Chronic diarrhea or just a normal "phase"?

Hi all, I just want to start off by saying I'm planning on calling my vet in the morning but I'm driving myself crazy reading various forum threads and articles full of horror stories right now so I thought I'd get some opinions on my situation to hopefully put my mind at ease a little bit. I should also say that this may be a little gross, but then you probably expected that when you saw the thread title.

I have one almost two-year-old cat (Hawkeye) and have just adopted another almost eight-month-old kitty named Lucius. He was in great shape when I got him (he had been adopted from a shelter as a baby by a family, but they found they couldn't keep him and gave him up to a very nice rescue--no cages, good food, etc.). He is very playful, eats normally, drinks a good amount of water, has a glossy coat and overall seems very healthy. He passed his initial exam four weeks ago with flying colors and I just took him to be neutered last week and the vet said he was in good health. He has recently gotten a couple of doses of dewormer (within the last month).

The only problem is that he has had diarrhea since I brought him home 5 weeks ago. His stools are never formed at all (just a puddle) and very smelly. At first I assumed it was from the stress of moving to a new home, then I thought he might be adjusting to a new food. However, tonight I was changing the litter and he took the opportunity when I had the bare box sitting on the floor to get inside and poop, and I was kind of horrified since I hadn't ever seen exactly what one of his bowel movements looked like except in clumped form when I was scooping the box. What really worried me was that there was a tiny amount of bright red blood in the stool (a very small amount, and nothing tarry, black or mucus-y...just a tiny line of blood in the puddle). He wasn't straining and there did not seem to be any pain.

I have been feeding him and Hawkeye a half-cup each of California Natural chicken and rice kibble in the morning and a half-can (6 oz.) each of wet canned in the evening. I have been feeding a different brand/flavor of high-quality, grain-free canned almost every day trying to figure out what they like (since I only started feeding canned when I got Lucius; Hawkeye had been eating exclusively Pure Vita kibble before I got Lucius). I had heard that once they got used to canned, it would be fine to rotate brands/flavors as much as I like, but I am wondering if the constant rotation might be causing the diarrhea? Hawkeye hasn't been having any problems with diarrhea at all, but I know all cats are different. 

So, could it just be a normal reaction to all the different foods they have been getting, or should I be worrying about IBD, food allergies, parasites, etc.? Any thoughts, things I should talk to my vet about tomorrow, etc.?

Just found the April 19 recall of the California Natural dry food. I checked my bag and the expiration date is 1/14 so it's in the recall range. I'm wondering if that might be the culprit, although I assume that Hawkeye would be sick too if it was Salmonella.

A fecal exam should be done to rule out intestinal parasites - not just the Elisa SNAP tests, but the kind sent to an outside lab. Ask that it be tested for "everything". A number of things could be causing the diarrhea, including a bacterial infection, change in diet, food intolerance and just plain stress from moving from one home to a shelter and then to your home. It could be a combination of factors. The important thing is to rule out - or treat - any sort of infection and go from there. The vet will probably prescribe something to stop the diarrhea and put your cat on a prescription diet till the problem is resolved.

We've been going through the same thing with a 10-month-old we adopted in early March. He's been diagnosed with enterohemorraghic E coli and malabsorption and put on two medications and a very low-fat diet. He also has a poultry intolerance. You'll really have to work with your vet on this and resist the temptation to experiment with home remedies until certain things are ruled out by a professional.
Good luck and lots of

Hello, and welcome to TCS.

I doubt the bag you have is bad, as you say, your other cat is not having issues, and if it was salmonella, your boy would be sick and you'd know it. That he is active, playful, eating and drinking is a good sign. The recall was Natura's choice as a safety measure. Rotating wet foods is usually not an issue either.

That said, your new fellow may be having issues with adjusting to the better quality food. As a shelter cat and then in a rescue, they tend to get food that is donated and not always the best. Also a lot of the "grain frees" have other stuff added as fillers, like potato, peas, other vegetables, ect. These new added fillers cause loose stools in my female. Look for foods high in protein and low in carbs. I prefer foods that may have some brown rice over those with potato. Have you read catinfo.org? Great source for information on cat nutrition.

Has he been retested for worms? I know you said he'd been given a dewormer, did it work? You said he'd been checked by a vet, is he aware of the loose stools? To be on the safe side, I'd probably have him checked again and talk to your vet about the blood you saw. I believe it is a sign his bowel is being irritated and it may be diet related. Many members here would know better then me on that, as they have dealt with it themselves. Hopefully some others will chime in on this.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Hi guys, thanks so much for the advice and support! I just got back from the vet. I took what I was sure was a stool sample with me, but when I handed it over they said it was only urine--d'oh! They were able to collect some and do a float test and a smear. They found a heavy load of spirochete bacteria and gave me metronidazole, and also gave him a more complete de-wormer that is supposed to take care of tapeworms as well as hookworms and roundworms. I was told not to change his diet until we see if the antibiotic works, so here's hoping I was panicking over nothing last night!

troubleminx said:

Hi guys, thanks so much for the advice and support! I just got back from the vet. I took what I was sure was a stool sample with me, but when I handed it over they said it was only urine--d'oh! They were able to collect some and do a float test and a smear. They found a heavy load of spirochete bacteria and gave me metronidazole, and also gave him a more complete de-wormer that is supposed to take care of tapeworms as well as hookworms and roundworms. I was told not to change his diet until we see if the antibiotic works, so here's hoping I was panicking over nothing last night!

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That's good news! Glad a diagnosis was able to be found and is relatively easy to fix. Whew huh? I'm sure now he will be fine once he's cleared up and his diet won't need further changing. Listen, we all here panic when we think something is wrong with our furbabies, it's called loving them. Good luck with him and keep us posted. Pics are nice too!

Hi guys! I meant to check in last Monday when I got the all-clear from the vet. Lucius was forming normal stools again by the end of last week and I took in a sample to the vet on Saturday for a full lab work-up. They called on Monday to say that his sample was a good shape, all clear of the bacteria they had observed the week before, and the lab test showed no parasites.

Since then, however, he's relapsed. I went in today to get a second course of metronidazole for him, but if this course doesn't clear him up for good we're going to have to look for other causes (i.e., the ones I was originally worried about). Meanwhile, I took my other cat, Hawkeye, in this morning as well because I suspected at UTI. He spent all his time yesterday evening in the litterbox, straining and producing almost nothing, and this morning as I was getting ready to go to the vet he peed bright red urine in the bathtub. So now I've got two sick kitties, instead of one. The vet kept him for a couple of hours this morning trying to get a urine sample, but said he didn't use the box once while he was there. I find that hard to believe since he's peed in the litterbox three times and the bathtub once since I got home an hour ago. I'm about to give him the anti-inflammatory she sent me home with to see if that helps any. I've also got amoxicillin tabs to give him every 12 hours, which should be fun.

Here's a photo, since you asked! Hawkeye is the orange tabby, Lucius is the tuxedo.

Wow, when it rains it pours, huh?  So sorry now that BOTH your furbabies are sick .  They're adorable, BTW

With Hawkeye, I really don't think switching around canned food is the issue, but definitely WHAT you are feeding him could be, if he has a tendency toward IBD (can that be a tendency I wonder?)

Are you giving him a good probiotic?  That might help.  I give mine the same one that we take.  This one:  .  I just open up the capsule and give them  1/2 capsule mixed into their food in the a.m. and the other half in the p.m. 

for both your boys!

Lucius is the one with possible IBD issues. I'm definitely going to ask about a probiotic for him when I take Hawkeye in for observation tomorrow morning. He's on his second round of antibiotics now and I'm sure his gut flora is just all out of whack. I think finishing this second round + probiotics seems like a reasonable intermediate step before I start the arduous process of trying to figure out if he has a food allergy/intolerance and what ingredients are the culprit(s). From looking around it seems like Proviable might be a good choice--have any of you used this?

I'm already switching off the kibble for good (something I should have done earlier but was trying to get away with for my budget's sake--a familiar story to many of you, I'm sure!). I definitely couldn't continue doing anything that might cause urinary problems for them again in the future. Watching Hawkeye clearly in pain and just dribbling tiny amounts of bloody urine is breaking my heart. Fortunately he seemed WORLDS better after I gave him a dose of Metacam yesterday, and doesn't seem in nearly as much pain. I was very worried about him blocking completely at some point today and needing to take him to the emergency vet but it looks like he's going to make it till his regular vet opens tomorrow, yay!

I AM a little bitter about the fact that the regular vet prescribed antibiotic pills without doing an urinalysis, which seems unnecessary based on what I have read, not to mention cruel to put me and him through administering a pill twice a day. Despite trying my best with the "burrito method" as well as lots of love and treats afterward I am COVERED in scratches, and it makes it less bearable knowing that the amoxicillin is probably not doing him any good. Sigh!

Please be careful with Metacam. It is approved for single use only, usually surgery-related. I would not use it for FLUTD. Buprenorphine is a much safer pain med for cats.

I looked up the Metacam website this morning and thought it was strange that the vet had given me what appeared to be a pre-surgery anti-inflammatory instead of buprenorphine, which seemed to be common from other threads I was reading, but I didn't think too much of it. It's been over 24 hours since his last dose and she told me it could be given once a day. He's starting to make more frequent trips and strain more so I think some of his pain and inflammation is returning. I was considering giving him another dose--would you recommend against it?

EDITED TO ADD: Well, that took about 30 seconds of googling to almost pass out from some of the horror stories about giving Metacam to cats. Why would she give this to me instead of buprenorphine???

I would not give him another dose of Metacam. I would get buprenorphine tomorrow.

I definitely won't!! I'm going to have to have a talk with her tomorrow about why she would prescribe this (not to mention the antibiotic) without even a urinalysis to check his kidney function or any warnings about the very high danger of overdose! I wasn't even told to mix it with food--she just gave me premeasured syringes for oral administration. Unbelievable! I am probably going to have to start looking for another vet.

The good news is that 24 hours after his single dose of Metacam he is still eating, playing, and sleeping normally and his number of trips to the litter box has gone down and urine production has gone up a bit, and he's not drinking water excessively. So as far as I can tell he isn't showing any adverse effects and his FLUTD symptoms may actually be improving a bit on their own. Phew!

I would also recommend looking into corn silk supplement. It is commonly used for bladder inflammation of which the blood in the urine is usually a sign.