Bad smelling cat poop! Help!

Hello! I am really worried about my cat... The last few months, she has been having horrendously bad smelling poop. When she goes in her litter box on the other side of the house, we can smell it within minutes and I can barely stand to go into the laundry room with her litterbox after it's been cleaned! What can be causing this? I don't want to take her to the vet for nothing (so expensive!) but if it could be something serious, i don't want to ignore it either. Has anyone had this problem? We have not changed her food or anything. If there are any vets or animal experts out there, is this something I should worry about? Thanks for reading my weird question. :)
Also, i've been getting a lot of great responses about wet food causing this... However, our kitty has NEVER had wet food. She only eats dry food and the stink started despite any changes in diet. Ideas? :(

Usually thats nothing to worry about. What kind of food do you feed? Ususally the fish flavored foods cuase stinky poop. i give my cats chicken flavored cat food. I will ask my vet about it today and get back to you though.

Do you feed your cat wet food? Wet food for some reason always causes a strong odor. I feed my cats Purina Indoor Cat formula it is a dry food and every now and again we get some strong smells but usually that is after one of my kids have left their food out and the cats get into it.

I have always heard it is caused from canned food. We only feed dry, Eukanuba Chicken, but once in a while my mom will bring some canned food over and then they get stinky!

Meghan

If your cat goes outside, (don't laugh) it could be because of crickets and/or lizards.

I had a cat that was fine until she started to eat lizards and crickets. Then, all bets were off!! Girl stunk to high heaven!!

Just a thought!

Hey. My kitty stinks up the whole house, too. He's strictly an indoor cat and so we started getting him the Purina Indoor Cat Formula. We also started to put a little bit of liquid chlorophyll in his water (which we got at a GNC). It really has seemed to help!
Good luck!

Loni,

I'm not sure if it's bad or not, but there are pet foods out there that you can get. They're usually called "Indoor Cat Formula" or something like that. We have three cats and at times they get pretty stinky,too. We bought that for them and it has helped immensely, if not perfectly.

I hope this idea helps and works. Good luck!

Kat

Worms and other parisites can cause awful smelling poop. Try giving your cat yogurt (a little at a time). Make sure the yogurt has "active cultures" on the container. If you want to get her checked, it probably will be costly. You can also try giving her wet canned cat food. Good luck!

Could it be that you have a heightened sense of smell because of your pregnancy? Also, if you are pregnant, you should not be changing the cat's litter box, that could 'cause damage to the fetus.

Hello Loni. I am a vet, and the anwer to your question depends on several things. If the cat is over 10 years old and has not been to the vet in the past 4-6 months or so, it would be a good idea to take her. If she is under 10 and she hasn't been in a year, you should take her. If she has any other symptoms such as decreased appetite, loss of energy, increased water drinking or urination, diarrhea, constipation, cough or vomiting, then you should definitely take her to your vet. If none of those, then you may gradually try switching her food over a period of about 1 week. Normally I would say canned foods are the best choice for cats, but with the food recall going on, I do not recommend that owners experiment with canned foods right now. A different diet may help significantly. Also, did you change your litter type? That could be an issue too, or she may need her anal sacs expressed.

even if you haven't changed your cat's dry food, the company may have changed the food's formula, and that may be causing the problem.

what kind of food are is the cat eating? cats are obligate carnivors, which means they don't digest plant sources very well (i.e. the rice, wheat, etc you find in a lot of cat foods because they're cheap) it may be beneficial to try a cat food like EVO or Solid Gold and see if that helps.

also, just as a alternate thing, is there any chance that the you're using the air conditioner now & you weren't a few months ago & the air by the litterbox is now being circulated around the house?

Has your cat been eating cheese or drinking milk? One of mine loves to eat it, but it is not good for the cats. Cats get diarrea from milk. Mine also sneaks people food, which causes the most horrendeous smelling poop. Try cat grass, you can get it at any pet store or walmart. You cat may just be stressed because it knows another "attention getter" is coming soon.

Have you ever heard of Flint River Ranch? They make the best cat and dog food. My 3 cats have been on it for years. No one knows I have cats till they see them. They emit a very minimal amount of odor when they deficate.
www.frrco.com

Hello I had the very same problem with my cat. He was diagnosed with diabetes last year. His poop started also having an absolutely foul smell. I thought that perhaps this was due to the diabetes. However, my cat has also suffered from chronic urinary tract infections (UTI's). I have since discovered that the foul fecal smell & UTI's are definitely linked. I know he has a UTI when I start smelling that horrible smell & the smell goes away once he is treated with antibiotics for his UTI. Might want to get vet to check for UTI in your cat. Also, I have recently found many sources that suggest that his UTI's & diabetes were both caused by feeding him dry food for most of his life. So you may want to look into that also. Take it from me, it is VERY expensive & a huge burden caring for a diabetic cat. Not to mention all that my poor cat, Mr Dre, has to go through. He can only eat, low carb, no grain canned food twice a day. Has to be fed at exactly the same time everyday. Can never go outside or eat any of my dogs food,etc. I have to give him injections twice a day of insulin that has to be refridgerated. Suffers from even more frequent UTI's as a result of the diabetes, and has also developed a sensitivity to the antibiotics used to treat the UTI causing him to vomit all over my bed many,many times. . . Take it from me, if you can avoid or lessen the chances of your cat developing diabetes, DO IT. I'm at the end of my rope and have spent hundreds of dollars just trying to keep him well. Not to mention it's like have a child. Can't go anywhere unless I bring him b/c he has to have these two injections twice a day & his diet has to be regulated sooo closely ! Sorry, just needed to vent. Good luck! :) it doesn't have to be expensive food either. I feed Dre 9 Lives, certain kinds of Friskies, or Feline Fancy. There are inexpensive kinds out there, but u need to learn how to read the carb content of the food. If your cat has a UTI, you really need to feed him low carb canned food only.

This came form pets people .com We ahve the same issue, I was researching it online.

I recently adopted a cat who was hand raised after being found abandoned. Her feces smell incredibly bad. Is there anything I can feed her or change in her diet to reduce the smell? She presently gets Friskies wet and dry food. I don't have the problem with 2 other cats. She has been checked for worms - check negative. (Gordon Archibald - New York)

Firstly, congratulations on rescuing this kitten and giving her a loving home. There are three main reasons for foul smelling feces in young kittens. Firstly, the food a cat is fed can be responsible for foul-smelling feces, and while some foods are more likely to have this result than others, this also depends on your individual cat's metabolism and history. However, food alone is unlikely to result in such a pungent smell. Parasitic worms are another common cause of bad smells and you were right to have this checked. The third possibility, and the one that most often results in the worst odors of all 3 causes, is the microscopic, spore-forming, single-celled parasite called coccidia. Coccidian parasites are relatively common residents of the intestinal tracts of animals, and actual infection of host animals often only occurs in young animals and after stress. This is why kittens can sometimes arrive at a new home seemingly perfectly healthy, only to develop diarrhea some days later.

While you have not mentioned whether your kitten is also suffering from diarrhea, I will assume that this is either the case, or that her stools are at least loose. Diarrhea is the primary sign of coccidiosis, and blood and mucous can follow in untreated cases. In advanced cases, animals can become lethargic, dehydrated and lose their appetite. For this reason, your kitten needs to receive a course of drugs such as sulfadimethoxine from your vet. Any drug your vet prescribes will not kill the organism but merely prevent it from reproducing - meaning that it might take some time for your kitten to return completely to normal (normally once she has developed a good level of natural immunity herself).

could have parasites.infection.lack enyzmes.change food.diabetes.

pancrease.liver.food not digesting.colon infection.bladder infection.toxins.