Newly adopted cat with upset stomach

[mumzuki]

Our cat joined our family last weekend; he was a stray taken in by our neighbours, but they've moved and although they tried to take him with them ended up leaving him behind.

Over the last week he's had a health check, been de-flead and wormed, had the neutering op and on Friday had first set of vaccinations. We're keeping him inside until the next set of vaccinations on the vet's advice.

He's now got a stomach upset - no vomiting, but frequent and runny poos. Should we be worried? We're giving him 3-4 sachets of wet food and a little dry food each day, in 2-3 separate meals. He was very hungry when he came to us and had been living predominantly outside. According to DD, our neighbours were feeding him dog food and giving him milk to drink; could the change of diet be making him poorly? Is there anything we can do, or do we just have to wait it out? He seems reasonably happy and hasn't lost his appetite as far as I can tell.

Any advice from cat experts much appreciated!

[Fluffycloudland77]

It might be the vaccines, it did the same to ours.

It didn't happen again though.

[memememememe]

Hi our rescue cat had this. Terrible TERRIBLE wind and runny smelly poos.
Eye watering.

Vet checked him over and recommended bland food so we gave him boiled chicken and slowly introduced some dry food, after a few months it had virtually gone, and don't worry it improved a lot within a couple of weeks. I think it was the upset of moving combined with new food.

Hth

[PlaymobilPirate]

Ours gets the runs with wet food in gravy... fine with pate or jelly

[mumzuki]

Thank you for replies - it has improved a lot, so maybe it was just the vaccines. I had been giving him the gravy food, I might lay off it in future!

[SabineUndine]

If a cat has a sudden change of diet, it will get the runs. Also they'll get diarrhoea if stressed.

[RubbishMantra]

My Little M was a bit 'loose' (and smelly) when he first came to live with me. Now he has human sized firm poos, surprising for a little cat. But not smelly or squishy.

The transition from dog to proper cat food most likely has something to do with it.

Animonda Carny from Zooplus is a good inexpensive food.

Nice one for taking him in.

[Mycatsabastard]

3-4 sachets of wet food a day is a bit much!

I'd suggest you cut down to one sachet of wet food (jelly, not gravy) split into two meals (morning and evening) while leaving water and dry food out for the cat to graze on when hungry.

This should improve his/her tummy and then gradually up the wet food to one sachet morning and one evening. But I think 3-4 is nearly the equivalent of an entire tin of food.

Hope he settles soon. Best thing you'll ever do and he will love you forever for giving him a home.

While you are cutting back on wet food, try using Dreamies as a treat to get him to come and sit with you. He will love you even more. Cat crack cocaine.

[RubbishMantra]

*...Link fail for some reason. If this one doesn't work, just pop Zooplus wet cat food into your search engine.

[roseteapot101]

cats always get runny tummy when you suddenly introduce them to a new food.It takes their tummy a wile to adjust its best to slowly add new food to old slowly taking away old