Another cat diet question, cat has chronic loose stools / diarrhea

This might be a nutrition question as well but I felt this forum was better suited.

Me and my girlfriend have two cats, a 3 y-o male and 4 y-o female. We moved in May, and again in August. Ever since the first move, the boy's poop started getting looser and smellier. We have always fed the cats Purina Naturals dry cat food. We took the boy to the vet, poop and blood tests revealed nothing, but they prescribed something anyway, I think metronidazole, which had no effect. All throughout this time, he's showed no other differences in health. He's very active, friendly, playful, eats plenty, drinks plenty, and is not dehydrated based on the scruff test.

Knowing little about proper cat food, we tried switching to generic wet food (Priority brand), which made his poo basically liquid. Then we somehow decided upon Hill's Science Diet Sensitive Stomach dry food, and he showed a lot of improvement. His poop was definitely not optimal, but it was way better than it was this summer. Interestingly, he used to eat all of his food as fast as he could. Immediately upon switching to Hill's, he became a grazer.

During all this time I was pretty naive about food requirements for cats. After doing a bit of research, I noticed that people generally recommend against Hill's Science Diet. I looked at the ingredient list and the top ingredients are brewer's rice and corn gluten meal, which from what I've learned are not exactly what cats should be eating. Also, I learned that letting cats graze is bad because they should not be digesting food all day.

So I did some research, actually paying attention to ingredients this time, and eventually settled on Blue Buffalo Wilderness, and bought the salmon version. I learned that abruptly transitioning food is bad (though that should have been obvious), and transitioned our cats over 2 weeks to this food which seems to have high quality ingredients and good reviews. The cats only get 30 minutes to eat each of their two meals per day.

It's been a total of 3 weeks now. Our girl has been a real trooper, doing well with all of the different foods, but the boy is back to pooping liquid, extremely smelly liquid at that, with a lot of audible flatulence each time. So I have come here for advice. The vet just cost a lot of money and was unable to determine anything. HSD Sensitive Stomach seemed helpful for our boy's condition but has low quality non-meat ingredients. Blue Buffalo with all of it's high quality, actual meat ingredients has us at square one. What should we do?

Thanks in advance for any help

Welcome to TCS! Unfortunately loose stools can be caused by stress & I've seen them just spiral down from there.

Science Diet sensitive stomach is good for cats with loose stools, we use it often at the shelter. It's similar to SD's prescription diet I/D, not as good but also a fraction the price.

How long exactly has he been on the Wilderness, just three weeks?

ETA: You may want to look into trying probiotics before messing with the food again. Here is a thread on Benebac vs. Fortiflora.

Hi,
IMHO the best diet is the one that works for your cat, for you and for your budget. Sure, in theory Blue would be better... But if your boy can't handle it, what good does it make? Some cats just do better with grains then others... More important than theory, is to do what works for your cat.
Have you tried feeding wet food?
Also, there are different theories about grazing. For instances, some vets recommend having food out all the time to keep the insulin/metabolism levels from having big drops/variances. I was reading about this and was even recommended in a way to help preventing UTIs (urinary tract infections). Wet food is a different story... For that yes, it is better to feed on a schedule due to bacterial overgrowth - but there is really nothing wrong in measure free feeding dry food IMHO.
As far as food, I would put him on a food that has a one protein one grain kind of food for easy digestibility - perhaps something a formula like chicken and rice?
Higher fiber foods also seem to be easy on tummies, such as foods for hairball control; you can try that as well...
In my opinion I would look for rice as the main grain, and probably chicken as the protein source...
Good luck!

How frequently have you been changing the food? If you have changed it too often that can cause the diarrhea as well, especially dry food. Changing a dry food should be done over a period of a week to ten days by gradually adding the new food to the older food a bit at a time and increasing the amount a little every day until the transition has been completed.

If there was a food that worked for him, try going back to that food for awhile and then gradually change over to the better food to give his system a chance to get used to the new food.

Has he been tested for Tritrichomonas Foetus (TF)? It requires a special test and doesn't show up in a fecal test. Here's a site for more info: http://www.highgait.com/page/page/3485008.htm

Also, it might help to get a couple of Feliway diffusers to help reduce the stress in your home. We add acidophilus (1/2 tablet, crushed) into our kitties' wet food when they're having poop troubles. You can buy it in the supplement section of the grocery store, Wal-Mart, or drug store. It's the good bacteria in yogurt. It does take awhile to start seeing results, but it does work.

Originally Posted by ReginaKitty


I got some 'Proviable' - a probiotic product - there are some little capsules and a paste to give. I had tried it before with no luck before, and then the parasites were found...he is now responding in just a couple of days, and actually had a stool with shape.

Although very soft - this is a huge improvement, as he has had weight loss also.

Click to expand...

This is the same probiotic both of my vets recommended for Bugsy... He has been on it for about 10 days now, but unfortunately he was on Metronidazole as well, so most of it was getting killed... My hope is that now that he is no longer on antibiotics, Proviable starts working full force. This probiotic is great as it also has prebiotics... It is VERY strong... 5 Billion CFU (to put it in perspective, Fortiflora is 10 Million, and common human acidophillus 100 million...). Anyways, here is a link to get it: Proviable-DC

Here is more information on it

ReginaKitty... the ONLY drug that kills Tritrichomonas is Ronizadole. Most vets misdiagnose this parasite and NOTHING else will get rid of it! I feel your pain. It took 4 years to figure out what was wrong with my cat. He is on this drug for 14 days and the diarrhea stopped after a few days. I pray he stays well. Please look into it. The lab can confuse this parasite with others and needs to be experienced in looking for trich. Good luck.

IMO, the best food for a cat is the food the cat thrives on - if Science Diet works, stick with SD - if Blue Buffalo, do that - if it's Friskies, well, yay Friskies!

I think we all get caught up by wanting only the best for our babies - and there's an awful lot of info out on the internet...but it makes absolutely no difference if 'food A' gets the absolutely best internet reviews in the world, if it's not doing the cat any good. Also, it's important to remember that no one on the internet has examined your cat - it's you and your vet that count most in your cat's care.

I hope your boy gets better - for me, I'd work with my vet on planned transition to a food that seems to have worked for my cat, and toss out the internet reviews.

I had this issue with my cat as well. I took him to the vet and spent lots of cash with no answers! Even the anti diarrhea medication gave him diarrhea! I finally noticed that my cat does not get diarrhea on the pea and duck natural balance ltd. I also found out that the fish version of any food gives him the squirts too. Maybe give this a try, but whatever you choose good luck!

I'm going through the same thing with my 10 month old male. I have a Holistic vet who makes house calls. She told me that this is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which most people on this forum are familiar with. A "syndrome" is actually just a set of symptoms, with no definitive cause. They are solved by process of elimination (no pun intended). My vet's strategy is to kill ALL the intestinal flora (good and bad) with a course of 'Metro', and then build the good flora back up with supplements (as mentioned above). As for diet she has him completely off anything with grain, poultry, or fish. That leaves beef, lamb, venison, or rabbit.

The problem with IBS is that the body keeps attacking the intestinal lining with an inflamatory response, and the lining gets sloughed off. So the body has to keep building a new lining. This constant cell growth can develop into cancer later in life. One lesson that I took from this: When animals are very young, they can tolerate a lot of junk food and not get sick. But the toll comes later in life. Just as young kids don't get cancer and heart disease (no matter what they eat), they risk these diseases later in life.

I am going to take great care of this 10 month old NOW - because I want him around and healthy for years to come. Remember, you can spend a little extra money on the best foods now, or pay much more money on vet bills later. Good luck to both of us!

My female cat has this issue. Originally she was eating 9 lives dry food and friskies while she was a stray, her stools were fine. We adopted her and she got fixed,vaccinated, and de-wormed. We also fed her 9 lives canned food.

After 2 years of having her (and another cat addition) she has diarrhea with blood, on her butt it looks like blood and mucus and she wipes it all over the floor. Before the epsiodes, we notice she gets severe foul smelling gas bad enough to clear a room. The first time she went to the vet they found worms and de-wormed her and she was better for a few months, but recently she was tested and everything came back fine. Once in a while she has gotten amoxicillan for her URI, and i'm wondering if the antibiotics took a toll on her digestive system? (i've had that problem and had to go on strong medication for months to fix it from too many antibiotics messing my system up, and now take probiotic pills if I have to go on antibiotic, it was NOT a good time in my life) But thanks to probiotics i'm fine now as long as I take them when i'm on antibiotic.

mabye once or twice a week she gets it. Sometimes she doesnt have it for a week or two, and others multiple times a week. We switched to science diet for senior cats as she is 10 years old now. She also eats friskies canned food and she loves crunchy treats she is the chow hound out of our two cats. But what she eats seem to not change the diarrhea.

Our house is very stressfull and she has always been stressed out since the new cat years ago and she is not very social when company is around, which is very often so i'm wondering if this is severe nerves causing it?


Our vets havent helped, and I dont know what it is and without a vets help i'm clueless as to what is could be. Is there probiotics for cats to restore good bacteria in digestive system? What about something if this is all nerves causing diarrhea? it's so crazy on the house that I cannot focus on the cats health as so many factors affect everyday life. My cat needs a place to chill out and relax and not be bothered and a monitered diet people always feed the cats food without me knowing, and my house is never calm.

My cat is the type if she goes outside she is happy and she stays in our yard and sleeps in the shrubs. I let her out when company is over because she gets so upset and scared heavy breathing and hiding, at least outside she can remain calm until company leaves then she can come in and relax.

We had a new kitten who had chronic loose stools, and our vet tried several things over the next year (steroids and Hill's etc.) but nothing made any difference.  Then a co-worker told me about Purina Naturals curing her cat's diarrhea, and I decided to give it a try. After only a couple of days, I noticed that there were nice, formed little logs in the litter box, and that the strong odor was gone. It's been about three weeks now, and I'm considering her cured!  The only thing I can guess is that she might have been allergic to the preservatives in her food, because Purina Naturals does not have preservatives. I'm so happy, I joined a forum for the first time just to pass this on to others who might be in the same situation.  Every cat is different, and there's no telling what will help, but I hope this info is useful to someone.

I recently rescued a kitten that started having chronic diarrhea and the only thing that has worked is the Purina Naturals. I first learned about this food from a fellow foster who had 4 kittens with diarrhea. The only thing that worked for her was the Purina Naturals. I noticed the post by flyingredcat regarding the Purina Naturals and decided to give it a try. I noticed progress right away. If you are at your wits end with kitty diarrhea, give this food a try. BTW, he's been to the vet and doesn't have parasites so food was the issue.

We're dealing with loose stools/diarrhea with one of our 3 cats - Rosie. She was a stray we found in the woods in October.  She's 3 or 4 years old  We adopted her, had her checked up at the vet and she came down with a sneezy virus, for which we were given a liquid medicine, which cured her of that.  Her stools were fine before that, although she passed a lot of gas.  While on the medicine, she had diarrhea, which the vet said is normal for that medicine.   After the medicine, her stools never did go back to normal - they were and still are, always loose and sometimes looser than others.   One day I saw a couple of worms on her back legs and sticking out of her butt (never in her poop).  I got tape worm medicine from the vet and though that would cure her loose poop too.   I haven't seen any worms since.  I never did see any in her poop after the medicine, but the vet said she doesn't have them.  We switched from Science Diet food to Iams prescription intestinal health plus food, because then the other two cats developed loose stools also.  The other two cats have responded to the food (quickly - after 3 days) and they're fine, but Rosie still has the loose stools/diarrhea.  We also tried Fortiflora, for Rosie, because the vet thought maybe the antibiotics did something to her system, but after two weeks it still didn't work.  Now we're trying Albons, a medicine for bacteria, in case there's something in her gut/intestines causing this.  It is worrying and frustrating.  She is very active, eats plenty, and doesn't seem to have any ills except for the poop.   

It looks like there are a lot of other people who have cats with this problem.

My 10 month-old Bengal cat, Timmy, has been having constant loose stools since I brought him home five months ago.  Trips to three different vets showed he had very bad amoebic parasites and e.coli infection.  The infection was very persistent.  It was always 10 days of metronidazole and antibiotics, and after about a week off the meds, the infection will be back again.  After countless times on and off the meds, the infection was finally gone a month ago.  Then after about a week of being declared "germ-free", the loose stools came back again, albeit it wasn't as liquid as before.  The vet suggested we do an ultrasound to rule out any blockage in his digestive tract.  Timmy is a ravenous little kitty, eating anything, and everything that he can swallow, including lizards, roaches, toys, slippers... After the ultrasound test came out normal and abnormalities ruled out, the vet came to the conclusion that it was a food allergy.  All this time I have been feeding him Science Diet ID dry and canned, which was supposed to be good for sensitive stomachs.  I slowly switched him to Wellness grain-free diet, having read about the good stuff about the brand.  Timmy did very well on the food for the first week and I finally got to witness perfect cat poop for the first time!  However, during the 2nd week on Wellness, his stools started becoming loose again.  This has been the 3rd week on Wellness and his loose stools have become a daily thing again.  Even with his digestion problems, Timmy is growing well.  He is muscular, has a nice coat and is very active.   I have started switching him to another grain-free dry food, Pinnacle, last night.  Not sure how he will fare on this one.  I am starting to suspect that Timmy is allergic to chicken, which will be a major problem since I live in Jakarta, where there is not a wide of variety of commercial cat food to choose from.  I have looked for different kinds of cat food with no chicken ingredients but haven't found one.  Does anyone know if it is ok to put a cat on a beef diet?  That is the next easiest ingredient I can get here.  I'm considering preparing my own cat food if the Pinnacle doesn't work out either.  Then there is the issue of what vitamins to put into the food.  Help!  I'm at a loss. 

Beef is okay if Timmy isn't allergic to it. Mogli gets diarrhea from chicken and turkey, so he's being fed grain-free food that's beef, veal, lamb, rabbit, venison or kangaroo.

Bengalcat said:

My 10 month-old Bengal cat, Timmy, has been having constant loose stools since I brought him home five months ago.  Trips to three different vets showed he had very bad amoebic parasites and e.coli infection.  The infection was very persistent.  It was always 10 days of metronidazole and antibiotics, and after about a week off the meds, the infection will be back again.  After countless times on and off the meds, the infection was finally gone a month ago.  Then after about a week of being declared "germ-free", the loose stools came back again, albeit it wasn't as liquid as before.  The vet suggested we do an ultrasound to rule out any blockage in his digestive tract.  Timmy is a ravenous little kitty, eating anything, and everything that he can swallow, including lizards, roaches, toys, slippers... After the ultrasound test came out normal and abnormalities ruled out, the vet came to the conclusion that it was a food allergy.  All this time I have been feeding him Science Diet ID dry and canned, which was supposed to be good for sensitive stomachs.  I slowly switched him to Wellness grain-free diet, having read about the good stuff about the brand.  Timmy did very well on the food for the first week and I finally got to witness perfect cat poop for the first time!  However, during the 2nd week on Wellness, his stools started becoming loose again.  This has been the 3rd week on Wellness and his loose stools have become a daily thing again.  Even with his digestion problems, Timmy is growing well.  He is muscular, has a nice coat and is very active.   I have started switching him to another grain-free dry food, Pinnacle, last night.  Not sure how he will fare on this one.  I am starting to suspect that Timmy is allergic to chicken, which will be a major problem since I live in Jakarta, where there is not a wide of variety of commercial cat food to choose from.  I have looked for different kinds of cat food with no chicken ingredients but haven't found one.  Does anyone know if it is ok to put a cat on a beef diet?  That is the next easiest ingredient I can get here.  I'm considering preparing my own cat food if the Pinnacle doesn't work out either.  Then there is the issue of what vitamins to put into the food.  Help!  I'm at a loss. 

Click to expand...

Timmy may very well be infected with : Tritrichomonas Foetus. This organism looks a lot like giardia when viewed under a microscope, if you're fortunate enough to catch a view of one as they're hard to find, and are often misdiagnosed because of this similarity. The only certain ways to make a sure diagnosis of infestation with t. Foetus is by either the "pouch test", or by PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) which takes a specialized lab, and is fairly expensive. The ONLY treatment for t.Foetus is Ronizadole 30 mg per kg of the cats body weight for 14 days. This is the ONLY drug that will kill t.Foetus. It can have serious side effects. It has to be prepared by a compounding pharmacy, and put in capsule form as it is very bitter
. I have read that there are certain compounding pharmacies that have ready prepared dosages, and the dosage closest to your cat's needs are chosen. If you want to read further on the subject, use the keywords t.Foetus in cats. Dr Jody Gookin has studied, and written on this extensively. Her writing is a great source of information to give to your Veterinarian. I have a near ten year old male Bengal, Sonny, that I was given by a Vet that shelters cats. I've had him for several months, and he's very healthy, except for diarrhea, loose stools, and very foul smells from that , and his frequent flatulence. He's a lovely companion that's extremely intelligent, lively, and is an attention seeker. I am a disabled RN with several decades experience in the medical professions, as well as lifelong experience with animals of every stripe, especially cats. I know cat disorders, diagnosis, and treatments fairly well not being a Vet! Anyway, I'm certain that Sonny doesn't have IBS or IBD. His symptomology doesn't fit. But, his symptoms perfectly fit an t.Foetus infection. Fortunately, I have a Veterinarian that has treated all my companions for several years. He understands, and is sympathetic towards my situation. Even with one cat that was pretty badly injured, stayed in hospital for two nights with IV fluids, etc. my bill was well less than $200. He listens, and gives me credit for my knowledge, as well as actually spends as much time with the babies , and I as we require with absolutely NO rush, or feeling thereof. Good luck to Timmy, and you. May he be healed quickly. I hope the information is helpful in some way.

Michael

Your bengal Timmy sounds just like my bengal, Bullet. He's 8 months old; I've had him for 5 months. The poor thing has had diarrhea the entire time. I've taken him to the vet 3 times. At first I was so worried I had my vet test him for EVERYTHING, including FIV and leukemia. Every single test came back negative including worms and all parasites. My vet said he probably has giardia, which is often hard to detect in tests, as giardia exists in microscopic "cysts" that are not present in every stool (or puddle). At this point, he's gone through 2 courses of Metronidazole, one course of Ronidazole, and been fed numerous powdered dietary supplements given to me by his vet. I really don't know what to do... I'm worried about putting such a young animal on so much strong medication over and over again. Other than the diarrhea, Bullet is happy, frisky, energetic... Really the picture of health, and getting bigger every day. He just weighed in at 10 lbs.

I just ordered Kocci Free from Amazon, it an organic anti-microbial and anti-parasitic supplement containing natural herbs: Olive leaf, mustard seed, black seed, pau d'arco, cloves, grapefruit seed extract, alcohol, & filtered water. The "alcohol" ingredient sounded strange to me at first, but I'm sure it's a very small amount that is safe for cats since it's formatted as a remedy to help eliminate coccidia and giardia protozoan in puppies, dogs, kittens, birds, horses, ferrets, raccoons, pigs, and other animals. I also ordered Vibactra Plus, a natural herbal antibiotic and anti-parasitic alternative that will attack viruses, bacteria and microscopic parasites. When they arrive I will give you an update and let you know if it helps. More info on these at wolfcreekranch.net

Im just about to feed Bullet, and I'm going to add half of a crushed probiotic tablet to his wet food. I read that Probiotics can be given to cats with diarrhea to introduce helpful bacteria into the digestive tract. Probiotics made for humans are often more beneficial, because they contain more than one strain of bacteria... Hopefully it will help.

I'm also planning on switching Bullet to a completely grain free diet. Cats are carnivores whose bodies were not made to digest the grains that are added by many of today’s pet food companies as low-cost fillers. This is the case with cats who have IBD, or Irritable Bowel Disease. Switching to a completely grain-free food and eliminating vegetables from the diet often ceases diarrhea and vomiting in these cats. I've been feeding him Hill's Science Diet Healthy Advantage kitten formula, which I purchase from his vet. It's highly recommended by him, but the first 3 ingredients are Chicken By-Product Meal, Whole Grain Corn, and Corn Gluten Meal. I did some research and found a product called Evo, which is a completely grain free line. Read this article, it pertains specifically to Bengals that are having the same problem as Timmy and Bullet. One quote says "We tend to think much of it is diet based and that most Bengals are especially sensitive to grain-based diets, not to mention meat "by-products" (read most kibbles and canned brands). Perhaps Bengals' sensitivity is because of closer proximity to the wild ancestor and its primordial diet." Really good info here:
http://www.bengalcat.com/healthdiarrhea.pdf

I've also read a couple places, included in the above article as well, that 100% pure canned pumpkin–not pumpkin pie filling–adds fiber to the diet. Pumpkin is a beneficial treatment for feline diarrhea and also helps with constipation in cats. Again, many cats love the taste and can be fed a tablespoon or two per day.

I'll keep you posted about my holistic approach to treating Bullet's diarrhea. Let me know if you find anything that helps as well, and good luck!

Since my last post in March, I have switched Timmy to a homemade raw diet.  It was really a miracle turnaround to say the least.  Prior to raw food, Timmy's  loose stools problem was getting worse - he was going to the litterbox at least twice daily, and it was always a mess.  The day that I fed Timmy raw, his loose stools stopped immediately!  That made me feel guilty because if I had switched him earlier, he wouldn't have been subjected to all the vet visits and meds.  I was initially very reluctant  about feeding Timmy raw because of my human sensibilities...silly me!  I googled and researched about raw feeding before plucking up my courage to feed Tim his first raw platter- raw beef chunks with beef heart and liver that was mixed with Alnutrin, a raw food supplement.  The greedy little fur ball loved it!

I agree with Bullets Mom about

 Perhaps Bengals' sensitivity is because of closer proximity to the wild ancestor and its primordial diet.

Click to expand...

Nevertheless, I now think that a raw diet is what's best for our fur babies, regardless of the breed of cat.  Cats are obligate carnivores and not meant to eat grains, fillers or binders that you would normally find in commercial cat food.  It is actually very easy to feed raw.  This is a good site to go to if you are thinking of feeding raw : RawfedCats.org    

I usually buy about 3 kg (that's a little more than 6 lbs) of raw beef/chicken/pork at one time.  I blanch the meat in hot boiling water for about 10 seconds to kill off the surface bacteria.  Then I cut the meat up into bite-sized pieces and mix it with the raw food supplement.  I bag the mixed up meat into about 40 plus little bags and freeze them.  That will be Timmy's food for about 2 weeks.  In addition,  Timmy also gets a taurine supplement and salmon oil twice daily (just mix it in with the food).  I also put in about 1/8 tsp of canned pumpkin once a day for a little dietary fibre and Bene-bac gel twice weekly for some probiotics.  It all sounds very complicated to the newbie but I assure you, once you get into the rhythm of raw feeding, it's easy.

The thing that I like most about raw feeding is that I can control the type, quality and quantity of the food that I feed Timmy.  No more stressing out about food ingredients.  Right now, Timmy does his BM every 2-3 days.  Cats have very efficient digestive systems where most of the ingested food is converted to energy.  The amount of waste for a raw fed cat is much less compared to a canned/kibble-fed one due to the absence of fillers in the food.

I am very happy that I've made the switch and I think Timmy is the happier one here... no more loose stools!  And my family can now breathe easier too!