Kitten with diarrhea

Shadow_Ferret · Nov 10, 2014

My boss found an abandoned kitten in her bushes and asked if I wanted it otherwise it was going to the humane society. Sure, why not? That was two weeks ago tomorrow.

That Saturday we took it to the vet for a check-up. He thinks it was around 4 or 5 weeks old. No external parasites, but it had roundworm. He gave it some oral medication and we went home.

Ever since then the poor little guy has had diarrhea. We've been giving him the same dry kitten food, but I had changed up the style of the canned food, same brand but a pate then one with meat strips in gravy and now I'm trying to feed the same canned food, seafood pâté.

So was it the medication? (He did throw-up after the vet's). Was it the changes in diet? We're going back this Saturday for his first round of shots and I'll mention the diarrhea to him, but until then, any ideas?

Unimportant · Nov 10, 2014

It probably was the meds; worming treatments often cause diarrhoea in kittens.

Try feeding it easy-to-digest foods with a lot of moisture in them as diarrhoea can turn into dehydration: chopped steamed chicken breast mixed with steamed rice; raw beaten egg.

heza · Nov 10, 2014

I am not a cat expert! But...

I have heard that adding some pumpkin can help firm up stool... but I also heard that's how you relieve constipation, and those two ideas seem opposing to me. *shrugs*

I've known some cats who just had unexplained diarrhea as kittens and sort of grew out of it.

There are a variety of parasites that can cause diarrhea other than the worms: tritrichomonas, giardia, campylobacter, clostridium, coccidiosis... did your vet test for other parasites?

Shadow_Ferret · Nov 10, 2014

I can only assume he checked for other parasites since we told him the kitten was found outside but I'll double-check with him on Saturday.

regdog · Nov 11, 2014

Worm medicine can definitely cause diarrhea. It can also be caused by the kitten's system not being used to a steady diet of food. If it has recently weened it may need time to adjust. Kittens usually get solid food while still nursing.

Outside strays don't have that luxury.

Another possibility is the parasite coccidia and the blood test will show if it is present.

Quentin Nokov · Nov 14, 2014

Actually, Heza, we gave on of our cats squash (which is related to pumpkins) and besides the fact he loved it, it helped his diarrhea.

Shadow-Ferret, I'd be careful giving wet cat food (especially seafood) to your kitten. Ever since the Fukushima disaster I'm leary of fish, especially Alaskan salmon. And I won't feed it to my cats.

I think my cat had diarrhea after a worm-treatment once. It resolved after a few days I think. Make sure you don't give him/her any human milk--that will exacerbate the problem. Monitor his/her water intact and if you have to get an eyedropper and "force" the kitten to drink water, do so. If it continues to be a problem call the vet.

Locke · Nov 14, 2014

Frequent shelter volunteer here: yes, those can cause diarrhea, but double-checking with the vet isn't a bad idea if it lasts through the weekend. Make sure that he's drinking water to re-hydrate.

Shadow_Ferret · Nov 17, 2014

He is free of internal parasites so the vet gave us an antidiarrheal to see if that would help.

Also we've found out he can't fully extend his left front elbow and he lacks a blink relex in his right eye (and maybe blind there). Poor little guy.

regdog · Nov 19, 2014

We found some of our kittens couldn't digest kitten or cat food so we gave them regular beef, or chicken baby food, it helped.

Roxxsmom · Nov 20, 2014

heza said:
There are a variety of parasites that can cause diarrhea other than the worms: tritrichomonas, giardia, campylobacter, clostridium, coccidiosis... did your vet test for other parasites?

These are all definite possibilities, especially in a kitten who was living on the streets for a while.

Some of these are hard to test for, as the population waxes and wanes in the bowel. Some vets will just prescribe a drug called flagyl to rule some of these microbial parasites out for this reason. There are more serious ailments that can cause diarrhea too, including feline panleukopenia, which is one of the things they vaccinate cats for. But if he had this, he'd likely be much sicker than just diarrhea (it causes vomiting and low white blood cell counts too, and is rapidly fatal in kittens).

I assume you're not giving him milk. Milk can cause diarrhea. They do have special foods that are designed for cats with possible food allergies or sensitivities. It's definitely something to talk over with the vet when you go back.

Rice mixed with baby food (strained lamb or chicken) can firm up stools too. Hope he gets better soon.

Kitten with diarrhea

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.

heza

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

regdog

The Scavengers

Quentin Nokov

King of the Kitties

Locke

Lost the instruction manual

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

regdog

The Scavengers

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido