runny cat poo

Orla K

I picked up the cat from an animal shelter. I brought her to the vet for a check on the way home and she's underweight and her skin is dry making her fur in poor condition.

I've fed her royal canin young female food with some oil mixed in for her skin/fur. I also found out she just won't drink water, she loves milk.

I'm just wondering would it be the change in diet that's causing this or something else and if it's the diet will she get more used to it?

The Sweeper

No milk. Cut that out immediately. Lots and lots of cat are lactose intolerant and milk will just run straight through. I'd even steer away from cat-friendly milks.

Leave the oil out of her food - it has a laxative effect and it won't boost her coat condition the way you think it might when she's underweight.

Initially, I'd use the royal canin young female dry food, and alternate that with a wet meal every day - for wet food, use a good quality wet brand with recognisable ingredients - by that I mean when you open the tin you can see that it's chicken, for instance - and a high protein content. While trying to feed her up, you can feed her kitten foods (higher in calorie) but the best thing will be to feed her different things so she doesn't get hell bent on one thing only.

If I had her here in that condition and was trying to feed her up, this is precisely what I'd do:

Put two or three bowls of fresh water around the house. Locate them in quiet places where the cat will be happy to drink from them. Don't locate any of them too near a litter tray. Stop the milk completely - don't even go for a lactose-free milk, because her condition is too poor to risk it running straight through her.

Breakfast, I'd put down a half serving of kibble and a small tin of wet food - something with a high protein content, little or no fish in it if you can help it. (Fish is highly appealing to cats because of its heavy odour - but they can get a taste for fish to the exclusion of all other foods, which is a bad habit.)

I'd head to the butchers or supermarket and buy whatever fresh meat is on the cheap. Skirt beef steak, cheap neck of lamb, anything with good fat on it. Sometimes (and it's extra convenient) the pre-chopped stir fry packs are on special. Also lamb hearts or ox hearts are excellent. Supper would be the other half of the kibble serving and a side of fresh meat.

The only supplementing I would do is with a tub of taurine - you can buy this vital amino acid as a white powder in health food stores and sprinkle a pinch on the cat's raw meat. That'll help her along a lot more than other supplements.

If the cat comes looking for food during the day, give her a couple of cubes of meat until the next meal time. Try not to free feed kibble all day - it's a bad habit and in an underweight cat, free feeding can encourage obesity - she'll go through her target weight and out the other side if there's a 24x7 kibble buffet on offer.

As weight goes on and her condition improves, see if you can get something like a minced raw chicken carcass from your butcher (they take the breasts and legs off the chicken, and put the carcass and wings through the mincer. The resulting mush is very good for cats, with an excellent balance of calcium and phosphorous from the bones - I wouldn't feed it seven days a week, so it needs to go in the freezer, but two nights a week, even with a cube or two of other meat on the side, seems to be a very good balance.)

Her coat condition will improve as her general wellbeing improves, but let her get back on her (three?) feet through a solid, nutritious diet rather than trying to supplement her into a better appearance.

Orla K

Thanks, I had a feeling that the oil and milk weren't helping. Also no fear of her eating fish, she doesn't like it, she put a bit in her mouth and spat it out again.

Also she'll be healthy in no time even in a day she's gotten better and it happily asleep on top of me now.

I'm going to see can I get the minced chicken carcus today.

The Sweeper

If you have trouble finding it, try to persuade your local butcher to do it for you as a favour. About a tablespoon of the resulting mush is enough as part of a meal two or three times a week, so with just one cat a single minced carcass can last a long time.

The close-to-use-by fresh meats are an excellent supplement - and they work out cheaper than commercial food. Raw and supplemented taurine = shiny coat, clear eyes, good energy and far less offensive litter trays.

Have you picked a name out yet?

Orla K

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

If you have trouble finding it, try to persuade your local butcher to do it for you as a favour. About a tablespoon of the resulting mush is enough as part of a meal two or three times a week, so with just one cat a single minced carcass can last a long time.

The close-to-use-by fresh meats are an excellent supplement - and they work out cheaper than commercial food. Raw and supplemented taurine = shiny coat, clear eyes, good energy and far less offensive litter trays.

Have you picked a name out yet?

My granny go's to a butcher to get chicken breasts for her cat, he knows me and will probably do it for me.

I haven't picked out a name, my brother and his girlfriend were thinking of names last night so I've loads of possibilities, I might put it to a vote.