Kitten With Stomach Problems: Probiotic?

[mangojuusu]

Hi all! So I adopted my 5-month old kitten, Vanta, about a month ago. When I first bought him in he was on a Purina kitten dry food (I forget which), which he did fine on. I transitioned him to wet food (mostly Soulistic) with almost no problems, but he had a small period of diarrhea with Soulistic turkey. It lasted less than a day so I figured it wasn't a big deal.

From wet food I transitioned him to HPP-processed freeze dried raw food, rehydrated. Everything was great for a few weeks, his poop was firm and mostly odorless. Then, for a behavioral issue it was recommended I have some dry food out for him at night, so I grabbed some Instinct kitten and put a little in his bowl. It was somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 of his total calories, so I thought it was a slow enough transition. Big mistake. Vanta got pretty bad diarrhea for hours that night.

I took away the instinct kitten dry food, waited a few days, then tried a little orijen cat&kitten dry. Same result.

For now I've cut out all dry food but an unrehydrated primal nugget, cut into pieces. His BMs still haven't returned to normal, they are too soft and super smelly. I'm in litter box hell.

So my questions are:
- Was the problem caused by feeding both raw and kibble, even if they were at different meals? I know this is frowned upon because carbs, but I thought it would cause more vomiting than soft stools... and I'm not sure why this has persisted after the kibble is gone.
- Could he have an intolerance or allergy? He's done well on Stella and Chewy's duck duck goose, Primal turkey nuggets, instinct kitten wet, soulistic shredded chicken, and vital essentials chicken nibs.
- Will a chewable probiotic from Petco maybe improve things? He's already been dewormed recently.

Thanks!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
I'm sorry, I can't tell from your post, was the timing of the deworming correlating to his runny poop?

I think it was quantity, in other words not a small enough/slow enough transition but I don't know.

You could try the probiotic. You might consider adding a little plain unseasoned pumpkin, maybe start with just 1/8 teaspoon.

 

[Azazel]

I don’t think the issue is feeding dry and raw at the same time, that’s mostly a myth. Both Instinct and Orijen dry have a ton of different ingredients in them so it really could be anything. I can’t recall if they both have peas but that usually does it for most cats. Kittens have especially sensitive tummies so it may just be too many food changes.

You can try adding a probiotic but I would just continue with the foods that work well and don’t introduce too many new foods for a while. You can also try giving a teaspoon of plain canned pumpkin with the food each day to help firm things up.

 

[mangojuusu]

Furballsmom Deworming was done after the runny poop started, so I don't think that's the issue.

A Azazel I didn't know peas were an ingredient that could cause issues! That explains some things, I'll try and find a pea-free dry food.

I'll definitely try some plain pumpkin to help his BMs now. Thanks so much!

 

[lisahe]

Peas and other legumes can definitely cause issues. So can potato. And so can changing foods quickly. If you must feed dry food, one of the few that's low-carb and legume-free is Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein.

The Orijen cat and kitten food has a crazy-long slew of eight kinds of legumes: whole red lentils, whole green peas, whole green lentils, whole chickpeas, whole yellow peas, lentil fibre, whole pinto beans, whole navy beans. It looks as if each is somewhere between three and one percent of the food but with eight kinds, that really adds up. And cats just don't need that stuff.

Another thing to keep in mind: I believe all the commercial raw foods that you've fed contain bone, which can have a constipating effect on some cats. I mention that because if you happened to cut back on bone in raw food at the same time as you started a dry food with legumes, that might have had a double effect.

 

[MissClouseau]

If he did well on Purina, which I assume is a grainy version, I would try

. You can see the ingredients list here: Sensible 33 - Royal Canin It has one of the shortest ingredients list I know in a commercial dry cat food. This didn't work well for my adult cat but she has issues with all grainy foods.

If your cat reacted to Orijen, which is 85% animal products, and he's intolerant to something in the ingredients, statistically it's a much higher change it's towards one of the several different animals' meat. What was the meat content of that Purina? Like if it was turkey, I would stick with turkey or at least turkey-chicken for now.

EDIT: Note though that Royal Canin isn't kitten food. To be on the safe side contact Royal Canin customer service to ask if it's OK to give to a 5-month-old with sensitive digestive system.

 

[maggie101]

My cat has a very sensitive stomachache. After trying a variety she eats canned chicken and canned duck chicken with gravey only. Same brand. And proviable dc(capsules, easy to open and pore on food. No scent or taste) she has not thrown up in 2 weeks. It used to be 3x a week. One meat no allergens

 

[Furballsmom]

she has not thrown up in 2 weeks.

.

 

[maggie101]

Actually over a month ever since she started the probiotic a month+ ago and a food she can tolerate

 

[Furballsmom]

That's wonderful!!