TL/DR: Kitten always had loose stools; fecal test came back negative in September, tried different food/probiotics, started getting diarrhea this week - not sure where to go next.
My 9.5-month old female kitten Chloë has always had poop issues since we got her at the end of July; they were pretty loose and very foul-smelling for the first couple of months. We ran a standard fecal test in September which came back negative for giardia and no ova/parasites seen. The vet had advised us then to maybe try different foods in case it was a sensitivity, and maybe try probiotics, and see if she would grow out of it as she became closer to a year old. We slowly switched to Tiki Cat food (from Royal Canin dry) - she only wants to eat dry food and turns up her nose at any type of wet food so she gets the high protein chicken/egg Tiki Cat. It seemed to be slowly getting better since October - she would often have a harder poop followed by softer but still somewhat formed poop.
We tried Fortiflora which didn't seem to help and then about a month ago we started with 1/2 caplet of Proviable daily which seemed to help things a bit. We went to 1 caplet every two days for a few days to see if we could progressively increase the dose, and then she had diarrhea on Monday evening so we stopped the Proviable in case we had overdone it but she has still been having diarrhea at least once a day since then (she usually poops twice a day). This morning we thought it was getting better but then tonight it was just gas and straight liquid coming out of her little butt...
I'm planning on calling the vet but I'm not really sure what I should be asking or trying next? Should we be running a full fecal PCR panel? I feel that if she had something, her brother would also have it given they share everything? She was also seen by the vet just before Christmas for an unrelated issue, at which time she also had an abdominal x-ray that was clear.
Allergies are also mentioned a lot but she has been on this Tiki cat for a few months now and it's just recently that things got worse, so I'm not sure the chicken/food is the issue? Still, should I try a different dry food like Hill's Perfect Digestion, Royal Canin's Digestive Care, Wellness Core Digestive Health, or ask the vet for prescription Hill's Biome or Royal Canin's hydrolyzed protein dry food?
I guess apart some bug or an insensitivity, the other one would be IBS but we were told it was less common in young kittens so I would prefer to start by investigating other things first. She's acting fully normal apart that; very playful, eats well and doesn't have any signs of dehydration (skin test, gum test) but she does drink a lot of water daily (always has), so that's probably helpful. We also had cat grass around for the last couple of weeks which I have taken away for now. Both kittens are indoors cats and are spayed/neutered.
Thanks for reading!
My 9.5-month old female kitten Chloë has always had poop issues since we got her at the end of July; they were pretty loose and very foul-smelling for the first couple of months. We ran a standard fecal test in September which came back negative for giardia and no ova/parasites seen. The vet had advised us then to maybe try different foods in case it was a sensitivity, and maybe try probiotics, and see if she would grow out of it as she became closer to a year old. We slowly switched to Tiki Cat food (from Royal Canin dry) - she only wants to eat dry food and turns up her nose at any type of wet food so she gets the high protein chicken/egg Tiki Cat. It seemed to be slowly getting better since October - she would often have a harder poop followed by softer but still somewhat formed poop.
We tried Fortiflora which didn't seem to help and then about a month ago we started with 1/2 caplet of Proviable daily which seemed to help things a bit. We went to 1 caplet every two days for a few days to see if we could progressively increase the dose, and then she had diarrhea on Monday evening so we stopped the Proviable in case we had overdone it but she has still been having diarrhea at least once a day since then (she usually poops twice a day). This morning we thought it was getting better but then tonight it was just gas and straight liquid coming out of her little butt...
I'm planning on calling the vet but I'm not really sure what I should be asking or trying next? Should we be running a full fecal PCR panel? I feel that if she had something, her brother would also have it given they share everything? She was also seen by the vet just before Christmas for an unrelated issue, at which time she also had an abdominal x-ray that was clear.
Allergies are also mentioned a lot but she has been on this Tiki cat for a few months now and it's just recently that things got worse, so I'm not sure the chicken/food is the issue? Still, should I try a different dry food like Hill's Perfect Digestion, Royal Canin's Digestive Care, Wellness Core Digestive Health, or ask the vet for prescription Hill's Biome or Royal Canin's hydrolyzed protein dry food?
I guess apart some bug or an insensitivity, the other one would be IBS but we were told it was less common in young kittens so I would prefer to start by investigating other things first. She's acting fully normal apart that; very playful, eats well and doesn't have any signs of dehydration (skin test, gum test) but she does drink a lot of water daily (always has), so that's probably helpful. We also had cat grass around for the last couple of weeks which I have taken away for now. Both kittens are indoors cats and are spayed/neutered.
Thanks for reading!