Several days of loose stools move a cat beyond a wait-and-see moment, and the appointment goes better when you arrive with evidence the vet can work from straight away. Memory blurs quickly once worry sets in: owners forget the new treats from last week, the house guest who fed scraps, or the exact night the litter tray changed. A written account gathered at home, plus a sample, lets the vet spend the visit examining your cat and deciding next steps rather than reconstructing a timeline.
A Fresh Sample and a Clear Timeline
Collect a fresh stool sample as close to the appointment as you can manage, place it in a clean, sealed, labelled container, and keep it cool until you leave. Note when her stools were last fully normal, how many loose stools she passes each day, whether night-time accidents happen, and whether urgency or straining comes with them. Describe what you see in plain words: colour, consistency, mucus, visible blood, or anything that looks like undigested food. If more than one cat uses the tray, say how you know the sample and the problem belong to her, or tell the vet honestly that you cannot be certain, because that uncertainty itself shapes testing.
Diet, Treats, and Recent Changes to Report
List everything she eats, not only her main food: treats, dental chews she receives, milk or table scraps, a housemate's different diet she can reach, and any food belonging to another pet in the home. Add recent changes with dates, including a new bag of a familiar food, a flavour swap, scavenging from bins, hunting, houseplants she may chew, and any cleaning product change around feeding areas. Report medicines and supplements exactly as recorded, including anything given for another reason in recent weeks. Mention household disruption too, such as visitors, building work, a new pet, or a move, and whether anyone else at home, human or animal, has had an upset stomach.
Appetite, Water, and the Whole Cat Picture
Tell the vet how her appetite compares with her normal pattern, meal by meal if you can, and whether she asks for food then leaves it. Describe drinking as you observe it, including trips to the bowl, taps, or outdoor water, and whether urination seems changed alongside the stools. Report vomiting, retching, drooling, or lip licking, even once, with timing beside the loose stools. Note energy, hiding, grooming, play, and vocal behaviour, plus any weight change you have felt through her ribs or seen in photographs. Say who else shares her tray, bowls, and sleeping areas, because shared living helps the vet judge whether a cause could affect more than one animal.
Flags That Change How Urgently You Are Seen
When you phone, say plainly if you have seen blood in the stool, repeated vomiting alongside it, marked lethargy, refusal of food, signs of pain, or a cat who is becoming weak or wobbly. Say at once if the patient is very young or elderly, or carries an existing condition or regular medicine, because the same symptom carries different weight in those patients. Mention straining that produces little, a swollen or tender belly as far as you can tell, or stools that have turned black. None of this is a diagnosis from you; it is routing information that lets the practice decide how quickly she must be seen and what to prepare.
Questions to Ask Before You Leave
Ask what the sample will be tested for, when results will reach you, and what change at home should make you call sooner than a planned recheck. Ask what to monitor and record over the coming days, in what detail, and whether the vet wants photographs of the tray or a stool diary kept. Ask whether other cats in the home need any attention or testing, based on what was found. Write the answers into the same timeline you brought, stored in the Pet Passport notes within KinsLe, so the next call or visit starts from a complete record rather than a fresh retelling.