Loose Stools

[Oscar&Copper]

My kitten Copper is 17 weeks old. I adopted him 3 weeks ago. Since the day I got him his bm's have been on the loose side, some days they looked fairly normal and some days they border lined on diarrhea. He's eating the same food the rescue was feeding him with added canned food twice a day. A week ago he was in at the vet for boosters and she gave him a de-wormer pill for it. It didn't help. I called the vet Thursday and I'm taking a sample in tomorrow for testing (my vet is a fair distance away and tomorrow was the soonest I could get in). Since then, I've noticed red blood at the end of his bowel movement. So, obviously whatever it is it's lower intestine. Yesterday morning there was even a trail of blood drops that could have only come from his anus. He's otherwise active, healthy, vibrant and gaining weight. My baby cat is 10 weeks old, and they share the litter boxes, his bowel movements are fine, which leads me to believe it's not contagious? Or we're just lucky maybe.

I'm going to call the vet in the morning before I head out to see if they might want to see him before they test his stool. Until then I'm trying to be prepared for what it is. Any ideas what it could be?

 

[stephanietx]

Most likely it's food intolerance. What are you feeding him? The canned food is good for him, but the brand might not be agreeing with his tummy. You can try offering him some plain yogurt or mixing some plain canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) or plain squash baby food in his canned food and see if that helps stop the diarrhea.

 

[maggiedemi]

There are a few parasites that might cause blood in the stool, like Giardia. So if your vet gave him Drontal, I don't think it kills parasites like that.

 

[Oscar&Copper]

I originally thought food intolerance too, and am in the process of phasing out one food for another. But there's been no improvement. So I'm unsure that's the case. And would food intolerance cause blood?

The vet gave him Milbemax. He was dewormed by the rescue group too, but I have no idea what they gave him.

 

[maggiedemi]

I don't know what the treatment for Giardia is, if he has it. But your vet would know.

 

[Sallysoo]

Sorry to say likely to be parasites if it is not due to food.

My kitty previoisly had this diarrhoea plus blood too. He was abt 3mths old then, eating, sleep and play well. Brought him to the vet and he was tested fm his stool which found out contains parasites. Was then given antibiotic, anti diarrhoea medicine, and was on hills i/d perscriptn canned food. After a month plus, his diarrhoea stopped. However, vet said due the parasites attack, his intestine linen/wall becomes quite sensitive and recommend him to continue on i/d food. After reading up more about the i/d perscriptn food, apart fm it is expensive, I switched him to NV Instinct lid canned food. And give probiotics to my kitty. So far so good. I intend to introduce other brands to him, but need to take longer time for the transistion due to his sensitive system. I have tried if I transist too fast for the new food, he will start hving diarrhoea and I hv to gv the Lintbells probiotics plus which will rectify the situation.

 

[Gizmobius]

I've heard that it's extremely unlikely for a kitten that young to have a food intolerance. When I first brought Gizmo home, he was 10-11 weeks old and had very soft stools. I treated it (with my vet's suggestion) as a food intolerance but nothing worked and his stool consistently went back and forth between having some form to them and being diarrhea. He even had blood in them a few times, too. After a lot of confusion and trying to work it out together, since protozoa parasites cannot be detected in a simple fecal float, my vet and I treated it as giardia or coccidia, I can't remember which, and Gizmo went on a 5 day course of Panacur and I was constantly doing a full clean of his litter box and wiping his butt for him all the time after he went so he wouldn't clean it himself and ingest any of the parasite back in his system. While on the medication, his stools firmed up significantly. He's nearing 9 months old now and I believe his immune system has finally strengthened enough to handle whatever it is he has/had, though if I notice his stool getting soft again I will have to send a sample out for a PCR test to see once and for all what it is. I always thought maybe it was tritrichomonas too.

Anyway, perhaps you could talk to your vet about sending out a stool sample for the PCR test! The results would tell you for sure if you were dealing with one of those pesky parasites that aren't so easily detected.

 

[maggiedemi]

I know, there's so many of those pesky parasites and it seems like it takes a different medication to kill each one. It's so maddening...

 

[Oscar&Copper]

Copper's stool was tested for Giardia today, along with parasites. It was negative! Which is good... but leaves us with nothing. My vet suggested I put him on probiotics for a couple weeks and offered an antibiotic in case there's a bacterial infection happening. I'm picking both up tomorrow, so we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks. Luckily, behaviourally he is normal, bright and active, is eating well and eliminates on a regular schedule. So, I'm not overly worried, just want it fixed! lol