Cat with chronic diarrhea....need some advice.

Hello everyone....need some advice.

So, we have a foster right now who we have had almost a year. He was a previous stray who we brought in last summer. He has had diarrhea since we brought him in. Sometimes he goes up to 8 times a day. At first we thought maybe it was because he was a stray, and goodness knows what he was eating outside. So we gave him time to adjust, a few months to be exact. At which then we took him to the vet and had him tested for FIV/FELV and a stool sample/culture. Everything came back negative. The vet gave us some antibiotics and he was on them for 2 weeks, which didn't help at all. We decided to take him to another vet for a second opinion. That vet gave is the same results. So now we are kind of at a brick wall. Here it is a year later and still diarrhea. And he is very gassy. He doesn't usually have blood in his stool, but once in a while we may see a small drop here and there. He is not technically our cat, he is a foster. We just want to get him better before we work on finding him a home. But we cannot afford to take him back to any other vets. Any ideas? Any advice? Any suggestions? We have tried the whole boiled chicken and rice thing, didn't work and he wasn't fond of eating it either. He eats dry cat food right now and drinks plenty of water.  Other than the diarrhea, he acts normally. 

Has he been tested for tritrichomonas foetus?  http://www.highgait.com/page/page/3485008.htm   It requires a special test. 
 

Not sure...we have never heard of it. We can double check though. 

Gosh, so many things can cause diarrhea. Antibiotics can cause diarrhea, too. It could be anything from stress to intestinal parasites to a sensitivity the food he's eating to IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). I assume the stool sample was for testing parasites/worms. Did he have a blood panel done? Did he have a fever?

You could look at his diet. What dry food is he eating? There could be something in the food that is not agreeing with him.

Until you find out what's causing the diarrhea, you could put him on a good human grade probiotic, which may help firm up his stools. I sprinkle the contents of the capsule into my cat's wet food. You could probably sprinkle it over dry, too, although I've never tried that. The one I use has no taste (I tasted the powder).

Thanks for all the advice. Yes, I believe he had a stool sample/culture done for parasites. Never had a blood panel. We just honestly cannot afford anymore vet care for him. And taking him to our local shelter with chronic diarrhea would be nothing but a death sentence for him. And adopting him out right now wouldn't do to well either. Honestly, who wants to adopt a cat who has undiagnosed chronic diarrhea. We just don't know what to do right now. As for the food, we feed him Cat Chow Indoor. This is the only food our cats will eat, so we buy it in bulk. We fed it to our cats, our fosters and the small stray colony we care for. Also, what is a human grade probiotic? 

Thanks for all the help :-)

Tritrich requires a special test as it isn't tested with the normal fecal test. 
 

KLKCats2013 said:

We just honestly cannot afford anymore vet care for him.

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Please take a look at this thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/155462/cant-afford-a-vet-please-read

KLKCats2013 said:

And taking him to our local shelter with chronic diarrhea would be nothing but a death sentence for him. And adopting him out right now wouldn't do to well either. Honestly, who wants to adopt a cat who has undiagnosed chronic diarrhea.

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First of all, thank you for taking this stray in and giving him a loving home. I don't necessarily agree with your statement above. I don't know where you are located, but there may be willing cat lovers out there that would be happy to take him in and give him the care he needs, as long as the problem is made very clear in the beginning (you certainly wouldn't want to surprise anyone!). Someone else may be willing to foster him and get him better so that he can be a good prospect for adoption. Perhaps you could ask the shelter to help you find a new foster home that can tend to his needs? I'm only saying this because I fear that if it too difficult to address the diarrhea problem through a vet, then what should happen to this boy if he develops something really serious? Illnesses and emergencies can creep up without warning. I've been through it.

KLKCats2013 said:

As for the food, we feed him Cat Chow Indoor. This is the only food our cats will eat, so we buy it in bulk.

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Purina Cat Chow is full of grains that can be very aggravating to a cat's digestive system. Did he have diarrhea before you brought him in? You said you brought him in a year ago, and a year ago you started feeding him the Cat Chow. I'm just trying to put two and two together.

KLKCats2013 said:

Also, what is a human grade probiotic?

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You can buy a human grade probiotic at any health/vitamin store. I believe many drug stores carry them, too. Be sure to get capsules that you can open. Try to find one with the least amount of filler ingredients and no other vitamins or minerals. Make sure it does not have propylene glycol in it. Magnesium stearate is okay; this is used to help the powder flow more freely. The one I use is 13 billion organisms with 10 strains. If you search "probiotic" with the TCS site, there are some recent threads that may help you.

I'd go with all the suggestions people have posted above and see if you can sort something out for the vet fees but:  I had a cat who presented with hard belly, gas and chronic diarrhea for about the first 3 or 4 years of her life. She went through so many screening tests, courses of antibiotics and medications to try to settle her and at one point was on continuous medication for over a year. (The poor mite, I didn't have a great vet in those days). Nothing resolved it until I finally I tried dietary changes and that was it, gone. She lived to 21 1/2!  I hope your little cat's problems too can be solved with the simplest of actions.  My cat wasn't TOO picky about her food so I was lucky but once she was predominantly on the higher protein grain free stuff she seemed to know it was better for her any way and chose that over what ever else I put down for her sister. I think if I'd known about the probiotic thing then I would have given that too.

We will look into the probiotic. Thanks!

We are located in Philadelphia, PA. We actually have already went to the shelter and talked to someone who works there and they said if we bring him in and he is sick, he will be put to sleep. Especially right now since it is kitten season. They even have to put young healthy kittens to sleep due to lack of space. I also spoke with the lady in The Lifesaving Dept. and she said they have no open fosters that are willing to take sick cats right now. We have tried craigslist for months, to only get a few emails from idiots that say ''how much for the cat'' or '' I can take it'' . Which we didn't even respond. 

As for the vet bills, we are already living on a fixed income. Which we budget for all of our needs and our cats. So with that being said, we just don;t have the money to pay for a vet bill for a stray cat. We are still getting over having to pay a little over $2000.00 for our cat to have all of her teeth removed. Which hurt us financially a lot, but we managed. And with this guy that we brought in. we have already spent close to $400.00 on vet bills for him too. So we have tried and we are trying.

I know Cat Chow is not the healthiest food around, but our cats are just plain picky and will not eat anything else. We tried Wellness and Innova, Science Diet and Blue cat food and they didn't touch it. We do boil chicken and give it to them a few times a week though. We have been feeding the stray guy Cat Chow for around 3 years or so now. He was a stray who lived outside near our house for years, we have always fed him. But last year we had a bad hurricane storm and we brought him in, and ever since he stayed in. He had diarrhea since the day we brought him in. 

Hope that answers all of your questions. 

HI,  I'm new here and haven't even intruduced myself on the appropriate forum yet, but your problem caught my attention.

I think stephanietx could be on the right track.  Tritrich is much more common than most cat lovers realize.  Many times I have heard of owners treating thier cats for giardia, the relief is only temporary.  Tritrich is VERY treatable!!! I believe there is an article published by a vet school about it.  I think it was Davis.    

KLKCats2013 said:

......................... We have been feeding the stray guy Cat Chow for around 3 years or so now. He was a stray who lived outside near our house for years, we have always fed him. But last year we had a bad hurricane storm and we brought him in, and ever since he stayed in. He had diarrhea since the day we brought him in. 

Hope that answers all of your questions. 

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     Any chance he's getting in to something toxic / irritating for him in the house?  Plants or cleaning things?????

One other thought is that he can't tolerate whatever you're feeding him.  I had a kitty with chronic loose stools who couldn't handle an all grain-free diet.  The vet gave us Royal Canin gastrointestinal HE food and the problem was solved!  Have you tried an RX food for him for sensitive tummies or IBD?

Try raw food like INSTINCT stopped chronic diarrhea overnight. Cat went from starving all the time, skin and bones to a healthy happy cat in a matter of no time. If I feed him dry/canned no matter what brand, diarrhea returns. He has zero problems on raw. Went through trying everything for 1 year until I figured this out.