Kitten having terrible diarrhea

[dapples]

We got a ragdoll kitten in the beginning of December. She is now about 4.5 months old. She was eating Purina One Chicken and Rice dry when we got and her and we switched her right over to an all wet diet, mixing Nature's Variety, BFF, and Evo. Her poop reeked from pretty close to the first week we had her. I read fish could do this, so we cut out the BFF. Her poop has gotten progressively more soupy and the odor is unbearable. I know cat poop is cat poop and it's going to stink, but I don't feel that a covered little box in one room should make the entire floor level smell. Plus, it's getting on her hair on her bum and I'm having to clean her with baby wipes...

She had a few normal stools a few days ago when we were feeding Venison Evo, so I'm going back to trying just that and see if the poop hardens back up, or if it was just a coincidence.

I had a fecal submitted at the vet and it came back clean for giardia and intestinal parasites. She is very active still, eating and drinking fine. She seems hungry a lot, which could be from pooping like crazy and/or from just being a kitten.

She is currently 5 pounds and we are giving her 5.5 - 8oz of food per day, typically in smaller meals about 4 times a day, although some days it is only 3 times.

Does anyone have any suggestions of anything to try? The Evo flavors that we have been giving her are Kitten/Cat Chicken and Turkey, Adult Chicken/Turkey, Beef, and Venison. The Nature's Variety didn't seem to make a difference in the quality or smell of her poop before, so we cut that out since it was much more expensive. We also tried the Wellness Core a few weeks after we initially got her and she got very ill (this may have been the start of the really bad diarrhea) and didn't want to eat and was pretty lethargic for a few days. The flavor we tried with Core was Turkey and Duck. I didn't try any other flavors of that food since it made her so sick.

I could really use some help! I hesitate to go back to my vet because I just know they are going to recommend some crap Science Diet or Royal Canin that will supposedly magically cure her...and I don't think that's the right answer!

[britishvixen21]

When we first got Boo she had terrible runs out of her bum and she seriously made me gag it was so bad and terrible gas as well. she also had been treated and cleared for worms.

Looking at your post it seems like you are switching her food up quite a lot which isnt good. We found a good quality wet/dry mix. We were told a good chicken based food was good as it is easy on the stomach. we were told to avoid fish based foods until her tummy got under control. We were also told that food with a lot of corn products were not good either.

We have found that consistently keeping her on this food has really improved things. its been a long hard smelly road but it is improving day by day. we still have days where she has runny poos but they are getting few and far between.

So my advice is find a chicken based food that has no corn based products and just stick with it. mixing up her foods all the time will only irritate her more. she doesnt mind eating the same thing every day.

I personally suffer with IBS and wonder whether Boo has the cat version LOL and I know that my stomach is delicate and has to be treated with some respect with regards to what I put in it. so i tend to treat Boo the same way.

[britishvixen21]

ONe other thing that was recommended to me by the vet was probiotics for cats with dodgy tummies. there is a link below to a thread from this forum regarding them.

Probiotics

[RockyandLily]

We went through so much diarrhea with Rocky and Lily, Lily especially. You could try probiotics - I give Rocky and Lily a probiotic from Ark Naturals if they ever have diarrhea. Lily actually had some today, I mixed the powder from the capsules with plain non fat greek yogurt and let her lick it off the spoon. Their stools never once tested positive for anything, but a grain free diet has led to only the very occasional diarrhea episode.
I also found this after tons of research then - http://www.2ndchance.info/diarrhea-t...olbert2009.pdf

and seeing as she is a purebred it may be something to look into to rule it out?

[maggie23]

don't know if this would be different for a kitten vs. an adult cat, but you could also add some pure pureed pumpkin to her food to help "solidify" or bulk up her poop, too. for a 5.5 lb kitten, maybe just a teaspoon at first to see if it works? i give our 9 lb senior 1 T twice a day actually and she's got great poop. i have also given her @ 1/8 t probiotics as well after a soft poop incident just to help her replace any good intestinal flora she might have lost with the diarrhea. and in the beginning we definitely had issues with diarrhea because we kept trying different foods. silly, unknowing us! anyway, she took to the chicken and turkey wet BG food really well and does great on that these days. no grains in those. she seemed to have soft poop problems, by the way, when we tried the salmon and tuna and quail flavors unfortunately. oh! and shellfish stuff didn't agree with her either - i.e. crab and shrimp flavors in other brands.