Why are my multiple cats having diarrhea and how to treat it?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! It sounds like an intestinal parasite. In a close area it is easy for parasites to spread, especially if the cats use the same area to go potty. I would recommend taking 1-2 cats to the vet and bring fresh poop samples so they can look with a microscope. If none are found, they may need to send the sample to a lab to look for a more rare parasite called tritrichomonas. This is usually found in a larger cat group and can come and go but it isn’t as common. Once a diagnosis is made, they may be able to get medications to get the cats treated. I would also clean up stool as often as you can to decrease spreading and clean littler boxes with soap and water daily. Good luck!

I would recommend to try switching them to just a plain boiled chicken diet for a few days to see if this settles their stomach and add in some probiotics. I believe you can buy proviable paste online and give as directed. My concern though is that they may have a parasite or bacteria that they aren't finding in their fecal samples. If they aren't improving, contact your vet to see if you can either bring in just a fecal sample or deworm both of the prophylactically. I hope this helps!

If these cats have not been on long-term medication like probiotics and metronidazole, I would start these. Also, all cats might benefit from a food-allergy diet trial like Hills z/d fed exclusively for 8-10 weeks. This helps to rule out food allergies as a cause for chronic diarrhea. If these things don't work, you may have to actually send out fecal tests for culture and sensitivity to have done at an outside laboratory as most vet clinics are only equipped to do basic parasite fecal floats and smears in-house. Your female who is having behavior issues may benefit from anti-anxiety medications like Zylkene or Lorazepam, or even an anti-depressant. Since all three are young cats, it's most likely that they are sharing a parasitic or other intestinal infection that is causing chronic diarrhea, so I think you are on the right tract to continue to monitor for coccidiosis and giardiasis. They may need much longer-term treatment to clear these kinds of infection. Hope that helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Diarrhea can be observed with conditions such as colitis, gastroenteritis, dietary indiscretion, intestinal parasites, among many other possibilities. They probably got it from the mother. I recommend that you have them evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. They may choose to check for parasites and to start medications for diarrhea depending on the results. Good luck! Hoping for a speedy recovery!

Sounds like the first thing I would do is try and deworm all these kitties, as this could very well be the reason for their diarrhea / general GI issues. There are many different oral dewormer products, some of which are pills while others are liquids. If you can't touch them but you are confident that you can feed each one individually (without another cat snagging food), you can sneak Drontal tablets into each of the cat's daily feeding in some wet food. The dose may be slightly different depending on weight - the product is over the counter with the doses written on the back of the bottle. Unfortunately, if this is the not the case and you can't be sure who is getting what, there really is no safe / fool proof way to treat this sort of thing. There are liquid products but you won't be sure if they got it all, or if they will take it at all because of the taste of the product. My suggestion would be to put out humane traps, catch them one by one, and deworm them this way. This would also give you the opportunity to get them to a low - cost spay / neuter facility to be fixed if that is an option. Hope this makes sense.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your new kittens. They are having trouble using the litterbox due to the diarrhea they are experiencing. Diarrhea is usually accompanied by urgency and an increased frequency of defecation. This makes it difficult for young kittens to make it to the box in time. They will need to see their veterinarian and have fecal testing performed. From there medication can be prescribed. Once the diarrhea is resolved, I suspect they will use their box again. I hope this information helps you!

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.