My new kitten has soft stools. Should I be concerned about her health?

The soft stools could be cause by trauma from the fall, a parasite, or an infection. The best thing would be to have a vet examine him to see if he has any injuries from the fall. If you can't get him to a vet and he is otherwise acting normal then you could deworm him with a broad spectrum dewormer, feed him a bland gastrointestinal diet, and add a probiotic to his food and see if that helps clear up the soft stools.

I would recommend that you take Storm to see a veterinarian. Common causes of diarrhea in a kitten are intestinal parasites like worms, coccidia, or Giardia. You can take a fresh (<12 hours old) stool sample with you so they can test it - called an intestinal parasite screening. If it is not parasites, other causes of diarrhea can be poor nutrition, food allergy, bacterial or viral infection, among a few others.

There is a possibility that she may have soft stool for the rest of her life, but not diarrhea. This will depend on where the piece of intestine was resected. This is usually no problem. As for diet, I would always recommend a good quality canned kitten food, and later as an adult, a good quality canned cat food. That is one sweet kitty. Thanks for taking such good care of her!

Antibiotics, diet change, and a new home causing stress can all cause loose stools, so it could be a combination of these things causing it, however I would schedule Gizmo's checkup anyway since that's always a good idea to do with any new pet, especially one that is already currently on medications. Your vet can rule out any other health issues, deworm in case of parasites, and help you get started on a vaccination plan or treatment plan for any other underlying issues.

Hello, thank you for your question about Ivy. It is possible that the changes in the stools you have noticed could be due to the frequent diet changes. Some cats/especially kittens are more sensitive to rapid changes in diets. You could try transitioning her to a bland diet for the next few days - this can include boiled chicken/hamburger and white rice. Some cats are more reluctant to eat this and if that is the case there are commercially available diets that are easy on the GI tract. I would recommend continuing to monitor the diarrhea for the next 24 hours. If it continues with no improvement it is possible that there may be something else going on. If it continues I would recommend contacting your veterinarian to discuss adding in an anti-diarrheal medication. Hope this helps, good luck!

She looks very sweet! Weigh her. This will help with finding out her age. Count 1 week per 3.5 oz of weight. This will give you a fairly close estimate of age. She may have worms (too young for tape worms), so you should worm her with a kitten wormer. The soft stool could be caused by worms or change of food. You are doing well by feeding wet kitten food. She will need vaccinations by the time she is around 8 weeks old. Thank you for taking her in...she is beautiiful.

Congratulations on your new kitten - she is adorable! Alley may have intestinal parasites, which are pretty common in cats living outside. It may have taken about 2 weeks for the symptoms to start as the parasites need to go through their life cycle to start causing problems. The diarrhea may also be caused by a bacterial or viral infection, but these are somewhat less likely. I recommend having her seen by a vet as soon as possible so that the appropriate treatment can be started. She will also need a good physical exam to make sure that she is otherwise healthy. I recommend that you wash your hands thoroughly with warm soapy water after handling Alley's litter, as some of these parasites can be transmitted to people.