Hello
I hope some of you can help with some advice and encouragement as we are really struggling to deal with our six month old kitten (neutered male). He is used to going outside and no longer uses the litter tray. We acquired him when he was eight weeks old, which in retrospect I wonder if he had fully learnt all he needed from his mother? He is a short-haired tabby.
On and off he has had problems with loose stools (dumping suddenly in the house, very soft and like gravy) and we have taken advice from the vet at all times. He has been on pro-kolin and is now on a diet of half wet and dry (wet Royal Canin and dry Jameswellbeloved). He seems to be happy enough with his diet. He is also up to date with flea prevention and worming tablets.
But, he comes back in, with dried poo around his anus and stuck in his tail, and the tail itself has poo in it (not lumps but just, I don't know, poo juice?) Between us we try to clean off as much as we can with sensitive baby wipes but he absolutely hates it and we can never clean him properly as he tries to get away as fast as he can. Not that I blame him of course.
So we're living with our kitten that perpetually has poo attached, and he's all over our house, carpets and soft furnishings. Sometimes he scoots across the floor. When we find any evidence of poo we clean it up but the situation has become very distressing for all of us (me, my husband and the young kitten). It's now getting to the point I feel I can't cope. I'm worried about poo being all over the house (as we can't clean him properly), the health implications and the thought of having to deal with this for as long as he's with us is quite frankly just an awful prospect.
We have decided to put him back onto the pro-kolin as previously this seem to settle the poo issue down, but will we need to do this all the time? If so, fine, we will do it. The other thing is, will he magically turn into a fully-grown cat that cleans his bottom properly? At the moment, he grooms himself generally but pays very scant attention to his testicles and bottom/tail. The cat we previously had was very fastidious in that department and we had no issues at all with her. So when we acquired our new kitten we weren't prepared that his toilet habits would become such a major issue.
Any advice, please? I have been scouring the internet for ideas and also left a message with the Cats Protection League. At the moment we're thinking we will try and hang on until he's a year old (give him a chance to grow into an adult cat) but if this situation remains a constant theme we will probably think about re-homing him. Which would be really sad as in all other aspects he's a lovely pet.