- Joined
- Dec 1, 2021
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Hi all,
Let me start with a summary of the situation:
Adoption date: 13 April 2022
Food given up until adoption: N&D Kitten, grain-free + Royal Canin Kitten (sachet)
Following adoption: N&D Kitten, with grains (out of sheer stupidity, because I bought the wrong one) + Royal Canin Kitten (sachet)
Vet check-up: 18 April - all great. Healthy weight of 2,7kg (albeit a bit on the thin side), no symptoms
Symptoms: 21 April, started having loose stools with occasional blood. Sometimes part of the stool was hard and the other soft.
So... all's going great with my kitten and I think he's healthy. He has his vaccines, was neutered, eats well, has been growing fast. The only thing that changed following the vet visit is that we were told we could free-feed him dry food, since he's growing. So he went from eating 70g of dry food to around 100g a day (sometimes more), because we were making sure he always had food in his bowl... and he simply wouldn't stop eating until it was empty.
His stool is of a light-ish brown color and not watery, per se, just loose and with a bit of blood. Sometimes he'd poop twice, usually the 2nd time was less than an hour after the 1st. It's likely not parasite, as he had a full PCR before I picked him up and it came up clean, and he hasn't been in contact with any animals or walked outside at all since then.
After a conversation with the vet, we wondered if maybe he was overeating, so we stopped free-feeding and set for 80g of N&D a day, and removed the sachet. We transitioned back to the grain-free version of it over the course of two weeks (I never actually intended to change his food, I just got confused when buying it and ended up getting one that's slightly different than the one his breeder had been giving him), gave him probiotics for 10 days and it got better. Not 100% as it was in the beginning, but huge improvement. I wouldn't even call it diarrhoea, just a bit of soft stools now.
The thing is, I get the impression he's hungry. He meows more now when we go to the kitchen, so I'd like to go back to giving him the sachet and perhaps increase his food intake a bit... but I'm worried he'd get diarrhoea again. Is it possible that he just can't self-regulate and eats too much? Is there a way to tell if he's been spoiled by accident (we do like to give treats, and I think my parents might have unintentionally trained him to meow for things, including attention), or if he's actually hungry? The vet said the abrupt food change was probably okay (even if not ideal) because most of the formula is the same, but I suppose it could have been that, too...
He's a pure breed Maine Coon, 6 months old, and has gained 700g since we got him about a month ago. He's the smallest of the litter (very tiny in comparison to his brothers), and he's now at 3,3kg. It seems he'll catch up!
Let me start with a summary of the situation:
Adoption date: 13 April 2022
Food given up until adoption: N&D Kitten, grain-free + Royal Canin Kitten (sachet)
Following adoption: N&D Kitten, with grains (out of sheer stupidity, because I bought the wrong one) + Royal Canin Kitten (sachet)
Vet check-up: 18 April - all great. Healthy weight of 2,7kg (albeit a bit on the thin side), no symptoms
Symptoms: 21 April, started having loose stools with occasional blood. Sometimes part of the stool was hard and the other soft.
So... all's going great with my kitten and I think he's healthy. He has his vaccines, was neutered, eats well, has been growing fast. The only thing that changed following the vet visit is that we were told we could free-feed him dry food, since he's growing. So he went from eating 70g of dry food to around 100g a day (sometimes more), because we were making sure he always had food in his bowl... and he simply wouldn't stop eating until it was empty.
His stool is of a light-ish brown color and not watery, per se, just loose and with a bit of blood. Sometimes he'd poop twice, usually the 2nd time was less than an hour after the 1st. It's likely not parasite, as he had a full PCR before I picked him up and it came up clean, and he hasn't been in contact with any animals or walked outside at all since then.
After a conversation with the vet, we wondered if maybe he was overeating, so we stopped free-feeding and set for 80g of N&D a day, and removed the sachet. We transitioned back to the grain-free version of it over the course of two weeks (I never actually intended to change his food, I just got confused when buying it and ended up getting one that's slightly different than the one his breeder had been giving him), gave him probiotics for 10 days and it got better. Not 100% as it was in the beginning, but huge improvement. I wouldn't even call it diarrhoea, just a bit of soft stools now.
The thing is, I get the impression he's hungry. He meows more now when we go to the kitchen, so I'd like to go back to giving him the sachet and perhaps increase his food intake a bit... but I'm worried he'd get diarrhoea again. Is it possible that he just can't self-regulate and eats too much? Is there a way to tell if he's been spoiled by accident (we do like to give treats, and I think my parents might have unintentionally trained him to meow for things, including attention), or if he's actually hungry? The vet said the abrupt food change was probably okay (even if not ideal) because most of the formula is the same, but I suppose it could have been that, too...
He's a pure breed Maine Coon, 6 months old, and has gained 700g since we got him about a month ago. He's the smallest of the litter (very tiny in comparison to his brothers), and he's now at 3,3kg. It seems he'll catch up!