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Hi, I’m Dr. Lauren! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my two adventurous cats, Pancake and Tiller.
Poop. All of us might shudder a bit when the subject arises. But touching it? it? Quantifying and qualifying it? That’s an entire different level of “eww” for lots of us.
But what if we reframed these negative connotations about poo, right into a positive?
This week’s article goals to supply just that insight, and show you only how your cat’s stool could be useful for indicating your cat’s health, happiness, and beyond. We regularly think long and hard about what goes into our cats: e.g. food- is it healthy, tasty, how often and the way much should we feed…but we frequently spend little to no time on what’s coming out of our cats. Yet it could possibly be equally necessary. Let’s change that.
We are inclined to concentrate on what cats eat, but not the opposite end of digestion.
Rethinking Cat Poop
So, what’s poop? Essentially, it’s what’s leftover from eating, that the body couldn’t digest, or desired to eliminate. In humans, poop is around 76% water, the frequency of defecation is predominantly determined by the ingestion and amount of fiber, and the common variety of stool productions is around 1.2 every day.1 Though published data is sparse, it’s likely fair to say that cats are similar. Moreover, identical to people, one study in cats found that there may be huge variation within the length of time it takes to digest food depending on the person.2 (Importantly, this same study found as a side note that dry pilling your cat, e.g., giving your cat a pill without food or water– led to three out of 17 cats having the pill stuck of their esophagus for over an hour!) But now, back to poop!
Poop also reflects the general health of the producer. Too firm, and there could also be dehydration. Too wet, and the body isn’t absorbing all of the water from the stool. (Note, this isn’t on account of an excess of water! I even have had many purchasers through the years that tell me they stop feeding their cat wet food because their cat’s stool was too soft, or their cat had diarrhea! Nope! The colon had a problem, and couldn’t absorb the water before the stool left the body. It wasn’t the quantity of water itself! And canned food is great for cats, so please don’t fall into that trap of considering canned food causes diarrhea by containing an excessive amount of water!)
Poop also reflects the quantity, type and distribution of bacteria living within the digestive tract, also known as the microbiome. This has grow to be a buzzword area of drugs in recent times, all the pieces from how the microbiome contributes to gut health, but in addition brain, kidney and heart health, in addition to the immune system. And recent data is continually forthcoming! As an example, a recent publication found that certain probiotic strains may significantly reduce skin allergies in certain cats. Feels like a giant deal? It’s. All of this is easy, easy, side-effect-free medicine that’s cost-effective, and secure. What’s not to like?
Pancake sprawling
What Is a Fecal Transplant?
Did you understand that in human and feline medicine we are able to use something called fecal transplants to assist with chronic diarrhea or other conditions? I’ve met many individuals who’ve spoken about their positive experiences with FMT: fecal microbiota transplants.
As a vet, I’ve had some amazing ends in my very own patients, including my first FMT patient that I’ll call Jesse, who was a 16-year-old Domestic Shorthair diabetic with a few years’ history of diarrhea. His owners were able to euthanize him after trying years of medicines aimed to enhance his stool, and his quality of life was poor, but a fecal transplant bought him almost an additional year- with normal stool appearing inside 24 hours of his transplant.
Principally, the method is comparable to blood donation—just involving a special organ. A donor cat (healthy and screened for fecal parasites) provides stool, which is then liquified and used to populate the recipient cat’s fecal tract, due to this fact transplanting healthy bacteria. It’s an amazingly easy, and yet effective, process. It’s not all the time curative for patients, but it could possibly be an excellent tool within the diarrhea arsenal. Medicine could be each functional and mind-aweing, at times! The gut, quite simply, is sort of simply powerful.
Pancake and Tiller at rest
Rules of Thumb for Cat Poop
So, where does this all leave us? Cleansing the litter box could also be a drag (or litter tray, for those so inclined), but the knowledge it could possibly provide is proverbial gold. Listed below are a number of rules of thumb, in terms of feline feces:
- Overall consistency needs to be pliable, but firm. Since all of us like food, using a Snickers bar analogy: you need to give you the chance to deform it, however the stool should still be firm. (Hopefully nobody is eating lunch or dessert while reading this!)
- Color: a lightweight to dark brown. Black can indicate digested blood. I’ve also had clients start recent foods that led to paint changes of their cat’s feces. A whitish color can mean an absence of pancreatic enzymes, though this is rare in cats.
- Smell: highly malodorous or smelly stool may indicate a problem, similar to microbiome upset. But all stool will smell to some extent- that’s normal!
- If using probiotics, use one advisable by your veterinarian. Many probiotics don’t meet label claims when tested, due to this fact using one that truly stands as much as scrutiny is significant. In a single study, only 2 of 25 tested probiotics actually matched product labelling. I personally are inclined to use Fortiflora to start out, as many cats just like the taste, and it’s easy to make use of, along with meeting label claims.
- Middening is the term for cats defecating inappropriately. In indoor cats, this implies outside the litter tray. It may well indicate communication about stress, and even dislike of the litter box or litter. Speak along with your vet, if this is going on. Middening mustn’t be confused with cats that go to the tray, but defecate over the sting, or miss the box.
- Size: Most feline feces is across the diameter of the common human finger. If it’s extremely thin, say pencil diameter, this may indicate a narrowing or stricture of the intestinal tract, and needs to be investigated. If it’s very large, it could possibly indicate intestinal motility issues, and must also be mentioned to your vet.
- Never be afraid to take photos of your cat’s stool if something doesn’t look right. Similarly, a video of them within the box can assist your vet to see and share any concerns you could have!
The old saying goes: it should all come out ultimately. On this instance of poop, definitely, that’s true. Health indicators, and gastrointestinal function, can all be assessed by what your cat leaves behind. Hopefully, this sheds some recent light on the every day cleansing of the box, and provides you something else to take into consideration in the course of the time you’re cleansing, making cleansing the box each functional, and thought-provoking!