6 month old cats with diarroea ?

[Gilli]

I got a brother and sister from the cat home last weekend and was told that they'd been happily eating both wet and dry food. However, they both seem to have had diarroea for the last few days .... obviously something is upsetting their little tummies ! I just wondered if it's likely to be the wet food, or the dry food that's doing this, so I can give them a rest from it for a while ?

[dmsjps]

Good old you, Gilli, for rescuing these two and giving them a home - and for keeping them together! Poor little things. Cats can get very stressed and this can be one way of showing it. You know you're giving them a loving home where they'll be loved for ever, but they don't - and remember how they've been living before that.

 

It could be the diet, however. I think a lot of cat homes just feed them on anything that gets donated, plus the cheapest they can find, so it might be worth finding out what 'brands' of food they were on. The cheaper ones will obviously be less rich than the more expensive ones - as a rule, but not always. Or it might just be the ratio of wet/dry that's different and that's affecting them, because apart from the stress, they are still quite young. Try feeding them more dry and less wet food if they're happy enough to eat it, because the dry food will soak more up. Then again, I tend to find if I give my ex-Tom cat wet food and then dry straight away, he will decorate my kitchen with the velocity of an air rifle within 2 minutes of eating, so I only give him wet food OR dry food, not both together.

 

Do you give them milk when they're not used to it? Maybe they didn't get it in the cat home and if so, that could cause tummy upsets. Also, apparently a lot of cats are actually intolerent to cow's milk, so that's why they make these special bottles of cat milk. Having said that, it does seem to be a recent phenomenon, so it's probably more of a marketing gimmick than anything.

 

I guess it's just trial and error, but they'll sort themselves out soon. Good luck, hope they're settled in soon and you have happy new additions to your family.

[Gilli]

Nope - no milk, just water .....

Will try cutting out the wet food tomorrow and see if that improves matters.

Thankyou.

[lilyfrog]

I have found that feeding them some fresh cooked plain turkey or chicken instead ofthe processed tinned or dry food can help. Just get a couple of slices of iether from the deli counter.

[Litchick]

Gilli, you say you just brought them from the cat home last weekend?  When I brought my little Lexi home she had diarrhea for a few days as well...the vet said it was, for one thing, nerves -- the poor thing was in a new home with new smells, etc.. and two, since she was feral and would gobble her food so others wouldn't get it, she was polishing off whatever we gave her I guess because she was afraid it would be taken away.  Just give them time and smaller quantities of food and yes, plenty of fresh water.  It's good that you adopted the brother and sister together -- at least have each other.