Chicken and Rice for Ill Cat. Please Help.

Hello!

I am in the process of boiling some chicken right now for a kitty who has been suffering from chronic diarrhea. I will be feeding this to him during the week alongside his antibiotics (seven days of these things, I think). 

Should it be 50% chicken, 50% rice?

And then how many cups is enough for a 7 month old male who weights 8.6 pounds. I would like to feed him 2x a day so he doesn't feel like I am starving him!

My vet closed early do to the New Year... I wasn't able to reach them to ask. =p

For a dog I'd do 50/50. For a cat I think I'd go with less rice. Maybe 80% chicken/20% rice, see how his stools are, maybe bump the rice up a tad if they're still loose. Be sure to overcook the rice a bit to make it easier to digest.

A cat that age---a "teenage boy"---will need more than an adult cat. Probably 8-9 ounces or so. I don't really know how that would work out in cups.

A lot of conventional vets may suggest feeding rice to correct situations of diarrhea but rice is not an easy thing to digest and can be prone to causing fermentation in the gut if it isn't processed well, which can make things worse. For this reason, pumpkin (puree, not the pie mix) would be a safer source of fiber to help stop the diarrhea. If using pumpkin, your ratio should be a 50:50 mix to feed in small portions (about a 1/4 cup), 3-5 times a day for up to 3 days. It is preferable to use the breast of the chicken rather than dark meat as this will be leaner. Ensure that your chicken is free of fats such as skin and ligament as this can interfere with good digestion. Also important is to ensure that your cat has plenty of fresh water and is drinking regularly. Diarrhea can be very dehydrating.

If your cat is still producing diarrhea after 72 hours, he needs to be seen by a vet. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the responses!

I will try the 80%, 20% at 9 oz. 

My vet recommended rice and chicken so I am going to stick with that. If it does not help, or he becomes uncomfortable, I will try the pumpkin puree. 

You can also try plain chicken. For some cats with a chronic digestive problem, rice helps to slow down their digestive system a bit. Some cats have a problem with rice, so then it gets hard to figure out what is wrong and what helped. I used raw chicken and nothing else at first and saw such fast results I knew that rice wasn't needed for my cats. Might be worth a try?

I wish I had read just chicken before I mixed everything up. I will try just chicken next if he does not improve.

Thank you! =)

We had a kitten with severe diarrhea and the rice and chicken did help. Nothing else was staying.  I hope it helps until you can get him to  the vet.

He's been to the vet today. He was given fecal test which came back negative. Some folks on my other thread gave some great suggestions that I will look into if this does not resolve itself. The Vet gave him a dewormer just in case and sent me on my way with some Antibiotic Metronidazole to give for a week. 

He went to town on dinner; the other one wasn't too happy about getting kibble.