Cat has loose stools and smelly poop

[toledo]

Hi, first post here. I went to Google with my kitty's problem and it led me here. As the thread title indicates, she has problems with her poo. I noticed there was another thread dealing with a similar problem, but decided to start a new thread, anyway. If that's a problem, I do apologize. So, onto the kitty and her problem.............

She's a 4-year old spayed female. She's a mostly gray calico affectionately known as the Gray Menace. And trust me when I say it's a well-earned nickname. I've had her since she was about 1-year old and she has always had loose stools and poop that smells to high heaven. I'm convinced it can be smelled from miles away. And since I have a small home, it literally stinks up the whole joint.

Her poop isn't real super loose, but loose enough to occasionally have trouble scooping it out of her littler(old-fashioned clay litter). So, it's far from diarrhea, but also not well-formed turds. It's consistently the same. It never varies from it's soft state.  I've tried her on 3 different foods(Iams, Purina One, and Fancy Feast dry) and they all had the same result.

I read in the one thread that Hill Science diet might help. Are there other foods I could try that might alleviate this problem? Thanks for any tips, suggestions, or help. In the meantime, I'll keep pluggin' my nose after the Menace poops.

 

[stephanietx]

Yay for Google leading you to TCS!  Welcome!

First of all, you want to start with a trip to the vet to rule out any parasites or diseases.  Also, your vet can advise you on food changes and such.  How long has she had this problem?  What are you feeding her?  Poop smell is directly related to what goes in, so that might be a good place to start after the vet. 

 

[toledo]

Thanks for the quick reply. She's been to the vet and she's been checked and there are no parasites or diseases. I told the vet about the poo and he advised "switching foods" without giving any specific example(s). I've tried her on Iams, Purina One, and Fancy Feast dry and they all had the same result. She shows no symptoms of anything. She's a holy terror with a high energy level. She sleeps less than any cat I've ever had(she doesn't have time for sleep; too many "projects" to get done) so she obviously feels well. The only issue is the loose poop. Maybe it's just a trait that I'll have to continue to try to get used to. As hard as that will be, given the stench.

 

[stephanietx]

Did you talk to the vet about trying a limited ingredient food or a special diet food?  I have a kitty who gets loose stools if he eats strictly grain free.  We figured this out by process of elimination when he was about 7 or 8 months old.  The vet put him on Royal Canin Gastrointestinal HE dry and it cleared things up within 2 weeks.  He still gets grain free canned twice a day which is his main source of nutrition, but we do supplement with about 1/8C of dry.  It's a mixture of grain free and the Gastro HE.  He's now three and does great on this combo of food.  If you're feeding something with grain in it, that might be the culprit or beef or fish.

 

[toledo]

I didn't ask the vet about anything specific and he didn't offer anything specific. He actually didn't seem overly concerned about it. And, actually, I don't think it's anything serious. It's more of a nuisance than anything else. Just the difficulty scooping up the soft poop and the smell. Plus, the ever present threat of poop possibly sticking to the fur around her butt(so far, this, thankfully, hasn't happened. Whew!).

As for her diet, right now she's on Purina One and it's produced the same results as everything else I've tried. I emptied the bag into a pourable container, so I don't have handy the list of ingredients. I imagine I could find that on-line somewhere.

 

[stephanietx]

Is she on wet or dry or both?  What other foods have you tried?

 

[toledo]

Just dry, plus she gets a couple nightly cat treats before bedtime. And the foods I've already listed have been the only ones I've tried.

 

[stephanietx]

You know, it could very well be the treats.  Have you tried eliminating the treats (use pieces of kibble instead) and see if you see a change.  Also, you might want to add some canned food to her diet.  Believe it or not, that might help as well.

 

[stephanietx]

Sorry, one other thing.  You might want to look into going grain free.  Sometimes kitties can't tolerate the grains and additives.

 

[toledo]

She does get the occasional can of Fancy Fest. And I've tried various treats, but they are so small, I really don't think they're contributing to the poop issue. Isn't Blue brand of pet food grain-free? I think it might be. I don't mind paying more if I get results.

 

[toledo]

And by occasional can of Fancy Feast, I mean like once per year. So, it's very little.

 

[vball91]

Canned food is actually much better for cats than dry. www.catinfo.org is a site written by a vet that explains why. Even if it's grain free dry, it will have some other starches (potatoes, peas, etc.). Dry food is not only too high in carbohydrates which cats have no nutritional need for, but they also contain many species-inappropriate ingredients, any of which could be contributing to the loose and stinky stools. Most likely there is something common to the foods you have tried that does not agree with her. You could try a simple diet of plain boiled chicken for a few days to see if her stools improve. If they do, you know it's likely the food. If they don't then it's something else.

 

[toledo]

Hmmm, boiled chicken. I can barely boil water. How does one boil chicken? First of all, I reckon you mean a dead one, right? Do I just take a small slab of chicken, put it in plain water, and boil away? And then try to feed it to the kitty before I eat it all?

Also, I'll check that link tomorrow. It's getting late here in Ohio and my doggie needs his last pee break. Thanks for the tips so far. It is appreciated!

 

[vball91]

Yes, any piece of chicken (although if it has bones, you will need to remove all bones before feeding, so boneless might be best). Boil in water (no spices) until cooked. Let cool. Chop into small pieces and serve with the liquid left over from cooking.

 

[inkycakes]

I know this is really late, but I came across your post in a Google search and was wondering if you ever found the cause of your cat's problems?

Our adult cat also has really smelly, peanut butter colored, soft, cow-pie-like stools. He has really smelly gas, too. His fecal parasite test was also negative, but the metronidazole the vet prescribed "just in case" made his stools dark and solid again within a day, only to turn back to the soft, sickly looking stool again two weeks later.

We got a kitten during the period when his stools looked better, and although the kitten originally had normal stools, he is also experiencing similar symptoms to those of our adult cat, so I assume it is something that can be spread from cat to cat rather than dietary, as we haven't changed our kitten's food.

I was wondering if you had looked into the tritrichomonas foetis parasite at all? From my understanding through an internet search, it is not routinely tested for at a lot of veterinary offices, but is fairly common in the cat population - especially among cats that come from shelters or catteries. This article does a pretty good job of explaining another cat owner's experience with TF: http://m.voices.yahoo.com/does-cat-tritrichomonas-foetus-parasite-11715574.html

I plan on asking our vet to test for TF within the next week. Our poor kitty has been dealing with this for the better part of a year at this point. :-( It started when he lived with a shelter kitten for a short time who was unfortunately diagnosed with FIP and had to be euthanized. We assumed it was the coronavirus at first (because CoV causes FIP), but I think those symptoms are a little different. Whatever it is, it's contagious, not just a dietary problem, allergies, or IBD.

I will post again when we have test results. Let us know how your kitty is doing!

 

[shoshanna]

I got a cat from the Humane Society and he had been to the vet and been checked for parasites and before I took him home they still gave him a medication to deworm him "just in case" and two weeks later he started having a bloated belly and loose stools.  For a few days I chalked it up to change in food and it got worse to the tune of 12 to 16 times a day loose stools.  I made an appointment with the vet and he did a fecal test again and it showed the poor cat was full of hookworms and tapeworms of the type not from fleas.  It turns out that some parasites are not found in the tests all the time.  They have to be pretty advanced to be found.and they are unfortunately hard to get rid of.  I am still fighting them in my cat and so far he has even had other problems.  I hope that your cat is doing much better and that you let us know what was done to improve her.

 

[denice]

Hookworms are unusual in a cat.  It sometimes takes several tests to find even the parasites that are found by the float test it has to do with the lifecycle of the parasites.  They can only be found at certain times.  There are also some parasites that can't be found with the float test, a sample has to be sent to certain labs to find them.

 

[toledo]

An update on my kitty. The condition has improved significantly. I feed her canned Fancy Feast more often(2-4 cans per week) and I found a dry food that has really improved her poop. It's Nutro Natural Choice for Finicky Felines. She likes it, I can now scoop her poop, and the smell has subsided. So, it's win, win, win. Her poop still isn't super firm, but at least now I can scoop it, then flush it away.

I've never had this happen before with a cat. Usually, you stick something in front of them, they eat it, and that's that. As I mentioned earlier, her nickname is "The Gray Menace" and I also mentioned she has earned, in more ways than one, that nickname. She's still a holy terror, so the food hasn't changed her personality. I should post about some of the things she has done to earn her nickname.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Great update!

 

[inkycakes]

Thanks for the update, Toledo!  I'm glad your kitty is feeling a little bit better.  Our two kitties are not. :-(  We went to a new vet, so we're starting over with all of the same testing that we did at our previous vet.  Fecal flotation test was negative again, so we're going with another course of metronidazole.  I don't anticipate any better results than the short improvement we had last time.  He didn't seem very informed about T. Foetus, which isn't surprising since it was relatively recent that its prevalence was found in the feline shelter cat population.  I will update if we find anything that works for them.