Soft Stool/metronidazole

Hi everyone, my cat has been having a problem with soft stools so yesterday my vet prescribed a medication called metronidazole she said it's an anti inflammatory medication. Has anyone ever heard or used this before, I'm worried because she doesn't have diarrhea just soft stools that aren't formed. She wants her to take it twice a day for five days. Thanks for your help!

Thanks for your help. I thought she said she was going to give us 15mg but the bottle says 62.5??? I just left a message on her machine to make sure it's the right med, we haven't given him any yet. We changed her food to Wellness (dry) on 8/21. It seemed like her stools were improving but then one was held together by a piece of hair that's why they have been soft again. Besides a urine sample she didn't do any test, do you think should should have?

that you everyone for all of your help. I am so confused on what to do. Paulie was giving this medication because of soft stools but I think the reason he is having soft stools is because last with he had a bm that had a piece of human hair in it. What if there is still a piece of hair stuck and this medicine bounds him up even more. He also had a darker color to his urine but tested negative for any infection. Now he is under the bed and doesn't want to come out. I am so worried!!!

Thank you all so much for your help . I actually didn't start the medication yet because for the last two days his stools have looked better. Is this medication ok if her stools get soft again or is this more for actual diarrhea? The vet said he needs to drink more water does anyone know how I can do that? Right now he is on a food trial so it's just dry food because wet food didn't agree with him and I tired pouring water on his food but he wouldn't eat it, any suggestions on different bowls, right now we have two ceramic ones, I saw those running water ones but I'm worried about it being plugged in because sometimes he crews on cords. Thanks again for your help!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for everyones help. I started the medication today, is there any side effects I should look out for?

Thanks so much Carolina! My vet said that he might not have a bowel movement for a few days, did this happen to your cats? I really hope this helps Paulie, the vet said if his stools continue to be soft we'll have to switch her food but he's eaiting wellness now and it seems to be helping her allergies so I hope we don't have to do that. Thanks again!!!

Carolina, Paulie had a bm this mroning that was still soft, I know you said this medacine works fats do you remember when you started to see an improvment in your cats? Thanks again for your help!!!!

And Ducman69, thanks for the suggestion on the water bowl I am loking into one of those!

Thanks strange_wings for your help! It's so hard to know what to feed him, he has some kind of allergy and we're thinking it's both a food and inhaled one. I was so happy because so far he hasn't had any breakouts since starting this wellness food a month ago but now he has soft stools. I read that some natural food like wellness can be too rich for cats but the Z/D he was on in summer was giving him soft stools as well. When he was eating Nutro he didn't have soft stools but that's a low grade brand. Is there any supplement I can give him for soft stools and that way he could stay on this higher quality food? Do you think a dermatologist could help us find a good food for him since it probably has to deal with a food allergy? He's not itching bad now but last fall is the first fall I had him and he started itching really bad when our furnace was turned on so maybe I could wait until he's itching bad and then take him to the dermatologist, I think they would be able to help more than my regular vet. Thanks again for everyone help! .

Thanks so much for that info!!!
I'm glad to hear Nutro isn't as bad as some people say, we started feeding him that because that is what they were feeing him at the SPCA. When we got him last July he ate dry Nutro for five months until his itching started that November but two things happened in November our furnace was turned on and we started incorporating Nutro canned food into his diet. That is why we're thinking he also has an inhaled allergy that flares up when our windows can't be open or if her allergy just built up over time. Thanks so much again for your help!

Thanks I will try those things, I was thinking about getting a HEPA filter too.

Just had a quick update, my vet said I should have seen some improvment in her stools by now and she wants me to switch her food to royal canin green pea and rabbit but i think i'm going to wait until i see the dermotologist to see what she thinks. i'm just worried that her soft stools are from a different problem. I will let you know how it goes. here is what i'm going to tell the dermotologist does that sound ok
By doing different food trials and observing when she itches most, to us it seems like her allergy is either an inhaled allergy to something that only flares up when on furnace is turned on, to chicken if it's one of the first few ingredients in canned food or to something in canned food all together.

She's been eating wellness dry since August 21 and not itching bad or breaking out because she is doing so good right now our plan was to keep her on this food until our furnace is turned on to see if see has a flare up but the problem is our vet wants us to change her food to Royal Canin's green pea and rabbit because she's been having soft stool but we're worried about this because she tired Natural Balances green pea and duck and that was too rich for her also we're wondering if there could be a different problem causing her soft stools because she had them when she was on Z/D too and they looked healthy for a while until she had a stool with a piece of hair in it and now she's also urinating more and her urine has a redish brown color to it, we tested her for an infection and it came back negative but is there any blood test or anything we should do before switching her food incase there's an underling problem. I also did read that sometimes natural foods are just too rich for some cats so I didn't know if we should go back to a dry food that isn't too rich.

Here is some background information...

When we got her from the SPCA last June, her papers said she had thinning hair on her trail probably due to an old flea allergy but she wasn't itching or breaking out yet.

We were feeding her Nutro dry food exclusively she was on that for about four months and doing great but then two things changed our forced air furnace was turned on and we started adding Nutro canned food into her diet. In November is when her itching got really bad and she started breaking out in little scabs on her neck and chest, because she only had breakouts on the front part of her body is why our vet thinks it's a food allergy.

We tried switching her food to Natural balance dry and wet food with no grains but that didn't help.

Then in March we started feeing her the Natural Balance green pea and duck soon after she started that she had to go to the emergency vet because she had a block, a vet there said that food was probably too rich for her and her stomach always did look puffy while she was eating it.

Then we did a food trial with Z/D from May until August, she threw up a lot while eating this and her stools were soft then too. When she was eating this her itching was about the same as it was the summer before when she was eating dry food only and our furnace wasn't on.

Now she's been eating Wellness since 8/21. This does have chicken fat and chicken flavor in it but it's down on the list.

Since she was having soft stools we just finished a five day trial of metronidazole last Friday but that didn't help. We couldn't get her to keep the pill down so we had to give it to her in a pill picket and roll it in canned food.

We want to use the least amount of medicine as possible.
If we find out it's just an inhaled allergy and it gets as bad as it did last year is there a safe medicine that she could go on from November to April every year because the other six months of the year when we can have the windows open she's not bad at all.
We don't want to use Depo-Medrol because I read it can send a cat into congestive heart failure very quickly!



Things we have tried to stop her itching...

Prednisolone 5 mg January-May (this only helped when we gave her 1/2 a pill every other day but we didn't want her on it for any longer than what she was on because it can cause problems down the road)

Steroid shot (helped the best but only for one month)

Started using hypoallergenic kitty litter

Feilway diffuser

Carolina thanks for the info about Depo-medrol, I do believe everything I read online, I know that's bad to do but Paulie is my first cat and I've only had him a little over a year so I'm still learning a lot about cats in general.

AddieBee I'm so glad your kitty is doing better, I really hope this dermatologist can help Paulie. Wellness is working so good for his breakouts but his stools are a mess, I'm just wondering if it is from stress too because he was also a stray but it could also just be too rich for him. I have used the feliway plug in before and it seems to work pretty good the only problem is it's so expensive, I got it from the vet and a refill is $25 and the plug in part is $50 which they said you need to buy a new one every 6 months, do you know if the ones you buy in the petstores work as good. Thanks so much for your help!