'm doubting that Nepheline is the one who had the bloody loose stool now. My roommate has a cat and I just witnessed her going in and out of the litter box 5 times or so and producing nothing. Finally she went in and produced what looks like gelly. She buried it so it is hard to really look at. The larger streaked poo that I talked about earlier was quite large for Nepheline so maybe the other cat (Salsa) did it. Salsa is larger and older than Nepheline and usually has larger stool. Anyway, now I have two stool samples in the fridge for the vet. One for each cat. Unbelievable. Salsa is acting wierd so I definately think something is up with her. Nepheline is playing by herself now so it might just be the food thing with her. It is wierd that they are now both having problems. Not sure if they are related. I'm still waiting for the vet to call....

Coccidia can be spread from cat to cat by sharing the litter box. Since both are having problems, it tells me to definitely get them to the vet.

And don't stop feeding them, it will only make them dehydrated. They need really bland food right now like iams wet food and plenty of water to prevent dehydration. People often ask if they should withold wet food when cats have diarrhea and the answer is "no", just like with humans you need to keep fluids going in to replace the fluids going out. This doesn't sound like food induced diarrhea but something worse as discussed above and a vet visit for both cats is in order, and bring stool samples.

Hi, The older cat Salsa is fine now. I realized after writing that she had gotten into the kitten food and eaten half a can or so. She had a normal bowel movement this morning. Nepheline (the kitten) still has diarrhea. No blood or mucous in it and she is acting like her normal self and there are no signs of dehydration. I am taking her to the vet tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that it is nothing serious. It has been 3 whole days now so I really hope they can do something for her.

Thanks Momofmany for telling me about your kitten who had a bad start and now is doing fine. I'm pretty frustrated and stressed about Nepheline's non-stop health issues. I'm sick of worrying about her all the time. I just want to relax for a moment and not think she is on the verge of death all the time.

Definately take her to the vet, but isn't it possible the diarrhea is from switching her food a few times? I couldn't tell from your first post how much it had been switched, but I know that can cause diarrhea too.

Even if you don't think the diarrhea is a problem, it very well can be depending on the age of the kitten or cat. Losing that much fluid at one time depletes the body of needed electrolytes, leaves the kitten feeling weak and miserable. Changing food should always be done gradually. There is no pet food out there that is so bad for a cat that the change has to be done dramatically. Little bits at a time is best, mixing just a tablespoon of new food in with the old over a period of days and then decreasing the old food until the cat is just eating the new. Chicken Soup dry, I have had problems with it in the past, there are a lot of fillers in that stuff. Try boiling a whole chicken with no spices and then strip the meat off, cool and feed that to your kitty- give her some of the broth as well as some canned food- IAMS kitten food. But get her to the vet, or at least get a fecal to the vet for testing-

Your poor baby! It is possible she is reacting to one of the ingredients in the Chicken Soup - which I still feel is one of the better foods out there, but it does have a number of grain sources, more than one protein, and it's possible she is reacting to one, or that this food's kitten formula is just too rich for her.

It has sounded like you were doing a good job at making the introduction to this new food gradually, so please do NOT beat up on yourself.

I think the suggestions for bland - homemade chicken broth, plain chicken sounds very good. I would not introduce a new canned food for her at this time. I am frankly not a fan of Iams kitten food, due to their use of chicken by-products and chicken by-product meal.

I'd stick to the wet food you've been using for her (as I recall that has not changed, you were simply changing the dry food away from Hills?)

Please post a followup after her vet visit.

I use Chicken soup, and so does alot of ragdoll breeders, and me and them haven't had any problems with it. as far as fillers Iams has more in it then Chicken Soup. At first my kitten had a little diarrhea, most kittens do when switching to a new food. I read alot of lables on cat food before I switch to Chicken Soup, and it was almost the best, notice I said almost, they are better but alot more money. I feed Wellness and I found out how bad garlic was for cat. That's the one thing Chicken soup doesn't have, and it doesn't have a Corn filler like Iams has. IF she wasn't to try a canned food why not Wellness Kitten, it's A whole lot better then Iams This is just my opinon.

I took Nepheline to the vet and she checked out fine. They did do a fecal exam and it was negative for parasites. If the diarrhea doesn't go away in a week, my vet will do another fecal exam. Hopefully it is just the food issues causing all the problems...Thanks for all your help!

About 2 months ago we switched to the Chicken Soup for the soul due to our other favorite brand being changed all of a sudden. We have 3 full grown cats and adopted two more kittens.

After using the Chicken Soup, the cat poop smelled horrible, one of the kittens had constant nasty gas, one kitten was throwing up sometimes and diarrhea was also common.

Well, we found out the brand we used to use was switched back...so we switched again, no diarrhea so far, the gas is going away and the poop does not stink up the whole house anymore.

I know the Chicken soup looks good, but dang, it is too rich or something:/

Well, I can say that I'm staying away from Chicken Soup! Nepheline only went 2 times yesterday instead of the 6 times the other days. So I'm going to see that as an improvement. It is still quite runny. Thanks for all the help. I'll keep you posted if I find out anything else.

We still have one kitten who throws up sometimes...but she has ben to the vet twice and everything has checked out. She also has long fur and was feral, so sometimes she gulps her food and has hair balls. Otherwise, she is growing and very healthy...but again, the poop is NO WHERE near as strong as when they were on the SOUP.

Every night 2-3 cats poop between 8-9 right when we are relaxing and watching tv...and YUCK!!

I have noticed since we switched, that smell is not there anymore.

We still have one kitten who throws up sometimes...but she has ben to the vet twice and everything has checked out. She also has long fur and was feral, so sometimes she gulps her food and has hair balls. Otherwise, she is growing and very healthy...but again, the poop is NO WHERE near as strong as when they were on the SOUP.

Every night 2-3 cats poop between 8-9 right when we are relaxing and watching tv...and YUCK!!

I have noticed since we switched, that smell is not there anymore.

Update: Nepheline still had diarrhea so my vet told me to not feed her for 24 hours. She didn't poo the whole time and then I started feeding her a tablespoon of Hills P/D every two hours. She still had very wet poo. So then my vet started her on a more aggressive de-wormer (the liquid kind) and an anti-biotic/anti-anflammatory that is supposed to be good for cats GI tract. She has to have that for 10 days. Also she said I should feed her Hills I/D for a week or so. She has had normal poo for two days now! Yay!

Finally...poor thing. good job!

I/D is great for times like this... I hope the little one is better very soon

oh this is good to hear!