How to stop diarrhea in a small cat

Diarrhea is a symptom that, when it occurs in the kitten, is a very serious problem. The little one needs to eat a lot in order to grow, but if that food is not well digested and is also expelled quickly, the body does not receive the nutrients it needs. When that happens, not only does growth stop, but also the life of the animal is in danger.

For this reason, it is very important to observe the furry well to be able to take the necessary measures in case it becomes ill. To make it easier, I'm going to tell you why this symptom can be shown and how to stop diarrhea in a small cat.

What is diarrhea?

In a basic way, it can be said that diarrhea is any decrease in the consistency of your kitten's stool, which is usually accompanied by an increase in the frequency of defecations.

Chronic diarrhea Vs acute diarrhea

We talk about chronic diarrhea when the kitten has a alteration in stool consistency plus 7 to 10 days continuously or intermittently. While, the Acute diarrhea, Is that which usually lasts about 3 days.

This differentiation will help your vet determine the most likely causes and illnesses for your kitten. In the case of young cats, acute diarrhea due to parasites or viral diseases, such as the panleukopenia. However, in older cats chronic diarrhea is more common due to inflammatory, neoplastic (tumors) or endocrine processes (hyperthyroidism is common in cats).

Questions to consider if your kitten has diarrhea

If one day your kitten has a soft stool there is no reason to be alarmed. However, if he begins to have constant diarrhea during the day and continues the next day, you should go to your trusted veterinary center, it can be a serious problem.

When you go to the vet, they will ask you a series of questions (anamnesis) that it never hurts to know before because it helps you a lot to better explain what happens to your kitten and the vet makes the diagnosis a lot easier. For this reason, I am going to attach the type of questions that they will ask you below:

• How many times do you have diarrhea a day?
• What color are the poops currently?
• Does it seem like you have pain when you poop?
• Have you seen blood in the poop?
• Are there more cats at home?
• Are the other animals in the house affected?
• Has the volume of stools increased?
• Do you see him running to the sandbox, having an urgency?
• Do you poop before reaching the sandbox?
• Have you seen mucus in your stool?
• Is poop like pasty or liquid at all?
• Has your kitten lost weight?
• Has your kitten been vomiting since the diarrhea started?
• How long have you had diarrhea and when did you start to have them?
• What are you currently eating?
• Have you made changes to your diet recently?
• Are you dewormed and when was the last time?

This battery of questions is used to classify the origin of the diarrhea and to be able to diagnose the cause. From here, the veterinarian will know more or less what condition your kitten may be and can start to carry out the corresponding tests.

Why does my kitten have diarrhea?

Diarrhea in young cats appears for several reasons: intestinal parasites, sudden changes in diet, infections, colitis or food allergies. The most common are the first two, but in any case you have to go immediately to the vet to prevent the cat from getting worse.

What are the symptoms?

We will know that the kitten has problems when defecate very often. The stools are loose, runny (with a lot of water) and they can carry blood. Also, due to the loss of fluids you can become dehydrated and lose weight.

Another symptom that will appear is apathy. A kitten that is sick may not feel like doing anything, something that should alert us. Although kittens do not always show apathy, as I said at the beginning of the post, they are masters at masking diseases.

My cat has diarrhea and it does not go away, how can I stop the diarrhea?

However, the first thing we have to do is take him to the vet. Being a young cat, its immune system is still weak and this makes it more vulnerable. We never have to give a medicine if it is not on the advice of a professional as we could make the situation worse. At the clinic they will tell us how to treat it so that it improves.

I leave you a class of situations in which you cannot wait to go to your veterinary center if your kitten has diarrhea:

• If your kitten is less than a year old and starts with acute diarrhea.
• Continued diarrhea.
• If your kitty is not very active, she doesn't feel like eating and seems dehydrated.
• If you observe liquid diarrhea with rest of blood and / or mucus.
• If you have 2-3 liquid stools so far during the day.
• If your kitten has had contact with other cats with panleukopenia.

What can I do at home if my kitten has diarrhea?

In any case, only veterinary care will not be enough. At home we have to make sure he drinks water and is eating high quality kitten food. If you are giving him cans and he drinks less water than with his normal feed, do not worry excessively, it is normal, since with the wet food he receives a contribution of water.

Then We are going to leave you some recommendations to follow when your kitten has diarrhea:

• Make a 12-hour solid fast.
• After 12 hours we start by offering you a highly digestible diet specific to digestive problems. In the market there are quite a few veterinary diets, I leave you the link to several diets that go very well:
  • Hill's Feline I / D wet food
    
  • Royal Canin wet gastrointestinal for cats
  • Purina EN gastroenteric wet cat food

         These diets You can find them in specialized stores and veterinary clinics.

• We will give you first wet diet in small amounts and very frequently. To give you an idea, about 2 tablespoons every 2-3 hours.
• After 12-24 hours with these feeding guidelines we went on to introduce a bit of a solid diet. This also has to be specific for gastrointestinal problems. The brands that I have named you above also have specific feed for gastrointestinal problems. We will mix a few small grains of feed with the cans.
• In the next 24 hours we are going to provide you with more feed than wet food, until finally I just eat I think.
• After a few days in which he has not had more diarrhea or soft poop, we can return to his usual feed. The introduction back to their usual feed has to be done gradually over 4-5 days, mixing the veterinary prescription feed with the one he usually eats.

It has been popularly believed that it is good to give boiled rice broth or breadcrumbs. But the reality is that with a specific diet for gastrointestinal problems your kitten will not have nutritional deficiencies, and above all, it will have a speedy recovery compared to the "home remedy".

The price of the cans of these three brands ranges between € 1,89 and € 3,5, also depending on the size of the can. And the feed is usually around € 20-25.

Nutritionally, both Hill's and Royal Canin and Purina in these products include prebiotics, low in fat and protein to make them highly digestible.

I personally like Hill's products quite a bit because it has a palatability very high. This means that the kitten finds its taste and smell very pleasant, then you do not have to resort to "tricks" to eat. They also have a variety of wet food such as pâté and another in stew, the latter particularly, they love it!

Here is the link in case you are interested in knowing more about these products: click here.

Another situation to take into account is that your kitten may not want to eat for the first few days. Therefore, you will have to give "Forced food". To do this, you will have to mix content of the veterinary diet with a little water. It has to be light enough so that it can be absorbed with the syringe. I advise you to choose a 10ml needleless syringe, and control the amount you ingest. Be especially careful to allow him time to swallow, so that we avoid choking.

It is also positive provide probiotics as FORTIFLORA® for cats (here you can buy it). Surely your trusted vet will prescribe them.

What can I do to increase my cat's appetite?

A good trick to increase your cat's appetite is to give a little touch of heat in the microwave to wet food, this makes the smell more intense, in addition to being more pleasant to eat it when it is warm.

Also we will have to give him a lot of love so that you have strength. And above all be patient, do not scold him if he poops out of his sandbox, remember that he is bad, it is not that it is an act of rebellion. I hope this post has helped you and remember that the vet is the one who can really help your kitten.