Why Does My Kitten Have Diarrhea? Safeguard Your Kitty’s Bowel System
Is your furry kitten experiencing diarrhea at your home? Are you feeling helpless about your kitten frequently pooping everywhere around the house? Are you looking for good home remedies to address your kitten’s diarrhea problem? These are problems, which were faced by me only a while back with my own precious little kitten.
Though this may be worrisome, it can be resolved through proper information and some useful home remedies to treat diarrhea. My kitten is now fully recovered, and the treatments given to you in this column are my contributions to all cat parents to solving their personal crisis.
If these questions come close to the issues you are facing, then you have come to the right place to get your well-merited answers. This article can provide you with simple reasons and solutions to the question, “why does my kitten have diarrhea?” But before we move forward, it is firstly important to know about the symptoms of diarrhea so that you may acknowledge them.
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What is Diarrhea In A Kitten?
Diarrhea in a kitten is typically characterized by the sign of watery stools. It is caused by a source, which can be as simple as a change in diet or a more grave illness or an infection. The symptom is mostly your kitten frequently pooping everywhere accompanied by vomiting, lethargy, and a decrease in appetite. The loss of appetite will then greatly affect your cat's health.
Diarrhea can go on for weeks and months. A minor diarrhea phase may not be a cause for worry, but if diarrhea continues to persist for longer than one or two days, it could lead to severe dehydration and electrolyte depletion.
Diarrhea is additionally divided into two types: acute or chronic diarrhea. Acute diarrhea is the rapid onset of frequent extricating watery stools; whereas, the chronic type is characterized by a type of diarrhea, which has been faced by the kitten for more than three weeks.
Also, kittens are at a bigger risk of gathering diarrhea-causing parasites like coccidiosis or other infections due to their fragile internal systems and underdeveloped gastrointestinal systems than most full grown cats.
Wide-Ranging Symptoms Of Diarrhea
Although you might believe that you know all diarrhea signs on a cat, in reality, they can be pretty diverse, according to the age of the cat. In general, the watery and frequent expulsion of loose stool is a classic sign of your kitten having diarrhea.
However, poop straining is commonly confused with constipation as well. Hence, it is important to know about diarrhea symptoms before attempting to treat your kitty. To name a few, the symptoms of diarrhea that your kitty might be facing are:
In serious stages of diarrhea, your kitten’s poop may be accompanied by black or bloody stools, indicating internal bleeding. In such a case, visit the vet instantly.
Why Does My Kitten Have Diarrhea?
Typically your kitten can experience diarrhea from either a dietary or parasitic problem. It is important that you know why your little kitten is facing such a helpless ailment so that you can take appropriate measures to prevent it the next time.
Kitten Diarrhea Home Remedies
Before running to the vet to get a proper check-up, you can opt to use some simple and popular home remedies used by most pet owners. Some of these are as follows:
1. Slippery Elm Barks
These are natural herbs, which have been popularly used for many centuries for soothing digestive tracts. This can be found in vitamin and health food shops in powder form and capsules. To treat your little pet’s diarrhea problem, you must mix a spoonful of the powder or one full capsule powder with some water and blend in into your kitten’s solid or wet foods. This is a very effective treatment to be taken every day, even though an improvement in the stool quality will be visible in a single day.
2. Changing The Diet
If you find any fillers and grains, such as corn, rice, and wheat gluten, you can slowly try to change your kitten’s diet for a week to non-grain food items. In the initial period, you can feed your kitten with around 90% of the previous food items, mixed with 10% of the newly prepared grain-less food products. You can gradually boost the grain-free food items over the previous food ratio by the next five to seven days. This transition should not be abrupt, as your kitty’s digestive system will require time to get used to the new food and changing your kitten’s food items too quickly can sometimes be the main reason for diarrhea.
Kittens are carnivorous beings. Hence their bodies are not prepared to process the grains, which are added as low-costing fillers by a number of pet foodstuff companies at present. This is what causes problems in most cats leading to Irritable Bowel Disease. You can find the best cat food for diarrhea here for more information.
3. Probiotics
Probiotics is also another solution for kittens having diarrhea. This infuses useful bacteria into their digestive tract. You can use human probiotics as they hold more than one single bacteria strain. You are required to blend in half a capsule into your kitten’s food bowl two times a day or mix it with canned kitten food juices and feed the solution using a syringe. While doing this, it is essential to remember not to blend it with tuna juice or milk, unless the milk is specially made for cats.
4. Yogurt
This is an additional technique to infuse further advantageous bacteria into your kitten’s digestive tract. You can use fat-free and plain yogurt in this case. A lot of cats are typically keen on the taste of yogurt. You can feed your kitten with a single or double spoonful dose every day.
If your kitten refuses to eat it, then you can try blending it properly into his or her food bowl. It is important that you use only plain and fat-free yogurt, which can also be flavored, so as to soothe their diarrhea discomforts.
5. Fiber
Fiber can be included in your kitten’s diet in case of diarrhea. You can use some unadulterated pumpkin fiber to their diet. Pumpkin fiber is a favorable treatment for treating your kitten’s diarrhea, which also assists in addressing their constipation. Your kitten may favor the taste, and you can supply a spoonful or two every day.
When Should I Bring My Kitten To The Veterinarian?
Diarrhea in a kitten can be either a very minor over lapse or a significantly major issue. If your precious kitten still seems to be exhibiting the same and prior symptoms as before, you might need to consider professional advice.
You will need to watch your kitten for twenty-four hours, to see if conditions are persisting, along with other symptoms like lethargy, loss of appetite, consumption of a toxin, or sign of blood in the stool. If you witness such a state in your precious little kitten, you should take urgent action.
Your fragile kitten can be at severe life-threatening risk through further symptoms of diarrhea, such as electrolyte depletion and dehydration. In such a case, you must seek out and visit a veterinarian for immediate attention. You can bring a poop sample as well, if possible for further tests.
Conclusion
These are the quick ways to address your kitten’s diarrhea issues. Through these steps, you would have hopefully found the right solutions and remedies to your questions. You can consult with a vet in case your kitten gets worse from it. If you have any more doubts, you can refer to this useful cat video.
These are good references. I hope that these will certainly help you in your mission to save your furry friend suffering from diarrhea.
If you have any more questions and doubts to ask from us, please do not hesitate to add your comments and views on kitten diarrhea in our valued comment section. We hope to hear from you soon!
