My vet closes early on Fridays, and I figure this is probably normal but I wanted some reassurance. I’ve got one ex-feral cat who got neutered, dewormed, defleaed, tested, and vaccinated Wednesday. Last night and today he’s been making some seriously gross poop! The first one, last night, he missed the litter box (something he hasn’t done before or since) and I swear to god it must have been, like, ten percent of his total body weight. (He’s only six pounds five ounces.) It was, like, the size of pile you see from a pretty big dog, like a lab or something, and had essentially the consistency of soft serve ice cream. (It kind of made me want to go to Wendy’s to get a frostee, and I haven’t thought about those things in years.) Since then there’s been frequent ice-cream-squiggles in the litter box, maybe six of them today. This is much more than my other cats poop.
Am I right to just assume this is the result of getting dewormed, a change in food, and being moved into a stranger’s garage bathroom? I’m giving him plenty of water in the assumption that he needs it, and he’s been drinking quite a bit. I’m not sure if he’s drinking more than my “normal” cats, since they have a fountain and he has a bowl, but he’d drunk all of the water in his bowl last night. He’s as active as he normally is, no change in behavior. I’m assuming that if it’s actually an issue it can wait until tomorrow, when my vet has morning hours, or will resolve itself. Reassure me.
It’s from the worms in him, that were killed by the worming medicine. This often happens 24-48 hours later, if the cat was had a lot of worms. (The flea treatment & vaccinations are likely unrelated.)
It’s not life-threatening at all, just an indication that the treatment is working. Dehydration is the thing to worry about, but you seem to be watching for that. Keep lots of water available. If he drank the whole bowl dry, put down two bowls just to be sure. Then check with the vet tomorrow, but it’s probably fine.
How interesting. Exactly the same thing happened with my cat, when I got her. Apparently it was urgent for her, too–she did it on a white afghan. It’s the only time she hasn’t used the box.
goodness, your kitty has had a lot done to him in a pretty short space of time!
he’s probably going to be a little off kilter from all of that, but the worming thing is proceeding right on schedule. **t-bonham ** is correct in that more water than usual will be consumed in the next little while, so keep an eye on his supply.
when our radio station cat Peggy Lee [the station was in a tiny little farmhouse in the middle of a cornfield and we were overrun with mice one spring. it was so bad they were gnawing on the wiring inside the transmitter and/or getting their furry little asses fried almost daily by coming in contact with a high voltage connector. we did mouse traps, decon, etc. no luck. the day a mouse climbed up on my desk and croaked in front of me (death by decon) while i was doing a ***live * ** news read, i put my foot down and decreed that we needed a cat - or they’d be looking for a new news director/morning drive jock. we got Peggy that afternoon, and that was the end of the mouse problem.] was officially retired after several years of mouse duty, she went home to live with me.
by then, she was so wormy it took three doses to kill off the critters. the vet warned me to keep her corralled somewhere where any sudden need to defecate wouldn’t damage anything. oh boy, was that a good suggestion…
she spent a couple of days in the mud room each time she was wormed, and i did have to deworm my other two as a precaution anyway. ask your vet about that, depending on whether or not this worming dose does the critters in on the first try. i did finally, get them killed off, and she turned into a lovely, lazy housecat that lived to a ripe old age.
Couldn’t say - haven’t seen him. Only evidence of his passing, as it were. I was trying to introduce him by smell and he escaped into the house. The cats have gotten pretty used to him, and I see signs that he’s been around - gross watery poop in the poop box, bell noises (I took the bells off the other cats), a warm spot on my bed, etc. He seems to have forgotten how much he used to like me.
Mostly he stays under the recliner, which although we don’t sit in it usually is Not A Smart Place For A Cat To Be. (Himself actually once got a recliner for free and found out why when he had to peel the remains of what we assume was a cat from the underneath. He never understood why I’d never sit in it. “But it’s gone!”)
I grabbed him today and he sat in my lap for a good half hour getting his face scritched, but then he went back under the chair. Honestly, when I’m gone he could be playing poker with the other cats all day, hell if I know.
Heh. He’s been on my lap for THREE HOURS now - I moved him to the floor chair to play video games and he fell asleep for an hour. Moved him back to the couch to watch TV and he turned himself over so he could sleep while I rubbed his belly. Some wild damned animal this is. (The other cats are just watching.)
Argh, I am finding watery cat shit all over my house. (The more solid stuff is in the box - one assumes he can’t help it.) He’s going back to the vet tomorrow.
