12 Week Old Kitten Has Recurring Vomiting Diarrhea

[chunkykitty]

If this title looks familiar it's because my last post was "11 Week Old Kitten has..."

Today was Cozy's check-up for an immunization. But this morning he vomited and refused food then went to the litter box and passed some very foul smelling loose stool.

He had been doing much better (eating, pooping, playing being very cozy!) but he has vomited a little almost every night or early morning.

The vet skipped the immunization and re-ran tests (blood, urine, stool, x-ray). Everything looks good except he's only gained .1 lb in 19 days and his belly is tender and the x-ray shows a large gas pocket in his colon. The x-rays from 2 weeks ago show the same, a little smaller.

They repeated Cerenia in subq fluids, sent me home with another 7 days of Metrazole (he had been on that plus Clavamox for 10 days), and continuing with a probiotic on Hills Digest wet food.

The current plan is to monitor, if he fails to eat he goes to the ER at the specialty hospital for an ultrasound and other untold horrors.

Has anyone had a cat with a gassy colon or similar situation? If not just good wishes are welcome, and I return the same to all of you with kitties in ill health!

Thanks!

 

[daftcat75]

If he’s been throwing up that much or having that much diarrhea, I can pretty much tell you there will be small intestinal inflammation on that ultrasound. So ask what else they are looking for? He’s a kitten. He doesn’t have time for their scam and he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to develop IBD this early in life.

If all the blood and urine came back normal, then I have to suspect the food or the feeding. How often do you feed him? If you aren’t already, feed him smaller meals more often. Try three or four meals a day. If he’s still vomiting and has loose foul smelling stools with the prescription diet, then that doesn’t seem like the right food for him. In the meantime, add a little pumpkin to his food to firm up the stools. I guess try the prescription diet for a few weeks. What were you feeding him before? But if that’s not working, look for single protein simple foods with no vegetable matter. He doesn’t need it. Pumpkin is the exception. He can definitely use a small amount (Google what the kitten dose should be) in every meal. And a probiotic.

And get him some B-12 shots. He’s been barfing or pooping out his stores this whole time and it will help immensely to stabilize him as B-12 is needed for so many digestion and absorption functions. Which makes it very hard for him to get it from food if he’s already depleted and inflamed. This will be a weekly subq shot for a month. It’s made a world of difference, the missing piece really, with my IBD kitty.

 

[chunkykitty]

Thanks daftcat,

He had been on Hills Kitten wet and dry at the shelter and when he came home. I gave him AD after the first bout and again when he crashed last Friday night/Sat. AM. I picked up some Hills Sensitive Digest on Sat. and he's been eating that plus the Hills dry kitten. The vet gave me a couple cans of adult Hills Digest today.

I feed him a heaping tablespoon of wet food 3 - 4 times a day. I leave the dry out always (on the recommendation of shelter).

I have been sprinkling FlortiFlora on his food last week (got from the shelter) but he hasn't had it in a day or two (more arrived today).

I have another cat who is on Hills Urinary Stress wet food. I know he's gotten into it because his vomit had some carrot bits in it today. So we are now picking up the other cat's food when she walks away (she can stand to lose a few dozen pounds anyway).

When I said he vomits daily, it's usually not much but it is certainly happening. I'm going to ask the vet about the B12 shots.

 

[daftcat75]

It's not much because he probably has a tiny kitten stomach but it's still acid stress on his esophagus and stomach. When he vomits, is it food? Is the food partially digested or not digested at all? Is it just bile (white foam)?

Unless they can share food, you need to keep their food separate so you know what's coming out by what's going in. That will help you track which foods he's reacting to. If you can keep him off the dry food for awhile, that would also help narrow this down as you will know when and how much he is eating.

I don't think those prescription diets are any good, but I'm not a vet. If he doesn't stabilize on the prescription diet, I'd look into another food. Something simple like a single protein source and no vegetable matter (they don't need it and can't digest it very well) like Tiki Cat.

 

[chunkykitty]

Hi daftcat,

The vomit was white foam the first time (the AM after his adoption). Since then I have seen food maybe three times.

Since someone is with him all day (cat daddy works at home) we can keep him off the dry. I don't like feeding dry anyway I just did it on the recommendation from the shelter and didn't want to upset his routine too much. We are keeping the food separated very carefully now.

I give him filtered water.

I wash the floors with a little vinegar in a bucket. Don't use sprays, scented stuff (except 2 feliway defusers in the house), no blue stuff in the toilet water (and lids are closed). There are no plants (I killed them all long ago). No cut flowers, and no smoking (although I am ready to start drinking!).

I scoop the litter boxes when I see anything is deposited and at least twice a day. When I empty them I use a food-safe sanitizer on the boxes (I have 3 boxes, 2 cats).

I have been wracking my brain on what happened since he's been adopted. The rescue was clean and odor free so I don't think he had it upon pickup. His litter mates don't show any signs of illness (When I visited the vet at the shelter and visited them, too).

The one thing that is new to him is the litter. I have used Worlds Best (love the lavender I got once by accident but don't get it because of the obvious). Hmmm. Maybe I should switch litter.

 

[daftcat75]

Keep a journal of his inputs and outputs, especially the abnormal ones, and their timings. It could help you determine if it is food related or environment. Has he ever been stable on the Hills? If not, you may have to try something else like a Tiki Tuna or Tiki Chicken flavor to see if you can get a stable kitten on better food. Stage a diet change in slowly over a couple of weeks by starting 1 part new food to 3 parts old food. Give it a few days to see how that goes. If it's better or no worse, you can slowly adjust the proportion over another week or two until he's eating only the new food. If the new food agrees with him, you may see an improvement as the proportions shift in its favor. Or it may take another few weeks to get the Hill's out of his system. I don't really know how long it will take except that it can be painfully slow and frustrating to try different foods until you find one he's stable on. It's complicated by the fact that any change in diet can be potentially destabilizing until his little gut is used to it. The probiotics will help with this.

 

[chunkykitty]

More good suggestions, thanks!

I don’t know if anyone else might find it useful but I us an iOS app, Symple, to track my own health issues. I had been jotting notes about Cozy’s condition in a note app then I realized I have something much better. You can create symptoms, tag what was going on when they occurred and time of day.

It’s tough to recall everything in the excitement of a vet visit so for me, it’s good to have.

Thanks again.

 

[daftcat75]

I use an a Google Sheet to track Krista’s meals, calorie counts, and I add a comment to fields when I want to note something. Each week, I duplicate the sheet and fill out a new week with new calorie goals and any calorie per gram adjustments if we changed flavors or meal composition. Right now she gets Tiki Cat Aloha Friends Tuna w Pumpkin with Tiki Cat Wild Salmon mousse topper in 3:1 ratio. So each mealtime is two rows of how many grams of each. As long as it all adds up to 170 calories per day this week, we’re doing good. I’ll check her weight again on Monday and adjust the calorie count as needed. I have a Calculations tab to make this all simple.