just an update on Dolly and her diarrhea $350 and counting! A horror story continuing....

Well, took poor little Dolly to a "new" vet today to try and find the cause of her recurring loose stools when given dry food. I have an old thread on her with pics but the summary is she gets severe diarrhea when taken off her chicken/rice/pumpkin and given any dry food..tried science diet, blue buff, enova, etc. She has had this condition since her rescue in late October and she is around 6 months now.  No mucus or blood in the stool, plays and acts like a wild child...but is crazy for our other rescue cats dry food!  We have to shut her in another room while we feed them.

three stool specimens later with two different vets, wormed twice (even though they found nothing) and now on Baytril for the 2nd time (first time we took her off it as the stools got worse!).

The "new" vet did all the same stuff, temp, ears, stool, felt her all over, asked about plants in house, were we giving her dairy products, all no! Total today $190..

So, finding nothing obvious, he decided to do a Fecal Pathogen Profile for $103 the results of which will be in from the lab next week.

We continue to pay (over $350 now on our retirement income) with no real results and no end in sight. Guess it wouldn't seem so bad if I thought we were making some progress and we could feed her the dry she wants and we could get away from fixing the hand made food every 2-3 days.

Will update on the fecal profile when it comes in.

See below Dolly (the red) and Spunky crashed after a several hours of hard play!

I don't have a solution for you, but I do  have sympathy.  We've been fighting a diarrhea problem in one of our foster kittens for over 3 months now.  Hers is at least partially giardia.

First, as you're doing, you have to ensure giardia, coccidia, and T. Foetus are ruled out. Here's info on T. Foetus, often found to be the cause of the problem when diarrhea continues yet reason not identified: http://fabcats.org/breeders/infosheets/tritrichomonas.html

But once all of those are ruled out, you need to consider the food as the potential source of the problem. Your kitty may have IBS or IBD. These can be diagnosed via biopsy, but a probiotic may also help, as well as reducing exposure to carbs and grains.

In fact - a probiotic, if a vet has not yet recommended this, is probably a really good place to start asap. Proviable DC is a good one for cats. Or you can just buy an acidophilus probiotic (we get ours from the health food store).

LDG said:

First, as you're doing, you have to ensure giardia, coccidia, and T. Foetus are ruled out. Here's info on T. Foetus, often found to be the cause of the problem when diarrhea continues yet reason not identified: http://fabcats.org/breeders/infosheets/tritrichomonas.html
But once all of those are ruled out, you need to consider the food as the potential source of the problem. Your kitty may have IBS or IBD. These can be diagnosed via biopsy, but a probiotic may also help, as well as reducing exposure to carbs and grains.
In fact - a probiotic, if a vet has not yet recommended this, is probably a really good place to start asap. Proviable DC is a good one for cats. Or you can just buy an acidophilus probiotic (we get ours from the health food store).

Click to expand...

My kitty Bugsy had a World record diarrhea :lol3: of 1 yr and 2 months after taking Clavamox for a UTI...... I spent thousands on countless vet trips. I tried EVERYTHING. Nothing worked. Until the day I switched him to a raw diet - in 5 days his poop was completely formed and solid, and has been since.
Him and my other kitty are already transitioned, and I am working on the third one - I am looking forward to a future without piles of vet bills :nod:
Proviable-DC is an excellent probiotic :nod: