My cat has explosive diarrhea for days. When should I see a vet?

Stopping the diarrhea usually requires stopping the cause of the diarrhea. In a young cat, it is often an infection that causes them to stop eating/drinking with diarrhea. However, this can happen with other illnesses or poisoning. Diarrhea is actually beneficial with infections, because it's the body's way of getting rid of the toxin/disease. And, most diarrhea resolves on its own within three days. The concerning thing with Samantha's case is that she could quickly become dehydrated if she is not drinking and continues having diarrhea. If this continues for more than a day, then she will need to go to the vet for an evaluation and treatment to keep this from being a serious problem. Other criteria for going to the vet are as follows: 1) Blood in diarrhea 2) Very watery diarrhea 3) She starts acting very depressed 4) Diarrhea lasts longer than three days You can help her get through this by feeding bland food (boneless chicken and tuna is good). Feed small portions (1 Tbsp or less) three times a day. Ensure fresh, clean water is always available. I hope this helps and Samantha gets better soon.

Diarrhea and a decrease in appetite could be a sign of a number of different problems. Intestinal parasites are possible, even for indoor cats, as are some infections or diseases like colitis or inflammatory bowel disease. If the diarrhea continues for more than 24 hours or seems to be getting worse, or if her appetite does not improve during that time I'd recommend seeing your veterinarian. They may treat her symptoms or recommend some testing like blood work or a fecal analysis depending on what they find during a physical examination.

You could certainly monitor Salem for a day or so to see if the diarrhea continues. If the diarrhea lasts more than 2 days, if it is very watery or frequent, if you see blood, or if Salem vomits I would recommend seeing your veterinarian.

I would recommend you take your cat to the vet on Monday. They can do a fecal examination to rule out intestinal parasites and possibly an X-ray to rule out a blockage/foreign body. Your vet can also give you some medication to help stop the diarrhea. If the diarrhea becomes bloody and/or your cat starts vomiting as well then I would recommend getting him in to an ER vet to make sure nothing too serious is going on.

Poor Kila! The diarrhea could be due to many conditions including eating something she shouldn’t have, bacterial over growth, parasites or even organ disease. If the diarrhea has continued beyond 24 hours, I recommend to have her examined by the veterinarian. With continued diarrhea, there are often bacterial shifts in the gut that will make matters worse regardless of the initial cause. Make sure to bring in a sample of fresh stool. The doctor will check her for parasites and bacterial over growth. Many times a bland diet can help and then a slow, gradual introduction to the normal food can be done. A bland diet can consist of 25% boiled white meat chicken and 75% boiled white rice. This should all be plain. This link also has good information: https://www.petcoach.co/article/diarrhea-in-cats/ I hope your kitty starts feeling better quickly! Please feel free to post any additional questions.

Diarrhea for 2 days does warrant a vet visit since it is not clearing up. They can check her stool sample for parasites or bacteria and make sure an ultrasound is not needed and she is not getting dehydrated from having it so much.

Poor Shadow! I am sorry to hear that he is not feeling well. Until you can get Shadow to the vet (which I definitely recommend) you can with hold food for 12- 24hrs, then offer a bland diet of plain boiled chicken and rice (he may only be interested in the chicken) for about 1 - 2 days. After which you can reintroduce his regular diet. You also want to make sure that both litter boxes are extra clean. Sometimes in multi-cat households one cat decides that he/she no longer is ok using a "used" litter box (cats are wonderful, but have odd behaviors sometimes). It may be worth just keeping them separate so that Shadow has his own personal kitty bathroom until he sees the vet. As I stated earlier, I definitely recommend having Shadow seen by a vet as soon as possible because chronic diarrhea results in dehydration, which in a very small, young kitten we want to address sooner rather than later to prevent progressive potentially severe illness. I hope that this was helpful for you and that Shadow starts to feel better soon!