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- Sep 1, 2014
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Hello again all. You've always been extremely helpful to me with foster kittens, so I'm back to ask again. I have a litter of 6 little ones that are mostly doing well. They are in the process of transitioning to solid food, so while they're eating some wet food, I still offer the bottle too. One of them has developed a diarrhea that I've not seen before and I wanted to ask the experts here for input.
I believe he is around 4 weeks, but that is guesswork. He has completely liquid stool that is the brown color that we always hope kitten stool would be. (I've dealt with yellow, cottage-cheesy, and the dreaded white, but never this.) It has a pretty foul odor even for stool. The kittens were wormed two weeks ago, and again today with Pyrantel.
In addition to the diarrhea, the kitten carries his tail close to his rear and curled under his body most of the time. Even when he goes to the bathroom, he goes on his tail, which has precipitated several baths that he has not particularly appreciated. He also cries loudly a lot of the time. I don't think it is hunger, because he often won't take a bottle or food when he's crying. It may just be for attention--sometimes if I'll hold him and cuddle him he'll stop, but it seems more desperate somehow than the emotionally needy cries I've heard form kittens in the past. Today he was doing it while he was relieving himself. I think all of his litter mates have healthy normal stools now (though we passed through a phase of diarrhea with 4 of them.)
I have offered him canned pumpkin, and have given him dry food moistened with formula. He eats some, but not robustly. The whole litter is tiny, but he is very thin. The rescue's vet is notoriously unhelpful with bottle kittens, but her stock advice is "worm it and see if it dies." I have wormed it, and I'd rather it not die. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I may be dealing with. I don't know that the foul smell or the crying are related to the diarrhea, but would be glad of any input from the community.
Thanks
I believe he is around 4 weeks, but that is guesswork. He has completely liquid stool that is the brown color that we always hope kitten stool would be. (I've dealt with yellow, cottage-cheesy, and the dreaded white, but never this.) It has a pretty foul odor even for stool. The kittens were wormed two weeks ago, and again today with Pyrantel.
In addition to the diarrhea, the kitten carries his tail close to his rear and curled under his body most of the time. Even when he goes to the bathroom, he goes on his tail, which has precipitated several baths that he has not particularly appreciated. He also cries loudly a lot of the time. I don't think it is hunger, because he often won't take a bottle or food when he's crying. It may just be for attention--sometimes if I'll hold him and cuddle him he'll stop, but it seems more desperate somehow than the emotionally needy cries I've heard form kittens in the past. Today he was doing it while he was relieving himself. I think all of his litter mates have healthy normal stools now (though we passed through a phase of diarrhea with 4 of them.)
I have offered him canned pumpkin, and have given him dry food moistened with formula. He eats some, but not robustly. The whole litter is tiny, but he is very thin. The rescue's vet is notoriously unhelpful with bottle kittens, but her stock advice is "worm it and see if it dies." I have wormed it, and I'd rather it not die. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I may be dealing with. I don't know that the foul smell or the crying are related to the diarrhea, but would be glad of any input from the community.
Thanks