11 week old kitten had soft stools since I got him 2 weeks ago! Probiotics?

[AnnabelandOtto]

We brought home our kitten when he was just over 9 weeks old and he has not had a single firm stool since. Initially we thought it was just the new environment and stress - but from day 2 he was extremely comfortable and seemed very at home and happy with us so we no longer think it's that.

We are giving him the Purina 1 Kitten dry food (this is what he was having before) but we are trying to very slowly (as advised everywhere) transition him to wet food. When we took him to the vet about the loose stools last week, they just blamed it on the wet food and suggested that cats shouldn't have wet food and should be on a kibble only diet (don't even get me started on this! - I'm a firm believer that this is a load of rubbish!).

Anyway, we are still determined to have him on a raw food/wet food diet in the future but in the meantime, he isn't really tolerating even 1tsp per day of wet food (we have tried a few different flavours and brands) without having loose stools (not quite diarrhoea but nearly!). It's becoming quite a lot to handle as he is scooting on the floor after every litter visit so we are having to stress him out further by picking him up to check him and clean him up.

I've read everywhere online that a good probiotic, namely, Nexabiotic for cats works wonders! I have some coming tomorrow and I can't wait to see if it makes a difference so we can start getting our lives back to normal and enjoy being in the kitten bubble! I guess I'm looking for some more advice and I guess encouragement from other kitten owners that this probiotic may work for this situation and be the answer to my prayers?!

 

[IzzysfureverMom]

I am not familiar with the Nexabiotic brand here. Has he been tested for parasites, worms etc? Parasites are very common in kittens. They usually need deworming and quite frequently flea treatment. If he has parasite treatment etc, I would ask vet about probiotics. I use them for my furkids, but always started very slowly. They are a lot of brands, so the selection is very important. Vet should be able to advise you as well.You seems to know/ understand how to transition a cats food, so I don't think it is that. However, maybe just give one brand of wet food for awhile before adding others into his rotation.

 

[AnnabelandOtto]

Hey! Thanks for your response!

The vet de-wormed him and checked him over the other day and it doesn't seem to have made any difference so don't think it's a parasite! Yeah perhaps sticking to one wet food brand for a longer period of time is a better thing to do. I will try that for sure. I've been using the brands that have no grains and no nasties in and have high protein etc to try and combat any bad reactions but maybe he's just super sensitive!

Will try the Nexabiotics in a small dose when they come and see how he reacts. Gonna be a trial and error thing I think!

 

[IzzysfureverMom]

Yes, I start probiotics low low dose and slow . You can go from diarrhea to constipation OR constipation to diarrhea fast especially if they have a sensitive system. Oh congratulations by the way and good luck.

 

[fionasmom]

One advantage of Nexabiotics is that it is very easy to disguise in wet food and is flavorless.