[Ysabella J]

Okay cat people, I am in dire need of some help. A friend of mine found an abandoned kitten that she couldn’t keep. I ended up taking care of her and in the meantime fell in love with her. Took her to the vet for a check up, got her dewormed with panacur and albon, and also sent out a fecal that came back negative. The vet believes she is about 5 weeks old. I have been feeding her raw goats milk and Taste of the Wild dry food. Cat food is fairly new to me as I feed my dog half raw & half Orijen, and never had a cat of my own, only ones that I grew up with. I am wondering if there is something too rich in her diet? She has had very loose stools for 4 days now.. I have had her for 6 days. What do I do? I am considering ground turkey, pumpkin, and rice… Poor kitty has to go so often and I’m constantly bathing and cleaning up after her. The vet says she’s hydrated and she has been drinking plenty of water.

What to do?

[theBCnut]

I would try switching her food. Depending on your budget, Wellness, Earthborn, or NutriSource are all good. The makers of TOTW have had to many quality control issues for me to feel safe using their foods, especially for a baby animal.

For raw, for my cats, I use Hare Today’s whole carcass grinds.

[Ysabella J]

TheBCnut. Thanks for the advise. I was thinking about switching from TOTW too because I am not a fan of Diamond. Would you recommend raw food for a baby though? Especially one experiencing very runny diahrrea?

[arwyru24]

I would put her on canned food. Wellness grain free kitten seems to be a highly digestible and palatable food. I would discontinue the goats milk.

[Ysabella J]

arwryu24, I have read that raw goats milk helps with digestion and is a good substitute for mothers milk. Are you sure I should stop this?

[arwyru24]

the one in the little pink can

[arwyru24]

I would ask your vet about the goats milk, I don’t really want to advise something incorrect 🙂 At the cat shelter I worked with we always used KMR if a nursing mother wasn’t available

• This reply was modified 10 years, 5 months ago by arwyru24.

[arwyru24]

And God Bless you for helping the little baby

[crazy4cats]

Ysabella-
Yes, bless you, bless you, bless you! As my name implies, I love cats! When, I had my first experience with kittens, they were that young, but fortunately had their mamma. She brought them right in my house and I never had one before, and I’ve never been without one ever since! So, I’m not sure about the milk on which would be the best substitute for their mamma’s milk for a few more weeks.
But, I’m with Sharon, you should feed them canned, dehydrated or raw if you can. I feed my kitties (4 of them) as little kibble as possible now. I rotate several budget friendly canned food. I do supplement with kibble as the canned is expensive. My favorite is Wellness Core. But I also like Earthborn and Taste of the Wild. I have two favorite cat sites. They are catinfo.org and littlebigcat.com. Oh, and I wouldn’t worry a lot about the loose stools yet. She’s been through a lot and was just dewormed. Sometimes that can cause loose stools as well. It sounds like you are off to a great start!

[theBCnut]

Cats do best long term on wet foods. The most common cause of death in cats is kidney failure, which they attribute to an unnaturally dry diet. They do kind of imprint on the type of foods they are fed when young, so if you only feed dry, later they will refuse canned. Introducing raw and canned young is very important.

[Ysabella J]

Thanks for all the wonderful advice! I really appreciate all of your help. Ended up getting wellness canned food. Diarrhea is still pretty bad and it’s often :/ Now I have a new dilemma… The kitty isn’t using her box. She originally started out doing it every so often, but now it’s almost constant. I am constantly cleaning the box, I bought her a new fairly large box with unscented litter, and put her in it once an hour or so.. Now that it’s diarrhea, she obviously has to go more than usual. I have been giving her baths and have been trying really hard to figure it out. I am not quite sure what I am doing wrong at this point?

Any suggestions?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 5 months ago by Ysabella J.

[crazy4cats]

Dr. Elsey’s cat attract litter is supposed to be the best for helping with this issue. Poor little kitten! I hope she gets better! What is her name?

[Akari_32]

I talking to a lady that came through my line at work yesterday, and she she ALS had a problem with her cat (an older one) not using the litter box. Someone told her to use shredded news paper, and just like that, the cat started using the box again. Over time you can then switch back to regular litter. Sometimes a change in litter is all that’s needed to get cats back to using their litter boxes. If it persists, though, a vet check may be in order.

Good luck with her! She’s lucky to have such a good owner 🙂

[crazy4cats]

Nice idea, Akari, kittens can’t resist shredded paper! She’ll play in it anyway 🙂

[arwyru24]

If she isn’t feeling well, she may be starting to associate the litter box with her discomfort. I would definitely ask your vet about the diarrhea to see if there is anything you can give her in the short term to help her bowels until she has had time to adjust to her diet. This may be a probiotic such as forti-flora, or often times giving a little kayopectate can help a lot, but again with such a little kitten that has recently been through so much, I think consulting your vet would be best.

[crazy4cats]

Good point. I’m getting concerned about the diarrhea as well. She could easily get dehydrated. I also suggest taking her to the vet. They can make sure she is hydrated and even give an anti diarrheal shot. I also think Forti Flora is a good short term probiotic for cats. It does work and cats will usually eat it. I don’t like the ingredients for long term use though. Let us know what is going on!

[Ysabella J]

The diarrhea has finally cleared! Yay! She still is going outside her box so I guess it is time for the litter switch. Funny thing is, she goes in it sometimes and other times she goes out of it.. You guys don’t think it’s because she’s still such a baby? She’s 5 weeks old but I have talked with vets and looked up info online and it says most cats immediately take on to it..

[theBCnut]

One of my cats will never use the litterbox twice, she has 6 different litterboxes all her own. They say for cats, you should keep extra litterboxes around. Maybe she is just finicky about it being spotlessly clean.

[crazy4cats]

Ysabella-
I’m so happy she’s getting better. My kittens always used the box even that young. My last two, I kept in a crate with a box in a bedroom for a week when we weren’t home. Then the next week, they got the run of the room for a week making sure to keep the box clean before they had the run of the house. Now, unfortunately, I have six litter boxes for four cats.
I strongly recommend Dr. Elsey’s cat attract litter. Many have had great results with it. Check out catinfo.org, Dr. Pierson has some suggestions for this issue. Bobby dog and I have made mondo huge boxes that we learned about on this site. They like to have a lot of room, so they don’t have to go in the same place twice! Darn cats! I wish you luck, you probably won’t be so forgiving when she’s not a cute little kitten anymore!

[Bobby dog]

Hi Ysabella J:
I agree with BCn and C4c’s experiences and suggestions. I had one cat (actually the neighbor’s cat who decided she wanted to live with us) that would not use anything but a fresh litter box too. It was a pain in the butt in the winter, but I figured out her schedule and was able to get to the litter box after she used it during the day; I also added extra boxes in case I wasn’t home.

If you don’t have the space for extra boxes C4c’s suggestion of the large litter box is another option. As she wrote we both made huge litter boxes modeled after catinfo’s tote litter box. I also follow catinfo’s suggestion on cleaning with a spray bottle mixture of bleach & H2O. Now the only problem I have with the large litter box is that all the cats want to use it! I have to make another one because they really don’t use the small boxes anymore.

I would also try Dr. Elsey’s cat attract litter. I have read many good recommendations about this litter. Good luck with your little guy!

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

[arwyru24]

Dr. Elsey’s actually has a kitten attract formula and I know some foster parents that have had tremendous success with this litter. I am so relieved to hear that the diarrhea is gone!

[Ysabella J]

Dr. Elsey’s litter has done the job! Ahhh.. So glad that’s all over. Now I can enjoy the new kitty without worrying. Thank you everyone soo much for all your help. I really appreciate it.

[crazy4cats]

Happy ending! I love it. Thanks for the update.

[Bobby dog]

So good to read the news!! It is a relief when potty training starts to kick in. 😉

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