on going diarrhea

[muddygrl]

I got a 15 week old male kitten in november. I got him from college girls who were feeding him cheap discount store food. They said it gave him diarrhea. Sure enough he had diarrhea. I switched him to my other cats food. Immediately which I know is not good but they had ran out of cheap food anyway. After a month he was still having diarrhea. I was feeding soft canned food and Aldi brand dry food. I took him to the vet and they de-wormed him. They gave him a liquid dewormer in the office, and gave me some liquid antibiotics for 10 days. He said to give him canned pumpkin. This did help and he started to get firmer stools.

But after the antibiotics were gone and I stopped pumpkin he still had diarrhea. I ended up taking him off of the canned food and that seemed to help alot. I got a different dry food and transitioned slowly , it was purina pro plan for sensitive stomachs, lamb and rice. He did ok on it but still had diarrhea quite often. It was no longer smelly but there were still cow patty style poos in the box.

It's march now and he is still having diarrhea. I ended up SLOWLY VERY SLOWLY switching to a grain free food. He and the others are all on Authority Grain free chicken and potato. He gets no canned food. He was doing fine and had normal poops when I was slowly switching him over. Seemed better really. But recently his stools went back to diarrhea again. I gave them all a can of soft food a few weeks ago , and wonder if that triggered it. I also realized his treats were not grain free... I dont' know what is making his digestion upset. Should I just feed more pumpkin and make sure there is no canned food or grain treats? I don't know what to do. He's happy and runs and plays  with his brother. He is growing although smaller than his brother (but his brother is not his blood brother, they are not related. His brother is a much bigger cat)  He's the sweetest thing and acts like he feels fine but he is having alot of diarrhea again. Please help.

 

[molly92]

The first thing I suspect with diarrhea and kittens is a parasite. Most in house stool tests at the vet often miss many common parasites. A PCR panel is more reliable, although more expensive. You can sometimes identify a parasite just from observing the stool, though, and then treat with the appropriate medication. Giardia causes brown and soft diarrhea, for example, and coccidia tends to be more yellowy. Those are the two most likely culprits, although there are others. The rescue I worked at would sometimes treat new kittens with diarrhea for these even before taking them to the vet just because they were so common.

If you've ruled out a parasite, and I don't think you can fully rule out a parasite until a medication works or you've done a PCR test, then you can try a limited ingredient diet and see if he does well on that. Canned food is not going to cause diarrhea just because it's canned. If he's sensitive to a specific ingredient in that particular canned food, maybe. Canned food is usually better because there are fewer filler ingredients, and it'd be especially good if for him because diarrhea is dehydrating. The most common food sensitivities are to fillers, usually corn or wheat, but I wouldn't count out potato as a possible contributor. Sensitivities can also develop to a protein, most commonly chicken or fish, so you can look for LID foods with novel proteins like rabbit, venison, beef, etc, and see if that helps.

Something else you can try is probiotics, which can help diarrhea in many instances. I think I even read on here once that someone successfully resolved a parasitic infection with probiotics.

 

[stephanietx]

A canned food actually might be better for him.  You might try a limited ingredient food for him.  I'd also ask the vet for the PCR diarrhea panel just to rule out any weird parasites.