Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:
My kitten is around 8-1/2 weeks old and recently he has been acting very strange. I got him from a “not so kitten loving” bloke a week and a half ago, and he claimed the kitten has been dewormed and de-flea’d already but need a little encouragement in using the litter tray. Two days after moving into the house with me and our other kitten, he started using the tray like a champ.
We feed both cats the same food at the same time, so we know when they need to do their business. Last week, the new kitten started having diarrhea so we went and got some worming tablets, which I put in his food. But whenever he smells the food (and presumably the tablet, too) he scratches around his bowl and tries to eat off the other kitten’s plate! Also, since he been having diarrhea he has begun having diarrhea in random places around the house — like under the table — instead of the litter tray.
Please help as I can see he is behaving abnormally, always dehydrated and refusing to eat anything! How do I get him to take the worming tablet?
~ Ruby
Siouxsie: Ruby, if your kitten is dehydrated, refusing to eat (whether or not this has anything to do with the worming tablet in the food) and having diarrhea, he really needs to go to the vet.
Thomas: There are a lot of things other than worms that can cause diarrhea in cats. Some of these are parasites like giardia, some are food intolerances, and some are illnesses that can be contagious to other cats — especially if those cats are sharing a litter tray.
Bella: I don’t know how it is where you live, but a lot of the dewormers sold at pet stores here in the U.S. really aren’t all that effective.
Siouxsie: Not only that, but almost all dewormers, from the vet or otherwise, are extremely bitter — and it’s no wonder your kitten doesn’t want to eat that tablet (or any of the food associated with it).
Thomas: Mama once gave me a pill in food. I knew it was there and I could smell that it tasted terrible, so I didn’t eat it. Mama realized the error of her ways pretty quickly, but I’ve refused to eat that flavor of cat food ever since.
Bella: Probably the reason the poor little guy is having accidents is that it’s really hard to stop diarrhea from coming out, and if a kitten can’t get to the litter tray right away, he’s going to go where he is.
Siouxsie: With two kittens, you really should have two, if not three, litter trays in different parts of the house. That will make it easy for kittens with small bladders and grumpy tummies to easily find an appropriate place to do their business.
Thomas: Having more than one litter tray also helps in the event that there’s a territorial dispute going on between the kittens. Territorial disputes can be focused on the litter tray because that’s a really important piece of real estate for cats.
Bella: If you have the litter trays in separate rooms, there’s no way a cat can be in two places at once to guard two litter boxes, which again, sets both kittens up for toileting success.
Siouxsie: So, Ruby, please take your new kitten to the vet, and bring a sample of his poop with you so they can check it for worms or other parasites. If your kitten does have worms, your vet may be able to give you a wormer that will be easy for you to give him without mixing it into his food. He or she will also be able to get the little guy rehydrated and make sure there’s nothing else wrong with him.
Thomas: And try feeding the kitten a different flavor of food, so he won’t refuse to eat just because he has bad memories of the worming pill.
Bella: Please don’t delay in getting that little guy to the vet because kittens get very sick, very quickly, if they don’t eat and have diarrhea.
Siouxsie: Please write back and let us know how things turned out.
Thomas: Oh, and don’t forget to have both of those kittens spayed or neutered as soon as they get old enough!
Bella: What about you other readers? How have you helped kittens who won’t eat? Share your tips in the comments.
JaneA Kelley is a punk rock cat mom and award-winning blogger. She is a regular columnist for Catster Magazine, and she and the Paws and Effect Gang share a home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
I adopted my two boys at four weeks of age and had to bottle feed at first. To get them onto solids, which they resisted very vocally, I had to warm the food in the nuker. Just a bit to bring out the gravy aroma and make it more appealing. They took to warm food very quickly and once on solids, refused milk and the bottle ever since. My two don’t like chicken or fish cat food, but will eat chicken and fish human food. That lady needs to take her baby to the vet, asap…
My rescue group recommends that we repeat deworming because one time doesn’t always get all the stages eradicated.. I learned the hard way how important this is – have had kittens with irreguar bowels for far longer than needed. I am no expert on shots and what other countries do but in my area there are shots kittens have to have including boosters and some of them prevent illnesses that could have diarrhea as part of the profile.. if you are worried about the expense – talk ot your vet – some have kitten packages that bundle all the kitten trips into a more affordable expense and some will let you do payments over time..
Before you can take him to a vet you might want to hydrate him by giving him syringes of water and possibly buy a jar of meat baby food that is moist and he will lick it up. He’s probably dehydrated because of the diahrrhea and really needs the fluid. Don’t put meds in the food. Animals are smart and can sense anything strong tasting. Kittens are risky at this age so do all you can go keep him going.
Definitely take kitty to the vet. a cat I adopted in the past was exhibiting distressing toilet behaviour. Turned out that he had a nasty worm that normally is found only in dogs or foxes. Luckily the vet was able to fix him and that was the end of that problem. My cats aren’t very good at taking tablets either. My method is to crush the tablet to powder, dig out a “plug” from a cube of cheese, insert the powdered tablet and replace the “plug.” I then wrap the cheese in mine and nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds and then feed it to the cat. I realise this may seem rather a lot of trouble to go to in order to get pill into cat but this method was suggested by my vet and it does work. Good luck with your kitty.
Call me paranoid, but had that been MY kitten, it would have been to the vet the second morning the tummy upset became apparent. When a real problem appears, I don’t want kitty to suffer 1 minute longer than necessary. -Jerry