Help diarrhea problems in my kittens.

HI group, I have had my boys for about 3 weeks now. They have had diarrhea for most of that time. They were not fed well, and on adult food. Nor were they wormed properly. I have had them wormed, and given there shots. I have also fed them pedia lite for two days hoping this would help. I contacted a friend who works for the animal shelter here. She said to give them purina kitten chow, because they are use to not so good food. I had slowly transfered them over to Wellness Brand Kitten food for two weeks. So now I am feeding them the kitten chow and wellness brand. With the pedia lite and the kitten chow mix, they had a solid bowl movment. But today they have gone back to having a loose stool. What can I do, we are taking them in to the vets, but it will be about two weeks before they have their apt. Is there anything else I can do for there problem. Some one said plain yogurt and some pumpkin would do the trick. Any one else have anything to ad to that?

Give them good quality food whatever you do!!! The food available in most grocery stores or WalMart and the like may be cheaper but your kitten will pay for it in the long term. That stuff (like Purina) is not human quality - like Wellness and other better foods - so keep feeding them the Wellness. That was a good move! Esp the wet food which will give them some water. Add some canned pumpkin, not the real thing or unflavoured yogurt (about 5 ml per meal) - as you mentioned - and that might help. You could also try feeding them chicken and rice with a little psyllium to their diet. If that does not help, I would advance the vet's appt.


Good luck!

Personally I would run them to the vet and have a fecal done on them. Kittens often have bad bacterial infections in their gut- coccidia, giardia, and other nasty bugs. The danger with diarrhea is that they could become severely dehydrated and die while you are sitting there still planning to take them to the vet.

The store bought food you mention often causes gas and other problems in young kittens. Switching slowly to a high quality food will help. You can fry up some hamburger, drain it well, add some cooked rice and feed them a little bit of that, but really the best bet is a vet visit.

I agree...at the least, run a fresh sample of stool in for an exam.

I like boiled boneless, skinless breast of chicken mixed with long-cooking rice and pureed with the water used to boil the chicken. You can feed this in small amounts several times per day along with their normal foods. The chicken and broth provides needed protein and hydration and the rice helps to bind up the stool.

Before doing anything though, everyone else has given you sound advice - you need a fecal exam performed.

Hissy, have you had success with the hamburger/rice stuff? It would seem to me that the hamburger may have too much fat and actually inflame the gut if intestinal flora are out of balance.

~gf~

I have had more luck with the hamburger than the chicken. Tried both- but then I also use pedialyte and other ingredients to help boost the kitten's system up. You just drain and drain the hamburger to get rid of all the grease- I press it between two strainers.

Oh ok, good. Thanks. I haven't tried hamburger having had success with chicken so it is good to have a backup plan B.

~gf~

The raw food diet I switched to a few weeks ago cleared up my persian kittens diahrrea problem immediately! Amazing what a difference it made. At least go with a quality food as suggested if you're not interested in a raw diet. It really makes a difference the kind of food you feed. Good luck!

Originally Posted by hissy

Personally I would run them to the vet and have a fecal done on them. Kittens often have bad bacterial infections in their gut- coccidia, giardia, and other nasty bugs. The danger with diarrhea is that they could become severely dehydrated and die while you are sitting there still planning to take them to the vet.

The store bought food you mention often causes gas and other problems in young kittens. Switching slowly to a high quality food will help. You can fry up some hamburger, drain it well, add some cooked rice and feed them a little bit of that, but really the best bet is a vet visit.

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what would be some brand-name foods that would be good? cuz i give my kit (hes 4 months old now, almost 5) the purina dry kitten chow with DHA, but mostly friskies canned food..he doesnt have BM problems..but just incase. i mean i pretty much give him mostly canned food, i dont know how good/bad what difference it makes...but sometimes i'll give him the dry food also...or any suggestions from anyone..i am mostly about the main ingredients being meat, and my purina lists chicken first...i dont buy things with by product as the heaviest ingredient...just wonderin! thanks!

Good dry food brands overall are innova, california natural, chicken soup for the cat lovers soul (has a kitten variety), felidae (formualated for kittens and cats aka "all lifestages"), nutro natural choice complete care, a decent and very affordable brand is Authority (petsmart's own brand). A newer dry food is EVO by Natura - very, very high in protein, low carb.

Canned foods - innova, petguard, felidae, active life, if you supplement - wysong's just meat's varieties, evanger's has some good canned cat foods, nutro natural choice pouches and canned.

The above is not a complete list, but a pretty good start for you

ah haaa...gracias!! thanks for list..i'll check into it.

add to the list .. decent and cheap wet authority and meow mix.. I use these to stecth my sometimes meager budget

Zoey just loves the natural choice indoor kitten.. it has dha and ara

Originally Posted by Lndscpsam

The raw food diet I switched to a few weeks ago cleared up my persian kittens diahrrea problem immediately! Amazing what a difference it made. At least go with a quality food as suggested if you're not interested in a raw diet. It really makes a difference the kind of food you feed. Good luck!

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I second that motion. Raw meat will clear up dierrhia in a jiffy.

Meow Mix is not of good quality though. I used to give it to my cats - when I was younger and there was little variety in cat food, other than what one could make - but I learned how much junk was in MM that kitties do not need so I have never used it. But I did dl their screen saver for YY- the yarn one, she watches it sometimes, lol

Originally Posted by CyberKitten

Meow Mix is not of good quality though. I used to give it to my cats - when I was younger and there was little variety in cat food, other than what one could make - but I learned how much junk was in MM that kitties do not need so I have never used it. But I did dl their screen saver for YY- the yarn one, she watches it sometimes, lol

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Sharky was referring to the new pouches out by Meow Mix, they are surprisingly good on ingredients. Click here this link is for one specific flavor on the page, and then to the left a menu where you can choose any flavor and go read the ingredients list.

Thanks for all your help, I will look into what you guys have written.


Francine

I have a kitten with that problem too - coccidia. Stool sample is a must, but even that may not find the problem. Great advice on this thread, and it may take a couple of stool samples to figure out what's wrong if this diarrhea persists. You also may want to ask the vet to give you the coccidia/giardia medicine anyway, just in case. My vet did that, despite the clear test.

Up date on my guys, they both had solid bowl movments. I started to feed them the yogurt and pumpkin, and it has already worked. I am so glad. Thanks for all your help. If you would like to see some pictures of my guys, just go to my profile on here and clik on the home page. The pass word is pippen.


Francine