Much needed advice on underweight kittens

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LilyandFosters

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They are truly the sweetest! The left is the boy, shelter named him Mogli and his sister is called Moana. However, I’ve taken to calling them Fat Boy and Little Girl as they’ll likely be given new names in their forever homes anyway haha!
 

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How are they doing now? If the pooping problems are not resolved, it may be parasites or bacterial infection. Parasites are different than worms, and so is bacterial infection, both of which can result in bowel problems, but both are easily resolved with meds. A round of metronidazole usually works well to resolve both parasites and bacterial problems. Let us know!
 
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LilyandFosters

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Hello all, sitting down with the kittens right now with their new kmr and wet food! I’ve made a sort of gruel mix with the milk and kibble and they’ve both taken to it, especially the girl.
image.jpg

It looks like one of them had a normal solid poo sometime this morning or during the night but not sure who.
To be clear, the medicine they took for worms wouldn’t clear any parasites? Also, in their last checkup nothing stood out in their stool so how would we know if they had anything? I’d like to visit a vet but the organization I’m fostering with only let’s us visit their clinic.
As I was writing the boy had another bad poo so I’m starting to think it was the girl who had the solid poo this morning. Will wait and update to see how they react to this meal.
 
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LilyandFosters

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Forgot to add that the boy has looked slightly bloated over these past few days but it goes down once he’s had a few bad poos. Is that a sign of anything different or will it hopefully resolve in this new diet?
 

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What medicine for worms was given?

And no, worm meds do not kill parasites. I suspect your little guy needs metronidazole. You’ll want to ask the clinic about it. His loose stools indicate parasites and/or bacterial infection. Not all parasites will show up in stool samples.
 
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LilyandFosters

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It’s called Panacur, said to give them their doses for 5 days. Are there any other symptoms I can look out for before I bring him in? He doesn’t always get terrible diarrhea and it starts to solidify when he only eats the kibble, no wet food.
 

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To be more clear, worms are parasites too, but giardia is a protozoan parasite and needs different meds.

For him I might try withholding solid food for a day and only giving him KMR, as much as he wants. That might help reset his digestive system. They were probably started too young on solids (sometimes necessary with rescues) and that jacked everything up inside.
 
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LilyandFosters

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That’s what I’ve been thinking too after considering everything. Especially since my first fosters from the same place experienced the same diarrhea symptoms and didn’t react to the medicine that was given, also the same. They constantly put out messages saying they need bottle feeders so I guess they might just get them on solids asap and then give them out to the regular fosters to keep space open.
 
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LilyandFosters

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Update on their reaction, not sure if the boy is taking well. He laps up the milk, runs around, and 5 minutes later empties liquid into the litter. Little girl is also going liquid, though it takes longer to go thru. Advice?
 

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Has anything changed with them?

This has to be so frustrating for you - the rescue has effectively tied your hands about going to a vet. It puts all the burden on you, but maybe take them to a vet anyway?
 
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LilyandFosters

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Not so far, sadly, still diarrhea here. Wet food seems to make it worse so we’re just giving them both small quantities of kmr kibble gruel, often.
Do you think a vet would see them, as we’re not really the legal owners of them?
 
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LilyandFosters

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I will ask the foster coordinator about it tomorrow, will probably have me bring her in to their clinic but it’s better than nothing.
She’s dropped down to 537 grams today, but she’s still incredibly active, play fights with her brother, climbing up on things. Still on the kibble-kmr gruel and both still have diarrhea but the boy is gaining, currently at 737 grams.
I know the wet food has, so far, upset their stomachs, but I feel that the babycat cans I got today might be softer on her stomach and I just need her to have something in her because I’m so scared she’ll drop under a pound otherwise. I’m going to be staying up through the night to give her regular small doses of the wet food and some kmr and hopefully kibble, which she seems to have stopped taking an interest in for the last 2 meals.
 

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Hi there! I agree with Willowy's protocol and stay with mostly formula to allow the gut to calm down. Some kittens are too sensitive to whey, especially in the canned kmr. If that is the case, you can switch to powdered kmr or try using goat milk based "glop" using the recipe on kitten-rescue.com & add an extra egg yolk (I rinse off all traces of raw egg white off by holding the yolk under a thin stream of water) and I use Benebac plus. Also, I would syringe them a 50/50 mix of unflavored Pedialyte and good water (not municipal tap water because that often contains harsh chemicals).
 
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