Kitten diarrhoea

[veneeroftheweek]

We’ve had new kittens for a week now (15 weeks) and one of them has developed diarrhoea. We’ve been feeding them on the Felix kitten pouches and they were fine. Boy kitten’s stools were on the soft side already and he was a little bit sick a couple of times early on. We introduced one serving of kitten dry food and he had diarrhoea. DP boiled up some chicken breast and it seems to have made it worse and it was quite explosive and he didn't make it to the litter tray which he has been using reliably up to now. He had a tiny bit of wet food later on and his stool was very watery. Could it be too much variety? Should we continue longer with just the chicken and eliminate everything else?
If it continues, of course we will take him to the vet but I’m wondering how worried we should be and if there’s anything we should be doing? They came from a reputable charity and have been wormed, if that is relevant.

I think any change in food can cause an upset stomach in kittens. (Which would make me think stick to a decent food with not wheat and avoid all milk)

I did a lot of googling and Applaws dry food came up as being good for kittens with poorly tummies so I tried it and it worked.

Thank you. We'll look for that food. Dp is worried about him being dehydrated. He is a bit greedy and pushes his sister away to get to his food. I'm hoping he's just been over eating rather than anything more sinister. He's running around happily now, but just did another runny poo in the litter tray.

Is there any cereal in it? Our Bengal couldn’t handle cereal at all.

Not sure. Will check.

What food were the kittens fed when they came from the breeder? You need to stick with the same feeding regime for 2-4 weeks.

They just said wet food apparently. They weren't specific about the brand (dp collected them). Will contact them tomorrow to double check. We definitely won't introduce any more dry food for a while. Thank you.

I bet there’s cereal in his dry and it’s set his stomach off. Most pouches are cereal free but you have to check.

It says rice and maize protein. I guess it could be that.

Ours both arrived with diarrhoea and one a little blood too. We switched to Royal Canin digestive kitten biscuits as advised by vets and then switched to Applaws dry biscuits soon after ( no grains and hypo allergenic & pro and pre biotic) reasonably priced on Amazon. It's an adult food but was fine for ours.

No poop issues since.

I’d have £10 on it being the maize.

How long since you collected them from the charity? Kittens can sometimes bring viral infections with them from shelters. If they show signs of fever - hot ears and head and loss of appetite - get them to a vet straight away. Otherwise, if they're eating well and are otherwise well, do think about things they might have access to as well as what you're feeding them. Cats don't tolerate dairy well but are drawn to it so make sure they're not sneaking some milk out of a left out cereal bowl or anything like that.

We've had them for just over a week now. We've been scratching our heads trying to think if he could have eaten anything else, but I don't think so, as we've been really careful. He's completely fine in himself, running around, playing etc so he doesn't seem to be ill. We've been trying to get hold of the rescue charity people just to clarify the food regime and will try and stick to that without introducing anything else. Then we'll look for the food mentioned up thread as well.