Ginger tabby almost drowns himself in cow's milk. Diarrhea should follow.

Well, cats love cow's milk as it is fatty. And this little ginger tabby loves milk more than most cats as he almost drowns himself in it as he submerges his head in the stuff. He comes up for air with his head covered. I think he hasn't learned yet that cow's milk tastes nice but it isn't so nice for the digestive tract.

P.S. Maybe he is fishing around for something in the milk. I am unsure. I think this is about youthful exuberance in finding a food they love but not having experienced the downsides.

Back in the day, say around a hundred years ago and even more recent than that, hundreds of millions of cat owners thought that giving their domestic cat cow's milk was the thing to do. Not nowadays. These days we are more educated generally and in respect of the feline diet. Did I say that people are more educated nowadays than a hundred years ago? I am not sure that that is true but let's move on.

Certainly, the internet has educated hundreds of millions of people about cat welfare including their diet. We know that the large majority of domestic cats are lactose intolerant and therefore they are intolerant of cow's milk. This is because they lack the enzyme to break it down. It causes bloating and diarrhoea.

The same thing happens with people. Many humans are turning away from cow's milk which is the wise thing to do. I am one of those people. Cow's milk causes bloating for me. I use oat milk but there are many alternatives these days. You can buy specially prepared milk for cat but it is very expensive.

Other symptoms of lactose intolerance may include:

• tummy pain or discomfort.
• bloating.
• farting.
• diarrhoea or constipation.
• feeling sick or being sick.

The best solution is to give them water but ironically tap water sometimes doesn't taste very good for cats. That's why they tend to prefer rainwater in a paddle even if it is muddy compared to tap water in a bowl.

Tap water contains anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-parasite chemicals such as chloride. It cleans up the water but as domestic cats have very highly tuned senses including a great sense of smell, they don't like the smell of chlorine which they pick up but we don't.

Apparently if you leave it standing for a while it helps to allow the chlorine content to evaporate. I don't know if that is true but a good source told me that information.

Ginger tabby almost drowns himself in cow's milk. Diarrhea should follow. Screenshot.

Reason why domestic cats are lactose intolerant

There comes a time when a mother of kittens decides to start weaning them.  This typically occurs in the fourth or fifth week of a kitten's life but it might be earlier in a large litter or if the mother is unwell or stressed.  The mother instigates the process of weaning as kittens rarely if ever decide to wean themselves.

Original photo by Addy Cameron-Huff. Cat is Finnigan. He looks like a Turkish Van.

The mother starts to spend time away from her kittens and/or blocks access to her milk.  She does this by lying or crouching with her abdomen against the ground.

The kittens get hungry and hunger drives them to search for food.  In the wild the mother brings back prey and tears it up to make it easier for the kittens to eat.

Prey is meat, the flesh of (usually) small mammals.  This forces kittens to develop their ability to eat and digest meat.

These developments include a change to their digestive tract.  The flesh of animals takes longer to digest than milk so kittens' intestines become lined with villi.  These are small finger-shaped projections which increase the amount of nutrients that can be absorbed through the lining of the intestinal wall.

Also, the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar, lactase, is permanently substituted by sucrase which breaks down the sugars in muscle which is meat.

As a result, the adult cat does not have the enzyme lactase in their digestive system to break down milk sugar and therefore it is indigestible or what we call “lactose intolerant". 

Cats are lactose intolerant to varying extents depending on the individual. Humans can also be lactose intolerant. I am. We are not designed to drink cow's milk. It's for cows.

Comment from Christine:

"Many who think they are lactose intolerant find this is only true when they consume pasteurized dairy products. This applies to cats as well. Pasteurized milk appears to remove the enzymes that help digest it."

The classic image from years ago of giving a domestic cat a treat of milk was a misconceived idea. I am sure that there were many cats with diarrhoea in those days although the owners would have been unaware of it as cat litter had not been invented.

Note: early weaning in domestic cats can cause behavioral problems.