Kitten with food intolerance issues

Hello Everyone. I will try to make this as brief as possible... I have a 7 month old kitten who has had  issues ever since I got him at about 2 months old. We've been to the vet many times - he's been dewormed, had multiple fecals (negative), and we also did fecal which was sent out to a lab to test for the more rare bacteria (trichomoniasis included among about 12 other things) and that test came back negative as well. He's also had probiotics added to his diet. So, we are now exploring the possibility that he has a food intolerance. 

I've been feeding him Wellness dry and wet, Weruva chicken, and did try Merrick's Cowboy Feast a while ago just for a couple days a while ago. When the vet told me about the food intolerance possibility putting him on a 14 day rotation of foods to eventually find what the trigger is I went out and bought a bunch of Nature's Valley LID Duck (wet) and after feeding that to him for 36 hours his diarrhea got even worse so I pulled it and started feeding him chicken and rice mixed up with the Weruva to hopefully have him absorb some sort of nutrients. I know the chicken and rice thing isn't a long term solution and it's helped a bit, but he still does not have formed poo.

Side-note - I have another kitten the same age and he is perfectly fine. Bounces around, eats normally, poos normally etc. So that's even more reason to believe this issue is only tied to the other kitty. I'm kind of scared after the Duck made things worse, so I'm not quite sure where to begin with all of this again. Since I've been feeding him mostly poultry based food (chicken, turkey, duck) it's making me think that if he is food intolerant then he can't really deal with poultry well. Should I try a bland diet of ground beef and rice and see if that works after a few days? Do the same with ground lamb?

Sorry.. the first sentence should say:   "I have a 7 month old kitten who has had diarrhea issues ever since I got him at about 2 months old." Missed that important word.

Since he has had extensive testing for parasites I would skip the bland diet unless he is acting ill and not wanting to eat.  That is really to find out if the problem is parasites or a diet issue.  I would go with something that has no poultry or grains in it.  Something like beef or venison and watch the label.  A lot of time there is some chicken in it, I think they do that to bring down the price.  You will need to avoid all poultry or grains for 2 or 3 weeks.  If that clears up the problem or even if there is a noticeable improvement  then you will know that it is either the poultry or a grain intolerance.

Have you tried a gastrointestinal food such as Royal Canin's Gastrointestinal HE?  It's a prescription food and what my little guy has to eat due to chronic diarrhea and loose stools.

Denice - I was feeding him grain free food before the chicken and rice and he had diarrhea even on the grain free diet, so I'm thinking it probably isn't that?

Stephanie - I did feed him some Hills w/d before. He was on two rounds of metronidazole and the second time the vet had me feed the w/d for a few days in combination with the medicine since we didn't do that the first time. I think pork was the main meat. The first round of metronidazole yielded more formed poop than normal but it was still cowpieish. The second time with the w/d food had less of an effect than the first. I'm curious though, do you remember how long it took for your food to produce good results for your kitty? I'm not sure if I should expect to see normal poop a couple days after success or a week...

Thanks for your input

I would give a new food at least two weeks to show improvement.

Have you considered raw or home-cooked? Mine were a little better on plain chicken but once bone was introduced it cleared them up literally in 24 hours.

Raw bone that is; one should never feed cooked bone.

I have 3 cats with protein and/or grain/gluten intolerance. My now 2 yr old, Max, was the first to go through the food trial. He was put on z/d (then switched to Royal Canin Hypoallergenic.) Both of these foods use hydrolyzed protein that is broken so far down that the body does not recognize the source. The cat stays on this diet for around 12 weeks with access to no other food source (no treats, scraps, etc...) At this point you can introduce a single protein source at a time. You feed that source for a few weeks and if no problems develop, you can add in a second protein and such.

Max was on the Hypo diet for a year as we were trying to rule out environmental factors with him as well (he did not present "typically" for food allergies.)

Are there any proteins he has not had? Ideally Lamb, Venison or Rabbit could be used.

Also, has he been tested for a cobalamin deficiency? We have a kitten in the rescue that had severe chronic diarrhea (did the same fecal tests you mentioned) and finally did the full blood panel test (also sent out.) He came back cobalamin deficient. We did 12 wks of B12 shots and slowly tapered him off. *Note, he also has food intolerances.*

Adding in B12 wouldn't hurt him, regardless as it is water soluble and the body can rid itself of any it doesn't use. Might be worth a try.

@Natalieh, the vet gave us a small tester bag and it took about 2 weeks to see consistently formed poops.  He had been on a grain free diet and from what we figured out, his system couldn't tolerate the completely grain free diet.  He was about 7 or 8 months old when this happened.  He's been on the Rx food ever since.  (He's now 3 years old.)  We do feed him a combination of grain free and the RX dry food.  We have tweaked it so that he gets enough to keep his poops solid.  If we give him too much grain free and not enough of the Rx, he gets soft poops again.  IMO, Royal Canin RX foods are better than Hill's, though over the years, I have fed both.

Thanks for the great ideas folks. Peaches, I have considered a raw or homemade diet, but I really don't know much about it and I would have to get a bunch of things (lord knows from where) to make it complete. Also, I do travel occasionally (for holidays) so I'd like to try to avoid that be the sole nutrition to reduce complications while I'm gone. I'd also like to try to figure out what is causing the runs health wise hopefully.

I suppose for now I'll try a diet with no poultry, beef first, and see if it helps. He hasn't had much of it before and it was quite a bit ago. Hopefully he will react well to it and then after sometime I can try a different protein (lamb, venison, rabbit).

Catpack - thanks for that detailed info; I never knew about the cobalamin deficiency and will keep it in the back of my mind. When he was at the vet all day to get enough sample for the fecal to send off they did a blood draw as well. I don't think that was sent off though so they were probably testing again for felv or fiv.

Stephanie & Denice - thanks for the timeline! I wasn't sure what I should be expecting timeline wise - perhaps I overreacted when I introduced the duck? I don't know, I just remember that after giving him a few meals of it his poo had practically turned to water which was even worse. I guess I'll still try the beef for a while with fingers crossed. It would be good to know there's at least one thing he can eat and keep well. He's had a few meals of it as of now and it hasn't gone downhill just hoping to see uphill soon!

A home cooked or raw diet is really easy to do now.  There are premixes including ones that contain both calcium and liver powder so all you have to do is add it to meat.  All you need is a gram scale to weigh the meat and the premix.  I'm not trying to talk you into it but don't stay away from it because you think you have to buy a lot of things and put a lot of work into it.  Some people do really get into it with separate supplements, grinding bone, and different organs but there is a lazy way of doing it which still gives the benefits.