Both of my cats have had diarrhea for about 4 days now, what could be wrong?
I gave them a packet of wet food on Friday, and ever since they have both had diarrhea… Is it from the food, or could have my cats caught some sort of cold? They are both indoor cats…
And don’t worry, I will take them to the vet if the problem continues.. I’m very surprised this hasn’t cleared up.
Thanks
Can someone suggest a good wet food? The wet food I gave them on Friday was just some cheap friskys stuff that my little sister bought for them.
Also, they are still acting very normal… running around and playing as usual.. drinking water, eating, etc.
I am pretty sure that it is the food that you gave them. Try not to ever give it to them again, and take them to the vet because they will probably give you some medicine for them. My cats don’t have diarrhea, but they constantly throw up ALL OVER my house! My vet says that it is because they eat to much too quickly. Maybe it could be the same case with your cat? Don’t feed them the food again and make sure that no other symptoms start, because they could be signs that your cats are seriously sick. The reason that I don’t know if it is a cold is because they both got it and it sounds like they both got the food, so that led me to believe that was the food. Hope this helped! Good luck with your cats!
(Oh and a great wet food that my cats like is Fancy Feast)
Hi
You should always be feeding wet food. Dry is just not good.
Fo diarrhea, get some acidoupholous and sprinkle it on the food each day. It is a probiotic
More on nutrition
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrediant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?
http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Read_a_Pet_Food_Ingredient_Label
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/InterpretingLabels.htm
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms
The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in
Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_Just_Fine_on_Dry_Food
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPOODUCTS NO MEAL
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bpo_ch4a.php
Please read about cat nutrition.
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall
Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Vets.htm
If it was a food you never fed them before, yes, it could cause the diarrhea. Food changes should be made gradually.
I would refrain from feeding that brand again as it obviously upsets the kitty’s stomachs.
If they are otherwise acting normal, activity level hasn’t changed and they still have an appetite (sick cats typically don’t feel like eating) then they probably just couldn’t handle the food change.
You can check to see if they are dehydrated by "tenting" (pulling up slightly at the scruff) the skin between their shoulderblades. If it stays up and doesn’t bounce back they are dehydrated and need more fluids than just drinking water can replenish. A trip to the vet is needed.
But since that was on Friday and now it’s Tuesday, that food should have worked its way out of their system by now. Go back to their normal dry food (or whatever they were eating before), offer fresh water and give the vet a call or visit (especially if they are dehydrated). They may know if a pet food had been recalled.
Is this a different wet food than they have had before?
If new wet food – very possible. Even if regular wet food, allergies can develop over time. Have your vet check for undigested food as well as intestinal parasites in their poop.
Fish is #1 allergen in cats.
It’s the bad quality wet food your sister bought for them. Try Sheba wet food, my cats love it and they are perfectly healthy.
Diarrhea in cats could be caused by a number of things, did you notice if it has any traces of blood or mucus in? If so I would advise you to take them to the vets asap, especially as it has been around 4 days now.
But they could have worms or other parasites, or the diet change could have irritated the intestines. It could be much more serious such a liver disease but I very much doubt that. Please just take notice of what the diarrhea looks like and contact your vet asap.
I’m sure it is just a simple problem such as diet change.
It’s hard to say what wet food is good for cats, it is best to read the ingredients before buying, never buy cat food which says it has vegetable protein in, products such as sheba, kitty kat, and whiskas can be good, just read the ingredients first. Never buy cheap food, as that may have been what caused the problem. Cheap food does not provide the right nutrients that cats need.
Hope they both end up ok, hope this helps x
It has been a few days now so I hope the problem has cleared up. You have already had some great suggestions of which I would like to add too. The first person that answered has some great advice. Learn how to read labels on pet foods. Never purchase any that has corn, wheat, wheat gluten, by-products, preservatives, dyes and colorings. The first five ingredients on a label usually is the majority of what is in the food. Most of the pet foods that you purchase over-the-counter is manufactured by big corporations that have many different business and they have added pet foods because they can make a lot of money and at the same time get rid of a lot of the food by-products left over from their other food product lines. You can get quite of an education when you start a study in what is really in your pet foods.
Another thing that you should always remember when introducing a new food to any animal you need to do it gradually over a course of 7 to 10 days. This gives your pet’s digestive system time to adjust to the new food. The formulas between pet foods are so different that it can cause a lot of side effects like the diarrhea. Too much corn and wheat is very hard for our pets to handle. It puts a lot of stress on their internal organs because it is so hard to digest. Another person mentioned that her cat was throwing up all over the house and the vet told her it was because her cat was eating too fast. One of the reasons animals eat so fast is they get so hungry. The foods with all of the grains in them leave the animal hungry even though they are full. Imagine just feeding your kids crackers day in and day out. Foods need to be nutrient dense and that fills your pet up with a protein source from meats not grains so they are no longer hungry. When they get such a food they will adapt to it and no longer gobble their food down because they will not be so hungry when it is time to eat again.
One of the other people that answered has the belief that dry food should never be fed to cats. I would agree that the majority of dry cat foods have less nutrient value than the bag that they are packaged in, however, there are a hand full of companies that make a quality dry cat food. I am a field rep for such a company that you may want to do some research into. Our food formulator is a well known holistic veternarian who once served on the professional board of Cornell Feline Health Center. She formulates all of our dry cat food and wet cat food to work together to give the complete nutrition that your cat needs complete with a blend of vitamins, minerals and an antioxidant system for both kittens and adult cats. You’ll never find any artificial flavors or colors, no corn or corn gluten or any wheat or wheat gluten in the foods.
There is a great 15 minute documentary on how the history of pet foods and how most pet foods are manufactured. It’s a real eye-opener and when you have seen it you have the knowledge to look at a pet food label and have a much better idea what is really in that food and whether you want to feed it to your companion animal. You can find it at http://www.premiumdogncatfood.com