Intestinal issues

Hi-

  I am hoping this group can help.  One of my cats Phaedra has had issues with constipation for years. She was prescribed probiotics (mostly to get her to eat wet food because she also has Urinary Issues) and miralax. Up until recently this has worked great. She has had a few issues and still won't use the litter box to go poop, but otherwise we are/were doing well. The real issue at that point was that neither of my cats, (Phaedra has a sister Lily) liked the cheap general brand wet food we feed to them in addition to the Feline C\D. They ate both, sort of. They would at least eat the CD with probiotics and when they were hungry.  The cheap stuff not so much. So I finally tried to experiment with some of the more expensive and natural stuff I found Wervua Cats in the Kitchen because it was on sale at website supported by Ebates.  I cannot tell you how much they LOVED it. I would have clean bowls every night and it didn't when I started it a month ago seem to effect Phaedra constipation or UTI issues at all. I tried a few cheaper all natural food in the mean time but not often, but the cats didn't like them. SO my husband and decided that we would stick with the Wervua stuff.  Things have been okay since.

Now a bout a week ago Phaedra has some issue with pooping. She did her usual holding it in as long as she could (we think she is scared to poop and that there really isn't a physical medical issue with the constipation) She went a little but not much. Two days later we had an explosion of diarrhea for about 24 hours. I took her to the vet, and they put her on probiotics and a diarrhea med. She appeared to improve She wasn't quite her usual self, I think she vomited up some food yesterday, but we were giving the cats the minimal amount of probiotics, so I wasn't that concerned. But then Sunday Lily began to have the same issues, and she wouldn't eat.  Yesterday when I got home from work I found that Phaedra had vomited and lily had diarrhea (in the litter box thankfully) I gave them both food with extra water, as Phaedra at least seemed mildly dehydrated, Lily didn't eat at all yesterday or this morning. SO I took her to the vet today. This vet told me that I should be giving them each a whole packet of probiotics a day and then prescribed her melds for the diarrhea. He also discussed her heart murmur and tarter with me but that is for a different post.  So that is what I did when I got home.

Back to Phaedra now, about a half  hour after that ate, Phaedra had a bowel movement. Much of it was solid but some was very loose. My feeling is that it was the pro-biotic helping with her constipation. She has been eating the past few days and we haven't been given her much pro-biotic (I had read somewhere that the fortiflora packets were good but you didn't need to give the cats the whole individual packet.) So tonight when we gave her a whole packet it went right through her system. 

Here are my questions. Can pro-biotic work that quick? Also does anyone else us "Cat in the Kitchen and have had experience with loose stools? 

Any help would be appreciated, I tend to be anxious about my little ones and I don't think there is a reason to be worried but I would like to be told there isn't one. I will call the vet in the morning to check as well, but I thought I would ask here first.

Oh the poor babies!

Quick question - how long have the been on the Weruva pouches? I think a number of people here at TCS use them, and haven't had any problems. Weruva is usually a simple-ingredient, high quality product. :nod:

If there's going to be a problem with a new food, it usually turns up within 24 - 48 hours. It sounds like they've been eating it quite a bit longer than that? If I'm right, then I very much doubt it was the food.

There has been a a lot of kitties experiencing viruses of some kind this year. I think it was about three weeks ago, a round of diarrhea ran through (I don't MEAN the pun) our kitties. 7 of the 8 had problems for two days, and then it just cleared up. I doubled their dose of probiotics. Also, when something like that happens, I use DiaGel. It works for both constipation or diarrhea. It's expensive per dose, but works REALLy well. It's a thick liquid/paste kind of thing in a small syringe that you just squirt into the pocket of their cheek. I've only ever needed to use 2 doses (12 hours apart). This is the product (I always keep some on hand!) http://www.revivalanimal.com/DiaGel.html

The miralax works very well for most kitties with constipation issues. I use slippery elm and aloe vera juice (George's - it has no flavor) instead. I also don't recommend Fortiflora - it's not such a great probiotic. It's got animal digest in it, which is an ingredient just not good for kitties, and most of the ingredients are fermentation products, not live cultures. Cats do love it (because of the animal digest), and it's wonderful to use to get them to eat.

The probiotic we use daily for our cats is a human acidophilus+bifidus supplement (my husband and I take it too). We buy the Natural Factors double strength (with 10 billion active CFU). I do recommend a human supplement with at least 10 billion active CFU (even if you spread it out over the day - we just give it all at one meal) over pretty much any pet probiotic, but especially Fortiflora. :slant:

Hope this helps!