# HELP: How often should kitty poop and appearance?



## whiteoleander (Jul 8, 2009)

Hello all...

I'm new, so if I am doing something incorrectly on here please forgive me.

Lately my husband and I are beside ourselves. One year ago we adopted an adorable cat we affectionately call Jaynebug. She is long furred, and we don't know anything about her pedigree. For about one year now she has navigated between solid stools to liquidy ones. At the beginning we were feeding her about a tablespoon of wet food twice a day, now I only do it once a day as for the past couple months she has been hit or miss for defecating on herself. I cringe everytime she uses the litter box...will she have poop running down her backside onto her foot?? 

She seems to poop twice a day usually, and it's in between liquid and solid. It's not diarrhea, but it definitely is not solid like the poop of other cats I've owned. And because she is long furred, she ends up getting it on her backside, lately everytime she poops. It's very stressful for us cleaning her off and for her. Of course I will be shaving her backside, but the more important matter is, is this really normal? Do cats poop this often and should it be this liquidy? I feed her Orijen dry food, which I know is some of the best pet foot out there, grain free, and very reputable. We feed her Fancy Feast for wet, so not a pet store brand, but at the same time we were told it was ok and that most wet food is acceptable, as it's more difficult to leech out important nutrients.

I would appreciate any thoughts you guys have!


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Welcome, and I love her name: Jaynebug. That just sounds so adorable! :luv 

I do not think her stools are normal at all. Normal, is formed stools. Because she cycles between liquidy diarrhea and more formed stools, I think her body is *trying* to be normal, but there is something causing the soft/loose stools.

First, I would take her to a groomer and have a "potty-patch" shaved at her backside. This clips the long hair around her potty-area very short and helps keep her and your home clean by removing the hair that could be in danger of getting messy in her loose poops. 
Next, I would take her to the vet to address the constant loose stools. Many vets may just say IBD (irritable bowel disease) without really looking for a cause to eliminate. 
Finally, food allergy and internal parasites are the two Big Red Flags I think of when I hear of loose stools. Canned food is actually better than dry, as it helps keep them hydrated and they usually have a higher percentage of protien than even the premium dry foods. I, and my cats, like Evo canned foods and I keep Innova dry available for them between wet-food meals...though there is much better information about foods and feeding in the health/nutrition forums. Raw is also another great thing to try.
For parasites, I would have your vet specifically look for Giardia, TriTrichonomas(sp?), T. Foetus (_I don't know if that is the same thing as the Tri-tricky one_) and Coccidia. Some of these are *very* difficult to detect with testing (blood/stool), but can sometimes be diagnosed/treated via symptoms the cat is expressing and the vet choosing the correct treatment solution.
Anyhow, best of luck for you and your Jaynebug.
Heidi =^..^=


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## Jack&Harley (Nov 2, 2008)

Has the cat eaten a non grain free, just wondering if perhaps the Orijen is just too rich? Very high protein foods some cats just don't do well on in a dry food.

Leslie


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## ~Siameseifuplz~ (May 6, 2007)

I agree with a vet visit to see if any illness is causing the loose stools. It may just be IBD, which doesn't tell you what is causing the problem it just tells you that the GI tract is inflamed. It is a condition that become more and more common. If it ends up being IBD (the bowels are inflamed and no one knows why) I would switch off the dry food (well I would do it anyways, IBD or not) and go to all wet or raw or half wet half raw. Don't let the vet trick you into feeding some special food for IBD cats, chances are it's a low quality food since vets don't know much about nutrition. Cats fed dry food (and many wet foods) are consuming very unnatural ingredients like potatoes, grains, vegetables and fruit. Chances are the inflammation is an allergic reaction of sorts to some of those unnatural things. For instance, in the Orijen there is *potato, sweet potato, dehydrated organic kelp, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, turnip greens, apples, cranberries, saskatoon berries, black currants, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile flowers, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary*. I don't even know what some of that is but for the most part it's all vegetable matter and some fruit. Cats don't need any of that and it may very well be irritating your cat's GI tract.

According to Elizabeth Hodgkins in her book "Your Cat" (which I highly recommend you read) she says that some low allergen, low carb wet foods (not fancy feast, chances are the foods you'd need to feed would be more expensive unfortunately) can help cats with IBD but these cats tend to be sensitive to processed foods in general and some cats need to go on a raw meat diet (if you are interested we can help you learn how to feed this, it is cheaper than all wet food) to return to normal. While cats can be treated with immuno-suppressive drugs and return to normal there are side effects with the medication that you don't have to worry about with a diet change to wet or raw.

I hope you can help your kitty out, cleaning watery poo off her butt must not be pleasant for you or her.


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## mrvmrvmrv (Jul 15, 2009)

To me, it definitely seems like diarrhea. The easiest way to relieve diarrhea in cats is to give them some boiled rice. It will sooth their stomach and stop diarrhea. Also, you can stop feeding her for 24 hours to give her stomach a break, and then start giving rice, maybe mixed with a little of her regular food. And of course, take her to the vet to exclude causes like parasites or disease. If it's just a sensitive stomach, a vet may prescribe cat probiotics (good stomach bacteria for cats). One of my cats has sensitive stomach and has had diarrhea sometimes, so now I'm regularly mixing a little bit of boiled rice in her food, and she is doing fine. Probiotics helped her temporarily, but I found rice is a better solution, since they are pretty expensive ($30 for a course of treatment that lasts about 2 weeks), and the effect lasts for a couple of months.


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

Heidi n Q said:


> I keep Innova dry available for them between wet-food meals...


I adopted my cat three weeks ago. When she came here she wouldn't eat the Innova dry. She wouldn't eat the wet food either. Licked all the juices off and pushed the solids to one side. I finally got her to eat some tuna (I know, bad, bad, bad.). I had some Whiskas dry that I had been feeding the now departed gay feral cat. She will eat that. I got some mechanically deboned ground chicken. Forget it. (I think the liver and kidney etc. get mixed in as it doesn't really lookl ike ground chicken.) I bought a small chunk of liver and tried to make wet cat food. "If I feel like it."

But back to the Innova. I suspect it's the turkey smell she rejects. It's probably not turkey breast meat and my wife always claimed that any other part of the turkey stank. Another cat that comes around for a handout (he has a good home) will eat the Innova, so it's OK with some cats.

I'm going to keep trying various things. Probably try some non-mechanical chicken and other canned wet foods. The only thing she wanats now is tuna, but she doesn't always get it. I mix home ground flaxseed in, and sometimes a little cooked carrot.

Her poop is good.


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## wEngelw (Jun 25, 2009)

I am not very knowledgeable about cats, and I'm sure other people on here can give better advice, but I'll share my story 'cuz I had a similar experience and maybe it can help. I adopted my cat about three months ago and she was pooping fine the first month. I was feeding her dry food all the time, with a little bit of wet as a treat. Then she started having runny stool intermittently. She would poop fine sometimes, but more often it would be runny. After reading more about cat nutrition, I decided to switch her to an all-wet diet. She has not had a single loose stool since she's been on a wet diet and she also drinks WAY less now. She barely touches her water now, whereas before she would go through a full bowl in a just day (I _thought_ that was weird. And what I read about dehydration from dry food confirmed my suspicions). Anyway, I don't know if switching to an all wet diet is what helped my cat get her poop back to normal, but it certainly seems that way to me. Good luck to your poor kitty, Hope she gets better soon! It's sooo sad when they suffer


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