Are my kittens sick? Both have very soft stools.?

Question

Hello all. I adopted two kittens from an animal shelter, both are now five months old. Since I adopted them, both have very soft stools. It's not watery and doesn't have any blood or anything unusual. They are very active and playful and eat lots of food. I feed them Purina kitty chow (dry food) and sometimes food that I cook. Since I noticed how soft the stool is, I stopped feeding them food that I cook for a whole week now to see if their stools would harden, but I have seen no improvement. I also never feed them anything dairy, and I give them lots of water. Both kitties have vaccinations and have been dewormed. What could be wrong with them?

Answer 1

At many shelters, little kittens go through a LOT in a VERY short amount of time: antibiotics, deworming, medications, vaccinations and more antibiotics and drugs related to being neutered/spayed. And think how tiny these guys are. All these things can take months for a small kitty to recover from.

And of course a change in their diet can cause this too, but it could also be signs of something more serious as well.

It's always good to have a vet run some stool and blood tests on any new pets just to make sure there are no surprises. Request copies of all the detailed test results for yourself. If anything else happens months or years down the road, you will have some previous tests to give to any vet for a real comparison to the same cat instead of the data being compared to an "average" cat.

If you can't afford the works, assuming they aren't showing any other symptoms, you could start with just the stool test. You could even gather their stool yourself from the litter box and take it to a vet to be analyzed. That way, your kitties can stay home and you shouldn't have to pay an examination fee. If the stool didn't provide any clues, then you could take them in for a blood test.

If a vet ever tries to prescribe any medications without test data to support it, please ask if it is really necessary or if the they are just giving you drugs to ease your mind. If they don't know what the problem is they shouldn't be afraid to say so and don't be shocked. Sometimes there is just no way to know what's going on. Drugs aren't necessarily bad, but they aren't always necessary.

If the vet can't figure it out and the cats seem healthy otherwise, there are a lot of variables that can be affecting your cat's digestion... Toilet bowl water, soap scum in the shower, oil based cleaners, pesticides, too much cooked food, onions or garlic, house plants, grocery store dry food, etc. Keep paying attention and you may discover the problem and keep them strictly indoors at least until the problem is fixed. Any diet issues though can take a few weeks before it resolves itself.

I wish you and your kitties the best!

Answer 2

Oh so many possibilities! But all have solutions so don't despair.

First on the list is stress. Being adopted, while a good thing, is new and cats not liking change so much. Who moved their cheese? LOL - just a little corporate humor. Give them time to adjust and things should improve.

Physical problems. Take stool samples to the vet for analysis. There could be a parasite causing the problem.

Kitten stomach - this is what my former vet called it. Kittens do appear to be rather notorious for digestive issues. It may clear up on its own as they get older.

And last but definitely not least - food. Purina is low quality food. And some cats are more sensitive to this than others. You know how some people can live on MacDonald's and never gain a pound or have upset stomachs, and others take a bite of a Big Mac and they're dashing to the bathroom? It's just like that with cats as well.

In an effort to keep this reasonably short, I won't explain why I say it's bad food - but I will if asked. For now I'll just suggest that you try different foods. It isn't strictly necessary to feed "kitten" food, but if you're not ready to hear that, you can still find better kitten foods.

But not in the grocery store. Look into Wellness or Evo. Wellness makes a kitten food, and Evo is "certified for all life stages." Both are top notch foods, available in both dry and canned, and are relatively easy to find.

So start with that. There are other brands I could recommend if those don't work out, but we'll leave that for another day. If you rule out physical problems and try a different food and still don't have improvement, let me/us know. There are other things that can be tried.

How do I know all this? I had a little pooper myself. I feared for all soft fabrics in my home. Old towels covered every surface she was likely to sit on. Then I learned about good cat food and now you could bounce a quarter off those puppies. I mean poopies.

Answer 3

They could have an intestinal parasite. That is very easy to cure with antibiotics from the Vet. I've gotten 4+ kittens from shelters that all had it. I got the kittens years apart too. It seems like once one kitty gets something like this in a shelter it just spreads through the whole place.

I don't want to scare you, but there is another *very* important reason you need to take these kitties to the Vet. I had a kitty for years that had loose stools. I didn't think it was a big deal, she acted completely normal. I just thought that's how she was. (I know how stupid that sounds....now) To make a long, yucky, sad story short....sometimes kitties with diarrhea don't know when to stop trying to go. There's no way to put this delicately...my kitty actually squeezed her insides to the outside. She had 3 surgeries and none of them were successful. We had to put her to sleep. Please see the Vet about this, it may not be something that will hurt them by next month, but over the long run it can claim their lives.

Good luck. It's nice to hear that you cook for your kitties. You must adore them!

Answer 4

Since the 7 year old now has runny poo also, it makes sense to think the kitten has brought some sort of parasite/bacteria in with him. Did the vet test specifically for coccidia and giardia? Those tend to make some *very* smelly soft stools. The problem with running any fecal test is that it only tells you if the organism/parasite you're looking for is in that particular sample - they can still have something and have it not show up. Talk to the vet about dosing them both with Albon and Flagyl (metronodzinole), and see if that doesn't make the problem go away.

Answer 5

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RE:
Are my kittens sick? Both have very soft stools.?
Hello all. I adopted two kittens from an animal shelter, both are now five months old. Since I adopted them, both have very soft stools. It's not watery and doesn't have any blood or anything unusual. They are very active and playful and eat lots of food. I feed them Purina kitty chow (dry...

Answer 6

How long have you had them. It took my two kittens a long time to adjust to new food, even though I mixed it in slowly with what they were eating before. It may take months even but if it continues for more than a month you should see a vet. Stop feeding them human food its not good for them and may be part of the problem.

Answer 7

You didn't say what kind of food you cook. And if they eat wet food or not.

Wet food would most definitely give young kittens the big d. They also might need another round of deworming, just in case.

If you are very concerned, take them to the vet for a checkup.

Good luck!

Answer 8

I'm not worried about the kittens, im worried about you feeling their stools!

Answer 9

i would go to your vet and get a sample just in case. they could also be dehydrated as a result of the diarrhea. it is possible that they need food that is easier to digest like iams or i/d

Answer 10

you shouldnt be cooking food for them...it may be messing their stomachs up..try just their cat food if it doesnt clear up in a week or so put a call into your vet and do a phone consult