Hi again,
I'm trying to learn about how to determine the cause of diarrhea, and I've tried to go through threads about diarrhea in both the health and nutrition forums. Please forgive me if I've missed something and am asking redundant questions.
We've had my 5-month old kitten about 4 weeks now. He had a bad bout of diarrhea right after we got him, around September 6th, and it returned this past Friday. He is still eating, playing and drinking well, and this bout is more "cow pattie" than constant "chocolate milk". I took him to the vet after 4 days last time, and tests all came back negative for parasites. After a day or two of Hill's prescription I/D from the vet, canned pumpkin and Fortiflora, it cleared up until now.
When this second bout started I was still giving him the I/D that we got from the vet, about one 3-oz can per day at 3 separate feedings, but had been trying to combine some wet Fancy Feast Kitten turkey with it. He also free-feeds 4Health All Life Stages dry food (not grain-free) with his 3 adult cat siblings.
Do you think maybe he is either (1) sensitive to the FF kitten (which I've stopped) or (2) sensitive to the 4Health dry, or (3) eating too much of the dry because I'm not feeding enough wet??
Once we get this cleared up, he needs to come off the Hill's diet - I know that is not ideal at all for long-term use but I had already been trying to slowly transition to something new and that didn't go well. I'm not sure how to do this, and I imagine the vet will just have me buy more of his prescription food.
It's very frustrating and scary trying to give healthy food. I have to say my 3 older cats grew up on Kitten Chow and Indoor Purina Cat Chow (that I have since found to contain horrible ingredients), but they never had diarrhea with it. I switched everyone over to 4Health once we got the kitten and the rescue group suggested that I research current nutrition theories.
I don't know what to do to make him feel better. I'm sure his tummy must hurt. :-(
Thank so much for any suggestions.
I'm trying to learn about how to determine the cause of diarrhea, and I've tried to go through threads about diarrhea in both the health and nutrition forums. Please forgive me if I've missed something and am asking redundant questions.
We've had my 5-month old kitten about 4 weeks now. He had a bad bout of diarrhea right after we got him, around September 6th, and it returned this past Friday. He is still eating, playing and drinking well, and this bout is more "cow pattie" than constant "chocolate milk". I took him to the vet after 4 days last time, and tests all came back negative for parasites. After a day or two of Hill's prescription I/D from the vet, canned pumpkin and Fortiflora, it cleared up until now.
When this second bout started I was still giving him the I/D that we got from the vet, about one 3-oz can per day at 3 separate feedings, but had been trying to combine some wet Fancy Feast Kitten turkey with it. He also free-feeds 4Health All Life Stages dry food (not grain-free) with his 3 adult cat siblings.
Do you think maybe he is either (1) sensitive to the FF kitten (which I've stopped) or (2) sensitive to the 4Health dry, or (3) eating too much of the dry because I'm not feeding enough wet??
Once we get this cleared up, he needs to come off the Hill's diet - I know that is not ideal at all for long-term use but I had already been trying to slowly transition to something new and that didn't go well. I'm not sure how to do this, and I imagine the vet will just have me buy more of his prescription food.
It's very frustrating and scary trying to give healthy food. I have to say my 3 older cats grew up on Kitten Chow and Indoor Purina Cat Chow (that I have since found to contain horrible ingredients), but they never had diarrhea with it. I switched everyone over to 4Health once we got the kitten and the rescue group suggested that I research current nutrition theories.
I don't know what to do to make him feel better. I'm sure his tummy must hurt. :-(
Thank so much for any suggestions.