Diet

[harlowe.michael]

Plain yogurt, cooked chicken breast, pet specific probiotics.

Raw food should only be left out for 15 minutes then disposed of.

Can you provide more info on the preparation of your raw diet?




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Hi John

Store bought one called nature's raw. They haven't had raw for a few weeks now. Product comes frozen then you thaw as necessary.

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I haven't tried the cooked chicken as they're constantly begging for food. Only today ive let them free feed which probably led to cloth pooping!

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Also, how long have you had them?


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7 weeks give or take

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[harlowe.michael]

Plain yogurt, cooked chicken breast, pet specific probiotics.

Raw food should only be left out for 15 minutes then disposed of.

Can you provide more info on the preparation of your raw diet?




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Hi John

Store bought one called nature's raw. They haven't had raw for a few weeks now. Product comes frozen then you thaw as necessary.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

I haven't tried the cooked chicken as they're constantly begging for food. Only today ive let them free feed which probably led to cloth pooping!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

Also, how long have you had them?


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7 weeks give or take

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They were born on 27th December

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[WitchyWoman]

Breeder had them on raw when they came to me. Theyve not once had solid stools. I've tried dry, wet and back to raw but nothing works.

Did they have solid stools while at the breeders? What precisely does not solid stools mean -- soft but still in a pile, liquidly? Is there blood or mucous in the stool. Does the stool smell bad?

Trying different foods, if you didn't introduce the foods slowly into the raw, can actually cause or make diarrhea worse. If you are going to experiment with foods, you have to introduce the foods in small amounts and over a long period of time to give their guts time to adjust.

The cooked chicken breast that John recommended above should be used short term only -- no longer than a week -- to give their stomachs and intestines time to settle down. I would not feed yogurt or any other dairy product. If they are allergic to lactose, you'll only succeed in adding to the problem. They should be kept confined in one room with their litter boxes and toys until the diarrhea is gone and they are using the litter box 100%. Are you using the same litter that the breeder used? If not, you should do so for the interim.

Ask your vet specifically what was tested for and talk to the vet about giardia. Giardia is difficult to diagnose because the parasites are shed intermittently but should have appeared in either the PCR or an ELISA. Have them tested again. Have a full blood PCR done.

The diarrhea and pooping outside the box means that something is amiss. They are either sick from something or perhaps allergic to something. Whatever is going on is affecting both kittens so my suspicions are a parasite of some sort.

You should be changing the litter and disinfecting the boxes daily until this resolved as they will just keep reinfecting themselves with whatever they have.

Put them back on the food the breeder was feeding and add a little cooked rice to each meal -- a teaspoon at the most -- to see if it helps firm things up. Warm the food before giving it to them and take it up and throw away what they don't eat within 15 minutes. I'm concerned about them constantly begging for food -- they are not getting sufficient nutrition if they are doing that and it can hinder their development.

Cats are most commonly allergic to chicken and beef so if Nature's Raw contains those meats, that might be the culprit and you'll have to try different proteins such as duck, rabbit, bison, venison. But most importantly, ask the breeder what was happening before they left home and get your vet working on finding a solution.

Please keep us updated on how your furbabies are doing.

 

[harlowe.michael]

Breeder had them on raw when they came to me. Theyve not once had solid stools. I've tried dry, wet and back to raw but nothing works.

Did they have solid stools while at the breeders? What precisely does not solid stools mean -- soft but still in a pile, liquidly? Is there blood or mucous in the stool. Does the stool smell bad?

Trying different foods, if you didn't introduce the foods slowly into the raw, can actually cause or make diarrhea worse. If you are going to experiment with foods, you have to introduce the foods in small amounts and over a long period of time to give their guts time to adjust.

The cooked chicken breast that John recommended above should be used short term only -- no longer than a week -- to give their stomachs and intestines time to settle down. I would not feed yogurt or any other dairy product. If they are allergic to lactose, you'll only succeed in adding to the problem. They should be kept confined in one room with their litter boxes and toys until the diarrhea is gone and they are using the litter box 100%. Are you using the same litter that the breeder used? If not, you should do so for the interim.

Ask your vet specifically what was tested for and talk to the vet about giardia. Giardia is difficult to diagnose because the parasites are shed intermittently but should have appeared in either the PCR or an ELISA. Have them tested again. Have a full blood PCR done.

The diarrhea and pooping outside the box means that something is amiss. They are either sick from something or perhaps allergic to something. Whatever is going on is affecting both kittens so my suspicions are a parasite of some sort.

You should be changing the litter and disinfecting the boxes daily until this resolved as they will just keep reinfecting themselves with whatever they have.

Put them back on the food the breeder was feeding and add a little cooked rice to each meal -- a teaspoon at the most -- to see if it helps firm things up. Warm the food before giving it to them and take it up and throw away what they don't eat within 15 minutes. I'm concerned about them constantly begging for food -- they are not getting sufficient nutrition if they are doing that and it can hinder their development.

Cats are most commonly allergic to chicken and beef so if Nature's Raw contains those meats, that might be the culprit and you'll have to try different proteins such as duck, rabbit, bison, venison. But most importantly, ask the breeder what was happening before they left home and get your vet working on finding a solution.

Please keep us updated on how your furbabies are doing.

Thanks so much for your detailed response. Ive introduced new foods slowly but possibly not slow enough. I will check with vet to see exactly what was covered. They had solid stool one time but lasted only a couple of days. We put them on royal canin gastro wet food and it worked for a short time. Breeder claims they had solid stools when they were with her. It's runny but not water consistency. They are definitely not sick as they play and eat and drink well like normal kittens. I may go to boiled chicken for a short period of time to see if it helps settle it. Thanks so much

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[John Popp]

OK, that's not a lot of time for them to adjust to a changing diet. If the like the raw diet you are feeding them, I would stick with it exclusively once you have the stools firmed up. 2 weeks is about what I would expect a changeover from one food to another without any digestive issues. So at this point, I would do a short stint with the cooked chicken breakfast and yogurt, and then adding some probiotic. Then ease the raw food back in at 20% increments every 3 days.

 

[John Popp]

Ha, I forgot to click "post reply" on my response yesterday, and I see Witchy had some time to throw at it. If you are using a low fat greek yogurt, there isn't much lactose to be concerned with. You're looking at a short stint, and the benefit of having healthy bacteria enter the digestive system is a huge plus. No flavor , no sugar and if you get your hands on a pet specific probiotic you can forego the yogurt.

Also, where did your cats come from? I ask because when we had similar issues, we learned that same species animals just 50 miles from one another can have as little as 25% overlap in the bacteria that makes up their intestinal flora. So if your cats took a plain ride to greet you, chances are their intestinal flora is practically starting from ground zero to rebuild itself.

 

[DumaLove]

No not completely but vet said it covered everything.

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I would ask to see the results then. MOST vets do not even think of doing a PCR.....

 

[harlowe.michael]

Ha, I forgot to click "post reply" on my response yesterday, and I see Witchy had some time to throw at it. If you are using a low fat greek yogurt, there isn't much lactose to be concerned with. You're looking at a short stint, and the benefit of having healthy bacteria enter the digestive system is a huge plus. No flavor , no sugar and if you get your hands on a pet specific probiotic you can forego the yogurt.

Also, where did your cats come from? I ask because when we had similar issues, we learned that same species animals just 50 miles from one another can have as little as 25% overlap in the bacteria that makes up their intestinal flora. So if your cats took a plain ride to greet you, chances are their intestinal flora is practically starting from ground zero to rebuild itself.

Hi John.

We live in Ireland. They're rare enough here and hard to find good food. They came to me on raw with loose poo and that's never stopped. Ideally I'd like to have them on dry food completely as it suits my lifestyle but if it's good for the cats I'm happy. I'll go with cooked chicken and see if that sorts issue short term. Thanks so much for all the advice

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[harlowe.michael]

No not completely but vet said it covered everything.

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I would ask to see the results then. MOST vets do not even think of doing a PCR.....

I'll follow it up tomorrow. Thanks again

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[harlowe.michael]

Breeder had them on raw when they came to me. Theyve not once had solid stools. I've tried dry, wet and back to raw but nothing works.

Did they have solid stools while at the breeders? What precisely does not solid stools mean -- soft but still in a pile, liquidly? Is there blood or mucous in the stool. Does the stool smell bad?

Trying different foods, if you didn't introduce the foods slowly into the raw, can actually cause or make diarrhea worse. If you are going to experiment with foods, you have to introduce the foods in small amounts and over a long period of time to give their guts time to adjust.

The cooked chicken breast that John recommended above should be used short term only -- no longer than a week -- to give their stomachs and intestines time to settle down. I would not feed yogurt or any other dairy product. If they are allergic to lactose, you'll only succeed in adding to the problem. They should be kept confined in one room with their litter boxes and toys until the diarrhea is gone and they are using the litter box 100%. Are you using the same litter that the breeder used? If not, you should do so for the interim.

Ask your vet specifically what was tested for and talk to the vet about giardia. Giardia is difficult to diagnose because the parasites are shed intermittently but should have appeared in either the PCR or an ELISA. Have them tested again. Have a full blood PCR done.

The diarrhea and pooping outside the box means that something is amiss. They are either sick from something or perhaps allergic to something. Whatever is going on is affecting both kittens so my suspicions are a parasite of some sort.

You should be changing the litter and disinfecting the boxes daily until this resolved as they will just keep reinfecting themselves with whatever they have.

Put them back on the food the breeder was feeding and add a little cooked rice to each meal -- a teaspoon at the most -- to see if it helps firm things up. Warm the food before giving it to them and take it up and throw away what they don't eat within 15 minutes. I'm concerned about them constantly begging for food -- they are not getting sufficient nutrition if they are doing that and it can hinder their development.

Cats are most commonly allergic to chicken and beef so if Nature's Raw contains those meats, that might be the culprit and you'll have to try different proteins such as duck, rabbit, bison, venison. But most importantly, ask the breeder what was happening before they left home and get your vet working on finding a solution.

Please keep us updated on how your furbabies are doing.

The breeder claims that they had solid stools before coming to us but nothing changed in terms of diet. Litter box gets changed every 5 days as in complete disinfectant and change of litter. I clean tray 3/4 times a day. Finding the whole thing stressful to be honest. We can't trust them to be out of their own room. The smell of poo is awful.

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