Thread: Recent poops:Not very solid and well formed!

Ironicaly I was going to post something very similar this morning. We're going through a 'someone has soft poops' phase.

One of ours, either Loki or Storvenn (trying to find out who) is pooping a semi wet poop (smells as bad as it sounds too...)
We've been trying to get them over to raw from the Food 4 Cats folks, but tuna appears to be the only thing they both love. I think Loki is eating a lot lot less than Storvenn as she doesnt seem to like the raw, although when I come down in the morning there is a lot less raw food left. Of course its hard to know which one of them is eating it,so maybe she is eating some at night.
Currently I cut the meat off the chicken bones and then cook it for her. This seems to be acceptable. Dry food is VERY acceptable too

My plan - keep going. Keep trying to work out which is them has the soft poops by checking litter tray after they have been. Try to find a food which Loki will definately eat raw (looking like Tuna chunks at the moment) and see if that will sort out the issue if it is her, which is very similar to what Irishkitty is doing too.

Not having a problem with them getting it on themselves at all. We have two BIG trays for them which are about 60mm deep in kitty litter.

Ok, soft poop cat = Loki.
Any suggestions welcome, but here is some info first.

Feeding time.
One bowl each - although Storvenn tends to move from his bowl to Lokis after about 30 seconds. Storvenn is also first onto the food each time.
Loki (female) and Storvenn (male) are the same age & came from the same litter.
Storvenn is huge in comparison to Loki. Possibly another 1/2 of her weight again.

Food.
(am) - Wet food. 1.5 packets of natures menu between them. Loki likes this.
(mid day) - Rabbit mince (about 1/2 usually gets eaten). Loki takes about 3 bites
(pm) - Cooked chicken, no bones. (usually gets eaten). Depends.. tonight I hand fed her 1 small piece. She ate it but then wouldnt eat from the bowl.
(nighttime) - Dry food left down until morning.

Loki will happily eat from a 'treat ball' which she knocks around the floor to get the dry food to fall out.
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Ive noticed that they 'playing' by chasing each other a lot more and its usually storvenn doing the chasing as he is the bigger / one who likes to chase things like laser pens.
What I assume is their playing, putting their jaws around each other and boxing, when they are on the sofa together looks harmless. The occassional "moew / ouch!" but nothing major.

Several schools of thought in my head.
1) Loki is a bit wary of eating the food as she feels that Storvenn is a larger cat and doesnt feel comfortable with him moving onto her bowl when Im not watching. Although she does move onto his when he does this.
2) The playing is natural and I should replace the rabbit mince / chicken with raw tuna.
3) Keep everything as it is - see if Lokis poop sorts itself out in 3-4 days.

Tomiam, your two sound totally normal. The males are just way more aggressive, about eating, playing, etc. Our male kitten goes and gets into all the big cats food if we let him. The big male has actually taken to going into the other room and waiting to be fed in there sometimes as he gets tired of this. The play sounds normal as well. They play pretty roughly, but don't bite hard. You should be able to tell if one was being hurt, as they would retreat and try to quit the play.

What I would try is eliminating each of the wet foods for a couple of days and see if it makes any difference to the girl. A cat eating a high quality (low grain) dry food should not be having soft stools, unless they have a problem with an ingredient. There are cats that do not handle fish well, for example.

You might also find that Loki has a better appetite if you vary her diet more. We have used cooked chicken breast when somebody has an upset system, but have always found that they rapidly tire of it (they might eat one or two good meals of it and then refuse it). Our cats never want the same wet foods day in and day out (though this does not seem to be an issue with dry food), and I have read that this is common for cats. (Most dogs on the other hand seem to be willing to eat the same food every day of their lives!)

I also have to wonder about the raw foods. I don't know anything about the raw foods that you guys are using in England, so maybe they are totally safe. I do know that one of our breeders quit her raw diet after a litter of kittens got diarrhea from salmonella in the raw meat. Every test I ever see of the US meat supply finds relatively high incidence of various bacteria, and most of these cause diarrhea. If I had a cat that was eating raw food and got diarrhea, I would absolutely try eliminating the raw food first--not be feeding more. Of course if they have caught something, it may not just clear up on its own.

Finally, I will put in another plug for products like FortiFlora. Read the reviews on Amazon! Our girl with a sensitive digestive system has only rarely had firm stools in the three years we have had her. Had a few doses of FortiFlora after getting diarrhea, and she has not been soft since! Really just amazing. I note on the FortiFlora webpage that it specifically lists soft stools in kittens as one of its suggested applications.

It could actually be the tuna causing it - I think too much isn't good for cats. Also, how long are you leaving the raw down for? If they don't eat it then it shouldn't be left down for more than an hour or so.

You may also find that feeding a mixture of raw and biscuits and pouches can also cause issues because they digest at different rates.

I would take away biscuits if you can and concentrate on the raw food and wet pouches...if they both like the pouches then mix some raw in with it and then gradually reduce the pouch amount.

Not all cats like rabbit so I would try the pork variety which 99% of them will go mad for and also the lamb.

If all else fails, I would get her checked out at the vet just to be safe as they may be able to give you some pro-kolin or canakur, which normally helps with sore tummies.

Have they been wormed recently? This can also cause diarrhoea in cats.

Thank you both for your advice. Much appreciated.

To add a bit more info:-
Tuna - only given it to them once.
Raw - stays down for up to 4 hours. Probably too long and something I will change. Small issue being Loki does tend to eat the raw right away, unless I sprinkle biscuits on it, and so i leave it down for her to graze on. Still, an hour or two is plenty of time.
Wormed - both of them were done on the 2nd Feb.

Loki actually got very wet poops so I made a change to their diet. We've been on the dry food now for 2 whole days & the last three days we've gone from 4 meals a day to 3. I've cut out the wet and the raw. Chicken wings are given on the evening, but they are cooked (minus bones).
Unfortunately one of the kids cleaned out the litter trays so Ive no real way of knowing how much difference its made. I should imagine by tomorrow morning I will have a good idea.

Plan is to keep them both on meals at 3 times a day and slowly re-introduce the raw part of the diet whilst keeping an eye on the poops.

Irishkitty, yours any better?

Originally Posted by Tomiam

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Irishkitty, yours any better?

Tomiam: Now have him back on reduced tuna and cooked chicken for his 1 p.m meal. He only gets dry food for brekkie and evening meal!
This morning was the first day I noticed a big improvement in form. Nice firm shape to it today but I think I would prefer it to be a bit more solid!

Irishkity, How many days did it take before your kitties poop started looking better please?

Loki getting worse sadly. Poops very wet. Thankfully she is eating and drinking well and is very alert etc. Called the vet and asked for advice as the 'dry food only' obviously isnt working.

Woodside, your advice is pretty close to that advice I was given at the vets today. They said to starve loki for 12hrs, get her off the biscuits and go for a bland diet. They advised boiled chicken meat and boiled fish.

If it gets worse / continues like this then I will take her in to see the vet as well.