Kitten Has Diarrhea

Last night my four month old kitten was much thirstiest than normal, and this morning he had a very soft, smelly bowel movement. He's gotten fluffy enough these past few weeks to make his backside hard to clean up now! The only weird thing he ate yesterdy was that he managed to get into his freeze dried salmon treats and eat much more of them than I usually give him. His energy and appetite seem fine, should I be worried? If not, when should I start worrying? He's very big and fairly hearty, but I know diarrhea can be dangerous, which makes me nervous.

I think the overdose of salmon treats is probably the cause of the diarrhea. Kittens are very sensitive to sudden diet changes. If the diarrhea lasts more than 24 hours, you may want to look into other things. At his age and size, he shouldn't be in any danger from just loose stools. Diarrhea is dangerous when it is watery and extreme and they are putting out more liquid than they are taking in. The only other things to be suspicious of are (1) a bad can of cat food -- dented, or those types where they are plastic but covered with foil on the top, easy to have holes in them and have food go bad, and (2) if you are feeding dry food and just opened a new bag, each bag constitutes a "new" food because it is a different lot, so if cats get diarrhea at that time, you should hold the food suspect, put it away and get another bag from a different lot (time and date stamp on bags indicate lots) and see if that cures the problem. If it's just the overdose of salmon treats, his tummy should be settled very soon.

Thank you, that's reassuring! We opened a new bag of dry food last week, but I assume he'd have gotten sick earlier if that were the cause. The can he had yesterday didn't look odd at all, and it's the type that's usually easiest on his stomach. I'll have to be more careful with the treats!