And finding the right food saga continues...

The short version of the background is that he has had some diarrhea problems. Here is a link to another thread if you wanna go that far:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=197370

Moving this to nutrition because we are fairly certain its a food sensitivity of some sort.

Otherwise, let me just say that after talking to the new vet for a while, I decided to try a wet food in hopes it would be easier for him to digest. As of this morning it appears that is not going to work out either. (It was a local organic brand with limited ingredients... chicken and rice based) I was still mixing it with rice that I cooked and giving him that.

Now I am going back to the basic chicken and rice that I cook for him for a day or two and then we are going to try the Natural balance Duck & Green Pea dry.

Wish us luck, poor Jack hasn't been just normal for a month (and I mean normal crazy, nutty, drive me up a wall Jack)

If that fails, I am considering cooking for him on a permanent basis and adding supplements to it. Anyone know if the supplement itself is likely to cause him upset also?

Have you tried Bene-bac or another pro-biotic - forgive me if you have, it does sound like you've tried everything under the sun....

i will pm you a vet created and multiple vets approved recipe

Have you tried Bene-bac or another pro-biotic

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I have not tried anything like that, I am too afraid to throw something else in to the mix. As I am trying to track down what the actual problem is I don't want to be giving him 2 new things at the same time.

i will pm you a vet created and multiple vets approved recipe

Click to expand...

Thanks for the recipe!

* disclaimer * For the most part cats are okay with a simple pro biotic like bene bac

How long has this been going on? What were you feeding him when he started having diarrhea? I'd like to see the ingredients b/c I bet you his stomach has become intolerant to an ingredient/s in the food. The steroid the vet gave him in my opinion will not help his situation and unfortunately may have made his tummy worse. I would find a probiotic (it can be human grade) and start giving that to him for a couple of weeks to get his gutt back on track....

I have a 12 year old male cat that has had diarrhea issues/loose stools for many many years. The vet of course would always recommend vet prescribed foods (Royal Canin sensitivity and Medi-cal hypoallergenic). Like you his tummy would stabalize for a bit but the diarrhea would always return. The vet would also pump medication into him that again would work for a short time and the diarrhea would return. In September I started looking into cat nutrition and started wondering if all the grains and fillers in the pet foods I was feeding him could be contributing to his upset tummy. My vet had no answers for me and did not seem like he cared as long as I was filling his pockets with money. I made the decision to start my cats on the transition to a raw diet. Best decision I made for my diarrhea cat. After about a month to a month and a half of the transition his diarrhea completely cleared up. To this day it has not returned. And if I have to feed him a canned food I now feed a grain free/ filler free cat food. He is doing great but I have come to learn that he does have irritable bowels and sensitivity/allergies to certain foods. He now has pencil thin stools or throws up if he eats something that irritates his tummy. So, I stick with canned foods like EVO 95% meat (very few ingredients), and Wellness grainfree/Core.

It doesn't suprise me when you said his stool went back to normal for a week and then the diarrhea returned. This happened to Bishop all the time. When you are introducing the new cat food are you introducing the new food very very slowly? Some cats get very upset tummies from too quick of a transition as well. I don't think it is the wet food that is upsetting his tummy but I think either the its the ingredients in the wet food or the switch over was too quick. Try and find a food that is very simple....not tons of ingredients....and no grains or fillers....

Good luck

Originally Posted by sharky

i will pm you a vet created and multiple vets approved recipe

Click to expand...

Sharky, do you mind PM'ing me the recipe as well? I already home-cook for Tofu, but I'd like to see more recipes. Thanks!

Jack used to eat California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice Dry. He ate that for over a year, with no problem. This was after casting about for something that he wasn't sensitive to.

Jack started having diarrhea a little over a month ago, he has not had it constantly since then. It took me about 2 weeks to get him stabilized, and then a week in to his regular food... it came back. I finally figured out that boiled rice and chicken gets him back on track after about 16 hours of no food.

I switch the food very slowly. This time the diarrhea came back before I had even stopped including the cooked rice and chicken, with the canned food.

Evo was one of the foods we tried early on, and that didn't go over well at all. I plan to try the Duck and Green pea limited ingredient/allergy natural balance, after that I am going to try homemade food. I may also try the probiotic.

I'm sorry that Jack's still having problems.

I think Denali had some good thoughts/advice about this after experiencing similar problems with her kitty. I also wonder if Jack has IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease; sometimes called IBS for Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and/or food allergies or sensitivities.

I have a kitty with IBD and Jack's symptoms sound similar to hers. IBD usually occurs in "episodes", meaning the cat will do fine for a week, sometimes several weeks, and then the IBD kicks in. The frequency and duration varies depending on the severity of the condition. For my kitty, the episodes usually lasted 1 week, with about 3 "good" weeks before a recurrence. In addition to loose stools, she would sometimes have a few bouts of vomiting. Knock on wood, she's doing even better now, going months at a time between episodes.

It won't hurt Jack to use the following supplements. If he does have IBS, it will help. I have to give credit to another TCS member, cejhome, for giving me this information. She used these supplements for her cat who had severe IBS, but improved greatly:

-Give 1/2 cap of L-Glutamine (500mg) divided into Jack's meals during the day.

-Slippery Elm syrup is also very good for IBS. Give 5cc daily, with an oral syringe.
The recipe I use is from Anitra Frazier's book "The New Natural Cat":

In a small saucepan place 1/2 cup cold water (spring or purified ideally) and 1 teaspoon powdered slippery elm (contents of 4 slippery elm caps). Whip with a fork and bring to a simmer over low flame, stirring constantly. Simmer 1 - 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Cool and refrigerate. Keeps 7 days.

The slippery elm is very soothing to the GI tract. Give it between meals, or about 45 minutes before a meal. A bonus is that cats like the flavor .

As darlili mentioned, probiotics would be beneficial and can be mixed right into the food. Texas A & M University (TAMU) has created a Vitamin B-12 therapy protocol that you can try, which is very safe. There's an IBD support group on Yahoo with more information about this.

Just FYI, I feed my cat Wellness canned, only the Turkey or Chicken flavors. It's grain free and easy to digest. She gets California Natural dry food only in very small amounts as a treat. And she always gets fresh cooked chicken or turkey chunks as part of each meal.

Jack is one sweet-looking little guy! Please keep us updated on his progress. Hope he improves soon.

I am still working him in to the Natures Balance Duck and Green Pean dry. I switch sooo slowly these days. He is still eating some boiled chicken and rice as well.

I also got some of the bene-bac and gave him a dose of that on Tuesday. He likes it enough to just lick it straight off my finger... go figure.

Not much to tell thus far and I am all about the no news is good news in this case.

Ugh... and it appears we may be back to the drawing board again. However this tiem I am not too sure. Although he had a loose stool just a bit ago... (Pardon the slightly graphic portion of this) it wasn't all like that and I had a new refrigerator delivered today. He is terrified of people. He climbed all over it and acted like a nut for a while after it arrived, and he managed to lick some sour cream off my plate while I wasn't looking.

All that being the case, I am not sure its the new food he isn't fully on yet and not the stress of the day. I am sure I will know in a few hours how much of an episode this is going to be this time.

Meanwhile, I made him an appointment at the holistic vet thats a bit of a drive for Thursday morning. Just to verify once again that there isn't another cause. So thats the update.

Wish us luck again, I can't wait to get this all sorted out it seems like the never ending saga.

Good luck, and I hope you get some answers soon. Several times mine has had diahrrea when he's ingested something. He's an indoor cat but the last time it happened he escaped outside, ate some grass, and the next day a long length of red satin ribbon dislodged and moved on through.

FWIW, I have a 3 year old cat who is very sensitive to food changes and what I've been able to use successfully with him is Nutro Natural Choice Indoor (the green package, not the oceanfish). The vet is wanting me to make a change to wet and since he's crazy for chicken I just tried him on Evo chicken and turkey and he was wild for it and so far no problems after adding in a little bit. Every other food change I've attempted has left him with some kind of digestive reaction.

Good luck! And please let us know what the vet says

Jack did not enjoy the new vet trip at all. I have never seen him get so vicious and upset.

Anyway, I now have some prescription food, more bene-bac, and some homepathic pellets for on his food. I am taking him back to drop him off monday night, so that he can be put under on tuesday for more tests. He was way too wound up and terrified even for blood work.

Unfortunately, a bump I discovered recently that I thought perhaps might be his microchip in a bad spot... isn't. She believes its a tumor and it's location suggests Vaccine Associate Sarcoma.

Guess we will know more after Tuesday.