Help at wits end

rsirman

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Kinda new to catsite, but I'm going insane and broke. My 8 month old Lucky, has constant diarrhea. I have been to 4 different vets, nothing seems to work. We want to get him neutered but can't because of this problem. We have had him tested for FIP, FIV, FeLV, and Heartworms all negative. I haven't changed his diet, Friskies mixed with dry morsels.

A little background, we got lucky when he was just a kitten, rescued from a chemical plant, was dehydrated and very still, nursed him back to health and lots of sleepless nights.

Any ideas would be grateful or any other cat lovers have or had the same problem?
 

otto

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Hello and welcome to TCS.

Havn't any of these vets suggested your cat be put on a better diet? Your cat may have an intolerance to one or more ingredients in the Friskies food.

I recommend making a change to a high quality all canned grain free diet and see how he does. Do it gradually of course, and use a probiotic while making the transition.

By the way some parasites can cause chronic diarrhea. Not all show up in stool samples. Coccidia, for instance can cause chronic diarrhea in cats.

Hurray for you for rescuing Lucky!
 

brookesphynx

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I agree with otto, this could very well be a food allergy/intolerance. One of my boys has that problem and gets diarrhea unless he is on a very strict diet.

I was able to control it with grain-free canned food, and he does even better with a raw diet. Some people are squeamish about feeding raw, but I would definitely try slowly switching him to a high quality grain-free wet food and see if that doesn't help. It could also be an intolerance to whatever protein he's getting in the food (for example, chicken) but grains are a more obvious and easier thing to try to eliminate first.

Good luck! Please keep us posted.
 

3catsn1dog

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I have two cats who get like that when on low quality food. When I switched them over to TOTW (Taste of the Wild) cat food it literally stopped over night. Now that I am lacking funds I have them on a mix of TOTW and a low quality food and we are right back to the beginning where we started, runny poop that stinks to high heaven. It might be worth the shot of switching foods to a higher quality and if you havent tried it yet Bene-Bac works amazing too. It is normally found in the ferret section of pet stores (Petsmart) theres another member on here who knows more about it but I used it for a little while till I realized that TOTW has most of the same ingrediants in their food and their bathroom issues stopped. Good luck!

P.S. I know some people will recommend the wet food route but in my case it made the situation worse till I got them settled with TOTW. Once the were on that alone I was able to add some wet food into their diets without it disrupting everything and causing them to have really bad diarrea.
 

mrblanche

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Has he had a thorough fecal exam? I'm sure the vet would suggest it, but I didn't see you mention it. If he was ever outdoors, he could have giardia, coccidia, or foetus tritrichomonas (sp?). All three are treatable, all three are very common, and all three can cause chronic diarrhea.
 
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rsirman

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Yes they have tried a number of tests some expensive and still no result im gonna try the switching foods and see if that helps cause it has been the main constant the past few months.
 

the_food_lady

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Originally Posted by rsirman

Yes they have tried a number of tests some expensive and still no result im gonna try the switching foods and see if that helps cause it has been the main constant the past few months.
I had one cat who had loose stools for FOREVER!......and I spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars; stool testing for parasites, antibiotics, etc etc. Finally I learned he just couldn't tolerate crappy food that contained corn and lots of fillers and grains. this was many years ago when unfortunately, there wasn't the selection of premium cat foods, let alone those that are grain-free. Once I switched him to a premium food, the stools firmed up very quickly.

The Vet also put him on a course of prednisone (for 2 months), slowly tapering him off of it; this helped to decrease the inflammation in his bowel. In your case, just switching to a better quality food might be all that's needed (you certainly dont' want to go on prednisone if not needed).

Go! makes a Grain-free Kitten food that's a good one:

http://www.petcurean.com/index.php?page_id=162

Here's a page from there site where you can type in your postal code or zip code and find a retailer in your area:

http://www.petcurean.com/dealer_location2.php
 

cococat

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Originally Posted by rsirman

Yes they have tried a number of tests some expensive and still no result im gonna try the switching foods and see if that helps cause it has been the main constant the past few months.
Hello,
Sorry for your problems and thanks for saving him.
Has he been treated for worms? If so, what was the treatment?
It sounds a bit like giardia, did they run a specific test for that? If not, I would ask them to do so, it is different than a fecal.
His diet is low quality and I also highly suggest changing it to something better.
 
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rsirman

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Yes he was tested for worms and im taking him to a vet tommorrow to check for the 3 parasites to make sure and rule that out, if nothing is found i'll start to switch him on foods and they have given 3 different medicines and none of them seem to work so in retrospect the common thing is the food because it hasnt been taken out I find it funny the vets never thought or considered the food, because we always told him what we gave him and they saw it as fine, our other cats do fine with it but I guess no cat is the exact same.
 

hissy

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If a tox screen hasn't been run and liver values checked you should go that route. He could have encountered whatever chemicals were at the plant and this can cause havoc internally (depending on the chemical) Also, if you keep switching food, feed cow's milk or feed him human food treats, this can also cause diarrhea. Switching foods needs to be done gradually over a matter of days mixing with what the cat is used to eating with small amounts of healthier food. But I would certainly ask the vet to run a tox screen to see if there is something besides a food intolerance or parasite causing the problem. You have coccidia, giardia that will not always show up during a fecal. Ask your vet if you should perhaps put kitty on Albon for a bit to see if that evens things out.
 
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rsirman

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Update: We bought the wellness no grain food and he has shown some signs of improvement. So ty everyone for the input looks like it might be allergies.
 
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