diarrhea from dry cat food

Hi! We're new to this site & hoping to get some advice.....
We adopted our cat Izzy about 6 months ago. She's a persian estimated to be about 4 years old. She was found wandering the streets & shortly after we got her we noticed her diarrhea, we took her to the vet & the ran some tests thinking that she had parasites from living on the streets, even with the diarrhea she managed to put some weight on. They switched her food to a canned prescription diet which she did eat, but did not like. About 2 months ago we were told that the A/D canned cat food was not acceptable for a long term diet, since then we have tried many other canned cat foods & her diarrhea is fine with all of the canned foods, however, she does not like them, we have also tried many dry foods, which she loves, we've tried different varieties for sensitive stomachs, organic versians and ones without corn or gluten & all of them give her diarrhea. The problem is that she does not like the moist food & is beginning to lose weight, we have had her in the vet numerous times & purchased every food imaginable.......I was hoping that one of you may have some advice? Has anyone else experienced a problem like this? We don't know what it is in the dry food that upsets her stomach, are there any varieties out there that she might be able to digest? Or are there any moist varieties out there that cats tend to like the best?
Thanks!!

You could try Eukanuba or Iams hairball formulas. They are high in fiber and some people have had good success with them when their kitties had diarrhea with no clinical cause. You could also try a limited ingredient (easier to digest) food like California Natural Chicken and Rice.

When my Coco had a problem with long term loose stools she had it whether she eat wet or dry. The solution for her was Eagle Pack Holistic Solution. It is basically a digestive aid.

Does you cat drink plenty of water? Water is important for good digestion. If she doesn't drink enough it could she gets enough moisture from wet food but when she eats dry she doesn't. A water fountain like those made by PetMate are great at encouraging them to drink more.

I hope you find a solution soon!

A real issue here could be you are changing food too much. Wet food you can usually change and there is no discernible affects on a cats digestive system, but with dry food you must be consistent or else they will have digestive issues! Try finding a kind of food that she likes and that you are happy to give her and then stick with it! It can take a while for her system to get used to the new stuff in the food, so you might have some runny poos for a bit, but changing it too much is potentially the problem!

Lots of people will have advice, but this is the key here - be consistent!

Originally Posted by mschauer

You could try Eukanuba or Iams hairball formulas. They are high in fiber and some people have had good success with them when their kitties had diarrhea with no clinical cause. You could also try a limited ingredient (easier to digest) food like California Natural Chicken and Rice.

Click to expand...

Those would be the foods I would recommend also. Did your vet test for Tritrichomonas foetus?

http://www.tffelines.com/

How often have you changed foods ??? are you giving two week change overs???

I agree with additional parasite checks

I'm not sure that the vet has tested for TRITRICHOMONAS FOETUS....I need to contact them & find out & get her back in there for more testing. We have not changed foods completely to the dry food at any point, we've given her about 1 T of dry food mixed in with her moist food & within about 4 hours of eating she has gotten diarrhea all over the floor. We feel just terribly for her. We have tried different varieties of the moist food, and she doesn't seem to care for any of them, we thought that we had found one that she liked, that was shredded, kind of like tuna, but that didn't agree with her stomach as well. We were just hoping to find something that she liked eating so that she didn't go back to losing weight. I will follow up with my vet & check out some of the foods that you've mentioned.
Thank you!!

She may have an allergy to one of the ingredients in the dry food. I'm finding that alot of dry food has fish. I have a cat that may be allergic to fish because when I feed him wet food with fish he gets diahrrea ,and recently I switched him to a dry food with fish ,and he would pee small squirts in the cat box. I took him to the vet for a urinalysis and everything was normal. The vet concluded that he was allergic to something he was eating and it was when I took away the food with fish , he return to peeing normal amounts. I have another cat that can't eat chicken. She would vomit every other day. When pets have problems, you have to be a detective and find out what's wrong. Hopefully , your vet will help you, as well.

I really think you just need to pic one that she likes and stick with it. It might give her diarrhea at first but I really agree that you are just switching way too much. Cats are very sensitive to changes in their food and you probably aren't sticking to one long enough for her body to get used to the change and then you switch to something different. You are screwing up her digestive system by changing so much.

Just pick one, no matter if she has diarrhea at first (she will bc it is a new change) and keep her on it for a few months. Preferably pick something of good quality, with no Red 40, no by-products, meat as the first few ingredients, etc.

Fang is allergic to regular dry food, he gets soft stool, gross.

Switching to Purina one for sensitive systems has fixed him. there is no, or very little corn in it. I think that is what set him off.

I'm feeding my cats Purina sensitive systems and it helped for Shasha's vomiting. I've tried all kinds of dry food and surprisingly that is what worked. Normally, I only feed premium brands.

My guy is very sensitive to foods and food changes--vomitting and/or diarrhea. I've had good luck with Nutro Natural Indoor.