I just adopted a 3-4 year old cat and she suddenly has diarrhea.?

Question

I've only had her 4 days and the diarrhea started yesterday. She was checked out B4 adoption, had no worms and is seemingly healthy. I know she's had a change in environment, she and my other cat are having to adapt to each other and, of course, a change in food. She is getting Naturals dry food and a can of Friskies wet food a day. I was told to cut out the boneless, skinless chicken breast.

I'm concerned about dehydration as I never see her belly up to the various water bowls and fountain we have. I do put plenty of water in her wet food to compensate for this but I'm still concerned. I am reading so much about this dehydration thing.

I'll be bringing a sample of her stool in to the vet on wednesday for testing again. Am I unduly worried at this time? How long do I let this play out? Does she just need some time to settle in???

Thank you, everyone, for your input, suggestions and reply.

Answer 1

Biggest reason for diarrhea in an older cat adopted from a shelter(where they usually don't have worms) would be a change in dry food. You should have found out what they were feeding her(dry food) at the shelter and started with that. If you wanted to change the brand of dry food you should start adding a little of the new to the old and gradually increasing it over a 3-4 day period. If you're adding water to her wet food I wouldn't worry about dehydration. She's older so dehydration is not as big of an issue as it is with kittens. Dehydration kills kittens. (Just curious but how much water are you adding to her wet food?)

Since you've already made the transition to a new food you could try adding some canned pumpkin(not pumpkin pie filling) to the wet food. Add 1-2 teaspoons. It is a natural fiber.

Do you know if she was in the shelter long?
The stress of a new home can also play into the diarrhea situation.

But to answer your question, yes, you're unduly worried at this point. You sound like you're going to be a really responsible cat owner.

Answer 2

Hi Many things
You are a bit worried and I don't believe a vet exam is warrented The stool sample probably wouldn't due much good anyway. For the diarrhea, get some acidoupholous from a health food store and sprinkle some in the food.

As far as drimnking goes, most cats are not big drinkers if they drink at all. They get their mositure needs from their food. The big drinkers are the ones that eat dry foods and they can't ever drink enough to make up for the lack of water in dry.
If you are worried about dehydration, you can check by picking up the skin and letting it drop. It should fall back in place very quickly.
So happy you adopted a somewhat older cat instead of a kitten. The odds for those decrease all the time as they get older. Please consider getting rid of the dry foods and feeding canned without gravy

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard, dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods.
The problems with it are that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Most of the moisture a cat needs is gotten
out of the food and 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Also, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods.Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics.html
http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall

Answer 3

It could be a combination of things - emotional and food related. You can add some baby food (it must NOT contain any onion or garlic powder). Squash can help with binding. Canned pumpkin can help too. It doesn't come in small cans though. Whichever you can get her to eat.

Diarrhea is a symptom that indicates the body has to rid itself of something toxic.

Fancy Feast is a terrible food - it has meat treated with chemicals, food coloring and chemical flavor enhancers. Try some Wellness, Natural Balance, Avoderm etc. for a more wholesome food. Wet food is actually best for diarrhea and the FF may have to great a chemical load for her system.

Answer 4

as long as she's urinating normally, there's no need to worry about dehydration. I would shut her away from other cats, with seperate litterbox and dishes, so you know exactly how much she's eating, drinking, peeing etc., and also prevent spread of disease. Give her a few days alone, if the diarrhea doesn't fix itself by the time you're going to the vet with your new sample, take her with you. Good luck, and RELAX! she'll be fine!

Answer 5

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Answer 6

I would wait for her to adjust. Give her about a week. I would continue to give her the normal food and just make sure you have plenty of water available. I think that it's pretty normal for a new pet to have diarrhea the first week of a changed environment. It's probably just anxiety/nerves. But if it persists for more than a week I would call your vet.

Answer 7

Her digestive system is getting used to the new food she is getting now. It should clear up very soon.

I've fed Aaims to my cat for years, and to several cats before this one, and it's always been well tolerated...and they love it.

Of course, if the diarrhea doesn't go away in a few days, seek the advice of your vet.

Answer 8

sounds like a combination of nerves and change of food. good job taking her in for an exam by the vet though. enjoy your new kitty

Answer 9

if you are giving her milk that can cause diarrohea because there stomachs cant handle cow milk. but it is just better to take her to the vet