Thread: Sicky/Poop-y Problem?

Hey everyone! I was wondering if anyone could give us some advice on something?

Basically last night Dave and I went out just before 8 and Dave got home again around 11.30. I stayed out. Teddy was happy to see Dave and they were playing together until around 1.30 when Teddy went and did a poo. Now Dave thinks that Teddy's started trying to poo on the litter tray as he scrapes all the litter into one corner or kicks it out of the tray but I think it must have just been a sloppy poo? Basically he ended up with some of it on his feet, legs and tail. Dave absolutely freaked and he said it smelt awful so I had to get a taxi home to see what was going on. Dave had tried to dip Teddy in some warm water in the bath but he was really freaked by it so Dave didn't know what to do. To be honest, I'm not surprised that Teddy was freaked - Dave was being so melodramatic about the whole thing!

Now I have a blocked nose so I couldn't really smell anything. Dave cleaned out the tray and any bits of poop he found but Teddy mostly cleaned himself (to be honest, by the time I got home I couldn't see anything on him anyway) and I was with him trying to calm him down.

The same thing happened this lunchtime with a sloppy poo and he ended up with some on his paws. I gave him a wipe with a babywipe but nothing seemed to be coming off and I couldn't really see anything anyway :/ Dave said Teddy smelled awful and although I could smell it a little, it wasn't vastly worse than a few other normal poos Teddy's done - I think it was just because it wasn't as hard so Teddy couldn't bury it properly. Dave was almost sick over the whole thing and poor little Ted was so upset.

Today we've been giving him less wet food and more dry incase the richness of the wet food would make things worse. I wasn't sure if he was doing it because he's sick or if it was because he was mad at us for leaving him alone for so long. Just a few hours ago, I gave him a little wet food as supper and a few minutes after eating it, he threw it back up on the carpet. Dave was much more restrained this time as we have a friend over!

Do you guys have any idea what it would be and what we can do? I figured Teddy had just managed to eat something he shouldn't have and that was what's making him ill. I don't think the stress of the way Dave is acting helps either! I suppose I look after loads of kids so poop is a fact of life for me and doesn't bother me at all!

We've put more litter than usual in the clean tray this time so hopefully he won't manage to get poop-y feet the next time he goes!

He is acting normally; being playful and chatty etc. apart from after he poops and gets freaked out (but again, I think this is more to do with Dave's reaction)

Any advice will be appreciated and I'm sorry for the graphic nature of this post!

Aww poor Teddy. Whenever any of my cats have been like this I've fed them little and often just simple bland food like boiled chicken or fish with some rice. Keep plenty of water down. Is he moulting by any chance? One of my previous cats used to get the smelly sloppy poops, and vomit when he swallowed too much of his own fur. Have you used anything new on him like shampoo, powder etc that he might not get on with. If it were me, as he doesn't seem ill, I would give it a day or two and if no better a visit to the vet.

As for your other half get him to deal with all the kitty waste so he builds up a resistance to it or buy him a gasmask.

Big hugs to Teddy x

Thanks! I've only ever known a dog to throw up like that and it was always something they'd eaten. With Teddy...I don't know - we've not been using anything on him or feeding him anything out of the ordinary. Although he's into everything and I'm always shouting at Dave for leaving the basin in the sink full of water with dirty dishes/fairy liquid in there as Teddy likes to get into the sink and I think he drinks the water from the basin sometimes so it's possible that he's managed to pick something up there.

Yeah, Dave's been dealing with the poo!

Hi

Zack had terrible squirty problems as a kitten ( turned out it was in fact the kitten food) I used to wrap him in a towel - sit on the edge of the bath - unveil the offending back end and paws - wash that end with the top half still wrapped. Wear your oldest trackies for this as they get drenched!!!!! As soon as I changed to adult food it stopped. He had been to the vets and nothing sinister was ever detected.

Recently I got boris - a kitten - and completely forgot my past experience. You guessed it - Zack got into the kitten food and off we went again. I raced him to the vet and he had a temperature. He was put on tablets and ALL KITTEN FOOD ERADICATED FROM THE HOUSE. All back to normal again after that.

Maybe try changing food just in case??

It is unpleasant and my advice is to Dave is "get used to it". Whenever my boys - Leo has been almost perfect in this regard, the other two have issues - have a "sloppy" it's simply a case of grab cat, lock us in the toilet, half a sink of warm(er) water - remember their body temp is about 2C above ours -and pop the rear end in, clean with one hand while gentle holding down the other end, usually with front paws on the sink edge. Then the ready prepared "cat towel" on the top of the closed toilet and voila!

If it happens two poos in a row then it's time for white fish for 24-36 hours and all is well.

This has all been part of the food tuning regime. The Bozita tetra packs they love but result in "Dicky tummy" about once a week.

As far as the litter is concerned it's the same - finding a balance in depth and type that makes him happy to dig properly but not so much that he has to dig it our the tray. What kind of tray do you have ? Mine is a large covered "Omega Paw" but with the special rolling grill removed after it became too small. Also, you can get mats for in front of the tray to help litter (and poo) get dragged off the paws before they hit the real floor.

Go back to the basic rule if animal seems fine & happy starve for 24hours,water down only,fuel a fire & it won't go out,after 24 hours start introducing a light diet,fish or chicken after next 24hrs if all ok start slowly introducing normal food back,if still bad or seems to go off colour at any point get to the vets,especially if it is coming from both ends.It is always handy to have a product like Pro kolin in the "animal medicine chest",you can just buy it over the counter & is handy to have on standby for such cases,I use good old fashioned Kaogel,with the amount of cats in this house a bottle of that & dosing syringe are always kept to hand. A lot of the time biscuits can actually make things worse as they are heavy on the tum.
I would also agree with Heather about trying to go over onto adult food,kitten is very very rich & lets face things it hasn't been on the market that many years,going back to my first pup & kitten you had a choice of Chappie & Kitekat,that was it,one size fitted all.
As for litter trays we have always had deep ones filled at least half way up with litter,as we are having to replace them though we are getting the storage containers that you use in the home,lot better choice of depth,length,lot cheaper & lot easier to clean as well.
Sorry no sympathy for the other half he now knows how his mum most probaly felt cleaning up after him a few times as a babe,give me animal any day,smelly or otherwise...x