My kitty has runny poop?

Question

My kitty has runny poop. It's about 6 weeks old. I just got him and hes been pooping like this since I got him on Monday, February 19, 2007. It makes noises when he goes to the litterbox. I don't know but it seems very uncomfortable when he goes. He also goes all the time. My sister owns his sister and she goes poop the exact way. I feed him wet food mixed with dry, could this be the problem?

Answer 1

Take your kitten to the vet immediately!

If it's got runny poop it could be getting dehydrated. It could also have a virus that it might have caught from it's Mum which needs treating. Since his sister has the same poop issue she should go as well.

And if he looks uncomfortable when he goes you should get him checked out - it's not nice to let him suffer if all he needs is some antibiotics.

It may just be a change of food BUT if young animals get sick, they can go downhill and die very very quickly. It's not worth the risk. Visit the vet now!

Many vets do not charge for New Pet checks (only for the medicine if it's needed). Your vet can also advise on when to give the annual jabs (they won't give them until your kitten is better) and how much it can cost so you can prepare for that.

BTW: I presume you are feeding him kitten food. He seems very very young to have been taken from his Mum. Kittens shouldn't leave their Mum until they are at least 9 weeks.

Please let us all know what the vet said. We'll be worried if you don't!

Answer 2

Kitties tummies are very delicate at this young age and even changing the brand of food he's been on will give him the runs or constipation. Can you check with the previous owner to see exactly what he was fed on? I kept mine on dry kitten food up to 12 weeks as the richness of the wet food didn't agree with him. If you haven't taken him to the vet for a checkup yet I suggest you (and your sister also) do so, just to be on the safe side and to plan worming & innoculations etc.
Good luck, hope both kitties are feeling better soon. X

Answer 3

I was always love answering these questions with a little story of my own. . . .

I had a little black cat called Jack who basically had runny poo ever since I brought him to live with me. I tried everything that I could to get it to return to normal.

I took him to the vets, I changed his diet, I tried wet food only, I tried dry food only, I tried both and nothing seemed to resolve the matter permanently.

So . . . . I did a bit of my own research and here’s what I came up with . . . . . .

As one of the other responses here rightly states, cats stomachs are very sensitive to things like changing diet but also very susceptible to infection.

Often a cat will develop some kind of bowel or intestinal infection just as we might develop one, not caused y anything that we’ve done but just through picking up a bug.

However, in many cases, it is possible for the immune system to begin to recognise the conditions that exist while digesting food and, in a way, start to think that it is normal. In the case of my cat Jack, he had a minor bowel infection which basically caused him to have runny poo (sometimes with blood in it which was always worrying and distressing at the time). We took him to the vet who did a stool analysis and diagnosed the infection and treated him for it.

All was fine until a few weeks later when it returned. After further investigation it transpired that there was in fact no further trace of infection but the vet concluded that Jacks organs had simply learned to digest food in this way.


Sorry for the long winded story but I just wanted to explain that you should necessarily worry about this and sometimes it can happen and not be pinpointed to a specific problem.

Now to the treatment!! I tried lots of things that worked very well for Jack.

Fresh, cooked meat. Giving your cat 50g a day of chopped, cooled, cooked chicken will help thicken up the stool.

Dry food. I highly recommend a prescription only food for sensitive stomachs made by Walthams/Royal Canin and has lower levels of certain chemicals such as taurine which irritate the digestive system. It doesn’t look that appetising but Jack used to love it and was very reasonably priced. You should definitely ask your vet for it asap because it is a god send. Hills science plan for sensitive stomachs is also very good but not quite as good as the Walthams.

Pro-biotics. You can also ask your vet for a probiotic gel similar to those yoghurts you see on the adverts for your own digestive system. You basically squeeze some out into your finger and your cat can lick it off your finger and it helps even the balance of bacteria in the gut.

Avoid really smelly and really wet food. I found that a lot of the common branded wet-food was too sloppy and basically came out as it went in. Try using the chunkiest meatiest one you can find. The fish/tuna prime cuts are also very good.

There are also some tablets on the market (Stormagyl 2 and 10) which do prove useful but are quite expensive – ask your vet.

In respect of your sisters cat being the same, I enquired of my cats breeder as to the problem and apparently the whole litter was the same! It is a hereditary thing for cats to develop these ‘memories’ following an infection.

Hopefully this helps and I can’t recommend the Walthams dry food highly enough – it will solve the problem but unfortunately is quite permanent (i.e. you will always have to use it). I would just say though that you should definitely get them checked out at the vets purely to put your mind at rest but don’t worry too much and happy for you to contact me if you have any more questions.

I always felt that I was alone with Jack’s problem and glad that I might have been able to impart some of my knowledge!!

Good luck!!

Answer 4

GO TO VET NOW, a six week old kitten is very fragile, runny poo can be sign of feline flu, it may be just worms, Don't feed it milk, kitties can't digest cow milk. go vet asap, he a very young cat, really should be with mother til they are 8 weeks.

Answer 5

If you have changed the diet from what they were having before you got them this could cause it... kittens can get sick quickly so put them on a bland diet... chicken, fish, rice for a few days then slowly introduce normal food back into diet... if it gets any worse or does not improve on chicken/ fish diet take to the vets...

Answer 6

Sometimes the change of food environment etc. causes this if it doesn't clear in a few days take him to a vet,6 weeks is really too early to take him from his mum.

Answer 7

diarrhea in kittens is not uncommon add a very small amount of plain vanilla yogurt (nothing specially flavored) to its dry cat food. make sure the kitten keeps eating and drinking. if the kitten no longer eats or drinks or the diarrhea last more than a few days then take it to a vet.

Answer 8

just feed him on dry food for a few days as he may be a little too young for wet food and thats why its going straight through him so to speak.

Answer 9

your probably giving it milk, don't do that cus it just goes right through them unless its kitty milk!

take her to the vet also to make sure everythings ok!

Answer 10

you r kitten should still be with its mummy cat take your kitten up to the vets to make share that its ok good luck
ps i do hpoe that its not bad donna g