Digestion/Food Problems

Oliver has not had a solid stool since we adopted him in September. We had him on good food (Nutro Natural for kittens) for several months, but he had a severely wet stool the entire time. I slowly transitioned him to a food called By Nature, which is organic and has no meat by-products, corn, white rice, or other common cat allergens. He was on that for over a month, but his stool never firmed up.

At my wit's end, I took him to the vet. The vet gave him a vaccination of antibiotics, Hills Prescription Diet a/d wet food (which is anti-inflammatory) to eat for the next two days, and sent us home with antibiotics to give him for a week. A few days after taking him to the vet, his stool was completely firm and normal. Then, a few days after that, his stool was loose again.

Assuming that his problem was an allergy to chicken or some sort of grain product, we put him on EVO, which is completely grain free, for a little less than a month. No change. So, in order to determine if his problem was in fact allergies, we have been giving him Hills Prescription z/d wet food, which is hypo-allergenic. We figured that, if his stool firmed up while eating that, it would be a sign that the problem was allergens to something in his food. However, it has been about four days on Hill's Prescription Diet and I've been noticing that he has smelly gas and there's no change in his stool.

The only thing I can guess is that he has some sort of bacterial issue, rather than an allergy, that is making his stool wet. However, the vet saw no problems when we took him in a few months ago. He tested his stool and everything. What in the heavens should I do next? I don't want to just keep taking him back to the vet and getting him antibiotics. I need a permanent solution.

Please help. Any responses are GREATLY appreciated.

Have you tried a food without rice and chn??? brown rice is still rice no matter what a food rep tells you

have you tried extra probiotics???

HYPO = less not none... Z/D has far less possiblity to have allergies but SD made the ultra in the dog since some were allergic to Z/D reg

Have you tried to home-cook for your kitty?

A few easy things that you could try.

You could try a completely carb-free diet to find out if food intolerance is involved. The food would have to be free of all grains, potatoes, veggies and fruits. In short anything and everything that’s not animal protein. The supplements that come with such foods are okay, they will not cause loose stools. There are a few such foods on the market and even though as far as quality is concerned they are not the greatest, giving them a try might still be worth a try. You would know whether such a diet could be helpful or not in about two weeks. Some cats respond faster, but sometimes consistently firm stools can take a little longer. Two weeks was the longest I ever saw.

Trying probiotics with a regular diet you are feeding would be another option.

Treating for giardia, even if test results were negative for giardia, would be yet another option. You would have to ask your vet for treatment that lasts longer than 7 days because sometimes the short 7 day course just doesn’t work.

Adding digestive enzymes to the food might be something else to think about. (I would leave this for last and try it only if all else failed.)

An article I have on such problems also mentions motility disorders. With loose stools that would mean that food goes through the digestive tract too fast. Interestingly, cutting down on carbs, or cutting them out completely can be a great help with that, perhaps because in some cases there is a food intolerance problem involved. (I’ve never had a cat that had loose stools from animal protein, so I don’t even know if that can happen.)

Then there is plain canned pumpkin that can help with either loose stools or constipation. Slippery elm is also supposed to help with both.
Pectin can also firm up loose stools. I believe it has to be mixed into the food before feeding, so it absorbs moisture.

I can't think of anything else right now, but hopefully something on this list will work for you. Whatever works, please let us know. You have my best wishes for a truly easy and permanent solution.

Your case sounds similiar to mine with Coco. Here's a thread with my resolution:

http://thecatsite.com/forums/showthr...ht=loose+stool

As an update, Coco still requires the Holistic Solution to keep her stools firm.

Good luck!

Thank you for the input everyone.

Sharky-I have not tried probiotics yet. What exactly do they do and where can I get them? Also, can you recommend any foods that are devoid of rice and chicken? I had a hell of a time trying to find one.

Mary Smith-No, I have not tried home cooking. I wouldn't even know where to start with that, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Violet-As far as carb-free foods go, we had Oliver on EVO for a few weeks and that didn't seem to help. Probiotics might be a good option, though. Also, we tried the pumpkin for a few weeks (because I read about it on this site), and that did not firm up his stool at all.


Mschauer-Our situations are very similar. In fact, Oliver is part Bengal! I will look into the Holistic Solution.

Thank you again to everyone!!!

food trials should be 8-12 weeks unless new food make s kitty VERY VERY ill like needing the vet

I use human probiotics from the health food store but ... HS ( better pet food stores), bene bac ( avail most pet stores ) , probios( label says cattle goat but some still have dog and cat ( same as goat ) avail at feed stores

homecooking is an option .... talk with your vet ... I can give you lots of recipes and book recommendations