Kitten Bowel Issues; Diet Advice?

Rowsdower

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Also posted on cat health...

My nearly six month old female was adopted at two months after being spayed. She’s had issues with pooping in her box off and on but recently they’ve become worse. Vet has checked her twice for parasites. She got a clean bill of health, but continues to make odd bowel movements.

Vet has her on science diet kitten wet food and a scoop of science diet kitten dry in the days. She often tries to force bowel movements to no success. Usually she poops a larger pile of formed coils easily. Vet checked her for obstruction and said she’s fine since she’s high energy, has a solid appetite and has no odd health symptoms. Her bowel movements have always been like this.

She often goes next to the box later if she doesn’t have success but recently has been having larger soft piles once a day. Vet said to cut out the dry food but that did nothing. She actually did better on the dry food alone (which I found out is what she ate as a foster cat).

I just tried her on the Dick Van Patten brand Limited Ingredient Diet but she ended up making another large soft pile on the floor. I’ve also given her canned pumpkin and probiotic in the past.

I’m getting super frustrated since vet wouldn’t recommend another brand and the pooping out of the box is becoming a major problem. She pees there just fine and prior to the past week pooped 80% of the time in it.

Any suggestions on foods/diet choices.
 

catsknowme

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:welcomesign: Welcome to TCS, the friendly group where all subjects feline are interesting, so much so that we even have a Poop emoji: :poop: :lol: :biggrin:
I am sorry that your little one is having those issues. Pooping near but in the box is a sign of associating pain & discomfort with the box.
First off, is the litter unscented/fragrance free? The perfumes and fragrances, especially Febreze, are irritating to sensitive anal tissues and exacerbate as well as cause diarrhea problems. A little coconut oil might be soothing.
You really have done your homework & the vet certainly looked at the most common causes. As far as diet, have you tried a simple temporary diet of boiled chicken or hamburger with white rice/white rice water? I know that kittens need more specific nutrients than that, long term so I would ask the vet on adding vitamins (be sure to introduce the supplements gradually). Also, you can consider using herbs such as slippery elm bark and marshmallow root and red raspberry leaf - as alternatives become more popular, many veterinarians are educating themselves about using them.
Please keep us updated! :agree:
 

di and bob

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She needs a consistent diet with no changes and gradual changes when they have to be. do you know what she was on before and get some? I would offer wet food a few times a day, and keep water available and entice her to drink with a fountain, or small bowls set around the house. Cats most likely have bowel issues when their diet is changed too rapidly or too often. You might try a good probiotic too.
 

lisahe

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Oof, yes, there are definitely two areas to look at here: the litter box and the food dish!

catsknowme catsknowme has a very good point about litter box fragrances. The fewer the better. Plus some cats don't like to switch litters.

As for the food, di and bob di and bob has a very good point about not switching foods too often: some cats are very sensitive to that. I also like the approach of going back to the last thing that worked and trying to stabilize.

Personally, I'd also strongly consider slowly switching to or at least supplementing with a different kind of wet food, going away from the Science Diet, to a grain-free and very simple recipe without the corn and soy ingredients I saw in the one kitten food recipe of theirs that I checked. The corn and soy are low on the ingredient list but some cats are sensitive to plant-based ingredients like those. Or potato, which caused horrible gas in our cat. We don't feed any potato, grains, peas, or other legumes to our cats and that really minimizes their digestive problems. Again, personally, we feed certain Fancy Feast Classics but I wouldn't even consider allegedly premium foods like Ziwipeak, which is very expensive but contains chickpeas, or anything with corn, wheat, or soy. I say that realizing that Science Diet works great for some cats... but since ours have sensitive systems, we find a diet high in meat protein and very low in carbs works really well because cats are carnivorous so their bodies are best evolved for processing meat, not plants!
 

mizzely

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Have you tried offering another litter box? For a while as a kitten my Lydia would only pee in one box and poop in another. She luckily out grew it but it was frustrating! It might help to get a different litter for the second box so they don't smell the same, but I agree that unscented is better!
 

lisahe

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Oh, yes, a second box is a good idea. (I think that's recommended, anyway: one box for each cat, plus one more.)
 

Eatingiceman

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I recently had issues with my newly adopted female as well, I found that adding a probiotic into her diet and pure pumpkin puree has helped the issue greatly. I was also recommended a vet brand diet that really didn't help her at all. I would take into account the suggestions of a second or larger litter box, but also perhaps make a final change to her diet of a limited ingredient diet. Koha l.i.d wet food really helped my kitty but I saw a major difference after introducing freeze dried raw to her. Make sure she gets lot of water and activity to help digestion.
Heres a list of things I used.
-Probiotic 20 billion Suisse laboratorie (one pill per day)
-pumpkin patch up for dogs and cats by weruva.
-primal freeze dried nuggets
-koha L.i.d
Took about a week to see results hope this helps!
 

catsknowme

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Have you tried offering another litter box? For a while as a kitten my Lydia would only pee in one box and poop in another. She luckily out grew it but it was frustrating! It might help to get a different litter for the second box so they don't smell the same, but I agree that unscented is better!
My Maine Coon is adamant that the boxes be kept for separate uses. My vet explained that cats typically do this because the ammonia in the urine actually increases the odors of excrement & thus would alert predators about the cat's territory. So it sounds like your kitty has excellent survival instincts :yess:
 

catsknowme

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I forgot to add that my vet recommends only broth or a thin slurry for 24-48 hours, to allow the irritated guts to calm down. Since she and I were both raised with traditional medicine, we are proponents of using herbal therapy (red raspberry leaf, marshmallow root, slippery elm bark, chamomile) in addition to prescription medications. If you have not used herbs much, please be very alert to hazards to kitties; dogs & people are not nearly as fragile internally so what is okay for them does not always work for cats. And with kittens, I use diluted doses administered more frequently. Your regular vet, or better yet, a holistic vet, are the best to advise you on your individual kitten. And good, fresh clean water (tap water often is chemical laden & that is harsh on kitties' elimination systems, including kidneys and intestines).
 

molly92

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I agree with most of what's been said, and will add that probiotics can work wonders, but the kind of probiotic matters because they are not all created equal! Something with a high count and acidophillus is what you want to look for, and keep them refrigerated as much as possible.

It's also very common for kittens to have lingering digestive parasites that are easy to miss in common veterinary office tests, so a round of metronidazol (flagyl) is something to discuss with your vet. That drug has a reputation for soothing the intestinal tract as well, and it is mild as far as antibiotics go. That said it's still an antibiotic, so using a probiotic during and after is very helpful to replenish the good bacteria.
 

catsknowme

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Great suggestion about the Met, Molly92! I would add that it is important to give the probiotics and antibiotics several hours apart. I love all the great suggestions :thumbsup:
 
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Rowsdower

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Thanks for the responses. Currently she’s on Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet. She gets a small teaspoon of pumpkin in the evening and a half packet of Fortiflora in the morning.

This week only one poop outside the box (very large and soft), while other days she’s been hitting the box. We have four litter pans for the two cats; two on each level of the house and three are fragernce free.

Crossing my fingers this food continues to agree with her. She occasionally tries to force a poop after eating to no succcess and the super long poops the often makes are a head scratcher despite the vet saying they aren’t anything to be worrrieed about.
 

catsknowme

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Thank you for the update! I once read that poop is over 50% dead bionics so hopefully the long poops are from the fortiflora rebalancing her gut flora.
 
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