Any hints for treating kitten diarrhea?

[spinbaby]

I’m fostering two three-month-old who were rescued from a local cat hoarder. They came to me two weeks ago looking bony and pot bellied with diarrhea that reeked like some circle of hell. Two trips to the vet and they’ve been wormed, treated with nasty brown medicine for coccidia, and given probiotics. They still have diarrhea, although it smells much better now. Latest suggestion was to add a bit of pumpkin to their food. Now they have orange diarrhea. They’re eating well and looking better, but we’re all tired of the constant pooping. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Phoenix61]

1. Super bland diet?

“Boiled chicken breast (boneless, skinless, no seasonings) + boiled white rice (no seasonings) — mix in a 1:1 ratio and feed in small, frequent meals throughout the day. *You can replace the chicken breast with cottage cheese or boiled low-fat ground turkey or beef.”
I’d go with chk breast and white rice. Can’t get any plainer than that.

[spinbaby]

6. I'd thought of that

But their doctor said it wasn’t a balanced diet. She recommended dry kitten chow only, but I must admit I’ve been giving them canned kitten food, too, because I’m a sucker for cute kittens. I might try mixing in a bit of rice.

[Phoenix61]

10. I'd cut out the canned cat food.

My cats got diarrhea when I gave that to them. Maybe give them little pieces of chicken for a treat instead?

[spinbaby]

22. I don't have time to be poaching chicken

But switching them to chicken baby food seems like an idea.

[happybird]

2. Canned 100% pumpkin

can help with both diarrhea and constipation. Just be sure it’s only pumpkin with no spices or sugar added.

1 tsp, twice a day, mixed into the food is the ‘dose’ for full sized cats, so I’d do half that for a baby.

[spinbaby]

7. Half a teaspoon twice a day

I’m using baby food pumpkin.

[badhair77]

17. This always worked with our pup.

[TexasTowelie]

3. I found an article about using unflavored Pedialyte to help the electrolyte balance.

http://www.kittenlady.org/diarrhea

[hlthe2b]

4. You've done the right things because diarrhea in these kittens is frequently multifactorial

and coccidia, in particular, can take quite some time to clear. That said, stress also can cause diarrhea and these little ones likely have had their share of that.

Continue what you are doing, tincture of time will make the difference, BUT be certain not to be changing their food, especially abruptly. That said, it would not hurt to go really bland (no fat, no spices) for a few days like cooked diced chicken and rice--no fat or skin or bones. Keep up the probiotics for sure, though I prefer a small amount of plain, unflavored active culture yogurt (Mountain High, Dannon. or some of the other good quality active culture varieties) to the supplements. Pumpkin adds fiber. It certainly won't hurt, but a quality diet may well have sufficient fiber. If, for some reason you do have to change foods, mix it 50:50 with what you are feeding now for 24-48 hours, then new 75% to old 25% for another day or two and then go 100% with the new food.

Keep them in a calm environment without introducing other animals for a little while. They will probably need a second deworming for roundworms in a few weeks (99% of the time that is the cause of the potbellies).

[Jilly_in_VA]

8. Thinking back

I seem to remember diced cooked chicken breast and rice working fairly well. I see so much kitten diarrhea at the shelter, although a lot of it is from the de-worming stuff, ugh. Doesn't make it any more fun to clean up. We feed Hill's Science Diet Kitten dry food as a regular thing and they get some other kind of wet food.

[spinbaby]

9. Yogurt sounds like a plan

I’ll try a bit in their next meal. They’re in a very calm environment in our guest room. The only excitement they have is the visiting human. They’ve each hade two doses of worm meds ten days apart.

[Mr.Bill]

5. Try rice water.

My wife is a retired OB RN and she says that's an age-old treatment for babies. Seem like it couldn't do any harm.

[bamagal62]

11. Go get Jarrow Brand Saccharomyces Boulardi (it's a probiotic) from Whole Foods.

Do not feed them pumpkin. Then go to the website foodfurlife.com
And, search “My cat has diarrhea! What should I do?” Lots of great information about what kind of diarrhea and what to do. How to rule out if you need to go to the vet. They will give you info about how much to give them in their food.
I keep it on hand for my cat. Works like a charm.

My kitten had a bad bout of giardia (almost died) and she still has a messed up digestive tract due to the medicine they gave her. So, I’ve done a lot of research.

[bamagal62]

12. OH and the crap probiotic (Fortiflora) they give you at the vet

WILL NOT WORK!!!!!!!

[spinbaby]

13. That's exactly what I have

It hasn’t worked

[bamagal62]

15. Go do what I posted above and thank me later!

S. Boulardi will knock it out unless the kitttens have something like giardia. And, if they do….do read up on the options for medicine. One of the medicines is evil and almost killed my kitten. But, because I did research and requested they change to a different one, she survived. If I had continued on that path, I would not have a healthy 2 year old Burmese cat today. Another good resource is a facebook group called “Raw Feeding for IBD cats”. That’s where I found the info for the S Boulardi and the website Foodfurlife.com. I went through 3-4 months of kitten diarrhea hell…so I remember a lot of my research.

[Boydog]

14. Does the vet have any further suggestions

[spinbaby]

21. Kind of a shrug

She seems to want to just wait because we’ve done what we can.

[bamagal62]

16. Mix the S Boulardi into some beech nut stage one turkey baby food.

IT MUST BE STAGE ONE, meat only.
They’ll lap it up.
Here are the directions for “emergency stop diarrhea”.
Kittens are half the adult dose. (An adult dose is half of a 250mg capsule - 5 billion CFU.) A kitten dose would be 1/4 of a capsule. But, they recommend more frequent dosing of smaller amounts than all at once. Seriously, read the foodfurlife.com section on diarrhea.

ITs important to use the Jarrow brand as it has no lactose in it.

[catrose]

18. Was going to say pumpkin! You can get probiotics without a prescription.

I get Proviable and VetriMega. Chewy's has both; you might find them locally too.

Sympathies! This is the hard part.

[bamagal62]

19. Here is the link....

https://www.foodfurlife.com/my-cat-has-diarrhea---what-do-i-do.html#/

[ratchiweenie]

20. Rice cereal for babies. Just boil the rice til really soft and then mush it up.

White rice digests so easily and firms the bowels.

[pansypoo53219]

23. yogurt may help post antibiotics. my basil ate it when he needed it.