Reddish Brown Poop

I recently got a 4 month old munchkin kitten that I’ve named Biscuit. He’s been home for about a week. This is him when he was a baby:

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The breeder seemed quite responsible- he only breeds long-legged with short-legged cats and he told me about Biscuit having a slight case of ringworm before.

But the day after he came home, I noticed that there was something that looked like blood in his poop. Sorry for the gross cat poo pic.

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The breeder said it was from canned cat food that he’d eaten earlier, and to just watch him for a few days. I asked if it was constipation, and he said it could be, and that i should try some hairball gel. I also asked about worms and the breeder said it couldn’t be.

So no cases of red in poop for about 3 days after the first day.

Then I fed Biscuit Tomlyn hairball gel and he had a day of loose stools, with the ends firm and reddish brown (the same color as the hairball gel). And this afternoon, his poop has firmed up, but the end still looks reddish brown. I’m not sure if it’s blood or if it’s the hairball gel (which was also reddish brown).

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Does it look serious? The vet is quite far away so I don’t want to make the trip if it’s nothing.

He’s on Nutro Kitten, and I started switching him over to Orijen yesterday. His food right now is about 80% Nutro and 20% Orijen. No wet food.

I kind of regret giving him the hairball gel now :/ His poop seemed OK after the first day.

He's not getting any canned food at all? There must be some brand of wet food that he can have that won't cause loose poop. I know my cats always have poop and pee problems when they eat too much dry food.

No, cause the breeder told me hed be stressed and might end up having diarrehea.

I will feed him wet once i finish switching his food. I actually planned to start wet+dry on the 5th day home, but then he started to poo that way :/

His problem isn’t loose poop though. Im not sure if the reddish brown color is normal.

I just looked at the photo, and that does look like blood. I would get a stool test at the vet, it could be something like Giardia.

I forgot to attach a pic of the hairball gel.



The instructions said to give him 1teaspoon, but i gave him 1/4 cause of his age.


And I forgot to mention his poop isn't super stinky. It smells after he first poops, but stops smelling after about half an hour.

Yeah, a teaspoon seems like a lot. All the hairball pastes I've tried have always said 1/4 teaspoon, so good call on that. I don't think hairball paste would cause blood in the poop, it never has for mine. But I only give 1/4 tsp every other day, not every day.

Yeah i thought 1 teaspoon was a lot.

He just pooped again and it looks like diarrehea. I guess we’re going to the vet.

Yeah, that definitely looks like blood. I thought maybe the blood could be caused by hard poop, but that is definitely soft poop. So I'm thinking it must be a parasite of some kind, like Giardia.

Yes, off to the vet we go. Ill have time to take him on tuesday.

Thanks for your help.

I was really hoping it was just the hairball gel giving his poop that tint, but guess not. And his poop consistency seems to be changing quite fast. It was loose after the gel, firm this morning, but now its diarrehea again.

I just remembered: i gave him Revolution for kittens the same day i gave him the hairball gel. Could that have anything to do with this? (Before you ask, Revolution here can be purchased without a prescription, and I believe the place i got it from was reliable).

He actually seems quite active and playful. And he’s eating a lot.

The Nutro food the breeder gave me is down to 50% too, so im gona need to change his food soon. Im trying to drag out the change as much as i can cause i dont want to add to any digestive upset. The original plan was just to have 2 weeks worth of old food and switch after a few days.

When was the last time you gave him the hairball gel? I would just stop the hairball gel and see if his poop returns to normal by Tuesday. It will be out of his system by then, and if his poop still looks bloody, I would take him to the vet. I've never heard of Revolution causing bloody poop, but I guess anything's possible.

Blood with diarrhea could be a few things, and commonly is colititis. My munchkin cat (a rescue) had a myriad of life-long health issues included irritable bowels. Bad teeth, chronic vomiting, chronic diarrhea, chronic kidney disease, etc. He was an expensive cat to treat his teeth and GI issues. If I had to do it over, I would have been more proactive definitely with a better diet and fluids (to prevent dehydration). I initially had mistakenly chalked it up to hairballs, and I think your breeder may possibly be misleading you with the hairball gel. Another lesson I learned is to not keep giving him antibiotics if it is not helping.

My suggestion is to get him on a better diet (like supplement dry food with some canned food, and no grains), and keep monitoring him for water intake/peeing and dehydration, and other symptoms. The vets can run some tests that may or may not help, depending on his issues and it's progression. The sooner you diagnose and properly treat his issue, the better life he will have in spite of IBD, an infection, or other congenital disease...thereby less costly vet visits and medications.

Yes, ill definitely go to the vet. Ive got time on tuesday, so thats tomorrow.

Ive only fed him the hairball gel once so far. I didnt feed it on consecutive days.

So the timeline is

Monday - got home

Tuesday morning - little spot of blood ( bright red) on hard poop IMG_2660.JPG

Wednesday - normal poop

Thursday - normal poop

Thursday night - fed hairball gel

Friday morning - soft poop

Friday evening - soft poop with reddish brown mucus at the ends

Saturday - watery poop with firm reddish brown ends

Sunday morning - normal consistency with reddish ends IMG_2805.JPG

Sunday evening - diarrea with mucus and the reddish brown stuff ( post #7)

Click to expand...

Yes, im a helicopter mom.

I really hope its not a parasite. Hes in a crate right now, but Cookie seems to really like him and they play together. Right now, she can only run around his crate and swat at him. She can’t eat his food or use his litter box, but she can definitely get close enough to sniff his bum.

Well he pooped again today. He only pooped once and it actually looks a bit constipated to me. Its firm and has no blood.



Ugh, this is so annoying. Ive heard giardia can cause diarrhea randomly, but can it go back and forth between watery and firm so quickly?

It looks more normal today. It's great if there is no blood. The only thing I know of to know for sure is a stool test. But it looks a lot better.

Firm poop again this morning.

We are heading to the vet now.

The vet told me to wait until he has loose stool to bring a sample in myself.

She took a look at him today and felt his tummy, and said that it didnt seem like anything was wrong. She also said she didnt feel he was constipated.

I asked about them getting a stool sample at the hospital, but she said that since he didn’t have diarrhea, they might not find anything.

She didnt seem too concered about giardia. It might be due to geography (i live in china), but vets here mainly think of roundworms and fleas when it comes to parasites. They dont seem to be overly concered about things like ticks and protozoas.

I also showed her the pictures and she said that she couldnt tell for sure if it was blood or not :/ and she mentioned again that she didnt feel anything amiss when she palpitated him.

So i just got him vaccinated (2nd fvrcp) and now im waiting to see if he has runny poop again.

That last poop looked pretty good, except for the two round pieces. When my female cat is constipated, it's hard round balls.

Poop has been normal so far. So maybe it was the hairball gel after all.

Thanks for your help.