How to solidify poop?

Our cat has an uber-sensitive digestive tract and tended to have chronic diarrhea, but when I started giving him Instinct's frozen rabbit it helped him a lot. I was recommended by Dr. Lisa Pierson, the best vet in the world in my opinion, to also give him oat bran, which also helps. But unfortunately, Instinct changed the recipe of their frozen rabbit very recently and now it's giving him problems! It's not diarrhea . . . yet, but his poop isn't as solid and dry (that's the ideal cat poop texture) I don't want to wait for that to happen. I'm at a loss now on what to do, I've tried so many brands and it's given him severe diarrhea. Thank goodness I have 1 more bag of the original Instinct rabbit which doesn't really give him problems, but it'll run out in a couple of weeks, yikes!

Is there anything else that's natural that I can give him to firm up his poop?

Try getting your raw rabbit from here: https://www.hare-today.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_35&products_id=114

You will also need this supplement to mix in: https://www.hare-today.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=290

If you like Nature's Variety Raw, you will LOVE this meat. This is TRUE rabbit meat, and nothing more - no veggies, no additives, nothing your kitty doesn't need. It does come balanced with the right proportions of organs and bones. You do need to mix the supplements in though, since you are dealing with ground meat, and you will have at least some Taurine depletion there. It is easy though :nod:

They have a great selection in there too, if you want to try - their meat is great and fresh, shipping is very very reasonable, it is really great stuff.

Hope this helps!

PS - to firm up poop, you control the amount of bone in the diet - NV is actually pretty high on bone.... I wonder if they went lower :dk:

The ideal poop consistency is not solid and dry though.... It is solid but moist.... Solid and dry you are getting close to constipation, and it is a sign of too much bone in the diet - which would explain you having this type of poop on NV.... They about 15% of bone content..... 5% more than what the recommended ratio is (10% bones).

On another note, I personally am sure about oat bran.... if it is working.... then sure..... But..... :dk:

Yeah, Dr. Pierson rocks! :bigthumb:

Thank you for your suggestions, Carolina! I thought taurine is from bone?

The weird thing about our cat is that when he has the dry golden-colored poop he's consistent about using the litter box and burying it, but when it's solid but not dried-up then sometimes he uses the litter box and sometimes not! It's so frustrating because it happens so often!

Anyway, with the new recipe of Instinct frozen rabbit his poop seemed kinda pasty and he shot out of the litter box like a madman. Makes me think that when his poop is just a wee bit not super firm that it makes him uncomfortable or something, judging from his weird behavior.

I know, oat bran is counter-intuitive to me, but Dr. Pierson explained that it can work both ways, which I don't understand.
 

Forgot to mention that when our cat was eating Instinct frozen chicken, at first he was fine on it but his poop eventually started to get softer, which is why I tried Instinct frozen rabbit and it's been much better for him. All I can guess is maybe the chickens had corn in their diet and our cat is ultra-sensitive to corn.

No, no.... Calcium, which balances the phosphorous in the meat comes from the bone. Taurine comes from the meat. Because it is water soluble, and it degrades by oxidation, ground meat loses some of the taurine content as the surface area in contact with the air increases quite a bit. There is a theory about bacterial degradation as well.... Anyways, you need to add it back :nod:
Have you tried not feeding him the oat bran to see what happens?
Pasty poop means low bone, usually....
What you can do is increase The amount of Ca by a tiny bit by adding powdered eggshells to your food. It is Calcium, just like in the bones.
You prepare by washing the egg shells well, removing the membranes, then baking on the oven at 350F for 30 minutes.
Pur them into a milkshake blender or a small food possessor (or coffee grinder) and grind it into a fine powder. Use just a tiny little bit just a tiny pinch on the food (i mean really tiny) and watch the litter box. You can control how firm the poop gets by adding more or less calcium. But be careful to not add too much!

chowchow said:

Forgot to mention that when our cat was eating Instinct frozen chicken, at first he was fine on it but his poop eventually started to get softer, which is why I tried Instinct frozen rabbit and it's been much better for him. All I can guess is maybe the chickens had corn in their diet and our cat is ultra-sensitive to corn.

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that can be the case, I can only feed vegetarian fed, cage free chicken to my Ibd kitty, otherwise he will have violent diarrhea.... :nod:

I've given our cat frozen organic free-range chicken and it gave him horrific diarrhea!!! Which is why I ended up trying rabbit and it's been so much better. The brand was Small Batch, a young growing pet food company.

Anyways, when you mentioned that it's bone/calcium that will dry up his poop, I did think about adding calcium to his diet and am glad you mentioned it today. I know I won't make my own calcium powder from eggshells, so I'm going to look for some in a health food store. I assume you've done this for your cat and adding a pinch makes a big difference?

Yes, I balance my home made food with eggshell powder, and the poops here are perfect.

Here is where I buy: http://knowwhatyoufeed.com/shop_online.html
It is all the way on the bottom of the page.

Now, when I say "pinch" I am not saying literally - I am referring to a tiny, tiny amount. How tiny? 1/128 TSP Tiny :lol3:

Ok..... here is how you can achieve that: Mini spoon set
The smallest spoon is called "Drop" it is 1/64TSP - I would start with 1/2 of that on your meals.... and see how your baby does.

Each 1/32 TSP of eggshell is enough to completely balance 1oz of food - that is when you have NO bones in the diet at all. You already have bone in the diet. If you put too much Ca, your cat can get terribly constipated, so please do be careful.

I forgot to answer your question about not using oat bran -- I think I started giving him the rabbit without oat bran, but the moment his poop becomes a bit softer I get defensive, so I started giving him 1/2 teaspoon of oat bran, and then he's fine, then his poop eventually gets a bit softer and he'll poop on the floor, then I increased the oat bran to about 7/8 of a teaspoon, and then the pattern repeats, so I keep increasing the oat bran incrementally, and now he's been getting a heaping teaspoon with each meal.
 

I just hope I can find calcium powder in a store. I'm not one to make stuff, so I wouldn't be grinding raw meat for our cat. I'll write back to update you on results of the calcium powder if I can find it.

Carolina, I really appreciate all your detailed advice, thank you so much!!!

chowchow said:

I forgot to answer your question about not using oat bran -- I think I started giving him the rabbit without oat bran, but the moment his poop becomes a bit softer I get defensive, so I started giving him 1/2 teaspoon of oat bran, and then he's fine, then his poop eventually gets a bit softer and he'll poop on the floor, then I increased the oat bran to about 7/8 of a teaspoon, and then the pattern repeats, so I keep increasing the oat bran incrementally, and now he's been getting a heaping teaspoon with each meal.

 
I just hope I can find calcium powder in a store. I'm not one to make stuff, so I wouldn't be grinding raw meat for our cat. I'll write back to update you on results of the calcium powder if I can find it.

Carolina, I really appreciate all your detailed advice, thank you so much!!!

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No problem hun.... But did you get the link I posted to buy online?
Also, do get the little spoons.... They are very helpful.....

Yes.... that's a sign that the oat bran is not working

The egg shell powder is sooooo easy to make at home though - don't be afraid if you can't order it online.... You can make it very very easily :nod:

Oh, and BTW, Hare Today is already ground and perfect - all you need to do, is defrost the chub, mix in a measuring spoon of the supplement per pound with 1/4 cup of water, and freeze it again in ziplock bags - I freeze in meal size baggies.... Easy peasy, and awesome stuff. Because it is 100% rabbit, it might work better for your little one too :nod:
It is also cheaper than any commercial food out there....... Anyways.... if you want to try something else, know it is a great choice!! :nod:

Maybe to you it's super easy to do that mixing of the supplement, but using Instinct's frozen food for him is already enough work for me. I'd love to put him back on canned food, so much easier.
 

chowchow said:

Thank you for your suggestions, Carolina! I thought taurine is from bone?

The weird thing about our cat is that when he has the dry golden-colored poop he's consistent about using the litter box and burying it, but when it's solid but not dried-up then sometimes he uses the litter box and sometimes not! It's so frustrating because it happens so often!

Anyway, with the new recipe of Instinct frozen rabbit his poop seemed kinda pasty and he shot out of the litter box like a madman. Makes me think that when his poop is just a wee bit not super firm that it makes him uncomfortable or something, judging from his weird behavior.

I know, oat bran is counter-intuitive to me, but Dr. Pierson explained that it can work both ways, which I don't understand.

 

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This kind of poop does not sound normal to me, so I would try to stay away from it, instead of lean towards it.
I don't know enough about all these ratios to make any other comments though :lol3:

Carolina, I found one health food store close to me that sells 100% calcium powder that has nothing else, but it's made from limestone -- what do you think? If you don't think that's a good idea to give to a cat then I'll order the eggshell powder from the website you provided.

chowchow said:

Carolina, I found one health food store close to me that sells 100% calcium powder that has nothing else, but it's made from limestone -- what do you think? If you don't think that's a good idea to give to a cat then I'll order the eggshell powder from the website you provided.

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Ok - Alnutrin, a supplement for cats, has a version with Limestone, so I am assuming it is OK. I personally rather feed from eggshell.... Both are Calcium Carbonate.... Once you decide what you are going to do, we figure out what the percentage is, and how much you will have to use....

Now that I think about it some more, I think I feel more comfortable about giving our cat the eggshell powder, sounds more natural to be ingesting something from a food source.
 

chowchow said:

Now that I think about it some more, I think I feel more comfortable about giving our cat the eggshell powder, sounds more natural to be ingesting something from a food source.

 

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That's how I feel about it too :nod:

Back to the poop, I found a link on an unrelated thread that suggests that dry poop is okay
http://catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#Constipation
:dk:

Yep, I am well familiar with that picture.... Have a similar one here on tcs- Bugsys first solid poop lol! Isn't that funny! I almost framed that picture so excited I was

Yes, I do remember reading that in Dr. Pierson's website (she's the most awesome vet ever!), which is why I wasn't worried about our cat's dry poop.
 

Carolina, I bought the eggshell powder and mini measuring spoons from the links you gave me. Wow, that eggshell powder REALLY WORKS!!!!! Amazing!!!! So potent!!! I wish I knew about it a long time ago!!!! Thank you SO VERY MUCH!!!