Thread: Probably should have posted in "diet & nutrition" but hey ho...poop problem!

Hello all

My Neo is now about 8 months old and he is the complete apple of my eye However, we've had one problem with him since he arrived with us, and that is his stinky, sloppy poop! Sorry, I thought I'd get straight to the point

A bit of background....we collected him from the breeder on the day he turned 6 weeks old, so he must've been weaned at 5 weeks (maybe even younger, who knows). Having only ever had rescued moggies before Neo, I wasn't really sure at what age breeders normally home their kittens, but we now know he should have stayed with his mother for much longer. The breeder was probably the most uncaring, money grabbing, slovenly, dishonourable person I've ever met and she couldn't wait to get shot of him, so too young to leave his mother or not, he was a million times better off coming home to live with us than staying there with the breeder!

I suspect most of his problems are due to his way-too-early weaning. Since day one, he's had incredibly sloppy poop and he often has diarrhoea. Being such a fluff-butt, this causes constant problems with his hygiene and he tends to have his own very unique....erm......aroma! Quite aside from that, obviously there is the concern that there's something wrong with his digestive system.

I've done a bit of on-line research, and it seems that most vets don't really want to explore holistic/dietary treatment for digestive problems; they just stick the cat onto steroids or some other medicine, and I really don't want to go down that route until I've exhausted all other, more moderate and natural approaches.

Let me just say here that Neo is absolutely bursting with health.....he's growing beautifully, he eats like a horse, his coat is thick, shiny and soft, he's friendly, loving, happy, inquisitive, boisterous....all the things a normal 8 month old should be. If he was even slightly ill or appeared not to be his normal self, I'd take him straight to the vet.

So, in order to tackle the poop problem, I've tried to wean him onto a raw-food diet, as I really believe this is more natural for him. However, Neo doesn't seem to agree and isn't really keen on a raw food diet (he only seems to like turkey mince and chicken livers). So, when raw food failed, I tried the next best thing and bought some high meat/poultry tinned and sachet food (Nature's Menu, Applaws, Lily's Kitchen, Animonda Carny, Bozita, etc) and we also replaced Whiskas/Go Cat dried food with high protein, grain-free dried food (as he is very keen on his dry food).


But, despite persevering with one brand of food for weeks at a time, nothing seems to be making a difference. He's still just as sloppy and smelly as he ever was I started weaning him onto the Bozita 'tetra pak' food yesterday, so it's a bit early yet to know whether it'll make a difference, but he really does like it and licks the bowl clean (which hasn't been the case with some of the other foods we've tried)

I'm really asking for any guidance on how to tackle this problem once and for all......it's not very nice for Neo having to be bathed on a regular basis, and it's not very nice for us having poop smeared over every surface he sits on or brushes up against.....bleurgh! We've even had poop on the walls, about 4ft up.....lord knows how it got up there!

If you all think he should see a vet, then a vet he will see.....but if this problem can be managed by a dietary adjustment, then I'll persevere.

PS - just to complicate matters, I also have another 3 cats:
Gizmo is 14, very old and tatty-looking, thin as a rake but eats like a horse
Socks is 14 also (Gizmo's brother) but he's ageing much more gracefully than Giz - he doesn't look or act his age, bless him.
Missy who is 4 and who is very nervous and skittish (she has to be fed apart from the others as she's easily spooked, especially when she's eating, and she's not a big fan of roughy-toughy Neo either!).

Neo, being the gannet that he is, is always the first with his head in the food bowl - they each have a separate bowl - and he steals the food from the others (he literally barges them out of the way). To make life a bit easier for myself, I've therefore been feeding them all the same diet. The high-protein tinned / sachet food is therefore costing me a small fortune for 4 cats, but it'll be worth it if I can get Neo stabilised.

So....any advice/guidance would be gratefully received.....and I look forward to the day when my house doesn't smell like a big litter tray

Tracey

Hi Tracey,
Taking it that Neo has been fully wormed especially coming from thet type of background the one thing i would say before trying anything else is to get your vet to have a poo sample sent off & checked especially as he obviously came from a not particular good breeder, worth it to rule out any nasties in his gut .....x

Hello! Thanks for your reply; yes, he's wormed up to date - vet prescribed wormer. I'll get him to the vet next week, and I'll take a poop sample with me so I can impress the vet by pre-empting him/her!

I am sure the vet will be very impressed with your forward thinking.....x

Just a quick thought - your older cat with the tatty coat, thin but hungry - have you had his thyroid function checked out? Sounds like a perfect description of our old moggy. There are treatments that are useful as a dodgy thyroid can be rather serious.

Our MC Sidney has a very delicate constitution but we have had great success with Orijen dry food. As long as he doesn't have anything else, all us well. A week ago he was making the most dreadful smells... We discovered half a blackbird in the garden shortly after!

Originally Posted by Weasel

Just a quick thought - your older cat with the tatty coat, thin but hungry - have you had his thyroid function checked out? Sounds like a perfect description of our old moggy. There are treatments that are useful as a dodgy thyroid can be rather serious.

Our MC Sidney has a very delicate constitution but we have had great success with Orijen dry food. As long as he doesn't have anything else, all us well. A week ago he was making the most dreadful smells... We discovered half a blackbird in the garden shortly after!

Hi there. Actually, I was talking to my friend yesterday about the old tatty boy, Gizmo, and she said her own golden oldie had been diagnosed with thyroid problems causing exactly the same symptoms. So it's off to the vets with Gizzy Whizzy!

Originally Posted by Weasel

Our MC Sidney has a very delicate constitution but we have had great success with Orijen dry food. As long as he doesn't have anything else, all us well. A week ago he was making the most dreadful smells... We discovered half a blackbird in the garden shortly after!

Typical! Armageddon in the litter tray today - I think it was mouse this time. Well, he stuffed a live mouse up my pyjama top at 3.30 am the night before... I sent them both out to "play". Probably a dim thing to do, but, hey, it was the middle of the night and I wasn't thinking straight! Sid came in at 8pm, so I dread to think what he'd done with the mouse in the meantime!