Hey everyone, Milla has a bit of a diarrhea problem yet she is pregnant

[Joe_Danger]

Sorry for coming with yet another concern guys but I don't have anywhere else to share this with.
On Sunday I noticed Milla having slightly soofter poop than normal and she went twice during the day in fairly short intervals, the second time it was more solid.

So guys as you may already know, Milla is pregnant, she concienved on October the 7th and so far her pregnancy has been going fine, she eats a lot more now, like A TON of food but is still active, playful, very alert and in general she is herself except the kittens are starting to weigh her down so she can't do all the climbing and such she normally does.

Now her stomach issues started on Sunday 15th of November.
The night between Sunday and Monday her soft stool turned into diarrhea and she went to the bathroom quite a few times by 3PM Monday when I took her to the vet with a sample of her poop which the vet turned down saying it would take 4 days for her to send the poop for analyses and get it back so she'd rather take immediate action.
She took Milla's temperature and gave her a full physical check up(for free) and there was absolutely nothing wrong, she gave her some pills which she said were 100% safe for her and the kittens and sure enough her poop was back to normal in no time at all. Throughout all this Milla's behavior didn't change in the slightest, she kept DEMANDING food...I mean come on I was playing Hagane on my SNES a super hard game and she up and pulled the power cord...the game does not save!

Throughout the week she was fine and of course ate like nuts as she should and would poop twice a day which for her is normal.

But today November 20th I noticed her poop in the morning at around 6:30AM was slightly softer, not by much mind you just shinier. I went to college(taking another year for an extra degree, grad school i guess) and when I came back around 1PM she pooped again which isn't too good considering she never does it in such short intervals and this time around there was some very soft stool accompanied by two normal ones. So I talked to my vet and she gave me some of the same pills before things start getting bad again. Now tonight at 7PM she went to the bathroom again, this time normal poop but it's her 3rd time today.

She's been on boiled chicken all week and her Royal Canin dry food but last night I had to open one of her old off brand foods because she really wanted the thing like crazy, she saw the packaging and went nuts and we were out of chicken. NORMALLY she has never had problems with change in food, especially foods she eats often, in fact she gets bored and won't eat food she is bored of, period, not even in combination with new food she is just going to pick out what she likes.

My vet says it's because her tummy isn't used to eating so much, but me being me I can't help but worry it might be something more serious.
Tho she doesn't show signs of anything and her behavior is her usual normal Milla behavior.

Sorry about my long posts
but I feel these things are best explained in great detail

thanks in advance

[Crewella]

I suspect that your vet is right, and this is just her system struggling to cope with the changes in her diet. Cats do get upset like that, and Milla's body is going through quite a lot of changes right now. You've covered the bases and done your best for her by getting her checked out, I would take a deep breath and stop worrying so much, though I know that's easier said than done sometimes!

[Joe_Danger]

Thanks
I'm not like super worried like I can get, but you know it's concerning especially since she is pregnant.
But hopefully it's nothing big like you said

[Lilith]

Hi Joe and congrats to Milla on her pregnancy

It does rather sound like a food thing, and I was once told that cats feeding kittens were prone to diarrohea (only seen that once and that was with my Emily, who was feral and pregnant) so I also wonder if it could be to do with hormonal changes (just a thought; I'm not an expert.) But, yeah, we all worry!

Do hope the problem slows down now, and all the best for a safe delivery and beautiful kittens - keep updating

[Joe_Danger]

Seems it's just a food thing indeed considering how active and hungry she is, there would have been other signs if it was something bad and there aren't thankfully.

I have one more question if that's ok
Is it normal for a pregnant cat to have slightly more pee/larger clumps of pee balls in her litterbox? I keep a close eye on the size of her pee clumps given...past experience...and noticed they were larger as of late, all my lady friends IRL say it's because that's how pregnant women work too, supposedly they pee more and more often when pregnant but what do I know about those things lol

She doesn't go more often, but her pee clumps are definitely larger indicating she does have more pee.
I'm sure it's normal but wanted to check with you guys just to be sure, after all I've never had a pregnant cat before.

Sorry if this is a dumb question

[Lilith]

No question is ever a dumb question

I've never monitored this with a pregnant cat's wee, and I've never been pregnant myself lol - but I reckon that would be the explanation. She's seven weeks now? (My maths is lousy) And there'll be less and less room in her belly...you'll be able to feel the kittens moving (but don't worry if there's uneven movement on both sides; you get lively ones and sleepy ones) but you imagine if you had a little thing or things inside you, playing football with your bladder

Again with all best wishes for her - she sounds to be doing very well - keep the news coming

[Joe_Danger]

Dunno what's going on but it appears her diarrhea won't go away, or rather it keeps coming back, but that doesn't seem to affect her in any way. The vet says there's nothing she can give her now while she is pregnant other than the pills she already gives her except she says this time since it's coming back we should keep giving her the pills for the duration of her pregnancy, I'm honestly not even sure if these pills are safe at this point since they're human pills but every vet I asked suggested those so there's that.

Hopefully it's not a bigger problem as nobody wants to do anything atm, nobody wants to do bloodwork or examine stool samples or even check if she has some issues with her pancreas or something all of which could be causes for this...or maybe it really is just the food but it's gone on for over a week now for it to be mere adjustment to eating more.

But other than he diarrhea she seems perfectly fine, not dehydrated or anything, her coat is nice and shiny, her eyes are fine, she is very alert, playful and all.

I don't know if they have the means to check what this could be or not, I'm sure they do but they refuse to so there's nothing I can do.

Edit: Also keeping her exclusively on dry food for the time being is difficult since she is used to eating both wet and dry food and can get very demanding and very loud when she doesn't have her way.
But that's not important, what is important is that we can't determine what this is, nobody wants to do bloodwork saying bloodwork wouldn't reveal anything about this.

[Joe_Danger]

Know what? Since she is perfectly fine otherwise I'll just let her take those pills that make her better and some pouder that's supposedly going to fix the flora in her stomach and go with that.
I don't really see anything wrong with her in general at all so I'm sure she will be fine

Edit: Wet food is off the menu, period
as soon as she gets some in her she needs to go, but dry food doesn't appear to affect her for now
She also took her pill last night at around 7PM and went through the night just fine, doing her thing, begging for food, knocking everything down from one of my shelves and eventually settling for dry food.
She went to the bathroom this morning at around 6:40AM and her poop was decent enough, but it always is after she takes this pill problem is a few days after its effects wear off but the vet said to keep taking it now for a while longer

Of course she is being difficult with the whole wet food thing but what can I do, she needs to stay off it for the time being.
She compensates by drinking lots of water anyways so it's fine in that regard

[Lilith]

Hi - I think you're doing the right thing - there are so many causes of diarrohea and now just isn't the time for any detective work into Milla's. She does sound very happy and healthy. I'm glad those pills are working, even in the short-term. But it's annoying - infuriating - about the diarrohea I agree.

If you'd rather keep her off wet food, you could always feed her some fish or chicken to make up for the loss. She will be a greedy girl at the moment, bless her.

There's one thing you could try, and that's yoghurt - the very thick pro-biotic kind. If her stomach's a bit upset with her increased intake, it could calm it down - otherwise it won't have an effect, but if she likes it, why not?

She's a fluffy girl isn't she? As she gets bigger, she's going to find washing under her tail more difficult, if not impossible. If she'll let you, eventually you may have to swab her with cottonwool and warm water, especially in view of the diarrohea, and, again if she'll let you, get some small round-ended scissors (In case she wriggles) and trim away the fur around the anal-genital region so that she can't get into a mess. I know it will spoil her appearance for a while, but it will make life easier for her, and you.

This is what we owners and breeders come down to - wiping cats' backsides! Lol!

Good luck!

[Joe_Danger]

Thanks
she loves her boiled chicken and loves fish
So yogurt is ok in this situation too? She loves it and has never had issues with it so that's good to know I can let her drink the right kind.

I really appreciate all the support I get on this forum
I know I sound a tad too distressed and panicky at times but it sure as scary seeing her go 5-6 times a day and having nothing but mush coming out of her.

Again thanks a lot

UPDATE: Milla goes absolutely CRAZY for the stomach flora rejuvenating/fixing pouder
she loves it a lot, mix it with some water and she gulps it down...I think that tells us that's what the issue was, if she wants it so much it probably means that's what she needed all along.

[Joe_Danger]

Her stool was fine all week, it even regained it's normal look and firmness, though she was still under the that pill which I'm genuinely not comfortable giving to her anymore as another vet said he wouldn't recommend it to a pregnant cat yet all other vets said it was ok so who knows.

Tonight she took her final dose and here we are back at square one it appears
it's 2:22AM now but around 1:40AM she went to the bathroom and had formed but very soft stool, something I haven't seen all week.

I'll see how this develops but I'm not happy about it as this was her 3rd going to poop in 24 hours and she went back to her normal twice in 24 hours with normal poop.
She hasn't had a taste of wet food all week and I plan on keeping it that way for the time being, she does eat boiled chicken tho but that wasn't a problem until now.

God I hope it's nothing serious don't think I'd be able to deal with it if it is tbh

edit: She went again at 7:12AM, very well formed but very soft poop once again
I suppose this is where I should just let it be
Less than 5 hours isn't normal for her, she usually goes twice a day in 10-12 hour intervals.
But less than 5 hours that aint right

The medicine she was taking I can't find anything on, I thought I did earlier, turns out I found the wrong med(and raged over it lol) but I just re-checked and I was way off.

We call the medicine Stepsocsasol here, I couldn't find anything on it, maybe I spell it wrong or it's called differently abroad.

[Lilith]

Hi Joe, sorry to hear she's becoming looser again.

I had a sort of brainwave and wondered if this med's name began with the medical term 'strep' - and found 'Streptoksazol', otherwise known as 'Antinal' among other brands, and 'Nifuroxide' basically.

It's a medicine used to treat diarrohea and although it says it's designed for animals too I can't find anything on google about it being used by vets. I confess I too would feel reluctant to use it without knowing more, especially for a very pregnant cat - unless anyone out there knows anything more about this stuff?

Personally I'd be inclined just to let things take their course and see if the diarrohea rights itself. You're doing all the right things, and it does seem as if the diarrohea has come on with the pregnancy and increased appetite; there isn't necessarily any sinister cause for it. But having said that I do realise how frustrating and worrying it is when a cat has chronic diarrohea like this. Every time they go near the tray your heart sinks.

I do wish I could offer better advice - perhaps someone else will be along in a while with better ideas.

In the meantime, all the very very best with her and keep updating

[Joe_Danger]

I'm just glad I got people to share this with both online and IRL who get me
She is totally fine and active so it's probably nothing but I can't help but worry especially since info on the drug is limited as you said.
I mean, if it was something she would've shown other signs by now like loss of apetite, lethargy, anything really but she seems perfectly fine, not dehydrated either.

Her nose IS a bit stuffy tho, even before we mated her it seemed she had developed a bit of an upper respiratory infection, a minor one, I asked the vet to treat it but she said it was nothing so she might have a bit of a cold maybe so this could also be the result of that, but she shows no signs other than her nose being more stuffed up than usual these past few days. Vet said no antibiotics while she is pregnant tho which I agree with.

tbh most of my real life friends think I'm an idiot for stressing over cats like this, but some people get it, my family especially gets it since they're all like me, we don't differentiate between human and pet lives in our family, that's the way I was brought up too so worrying about a cat the same way as you would about a person is perfectly normal to us...but some of my friends just don't seem to get it tbh
Glad I have people who do though

EDIT: She went around 3:40PM just after I posted this after eating some boiled chicken breast and her poop was smaller, somewhat softer but not too soft, generally it was fine
at 3:40PM it was a little over 8 hours since she last went so that's perfectly normal and acceptable though whether or not she softens up again we won't know until she goes again.

Sorry im documenting this stuff here but it's good to have clear documentation especially among people who understand this better than I do so we know what's up.

[Joe_Danger]

Today Milla pooped 4 times in I'd say 4 hour intervals and while the stool is nice and formed, slightly softer than it should be I guess, it comes right after she eats more but I can't tell if it's digested food or not, it looks like perfectly normal poop to me just softer and in much smaller amounts.

Nobody I know who had a pregnant cat seemed to have even paid attention to this stuff, nobody knows ANYTHING and that drives me nuts and makes me very angry at this point.
I know so many people who have cats and whose cats get pregnant all the time and they know jack ****

Unfortunately I'm not getting any info online on whether it's normal for a pregnant cat to go more often than not, vets are of absolutely no use as it turns out and tbh I didn't even want to get the cat pregnant in the first place but I've gone over that story a billion times by now.
I can't say I'm calm when I get no support from vets on this and I'm just shooting in the dark on the internet like an idiot and god knows i hate computers and the internet as is, so finding forum post after forum post of somewhat related issues and random people there responding or not responding isn't very enjoyable.

At this point I don't know if I should worry, if I should let it go and see what happens, it's been over 15 days since this whole ordeal started, I told the damn vet I wanted bloodwork done from the get go but she refused and so did other vets...at this point I wonder if they're even competent at reading bloodwork since they refuse to do it every time.

[Lilith]

Hi Joe - if her motions are formed then truly I wouldn't worry. Also hasn't she got only a week or so to go before the kittens arrive? At the moment she hasn't got much room in there, so even normal motions are going to appear more often. And it's better if they are on the soft side rather than her struggling with constipation.

I do know how you feel - I was lucky enough to be able to confide in two breeder friends when my first Siamese was pregnant for the first time but oh boy did I worry. About everything. So if you've no-one to talk to about this and no satisfactory answers, it does make the worries escalate.

Has Milla started to make a nest yet? They like newspapers; if you put paper into the box or cupboard where they're going to give birth they sometimes like to go in there and tear them up in the last couple of weeks of pregnancy. Mind you my first Siamese started labour in my bed! Lol!

I know it's easier said than done but hang on in there and do keep updating, and all the very best.

ps You are not an idiot

[Joe_Danger]

Thanks
She does that to paper anyways, paper and plastic are her favorite things to sleep on
but so far she hasn't displayed any nesting behavior, she seems more interested in her usual mischief than nesting tbh

EDIT: Well, thank god it seems her stool is back to normal
it's been normal for the past two days and she only goes two times a day with perfectly normal poop
hope it stays that way