Switched food, and now there is blood in stool..

heidinyny

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hello,

i've been slowly switching my cat's dry food from innova regular to natural balance green pea & venison (she had been vomiting frequently after eating the innova.)

yesterday and today i noticed a small amount of bright red blood at the tip of her stool.

is this something to be very concerned about? is it a result of switching to the natural balance?

fyi, since switching her to the natural balance, her vomiting has totally decreased.. and her stools have been much more regular and softer.

i will be bringing in a stool sample to my vet, but any help / information about this would be very much appreciated!

thanks so much!
 

kittenkiya

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I would suggest that you call your vet tomorrow morning and bring him/her up to date on what you found. Blood in stool or urine is not good and needs to checked out.
 
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heidinyny

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thank you KittenKiya for your response.

i actually did speak to the vet tonight, and she did not seem to think it was an emergency. she asked me to bring in a stool sample, and said to bring my cat in right away if there was alot of blood... i told the vet there was only a little blood at the tip of the stool (sorry to be so graphic). the vet also said after the fecal results come back, if there is still blood in the stool i should bring her in then.

ashley is an indoor cat, and otherwise seems her usual loving, playful self.

i'm obviously concerned about this, and am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience?

thanks again.
 

+deborah+

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I had exactly the same problem with my kitten (and I was very worried because she was only 8 weeks old at the time). It was entirely food related, and the vet told me that the blood was because her insides (can't remember which bit exactly
) was working to hard to digest food that was too rich for her.

I got her hypoallergenic food and she's doing fine. I guess her digestive system is quite sensitive.

So I wouldn't worry too much. Bring her in if it continues or if there is a larger quantity of blood. I think it's quite common in cats (my vet said), and it just shows that they're not digesting their food too well.

I don't know the brands you mentioned because I live in the UK, so I can't help you there, sorry
 

lunasmom

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Similar incident with Luna. I actually had been feeding her Purina Indoor formula and after we got Whitey and I left for vacation, she had a lot of blood in her poo.

I took her to the vet, the fecal exam came back fine and they suggest I switch her to a sensitive stomach formula. after a week of phazing out the old food she's been fine on the new food.
 

jenny82

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I had the same problem with Chessy when I switched his food to Nutro. I think it was too rich for him. The vet didn't think it was a reason to worry (after the fecal test came back clear).
 
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heidinyny

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you are all THE BEST! i am so happy i found this forum. it is so informative, with the most helpful people on here.

thank you deborah, lunasmom, jenny82 and kittenkiya for answering. i appreciate it so much.

as far as i could see, there didn't seem to be any blood at all in ashley's stool today (yay!), but i took a stool sample to my vet this afternoon just to be on the safe side. the vet is going to do an O&P/Giardia fecal and will get back to me tomorrow. i have a suspicion though, especially after reading your posts, that it was caused by diet change.

also, just to let you know, that it might not have been the natural balance that caused this... i gave her merricks wet food for the first time the other day, and maybe she had a sensitivity to that. as i wrote in my first post, she seems to be doing really well on the natural balance venison & green pea (no more vomiting and regular poops). i'm going to keep giving her the nb unless the blood in stool happens again, and not give her the merricks again... as i wrote above, i didn't see any blood at all today.

thank you again for all of your helpful responses.
 

jenny82

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Originally Posted by consumercity

Deborah, Lunasmom and Jenny 82, what are you feeding your kitties now?
I just started him on California Natural herring and sweet potato dry food yesterday (it took over a week to ship to me). The only wet food I've gotten him to eat is Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys and Meow Mix. I've been giving him dry in the morning and wet at night.
 
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