Soft Stools

Question
My girlfriend has had two cats for about 6 months.  They are both 8-10 months old.  They are your typical tabbies one w/ white splotches.  They have both had all of their shots and all those good things.  One of them has constant borderline diarrhea and never covers up her doings in the box.  So when Shannon gets home her house always smells of a fresh one.  What can she do to rectify this before taking her cat to the vet?  What usually causes syptoms like these?  Help!

Answer
its probably nothing at all to go to the vet about. cats, just like us, all have different bowel movement types and schedules. first she should be thankful that the cat is doing it in the box and not on a rug or something. really about the only thing she can do to prevent the odor is to use a "stick up" air freshner on the outside of the litter box, or move the box to a place in the home where the odor wont spread so easily.  if she actually can catch the cat in the box, she could try to teach the cat to cover it up by using the cats paw to cover it up afterwards, but she would have to be watching and catch the cat in the act of pooping.

the very loose stool could be caused by too much can cat food. if she is feeding them canned food daily, she should try feeding it every other day and using only dry food on the off days. this might help.