14 week old kitten diarrhoea

[Rayhuck]

Hi all! I picked up my baby 2 weeks ago. He was stressed to begin with but is now settling in great, playing, eating lots. I just can’t seem to shake his diarrhoea. His stool looked fine when he got here, but apparently the breeder was only feeding him human food. So I got him some Advance wet kitten food, and that’s when the diarrhoea started. Probably 3-4 times a day, very runny. The vet said probably just needs to get used to the new food and settle into new environment, gave me forti flora which has made no difference. It’s now been 10 days of diarrhoea and I’m worried. He has no other symptoms, there’s no worms in his poop. He seems very happy otherwise. I’ve tried to give him different food that has higher meat content as that usually helps my older cat, but he won’t eat pate, only jelly/gravy style wet food. The only thing that helps… Human food if I give him chicken or pieces of whatever meat I’m having his next stool is immediately firm. But obviously that lacks cat nutrients. So I’m not really sure what to do. Thanks I’m advance for tips

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, can you make some unseasoned boiled chicken, and mix that into his kitten food? It may be that his system just needs a slow transition to appropriate kitten food, so start with a fair bit of chicken mixed into the kitten food, and then gradually lessen it. Based on how his poop looks will give you the indication of how fast, or slow, you can go with decreasing the chicken.

 

[heatherwillard0614]

I was just about to suggest what furballsmom mentioned. Hopefully this will do the trick and your little baby feels better soon.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

When you say the breeders were only feeding him human food, do you mean they were feeding him raw meat, along with the organs and bones (in the animal world, this is called feeding Raw). This is an appropriate meal for cats, as long as they are getting organs and bones with it. Just the muscle meat alone is not nutritionally complete and for a growing kitten, is extremely dangerous to feed and can compromise their bones in particular. They needs lots of calcium for their bones to grow. SO, if you can find out exactly what he was being fed, that would be good. If it was what we call Raw, I can see why his system is having a hard time adjusting, and really, rather than just poached chicken added, I would suggest you get what they were feeding (IF it's completely nutritionally balanced) and add that to his new food until his system adjusts. Otherwise, he might not be getting enough of what a growing kitten needs.

You can also try adding S. Boulardi to his food. It has been known to really help with diarrhea. You can get it on-line or at most health food stores and I've only seen it in capsules. open up a capsule and add 1/2 to wet food in the morning and then add the other 1/2 capsule in the evening.

 

[cmshap]

The vet said probably just needs to get used to the new food and settle into new environment, gave me forti flora which has made no difference.

Try other brands of probiotics. Sometimes one will work for an individual cat better than others.

Willy had chronic diarrhea when I initially rescued him, and he was about the same age as yours. Probiotics helped tremendously, but I had to try a few different ones before finding the right kind.

Sorry, I really don't remember which one I settled on at the time. It's been a few years since I've had to give him any probiotics.

 

[thefiresidecat]

going thru the exact same thing. we were just at the vet for it today. we insisted on doing a pcr panel just in case although the doc really doesn't think it's necessary. he thinks its diet. he says the canned kitten foods don't have enough fiber. he didn't want us to do supplements because for baby kittys you need to get it just right or you can cause more problems. he said to take her off the wet food and just give her the hills science diet prescription gi dry food for I think it was 10 days. I guess given that's what we have in the exact same circumstances i'd ring up your vet and ask if you can try that you might want to get her back into the vet after two weeks though. . he said it has probiotics and fiber in the right proportions to fix that problem. (in our case we do have a second data point. her brother has had one or two loose stools in the time weve had them but mostly he has normal pooh. for most things they'd both have same symptoms most likely, if it were viral or protozoa)

 

[cmshap]

he said to take her off the wet food and just give her the hills science diet prescription gi dry food for I think it was 10 days.

That is one of the kinds of dry food I gave Willy for the first few years after rescuing him (he was about one year old when I took him in). In his case, however, I also used probiotics as was recommended by my vet. The combination of those two things helped the diarrhea a lot in his case.

Edit: I misread this thread when I posted previously. Given that Willy was older than kitten age when I took him in, my recommendations don't necessarily apply. But I just wanted to further comment that the Hills GI food was a good brand for him when he was going through chronic diarrhea.

 

[Rayhuck]

When you say the breeders were only feeding him human food, do you mean they were feeding him raw meat, along with the organs and bones (in the animal world, this is called feeding Raw). This is an appropriate meal for cats, as long as they are getting organs and bones with it. Just the muscle meat alone is not nutritionally complete and for a growing kitten, is extremely dangerous to feed and can compromise their bones in particular. They needs lots of calcium for their bones to grow. SO, if you can find out exactly what he was being fed, that would be good. If it was what we call Raw, I can see why his system is having a hard time adjusting, and really, rather than just poached chicken added, I would suggest you get what they were feeding (IF it's completely nutritionally balanced) and add that to his new food until his system adjusts. Otherwise, he might not be getting enough of what a growing kitten needs.

You can also try adding S. Boulardi to his food. It has been known to really help with diarrhea. You can get it on-line or at most health food stores and I've only seen it in capsules. open up a capsule and add 1/2 to wet food in the morning and then add the other 1/2 capsule in the evening.

Thank you, I thought raw was what the breeder meant as well, but when I asked again they said “we just fed him whatever we were eating” which I’m not very happy with. But got vet again on Friday so hopefully we can come up with a plan. I’d be happy to feed him raw if that’s what will work.

 

[Rayhuck]

going thru the exact same thing. we were just at the vet for it today. we insisted on doing a pcr panel just in case although the doc really doesn't think it's necessary. he thinks its diet. he says the canned kitten foods don't have enough fiber. he didn't want us to do supplements because for baby kittys you need to get it just right or you can cause more problems. he said to take her off the wet food and just give her the hills science diet prescription gi dry food for I think it was 10 days. I guess given that's what we have in the exact same circumstances i'd ring up your vet and ask if you can try that you might want to get her back into the vet after two weeks though. . he said it has probiotics and fiber in the right proportions to fix that problem. (in our case we do have a second data point. her brother has had one or two loose stools in the time weve had them but mostly he has normal pooh. for most things they'd both have same symptoms most likely, if it were viral or protozoa)

Glad I’m not alone! Gotta tummy issues if her brother is not suffering the same. I’ve got vet on Friday so hopefully they can come up with a plan as well. Let me know how you go!

 

[thefiresidecat]

Thank you, I thought raw was what the breeder meant as well, but when I asked again they said “we just fed him whatever we were eating” which I’m not very happy with. But got vet again on Friday so hopefully we can come up with a plan. I’d be happy to feed him raw if that’s what will work.

Good lord how are their cats even still alive so many bad things in human food. What kind of kitten is she,?

 

[RTR]

This is from the Cornell Cat Watch news letter! Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine:
Probiotics are live microorganisms (mainly bacteria) that live in a healthy gastrointestinal tract. Supplementing probiotics is thought to help replenish the population of good, normal bacteria to help get an upset GI tract back to normal.

“There is some evidence that cats with chronic diarrhea will modestly respond to addition of probiotics,” says Joseph J. Wakshlag, DVM, PhD, board-certified veterinary nutritionist and chief of the nutrition service at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “It is somewhat equivocal, but typically, probiotics can help with recovery from transient diarrhea a day or two quicker.”

Many veterinarians send probiotics home with cats suffering from diarrhea, either as a sole treatment or with other medications such as the antidiarrheal medication metronidazole. For severe diarrhea and more serious GI issues, probiotics are unlikely to resolve the problem on their own. Probiotics are not medicine. “There is little evidence that they will help with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) in any substantial way,” says Dr. Wakshlag.

 

[thefiresidecat]

This is from the Cornell Cat Watch news letter! Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine:
Probiotics are live microorganisms (mainly bacteria) that live in a healthy gastrointestinal tract. Supplementing probiotics is thought to help replenish the population of good, normal bacteria to help get an upset GI tract back to normal.

“There is some evidence that cats with chronic diarrhea will modestly respond to addition of probiotics,” says Joseph J. Wakshlag, DVM, PhD, board-certified veterinary nutritionist and chief of the nutrition service at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “It is somewhat equivocal, but typically, probiotics can help with recovery from transient diarrhea a day or two quicker.”

Many veterinarians send probiotics home with cats suffering from diarrhea, either as a sole treatment or with other medications such as the antidiarrheal medication metronidazole. For severe diarrhea and more serious GI issues, probiotics are unlikely to resolve the problem on their own. Probiotics are not medicine. “There is little evidence that they will help with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) in any substantial way,” says Dr. Wakshlag.

yeah my vet said he really only liked to see probiotics used if there has been antibiotics in use as well.

 

[thefiresidecat]

Actually I was not there at the vet my husband was. We did get a prescription probiotic and it is working wonders she has norm poo after just 2 doses. Proviable dc from nutrimax I think it's called

 

[cmshap]

Probiotics are not medicine. “There is little evidence that they will help with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) in any substantial way,” says Dr. Wakshlag.

Of course, probiotics are not medicine for something like IBD. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a diagnosis of IBD mentioned in this thread.

Chronic diarrhea could, of course, be from IBD as one potential cause. But transient diarrhea/constipation is common among domestic cats from dietary issues. And the cat discussed in this thread definitely has had a questionable diet before being adopted by R Rayhuck .

I am not a vet, I am not trying to push probiotics, but they are certainly one potential treatment for a cat with transient diarrhea and/or constipation. I don't give my cat probiotics anymore, but they worked wonders for him in the first few years that I had him. He was very sensitive to foods and it took a lot of trial and error before discovering the right brands, the right combination of wet/dry foods, the right amount of fiber, etc. Probiotics were just a supplemental tool that helped during this process.

 

[thefiresidecat]

Of course, probiotics are not medicine for something like IBD. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a diagnosis of IBD mentioned in this thread.

Chronic diarrhea could, of course, be from IBD as one potential cause. But transient diarrhea/constipation is common among domestic cats from dietary issues. And the cat discussed in this thread definitely has had a questionable diet before being adopted by R Rayhuck .

I am not a vet, I am not trying to push probiotics, but they are certainly one potential treatment for a cat with transient diarrhea and/or constipation. I don't give my cat probiotics anymore, but they worked wonders for him in the first few years that I had him. He was very sensitive to foods and it took a lot of trial and error before discovering the right brands, the right combination of wet/dry foods, the right amount of fiber, etc. Probiotics were just a supplemental tool that helped during this process.

kittens are even more prone to it than adults. I think its probably the number one kitten issue. and in the vast majority of cases it's not from any chronic medical issue. it's just baby tummies.

 

[RTR]

It may help to subscribe to the Cornell Cat Watch news letter! Lots of "professional advice"! Glad to hear your kitty's problem may be resolving!

 

[Rayhuck]

The vet said it was probably just his food or worms and gave him a dewormer and told me to try a different food, he now is constipated instead and his bum keeps sticking out for a little bit after a poo and looks mucusy and bloody. We can’t win. Even the vet doesn’t know what to do

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, can you go back to the original food for a little bit? Or even alternate the two foods --experiment with this and see how he does.

 

[heatherwillard0614]

Hi, can you go back to the original food for a little bit? Or even alternate the two foods --experiment with this and see how he does.

Yes you might even try slowly giving him new food by adding some new food in with majority of his old food during his feedings, and slowly decrease the amount of old food while increasing the new food until the day where you don't put in any old food just all new food. Hope your little one gets to feeling better asap!!!

 

[Rayhuck]

A

Hi, can you go back to the original food for a little bit? Or even alternate the two foods --experiment with this and see how he does.

As in mix the one that gives In diarrhoea and the one that makes him constipated?