Discover why your cat is suffering from diarrhea and how to help them.
Urgh! while we do not often enjoy talking about cat diarrhea, it can be a common issue with which pet owners have to deal. Sadly, diarrhea can be indicative of a range of problems and illness in your cat that need to be resolved for their safety and wellbeing. Keep reading to find out more about this in the post below.
Causes - Diet
Many things in your cat's diet may be causing diarrhea. The first of these can be poor quality food. Notably, many cat foods contain all sorts of things you would never know to feed your fur baby. Many of which can cause digestive upset.
If you have recently changed to a lower quality brand and your cat is experiencing diarrhea, it can be a smart idea to switch back.
Another diet-related cause for diarrhea in kittens and cats are allergies. One of the leading causes of allergies in cats is when you feed them the same food day after day. With that in mind, swapping the foods, you give them can help stop allergies and the associated diarrhea occurring.
There are also some specific food types such as milk and dairy, to which cats tend to be naturally allergic. Yes, they may well meow for milk and seem as if they enjoy it while lapping it up, but cats and kittens cannot digest cow's milk, and therefore owners should not give it to them if they are looking to avoid an incidence of diarrhea.
Causes - Infection
Another cause of cat diarrhea is an infection, either bacterial or viral. The best course of action here is to see your vet and get them to treat your cat. The reason being that many infections will not clear up of their own accord and can be dangerous for your cat's health and wellbeing.
It is vital that with infections and any other type of cat diarrhea you never give your pets human medicines—the reason being that these can put them in even more danger.
Parasites
The thought of nasty crawlies living inside of your cat's GI system is gross, but this is often another reason for diarrhea.
The bad news is that parasites are not great for your cat at all. Often lowering their overall immunity, and possibly causing other nasty symptoms as well. Some cats can even transfer their parasites to their owners, so getting them treated fast is vital.
Causes - Disease
There are also several diseases of which diarrhea in cats can be a symptom. It’s essential to watch out for liver and kidney disease—the reason being that these can be indicative of a much more severe condition that could put your cat's life at risk.
Additionally, one of the symptoms of Addison's disease in cats is diarrhea, and it can also mean your cat has irritable bowel syndrome. All of which needs to be assessed and treated by your vet to prevent further deterioration.
Diarrhea Treatment
While it is pretty obvious if your cat has diarrhea or not, knowing the underlying cause is less so. That is why it's always best to speak to your vet and allows them to run a diagnosis.
Of course, if the cause turns out to be nothing serious, you can then go ahead and try some tactics like changing up your cat's diet, using cat-specific probiotics.