Loose bowels in a 5-week old kitten

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  • 30 June, 2016 at 11:40 am #849198
    Hrishi
    Participant

    I’m quite new to having cats as pets and I’m hoping someone here can guide me. I recently rescued a 4-week old kitten from my neighborhood since his mother had abandoned him. He was quite healthy to begin with and I gave him some milk mixed with water for the first two days and I think that caused diarrhea. The vet recommended 24 hours of just unflavored yogurt as food with plenty of water and gave him Floxid-OZ (ofloxacin ornidazole) twice a day for 3 days to cure any infection he might have had, along with some de-worming medication.

    He seems to be doing good in the sense he is very active, sleeps plenty and eats well but the loose bowels wont seem to go away. We are vegetarians (but we do have eggs) and we feed him thrice a day: cat food in the morning (about 10-12 gms), half an egg white in the afternoon and another half egg-white for supper. He also gets yogurt all three times. The vet has also given some digestive drops to be fed orally twice a day and a probiotic.

    Any suggestions if this is normal and would go away on its own or do I need to be worried?

    30 June, 2016 at 2:36 pm #849202
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Cats are obligate carnivores, and they HAVE to eat meat. They don’t digest cow’s milk well as it contains high levels of lactose. The alternative is goat’s milk and what we recommend here in hand reared kittens. As the KMR powder causes constipation and the liquid causes diarrhea. You can find it in the refrigerated milk section of the grocery, or in the baking aisle in cans. The canned is condensed, so add water 1 to 1. I would get some wet canned food and mix the goat’s milk with it to make a gruel and try your kitten on it. They can start to eat solid food at about 5 weeks old. Especially if they have little teeth coming in. The things that you are giving your cat (the probiotics, drops, yogurt) are all good, but he has to have more nutrition than just eggs and yogurt. I will post some links on hand rearing kittens, and also a link about cat nutrition and what they need to be healthy. Good luck–keep us posted!
    http://www.safehavenforcats.com/newborn.htm
    http://messybeast.com/handrear.htm

    Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition


    http://feline-nutrition.org/

    30 June, 2016 at 9:00 pm #849215
    Hrishi
    Participant

    Thank you for the links! We feed him this once a day for now. As his loose bowels subside, I’ll make sure he gets this cat food atleast three times a day along with other stuff such as egg and yogurt.

    1 July, 2016 at 12:58 am #849224
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Hrishi, a four week old kitten needs to be fed more than once a day. At least 3 different times spread out over the day. At 5 weeks, they can be eating on their own, meaning wet food, or dry food softened with goat’s milk or a little water. Eggs and yogurt should not be meant as food, but maybe an occasional treat, a few times a week. Please check out the links on feline nutrition, and after you have read them you can decide how you need to feed your cat. Also, male cats fed on a dry food only diet, can develop crystals in their bladder and have trouble being able to pass urine. It’s extremely painful and will become expensive to treat and maybe fatal.

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