Cat has loose and stinky stools.

When we first brought Pangur home (Feb 14th) he had only been back at the pound a day and they didn't know what the couple that surrendered him had been feeding him.

We started him on Blue Buffalo Indoor Health in the blue bag and a variety of canned Blue Buffalo flavors. Pangur started to reject the Blue wet food after a week but has always happily gobbled the dry. Right now his wet gets switched up between a bunch of holistic brands but he seems to most like the Halo pate and Soulistic pouches. I think we will probably settle on those two after I run through the cans I bought to find a favorite for him. He gets one can of wet (half in the morning, half in the evening) and we free feed the dry.

Right from the start he had bad gas and loose stools (not liquid, but not normal). His gas and the smell of his BMs has improved a lot since we stopped the Blue wet, but the stool is still soft. We aren't sure if he still needs to adjust to the Blue or if we need to switch dry brands? It has been almost a month now. I am not sure if it is a sensitivity to chicken, having his food switched up, something in the Blue all together, or something else.

He is a DMH so it is a bit of a burden when he gets dingle berries and I have to chase him down with TP, or the couple of times he has stepped in it a bit and tracked it around. Yuck. He has an appt at the cat only groomers next month and will get his hind shaved, but until then we are dealing with it.

I have been looking at getting him on the Solid Gold Indigo Moon if we do switch because the ingredients seem just as good or better than Blue and it has a good price point.

Hi! I am sorry no one has popped by to reply till now 

Unfortunately, I do not really know but about the topic you're asking about. However, I am confident that he should not need more time to adjust to the Blue. A month should be long enough to complete a transition (though I know you don't know what you were transitioning from). It might be possible that the wet foods you are switching up are what is upsetting him.

I would recommend a vet visit just as a precautionary step, if you haven't had one.  It is always good to get a new pet checked out anyway, and a vet would be able to rule out anything more 'serious' going on here.

Hopefully others will be able to chime in soon!

My advice would be to get him off the Blue Buffalo food right away and try another food, such as Pro-Plan.  Lots of people have had trouble with it in the past year -- not enough for a recall, because there are so many varieties, but there is definitely something going on.  Read for yourself and then at least try something else and see if he gets better on a different food.  Lately the problem has been reported more with dogs than cats but read earlier in the list and the cats had a lot of problems too.

Here are a few recent entries concerning cats and Blue Buffalo:

 
My two, strictly indoor cats have been on Blue buffalo adult indoor formula dry cat food and treats for about 3 years. My female cat started having diarrhea and blood in her stool last year. In June, my 6 year old male began throwing up overnight (5-6 times/week), weight loss (5 lbs in 6 months), urinating a lot more than usual, thirsty all the time and had a change in his overall behavior.

I took him to the vet in June and after $1,200 in test they had no idea other than diet of what could be wrong with him. Symptoms started up a again last week and after a $200 vet visit for blood and fecal tests my vet told me about a recent cat food study she was a part of and how Blue buffalo seemed to be at the core of the issues they were seeing in the office as described above. Both cats are now on medical food from the vet for two weeks before we move them over to a new brand. I thought Blue was the best on the market and the $20 per bag of wood was worth it...big mistake!  (Jason of Suwanee GA on January 20, 2014)

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Not sure what the problem is, but put a new older kitten on BB Kitten formula and he had diarrhea for days. When I switched to ProPlan, it completely stopped.  (Judi of Columbus OH, January 13, 2014)

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 My cat became ill over the weekend, so I took him to the ER. He had GI issues and he stopped eating all together. The ER vet asked me what I feed him and I told her Blue Buffalo, which I thought was the best food out there. When I told her this, she looked at me and said "I hate that stuff! I have lost count of the number of pets I have seen come in here recently with severe issue related to that food, specifically the dry food." I was in complete shock! Here I thought I was feeding my "babies" the best food on the market. BTW, this ER doctor has over 35 years of experience and she's a published author on pet health. As soon as I got home, I tossed out all of the high priced garbage and went to the store to get new food. Please think twice about ever feeding this stuff to your pets!!!  (Jenna of Waterbury CT on January 13, 2014)

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I have two 11 year old cats that I starting feeding Blue Buffalo indoor cat food. One of my cats seems to be more sensitive when I change food. It usually takes less than a week to get adjusted. My other cat doesn't usually have too many problems, maybe throwing up from time to time. Well after feeding them Blue Buffalo they both have loose stool and the cat that throws up from time to time is doing it constantly. My husband, someone that really doesn't care for my cats, is concern of what is going on.

I thought I was doing something good and buying healthier food. I did things a little backwards and read the reviews after purchasing. Only to find many people complaining about the same problems (dogs and cats). Needless to say I will not feed Blue Buffalo anything to my cats anymore. This food has cost me money from buying more litter and time for cleaning up throw up.(Denise of Lithonia GA on November 5, 2013.)

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http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html

If he likes the wet,  why not ditch the dry food completely and just feed him wet food?  That's really the most healthy way to go.  And try adding probiotics to his food.  That should help with his gut flora, which should help with any issues, assuming he doesn't have parasites in there.  I  give my furkids the same probiotics that we take.  Just sprinkle 1/2 capsule into their food twice daily. If this doesn't help, I would definitely think a Vet visit is in order, as he could have a pesky parasite in there.    

The gas and loose stools could be caused by different things. It would have been good to know what he was on before you got him, as often all it takes is a sudden switch in food and you can get loose stools.

Sorry to say but purina proplan is not a very good food IMO as it contains corn, corn gluten and wheat high up in the ingredients list. These are cheap sources of protein. Blue Buffalo might be only slightly better in that it features deboned chicken as a first ingredient and better sources of grains, but contains a LOT of carbs and other weird stuff like grasses that don't need to be there, which may be what is causing the gas, and loose stools.

I agree that its best to feed a high protein wet canned if you can which will be better for him in the long run. If you must feed dry, the Solid Gold might be a decent choice although it contains a few carbs as well. For about the same price point, there is also Taste of the Wild.

I have read a lot of mixed reviews about Blue Buffalo dry cat foods. It seems that while many cats do quite well on it, there are also just as many who experience digestive problems... mainly diarrhea. Pangur may very well be one of those who the BB just doesn't agree with. If you need to continue to offer him dry food, I would look into other grain-free and low carbohydrate options.

I agree with the others who have already stated that ditching the dry would be wise, since he is happily eating wet/canned food. Feeding a cat 100% wet is hands-down, better for their long-term health. If your situation allows for it, I definitely recommend an all wet diet.

Thank you for all the suggestions and info. We put him on the Solid Gold 4 days ago and there has been a big difference so that has got to be the root of it all. All wet isn't an option right now for us so we are trying to do the best we can afford. Thanks again!

You should add your experience to the list, especially since all of the recent listings have to do with DOGS and it would be good to show a cat that got over loose stinky stools by switching to a different dry food than Blue Buffalo.  Here is the link again.

  http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html

When you first log onto the page, a box pops up and asks if you have had any experiences with Blue Buffalo foods that you would like to report.  Just click on it and tell your story just like you told us.