Kitten with runny poo

[CleverQuacks]

My kitten is 6 months old. Ever since I have had her (since 12 weeks) she has had runny frequent poo. We have been back and forth the vets, tried every food under the sun, had anti biotics, wormed regularly, probiotic paste, stool sample for parasites is clear but nothing is working. Spent hundreds at the vet (thank god she is insured!). I really don’t know what to do. The vet also seems at a loss. She also isn’t growing and is still the size of a three month old so clearly isn’t getting nutrients from her food. Other than that she is a typical kitten: playing, climbing the walls etc.

Does anyone have any tips? Or something I haven’t tried? The only thing I haven’t tried is raw food. Anyone had success with this?

Have you tried protein elimination or a hypoallergenic diet?

@margotrose we have tried several hypoallergenic foods with no success. Not heard of protein elimination though? I will google this!

Protein elimination basically means starting with a really basic diet of rice and one rare protein that isn't commonly present in commercial cat food - often something like rabbit or venison. If the cat has no reaction and the poo is normal, you can start (slowly) adding in different proteins and carb sources to see if any of them trigger an upset stomach.

It's not easy to do in kittens though as they really need a specific diet to help them grow, so maybe worth speaking to a nutritionist (not your vet) about it if possible.

Following on from the PP, KatKin offers single protein options including some less common ones (lamb, pork, duck) and is suitable for kittens, so that could be worth exploring.

One of our cats came to us at 3 weeks old, we were told she was 6 weeks and that the mum had died, both lies, anyway I stayed up several nights bottle feeding her and she's now 4 but still underweight and still has a sensitivity stomach, tried so many foods and that over the years and the vets have now said she is just a slender cat that if she wouldn't of had us she wouldn't of survived. She's happy and can give as good as she gets, just very slender, luckily she has long fur to keep her warm
The person we saved her from did get reported

We had similar with our kitten. It's taken a lot of trial and error but we've had to accept that there is no wet food which he can eat without an upset stomach (we tried raw food and that didn't work).

What we've eventually found works is boiled plain chicken breast (can't even tolerate thighs, has to be breast 🙄) for a couple of days to settle the stomach, followed by Royal Canin digestive care biscuits as his main staple diet, with the occasional meal of boiled chicken breast to give a bit of variety.

Good luck op, I remember how stressful it was trying to figure it out.

Oh also, we sprinkled synbiotic dc capsules on his food religiously for a few months and his stomach improving coincided with this. I stopped giving those to him a few months ago and fingers crossed he's still ok. So I'm not sure if they did something to rebalance his stomach or if that was just coincidental.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Back to the vets tomorrow cos she is still passing very liquid stools. The new (very expensive) prescribed diet seems to have made it worse!

What prescribed diet is she on?

Another option is to try a hydrolysed diet. Not cheap though.