All I want for Christmas is solid poo

[nearlynermal]

Seriously. I want two cats both simultaneously producing normal cylindrical crap that is not all over the litter box, on their bottoms, their feet, in perfect butthole prints on the sofa cushion, or my work shirts. I've had them for 6 weeks and feel like I'm permanently knee deep in diarrhoea. Am seriously considering giving them back...

What food do they have? There is special food available for sensitive tummies. Perhaps that might help.

Have you taken them to the vet? That’s not normal. On the few times my cat has had diarrhoea he’s cleaned himself up completely before going about his day. Cats generally hate being dirty so it’s odd that they’re both happy to have crap all over themselves unless they’re pretty poorly/ elderly.

What does your vet say? What are you feeding them?.

You need to look at what you are feeding them.

I'm feeding them Applaws kitten kibble, Royal Canin kitten for the wet food, and the occasional tin of Applaws kitten chicken, which they love, for a treat. Vet has supplied me with poo pots and a cat faecal scoring chart, and the house is spattered with the probiotic, which also looks pretty poo-like, in my attempts to get some into them. They haven't both had the runs all the time. One more than the other, seemingly connected to vaccinations.

I bet it’s the cereal in the royal canin, mine was awful as a kitten until I realised he couldn’t handle cereals.

What happens if you feed them on chicken breast for a few days?.

One of our cats had awful smelling, frothy liquid poos until we changed their food to grain free.

What brand are you using, Hazey?

The rescue I got mine from suggested Arrowroot powder or psysillium husk powder on their food.

James Wellbeloved grain free. We give them a mix of dry and the wet food in pouches. Order it from Fetch.

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I didn't realise Royal Canin had cereal in it. Will stop with that for a while. Nermalcat 1 is licking the probiotic off his paws nicely. Now if I can just get Nermalcat 2 (who has cat flu) to do the same.

Royal Canin is awful awful quality cat food, it contains ingredients such as grains that cats can’t actually digest.

Sadly a lot of cat food is poor quality.

Cats are obligate carnivores, so you need a food thats at least 80% meat, dry food is also more likely to cause a runny bum compared to wet. Cats also have a poor thirst drive, cats have to be fairly dehydrated before they drink. To eat dry and be well hydrated an average adult cat would need to drink around 450ml of water every single day.

Places like zooplus have decent wet food.

I personally feed raw, you can order online, or buy from morrisons or pets at home.

Fortiflora is a good probiotic, most cats like it as it contains animal digest (the stuff they coat dry food in).

Give them plain, cooked (boiled) chicken for a week or so - just chicken, nothing else. It usually helps really quickly (within a day or so), and the "mono meals" give their digestive systems time to heal. You can then slowly introduce normal cat food (grain free is usually best tolerated as others have said).

I presume they are dewormed as well?

viccat, I'll do that. I've just had to put Nermalcat 2 back on the antibiotics, so that's not going to help his tum either.

@SimonJT, great info, please give me more detail on food brands and where to get the wet food? I'd been looking into that. They have a fountain, and drink really well from it, touch wood. I'll go find some fortiflora.

There are lots of good wet brands
Animonda carny
Bozita
Catz finefood
Feringa
Granatapet
Grau
Mac
Smilla
Applaws/encore pate (other applaws/encore are not complete and should only be given as treats making up less than 10% of the cats diet).

Dry isn’t ideal for cats and personally I would never feed dry, but if you do it’s really important not to mix it in with wet as this can cause upset stomachs due to the high bacteria load on dry. So if you feed both make sure it isn’t in the same meal.

Many thanks, Simon. That's a big help. (Also, I finally manned up and collected a sample pot, so we'll get that into analysis tomorrow just to check there's nothing untoward going on...)

Aha: the analysis just came back positive for giardia.

Can it be treated?.

Yep, fairly easily treatable. The trouble now is Nermalcat2, who nearly died of cat flu and is already on three different meds. Doesn't seem to have it yet, but with their luck he will, etc etc.

Oh, and it's pretty contagious for humans as well. Joy.

I have got a rescue kitten that was treated for giardia before he left the rescue. He came home to me on James Wellbeloved kitten food - not a solid poo in sight, grim.

I switched him to Canagen Chicken dried food with a pouch of Canagen wet daily and five weeks on I am only dealing with firm poo!

I mix wet food with dry, always have done, never been an issue.

That's encouraging, thanks Dook. I'll look into it. I've been feeding them minced poached chicken breast with a seasoning of FortiFlora. Which is probably also good for poor Cat Flu Cat.

Last night I gave Runny Cat his first dose of Panacur (i.e. squirted a glob of white gunk in the general direction of his mouth as he tried to take my arm off and then tried to smear the spillage on his frantically paddling paws). He's pretty bouncy this morning, but still stinky. I am watching with interest.

You need to wrap them in a towel like a cat burrito to give liquid meds. Then you poke the syringe between the gritted side teeth and then you smear it over their face and your arm!

Demented LOL, a furious, chubby little cat burrito. Good, yes, side teeth do seem to work (sort of)

He doesn't seem to hold any grudges though...

What a cutie!

I have to give my cat antibiotics (in solid form) for six weeks and it is a nightmare. She licks off the Leberwurst ( I am in Germany) and then spits the pill out. My vet has suggested grinding and dissolving the pill in water and then get it into the cat via a syringe. I should do so and use the burrito cat method