Need help with Diarrhea

I adopted a new adult cat about 7 weeks ago and he has had loose stools pretty much since I got him.  I initially thought it was because I had switched his food too soon (my fault), but it persisted.  He had 2 negative fecals from the shelter I adopted him from, but I brought him to my own vet to be certain. The did another fecal test with that extra test that isn't normally done (with a name I can't pronounce let alone spell) and all was negative.  He thought it was mostly stress related and prescribed me a  Propectalin in a paste form.  I've had very little success in giving this to him as he fights it and spits it out, so I decided to try Benebac plus in powder form as I know many people have had luck with it.  I mix it in his food and he gobbles it up.  

I should point out he is not at all lethargic or losing weight which is typical of sickness - the exact opposite.  He's gained 3 pounds since I got him (he was small for his size and has been eating a lot), and is very active and playful.  Frankly, if you didn't know he had bathroom issues you'd think he was the specimen of health, and my vet even agreed.  The only thing I notice is he drinks a lot - which is not surprising considering.

My problem and question is - the Benebac is not working and has made things much worse.  Before he only had loose stools - soft and smelly, but still slightly formed. Now he has full blown diarrhea.  Could the Benebac have caused this and should I stop it immediately or continue?  I've been giving it to him every 2 days per the instructions and he's had 3 treatments.  The diarrhea started a few days after his first dose.  I just ordered online some sensitive stomach food as well as some pumpkin to see if that helps.  I'm worried about this new change as before it was only softer stools.  I may try again with the paste my vet gave me - but I live alone and trying to hold him down to get it in his mouth is a challenge at best.  Any advice is appreciated.

Hi shacat3,

I think wet food with canned pumpkin (not pie filling, no spices) should help firm up his stool, but of course it will only work to mask his symptoms if it's unrelated to stress. I'm sorry the Benebac didn't work out for you. I, too have used it, but it wasn't 100% effective all the time either. Can I ask what food you are feeding him, exactly? Sometimes there are additives in the food that may cause a kitty to have loose stools.

Thanks.  I'm feeding him a variety of food - both wet and dry.  I've got high and low end food - from Wellness to Friskies.  I have two other cats and that is what they all eat.  I've started him back on the propectalin.  I found that if I get it on my finger I have a better chance of getting it into his mouth.  Part of the problem is its virtually impossible to get it out of the tube. I've only just started it again and so far no change.  I'll also start adding some pumpkin to his diet.  If he still has issues, I'll have to try different foods or take him back to the vet.  He was at a couple of shelters and a foster home before I adopted him so he's had a lot of food and other changes over the last few months.  My concern is it'll be difficult to separate his food from my other cats if that lands up being the case, and he'll want to eat the theirs.  I don't have a large house where I can feed the in different rooms.

Assuming the medication or the pumpkin works, the next question is - do I continue to give it to him indefinitely, or do I stop it in a week or two and see what happens?  What is throwing me off is how active he is, and how much he continues to eat.  He clearly doesn't feel too sick.  If this is him lethargic, I almost hate to see him when he's fully healthy!  LOL!

Has the pro-pectalin or pumpkin helped?  If it does, I'm not sure you can find out the cause unless you decrease the dose or stop it for a while? I do know diarrhea is totally unpleasant for both cat and cat owner, so I guess I'd stop the treatment after a while to see, otherwise you're only treating the symptoms and not its root cause.

What I'd do first is see if any grain-free food makes a difference. I know some Friskies canned formulas have wheat gluten, corn starch, soy flour, and artificial coloring, so I'd see if eliminating any of those helps. Do the same for the dry if you notice grains as any component in the ingredient list. I'd still continue to add the probiotics (Benebac) in the wet food to see if it helps. I believe adding fiber (pumkin) will help the diarrhea, but I think doing one change at a time, say about every 3 days or so will help you figure out what change is effective or not. Whenever my cats have a change in their diet, I notice their stool changes about 2 days later, so you may consider that and look for changes in your kitty, too. Keeping a seperate litter box for your new guy will definitely help here.

If the diarrhea returns whenever you stop the treatments (pumpkin and or pro-pectalin), I think there is still the chance of a bacteria or other parasite infection. It's hard to tell since I'm not sure what tests were done, but it would be a good idea to keep your resident cats away and keep his own litter box seperate and exclusive for his use only until this can be resolved. My cats had Giardia and both cats needed to be treated since they shared litter boxes. Then a few months later, one develped diarrhea again, but this time it was from two strains of bacteria. I had to pay for a special diagnostic test called the diarrhea PCR panel for my vet to find the causing organism(s). In both instances, my cats were active, ate well, and had no other symptoms either! Cats tend to hide their illnessess all too well, so it's imperative you know what their baseline levels are. I hope you can go to the vet again if grain-free food does not help at all. I'd probably look to limiting the types of food so you could zero in on specifc types of protein, and trying the limited ingredient diets, too.

Best wishes to you and your kitty! Please keep us posted regarding any changes. Maybe others can also post of other tips and or experiences, too.

Do you know what food(s) they were feeding him while at the shelter?

I adopted my cat from a shelter, and wanted to switch her food as well, as the food she came with wasn't great. It honestly took 6 months to transition her onto a food that didn't give her the runs. It was trial and error at first, then when we found a food, we transitioned her for literally 2 months! Some say that switching wet food shouldn't matter as much, but it did for my kitty!

Maybe you switched foods too quickly, or it's an intolerance. We also found out, that through trial and error, seafood (of any kind, anywhere in the ingredient list) makes her have the runs again.

So I suggest you ask the shelter what he was eating, and give him that for now, to stabilize him. Then slowly start to switch again.

Best of luck, keep us updated! 

It could be that the food you're feeding him is too rich for his system.  If you're feeding any dry food, the change needs to be done over about a 2 week period to ensure no tummy upsets.  Wet food can be alternated with no problems, usually.  You could be dealing with a combination problem of stress and food intolerance.  If possible, try to find out what they were feeding him at the rescue.  Something else you could do is ask the vet for a food for sensitive tummies to see if that calms down his bowels.  We have one kitty who can't tolerate a totally grain-free diet, so he gets prescription diet food with his other food and that keeps him diarrhea free.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.  They were feeding him only dry at the last place he was at - a Wellness one.  But he was originally at animal care and then in a foster home before going to one of those adoption cages at petco (when I found him), so I have no idea what he was being fed before.  And who knows where he came from before that.  He was in the pet store adoption cage for about a week or two and that is where he got the Wellness.  Presumably he's had many different types of food over the last few months - likely whatever was donated.  I was not informed that he had any issues before I adopted him, but then, I don't trust that they would have told me anyway.  I would have still adopted him regardless, but they wouldn't have known that.  I did buy and feed him the dry they had him on when I first got him, but I added wet right away and he has the issue since day 1. I can't be certain at this point what food may or my not have caused it.

He doesn't appear stressed - quite happy actually and gets along great with my resident cats and is quite playful.  He's estimated to be a 1.5 years old and I've had him now for 2 months.  He's actually gained weight since I've had him - too much actually, which is a whole other topic for another thread.  One issue at a time.  Although I know most animals feel sick and loose weight with D, a part of me wonders if whatever is bothering him is making him more hungry.  He could just be a pig though and he was a little small when I adopted him.

So where I'm at - the propectalin didn't work.  I gave up on it and didn't finish the last couple of doses (he had a 15 day 1cc a day dosage - i finished about 11 with no results).  I tried pumpkin and all it did was make his poop orange. No change at all after a number of days - given twice a day.  I also tried benebac and it appeared to get worse so I stopped it after a few doses, although I wonder if I should have kept with it for longer.  He doesn't have pure diarrhea, more like very very soft stools.  We're now trying metronidazole to see if that helps.  He's on a 10 day course and has taken it for 2 days now.  I was worried reading how bad it tastes and cats drooling, lethargic etc., but he's a real trooper and tolerates it quite well.  He has the liquid formula and I refrigerate it and flush it down with a squirt of water.  Other than looking at me with disdain, he goes about his day as normal and forgives me pretty quickly.  But so far no changes.  Anyone know how long it takes to work, if it works?  I will finish the full course of this one, but i'm not hopeful. 

If this doesn't work, it'll be on to trial and error with different types/brands of food.  I'm dreading that as I have 3 cats and have no idea how I'll manage that part of it.  I don't even know if I should start with the wet or dry.  But one day at a time.  I may ask my vet about other further tests.

I'm lucky at least that he is a great litter box cat with no mistakes anywhere to date.  The only issue is since its so soft, some will stick to his little behind and then, well, no need for a visual there.  The good thing is he hasn't taken yet to sleeping on the couch or bed!  As mentioned before, he also eats quite well and is active, so although his tummy must be bothering him it hasn't hindered him as far as I can tell.  But obviously I need to get this resolved.  I also have 2 guinea pigs and one had diarrhea for 3 months last year with no conclusive reason found.  It finally just stopped out of the blue and I still have no idea what caused it.  Maybe I'll get lucky twice, but I'm not holding my breath.

Here's my story with an all grain-free diet for my boy.  We got him when he was about 10 weeks old and after about 3 weeks, put him on an all grain-free diet.  He did great until he was about 8 months old.  He started having soft poops.  Took him to the vet and went through 2 rounds of metronizodale.  When the soft poops came back after being off the metro for a few weeks, the vet suggested a diet food for him, Royal Canin Gastrointestinal HE.  Put him on that for dry and continued with grain-free canned, which was the bulk of his meals.  Stopped the soft poops withing a couple of days.  He remains on the RC to this day and he's now 4 yrs old.  We have incorporated dry grain-free to a percentage so that his poops stay firm, but still he's predominately grain-free.  He is the only one of my 3 that can't tolerate a totally grain-free diet.  He's still on the same canned food he's been on his whole life with us and we give him less than 1/4 C of dry food, about a 75% grain-free/25% RC rx food.  If we try to decrease the rx food, the soft poops come back.  All of this to say, maybe your guy can't tolerate the grain-free food.

shacat3,

I'm so sorry to hear that neither pumpkin or pro-pectalin has worked thus far. It still must be distressing to your kitty, regardless how active he seems. I know my cats hated having loose stools...they always appeared a bit apprehensive when they knew they had to eliminate #2s, and their backside looked painful after a while. I've also experienced "scooters" on my carpet, which was not fun to clean.

I think at this point when you've tried several treatments and the added fiber or probiotics didn't help, I feel it's time for another vet visit (especially if after the full course of metro doesn't help). In the meantime, I'd try to give your kitty a plain, easy to digest meal like plain boiled chicken and rice (rice needs to be overcooked quite a bit to look like gruel) for a few days. Or look into Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken (there's also a pouch type with pumpkin, but not sure you want to try pumpkin again) or Tiki Cat's Puka Puka Luau, which are basically shredded chicken meat in broth with added vitamins. I'd avoid extra fatty ingredients now, and check into slippery elm bark to help with the inflamed GI tract your kitty must have by now. I've used it successfully when my cats had diarrhea, but used about a tablespoon's worth of syrup (SEB powder & water) per meal. I think it's better to start with a small amount. Just be careful about med administration timelines when you give SEB to your cats (as written in Tanya's link at the very end). I'm providing with a few links below if you want to check those options out. I sure hope your vet can finally figure out this perplexing mystery! And wishing for better treatments & outcomes very soon for both you and your kitty. Healing wishes! 

http://healthypets.mercola.com/site...0/09/28/pet-diarrhea-symptoms-and-causes.aspx

http://www.felinecrf.org/holistic_treatments.htm#SEB1

Thank you both.  I think potentially a grain free diet may be in order and I'll look into all the suggestions, including the prescription RC one.  If the metro doesn't work, I'll call my vet and see what he thinks we should do before just starting a new diet though. I just wish I know what exactly was causing it.  I've actually tried the Tiki and Weruva awhile back, so thanks for the suggestions as they are good food.  If I get to the point of trying trial and error with foods, should I start with a dry food change?  My worry is changing both together would make it difficult to determine what has caused it.  I initially thought it was wet - mainly because he didn't get any before I adopted him and I don't think he had issues, but its hard to say.  It sounds like dry tends to be the bigger culprit.  As Nora mentioned in her post, it could even be seafood.

And thank you for the reminder of slippery elm bark  I actually have that here and didn't even think of it.  I bought capsules for my girl who had kidney disease and thyroid issues (Tanya's website was very helpful at the time).  She has since passed, but in her final months started throwing up often so I bought SEB in capsule form.  It worked pretty well overall and I was actually able to just give her the capsule and get her to swallow it with some water.  I still have the bottle and I checked (not expired) so I may add that after he finishes the Metro.  It probably won't solve his problem, but it can't hurt.

At this point, I don't want to do other changes until he finishes the metro, otherwise I won't know what is working (if anything does work).  So, that means 8 more days of waiting.  Thankfully, he's ok and I just gave him his nightly dose without issue.  Considering he's still fairly new to my home and he's been through a lot (was brought into the pound initially with large bite wounds), he's taking everything very well, including his meds.  Such a good boy!

I know how hard this can be. My sphynx baby had horrible issues like this, just as you described she was the picture of health other than that. I tried sooooo many things. The only thing that worked for Frida is a bone in raw diet, but I don't recommend if you don't have to. I know a lot of sphynx owners have luck with forta flora though ( sphynxes have notoriously sensitive tummies). It is a supplement which can be added to their food and it wouldn't be harmful to your other cats either.