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The litter tray

Stinky bum... new rescue kitty

46 replies

KTD27 · 18/04/2021 16:53

We brought home a delightful little girl today after losing our big old boy earlier this year.
She is super friendly and Inquisitive and purring like a trooper happily but... she stinks.
She’s used the litter tray once and oh my good lord. Definitely soft poop and stunk to high heaven. I’m a bit annoyed at the rescue centre as she said she had some intestinal issues last week and I was very clear I didn’t want to take another cat who was medically not fit after our boy had FIV and was so poorly at the end and my two kids missing him so much.
What do you think I should try in terms of her tummy? Leave it a while and hope it settles or bring her to the vets.
We have 4 weeks free insurance but I’m frustrated to start down a path already after everything we went through before.
Might be anxiety talking so I’m appealing to more rational minds.

Oh and pic for cat tax. Her name is truffle.

Stinky bum... new rescue kitty
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Chemenger · 18/04/2021 17:00

I would go to the vet. I always like to take new cats to my own vet for a once over anyway. We’ve had kittens with giardiasis in our rescue and apparently their poo absolutely reeks, they need treatment to get rid of it. On the bright side I’ve also had stinky cats who improved massively with a change of food. You could try poached chicken for a couple of days to see if that settles things.

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lolacola77 · 18/04/2021 17:03

Yes try her on bland chicken for a few days. It's worth getting her checked if her poo stinks after that. I found that switching to Arden Grange made a huge difference to the pong. She's gorgeous!

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KTD27 · 18/04/2021 17:21

@Chemenger how do they test for that? I’ll make an appointment for her this week

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Toddlerteaplease · 18/04/2021 18:06

Iams indoor food. Has made a huge difference to my girls poo. It was horrendous and she didn't bury it!

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KTD27 · 18/04/2021 18:17

Is there somewhere you can get a sample pack of different foods to see what your cat will enjoy?

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MixedUpFiles · 18/04/2021 18:24

New kitty should get a checkup anyway. Our rescue actually includes one in the adoption fee, part of why we choose them.

The kitten probably does have a very common infection of some sort. It’s unlikely to be anything serious, just the normal things acquired in group settings that can be cleared up quickly with some medication. 2 of our last 3 cats have had the same issue and I can’t remember what it’s called. They stink to high heaven, but don’t seem to be in any distress whatsoever, take some meds and they are fine.

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MixedUpFiles · 18/04/2021 18:32

Now I remember

Feline giardia
It’s really easy to eradicate in a home setting. difficult in shelters and foster care. Kittens are more prone to catching it.

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Sunnyday321 · 18/04/2021 18:35

From memory kitten poo smells much worse than cat poo and will settle down in another month or so. I think they need to build up the good gut bacteria.

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Ivebeeninlockdowntoolong · 21/04/2021 06:46

We had this with our kitten. The solution that eventually worked:

Vets - paid £215 for poo sample to be examined by laboratory (covered by insurance). Turned out to be round worm eggs in his stomach. Strong antibiotics for 5 days. Sorted.

NB if you are attempting to clean Truffle's bottom after one of her sessions, do not use baby wipes as she will not like the residue smell and she may not clean herself as a result. We learned this the hard way with our kitten, who became affectionately known as "smelly bottom" as he appeared reluctant to wash himself.

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KTD27 · 02/05/2021 16:16

We have insurance but I’m not sure she’d be covered as she technically had an issue when we got her. So frustrating. We took her to the vet and he said it was normal. I’m not convinced but we have shifted her food and she does seem to less farty. Will keep a close eye on her and if no better after another week on this new food I’ll get a poo sample done

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thecatneuterer · 02/05/2021 16:20

I'm assuming the rescue treated her for worms so you can probably discount that.

I would first of all try her on just boiled chicken for a couple of days to see what happens. I find, after that, the best food to reintroduce is Butchers Classic tins - it seems to sort out poo problems like magic.

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KTD27 · 02/05/2021 17:29

Yep they did. They said when they got her she was so bad she was vomiting them up so she had a pretty hardy dose of them by the sounds of it poor little thing.

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KTD27 · 02/05/2021 17:30

I didn’t know butchers did cat food! We used to give it to our dog.
Does it have to be kitten food we give her?

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paddler78 · 02/05/2021 17:38

Definitely try different food, ours are terrible on anything other than James Wellbeloved, worst was Royal Canin literally couldn't enter the same room as litter tray it was that bad Envy (not envy!)

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KTD27 · 02/05/2021 20:23

We have tried a few dry food brands which she’s turned her nose up at. Currently she’s eating iams. Seems to be ok with it. It’s definitely the wet food she reacts to.
We will take her back to the vets tomorrow anyway I think. Best check that poo

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claireb7rg · 02/05/2021 20:39

How old is she?

I posted similar to you last week, we rescued a 8-10 month old ex farm kitten 3 weeks ago and she stinks. Farts constantly and her poo stinks the house out.


She has started settling down a bit now after 3 weeks of high protein food (we have her on untamed wet food and grain free dry biscuits). But the first few weeks were really bad 🤢🤢😷😷

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thecatneuterer · 02/05/2021 20:57

No, you don't need to feed kitten food. Adult food for kittens is absolutely fine. (Unless we are taking very small kittens and adult dry food, in which case that is a choking risk)

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Kotatsu · 02/05/2021 21:10

She's farting? Our boy cat only farts when he's eaten something he really shouldn't (and our cats eat everything from raw to tinned to dry, so they're pretty sturdy generally, although the wally boy did once lick a chocolate fountain and was very dramatic for a night.. but totally fine).

Our girl cat has only had issues when she got a slug caught in her fur, and tried to get it out, and it must have excreted something that made her retch and throw up until I cut it out!

When boy cat suddenly started farting/runny poos the vet said to keep him away from his sister, and fast him for a day or two (although I'm not sure that would be wise with a kitten) - and either that worked, or it just sorted itself. He didn't half complain though, and I'm not sure that's a good idea with kittens - I'd give the vet a ring (we didn't take ours she just advised me over the phone for free on this!)

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KTD27 · 03/05/2021 07:46

@claireb7rg shes 6 months and exactly this. She hums her farts especially but we have noticed the link between that and wet food.
I tried grain free biscuits for her dry and she wouldn’t go near them. She’d just not eat until the wet got put down. The dry we have now isn’t grain free - just iams kitten I bought in desperation - but she likes it and so far it doesn’t seem to have made her stink.
The vet was so non plussed but it just can’t be normal aurely

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KTD27 · 22/06/2021 07:21

Bumping as this problem just hasn’t gone away. Vet asked us to change diet so we did. No difference. Poo has been checked and was negative for everything. She started venturing out so we weren’t sure what was happening as she began to use the loo outside and then yesterday we woke up to the most ungodly stench and there was just pure diarrhoea in her tray. This morning it was smeared all over our couch where she’d obviously sat after using the litter tray. I can’t go on like this. Surely it isn’t normal?!
Vet just seems really Unphased like it’s normal for kittens to have sloppy poo but she’s about 8 months old and surely, surely it should be improving? Our house smells and she can’t be comfortable. Agh! So frustrating. Any more ideas?

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SaggyOldClothDog · 22/06/2021 07:54

Has she been tested for FIV? We lost our boy a few months ago after we found out he had it (by the point he was diagnosed he had no immune system left). Up until the point he started to deteriorate he'd never shown signs of anything serious but did have a few minor bouts of diarrhea and his farts could clear a room. We always assumed he had a sensitive tummy so were careful not to change his food too much (and that seemed to do the trick) but after he was PTS the vet mentioned that FIV can be linked to tummy upsets.

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KTD27 · 22/06/2021 08:27

She was when she was picked up by the shelter before we adopted her. Negative.

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ExcellentSquiggles · 22/06/2021 08:58

Our cat did some terrible farts and some nasty pools when we got her (not a kitten). We got her some better food and it just slowly went away over the next few months. I wonder if it was partly her being unsettled and nervous?

Its hard to say without knowing just how bad the smell is - but if the vet is unphased could just be you have a stinky cat who now has a tummy upset?

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FurryGiraffe · 22/06/2021 09:42

Our last cat had persistent diarrhoea as a kitten. It was tough. The vet was very persistent about getting to the bottom of it and she was tested for all sorts of things and they all came back negative. Out of desperation the vet suggested Hills prescription ID food, which was like magic. It's a 'prescription' food intended for cats with intestinal problems, but absolutely fine for any cat to eat (we checked as we had another perfectly healthy cat).

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