Food for Soft Stools

Hello,

I rescued a young (about 9 months- 1 year) stray from the neighborhood last November.  She has been an inside only cat ever since.  Problem is, I can't get her to have normal stools.  They might be fine one day then terrible the next and the cycle repeats again.  She has been to the vet and had all sorts of tests and blood work and they can't find anything wrong with her.  I use fortiflora on her food, but nothing seems to help.  I need help finding a food for her.

Started with Blue Buffalo(canned) -it was terrible!!!  She had explosive diarrhea.

Then the vet suggested Hill's ID prescription (canned), which was fine for a short time and then the soft stools came back.

Recently I have been feeding her boiled chicken/white rice mixed with a little Hill's ID, which temporarily worked.

Today, I found online that perhaps California Natural Chicken and Rice or Innova might be good to try, but when I called the store they said it had just been pulled for recall!!!!

I'm going a bit crazy.  Can someone please suggest a food I should try?  I'm a complete loss and I hate to see her uncomfortable.

Thanks so much

Have you tried adding some canned pumpkin?  Sounds crazy, but a lot of people on here have good results.

Another idea is to try feeding raw.  There is a sub-forum that you should read some posts from.   www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-feeding-for-cats

Was she tested for C.diff and parasites?

Thanks for your reply.

She has been tested for everything and came out negative.  It has been very frustrating.  I have read about the pumpkin, but I am worried that it might make her stools even more liquid as pumpkin has so much fiber.

I have read through the raw diet info and unfortunately I just don't think it is something I could keep up.

I was hoping someone had a brand of canned or dry food that they had found to be successful in clearing up soft stools.  I want to get her off the Hill's ID and I am at a loss for what to try.  I was thinking maybe Wellness Core?
 

Pumpkin has been used effectively for both diarrhea and constipation problems, so it's worth a shot. However it does seem like there is a deeper issue here, and pumpkin is usually a temporary fix.

It may be a food allergy issue. If you tried the
plain chicken and rice diet for a while (wish it had been without the Hill's ID for a better test) and it was successful, then I would recommend trying a very limited ingredient diet, something without any grains/vegetables/fruits. Try one of the mostly meat canned varieties like EVO or Hound & Gatos.

catlover32 said:

Thanks for your reply.

She has been tested for everything and came out negative.  It has been very frustrating.  I have read about the pumpkin, but I am worried that it might make her stools even more liquid as pumpkin has so much fiber.

I have read through the raw diet info and unfortunately I just don't think it is something I could keep up.

I was hoping someone had a brand of canned or dry food that they had found to be successful in clearing up soft stools.  I want to get her off the Hill's ID and I am at a loss for what to try.  I was thinking maybe Wellness Core?

 

Click to expand...

If I recall, Wellness Core just had a recall not too long ago. You can check the FDA website to make sure. Here is the link to it http://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/safetyhealth/recallswithdrawals/default.htm Maybe it was last year. I don't remember, there have been so many of them lately.

I am hard pressed to recommend a food for you because I'm not sure what will work since you've had the vet check out the problem. My suggestion, like Vball's would be to try some pumpkin. It really does help and has been used successfully by many, many people here.

Thanks everyone for the replies.  I will go ahead and give the canned pumpkin a try.  I started just feeding her chicken and rice yesterday and cut out the little bit of Hill's ID I was including.  We'll see how it goes, but I would like to get her back on some canned food.

I would really like to get her off the prescription Hill's ID since it doesn't seem to be working.  I spent some time at Petco yesterday looking at the options.  EVO was pulled and they don't carry Hound and Gatos so I looked at a few others.  Nature's Variety-Instinct was a brand I looked at.  Anyone know if it is a good one to try?  It seemed somewhat similar to EVO, which will not be back in stock for quite some time according to the store.

Thanks again for your help.

Nature's Variety Instinct is pretty good. The only issues for me were the peas and carrots (which are big enough to be picked out) and the fact that my cat didn't like it.

Were the EVO cans pulled? I thought cans weren't part of the recall, just the dry???

I like Nature's Variety. I think it's a good one to try.

Your situation sounds very similar to mine. Mine had loose stools for many many months, from the time I brought them home. They had good days sometimes and I would think we were out of the woods, then it 'd start all over again. Many tests, meds, and suggestions from the vet did not help. Raw helped tremendously, but then one of them got to where he wasn't tolerating the raw so well anymore. So, the combination that is working well for us right now is Iams multicat chicken dry, a wide variety of canned, and Probios probiotics. The one who can still eat it also gets raw instead of canned sometimes. Knock on wood, we have had solid stools for the longest we've ever had them on this combo.

Some probiotics can help with diarrhea, but I'm sorry to say I don't know which ones, and sometimes they can cause diarrhea. Perhaps a more knowledgeable member can chime in here?
 

I tried fortiflora, intelliflora, acidophilus/bifidus, and probios. Probios seemed to help us the most. Many use Natural Factors acidophilus, and I have heard good things about Eagle Pack Holistic Solution. Guess all kitties are different.

Thanks everyone for your replies.  I will check into getting a different probiotic this weekend when I have time.  I was able to get some Hound and Gatos from a friend in San Francisco.  I will start slowly mixing it in with her chicken and rice.  She's been on the plain chicken and rice diet for a few days and still has soft stools every other day.  She also threw up her rice today, which is a first.  However, she's acting normal and seems to have a lot of energy which is a good sign.

Thanks again for your help.