Advice for digestive issues

mileycat

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
May 12, 2011
Messages
1
Purraise
0
We have two cats, both will be 5 years old in the next couple months, but they aren't from the same litter. They both appear to be very healthy, and get great bills of health when we take them to the vet.

However, one of them obviously has digestive issues, for which we've not gotten any real help from the 4 different vets we've tried. This is what we notice:
- Kitty is slightly overweight
- He eats about the same amount as his "brother"
- He consistently has "runny" stools... I guess I'd say they're between hershey's syrup and slightly formed in consistency.
- His stools are AWFUL smelling... I mean... clear the whole floor stinky, and he won't bury them
- Sometimes the stool sticks to his rear end, and he "drips" it throughout the house
- Every once in awhile, when we wipe the stuff that's stuck to his rear end, we notice that there will be a small bit of bloody/mucusy substance with the stool. This happens every 6 months or so.

Here are the things that we've gone through with the vets:
- Every vet immediately says parasites. We've spent a LOT of money on parasite testing, and it's always negative. Also, the other cat doesn't have parasites, and neither show any signs of having parasites.
- One vet said there was a flora imbalance in his colon. We were told to give him yogurt/probiotics. This helped in resolving the smelly gas, but not the stool consistency or smell.
- One vet suggested a food allergy. We have been feeding him a grain-free dry food since then (they said not to give him wet food, that it would only make the stools worse). We thought initially that it was helping, but have since gone back to the same symptoms.

Kitty does NOT get table food. He has dry food available when he needs it, as well as water freely available. He doesn't go outside, unless we're right there with him and even then it's for about 5-10 min tops, every few weeks.

Any thoughts or suggestions? The next nearest vet to take him to is over an hour away, and he finds car rides extremely stressful - so I'm hoping we'll stumble on something that will help him (and avoid having to go through another round of "It must be parasites").
 

stephanietx

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
14,768
Purraise
3,489
Location
Texas
Have you had a fecal culture to test for something like giardia, t. foetus, and stuff like that? Have you tried prescription probiotics?
 

minka

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
2,437
Purraise
49
Location
Denton, Texas
I'm going to go against the vet's advice and say go With wet food. When people have diarrhea (which it sounds like he practically has sometimes), you need to drink More so you don't get dehydrated and it doesn't make your diarrhea any worse.
Have you tried non-typical meats? He might be allergic to chicken or fish, so I would try something like quail, duck or venison. Make sure to check the ingredients on the label because sometimes grain-free foods still have oatmeal or barley in them, which is still a grain, and make sure that if its quail flavor it doesnt have chicken fat or anything like that in it.
 

kylew

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Apr 14, 2010
Messages
203
Purraise
3
Location
NYC
Originally Posted by mileycat

- One vet suggested a food allergy. We have been feeding him a grain-free dry food since then (they said not to give him wet food, that it would only make the stools worse). We thought initially that it was helping, but have since gone back to the same symptoms.
Intestinal issues are awful to try and diagnose. It is a process of elimination. Luckily you have seem to have already eliminated grain allergies and parasites. As Minka pointed out, proteins can be allergens. This includes normal proteins like chicken, turkey, fish beef etc.

Novel proteins like duck, venison and rabbit are a good way to see if a protein allergy is what's causing his problem. Natural Balance makes Duck & Green Pea and Venison & Green Pea in both wet and dry versions. It is very good food and the only canned food I feed my cats. Try feeding nothing but a novel protein for 3-4 weeks. That should be long enough to see whether its a protein allergy.
 
Top