Unveiling the Pungent Mystery: Why Cat Poop Smells So B

It's hard not to wonder, isn't it? A cat that's so cute, beautiful, and adorable can suddenly become less appealing. There are several reasons why your cat's stool might suddenly smell incredibly foul or remain persistently臭. These include changes in diet, highprotein foods, bacterial infections, parasitic diseases, the effects of medication or hormonal changes in your cat, issues with the digestive system, and anal gland infections.

Wishing to improve the smelly situation with your cat's stool? The very first step, and the most fundamental one, is for you, the cat parent, to identify the cause. Only then can you take targeted measures to improve the situation:

Diet Changes

Not all cats have an "iron stomach" that can digest anything without a hitch. If your cat sneakily eats things other than its designated food (like toilet paper or your snacks) when you're not looking, and it becomes sensitive to something specific, its stool might suddenly become very smelly. Assuming you can confirm that your cat has been eating things it shouldn't, consider the possibility that it's an allergic reaction to grains or highvitamin content in its food. If your cat's stool smells particularly bad just from eating cat food, you might want to switch to a grainfree formula and reduce vitamin supplements (like hairball remedies and nutritional supplements) in its daily diet.

HighProtein Foods

During conversations with veterinarians, I learned that a diet too high in protein can be difficult for cats to digest fully, leading to particularly smelly stool. Based on my own cat's experience, her stool doesn't smell at all when she eats homemade cooked bones (indicating she digests the protein completely), but her stool does smell when she eats a cat food with a label protein content of 32% – and it's even worse with 40% or more protein. This is just an observation from my own cat, who has a less than ideal gastrointestinal tract, so take it with a grain of salt.

Bacterial Infections

If your cat is allowed to forage for food outdoors or if you feed it raw meat without proper freezing, it could ingest meat contaminated with Salmonella or E. coli, leading to digestive discomfort, inflammation, and a sudden foul smell in its stool, as well as diarrhea.

Parasitic Diseases

As mentioned in previous educational articles, most parasitic infections can cause gastrointestinal discomfort in cats, leading to severe diarrhea and smelly stool. The feces of cats infected with parasites often smell quite unpleasant! Since broadspectrum dewormers have limited effectiveness, you might not know if they've killed the parasites infecting your cat (like coccidia, giardia, etc., which can't be killed by broadspectrum dewormers). To confirm which parasites are causing the infection, you should take your cat to the vet for a checkup. Coccidia, giardia, Tritrichomonas, and Toxoplasma can cause serious problems in animals, including smelly cats. However, antibiotics and targeted medications can usually treat the diseases caused by parasites, and treatment is most effective when diagnosed and treated appropriately.

Drug Reactions or Hormonal Changes

If your cat's stool becomes smelly after taking certain medications, painkillers and drugs that affect hormones can disrupt the chemical balance in your cat's body. Depending on the duration of the chemical change (whether it's a drug or hormonal reaction), your cat might suddenly have smelly stool, which usually disappears within two days after stopping the medication.

Digestive System Diseases

Cats with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) often experience diarrhea, and as cat parents, we all know that diarrhea can be incredibly smelly, especially when there's no one around to deal with it. However, not all diarrhea is due to IBD; it could also be a sign of a digestive issue. In most cases, diarrhea is transient, and cats with good constitutions can recover on their own, or it can be easily cured by changing the diet. However, in some cases, diarrhea can be a chronic disease that can be lifethreatening. Digestive problems in cats, aside from highprotein issues, are often related to poor digestion and absorption of starches and fats. Therefore, it's recommended to switch your cat to a cat food with lower fat content and fewer carbohydrates, or opt for主食罐头 or homemade meat (raw meat must be frozen to kill parasites, and cooked meat must be cooked to a temperature of at least 70°C to ensure safety).

Anal Gland Infections

Every mammal, including cats, has anal glands. Normally, when a cat defecates, its anal glands release a fragrant liquid. However, sometimes a cat might get hit and prevent the liquid from escaping, leading to a blockage. This is when you, the cat parent, need to manually express the anal glands to release the liquid. A blockage can lead to anal gland infections, making the smell of your cat's stool particularly unpleasant. Normal anal gland secretions are pale yellow and oily in appearance and texture. If there's an infection, the secretions become thick and pastelike, eventually becoming very thick, hard, and grainy. Swollen, painful, and red infected anal glands can be treated with antibiotics, but abscesses must be drained at the vet's office (selfadministered drainage without proper disinfection can lead to more problems).