Persistent kitten Diarrhea

Please any help would be appreciated. My 4.5 month Ragdoll kitten has recurring diarrhea. He was absolutely fine for about a month since we brought him home from the breeder's house. He has big appetite and eats almost anything. I keep him on can kitten food with added little water to it and mixed in a small amount Hills Ideal Balance dry kitten food. About a month after he got home he started to develop some softer stools that in a few days got into quite bad watery diarrhea. I've tried some home remedies that always worked on my other cats before: acidophilus/probiotics, some can pumpkin and psyllium husk fiber added to his food. However neither one of them did the work and diarrhea worsen and continued for a few days. Finally i took him and his stool sample to the vet. The fecal exam was done to test for any parasites including Giardia and it came back negative. So they put him on Metronidazole. It did form his stools in a couple of days and he was fine for about 2.5- 3 weeks after it. Then about 2 days ago i noticed that his stools are started to get softer again and progressively every day he was going softer and softer. Today it started to get very soft much softer then past 2 days again: that's how it started the first time. It didn't get as bad as the first time yet: (today he went so far only twice very soft) but i fear that by tomorrow it may be worse. Not sure if i should take him to the vet again. I know the first time the Metronidazole helped, but i don't think it's normal that it came back 2.5-3 weeks later. It doesn't seem good to me to put him on the pill every couple of weeks. Or should i take him to different vet for another opinion? I would really appreciate any suggestions or advice on this matter. 

Were the fecal tests done at the vet's office or sent to an outside lab? If the former (which is usual), the next step would be to request that the sample be sent out and tested "for everything". Some things don't show up in the routine in-house tests which may require other meds.

Have you tried switching the food? A lot of the time, it's food related.

Hi,

You should try switching their diet to raw cat food. My kitten had constant diarrhea just a month and a half after getting her and her stool hardened up that very day i switched to raw. There should be a recipe on the Catnutrition website.

Before making a switch to raw, please read this article:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/282314/recommending-a-homemade-diet-hold-your-horses

If you do decide to go that route, we have a forum here where you can get a great deal of advice:
Raw Forum

Hi,

Thanks everybody for all replies and advice. I'll try briefly to answer all the questions. First about fecal exam: I called the vet to double check how the fecal exam was done and it was sent to outside lab and they tested for all known parasites in cats and their eggs including Coccidia and Guardia. They confirmed that all the tests were negative. As for food i didn't really switch any food: he's been eating the same food as from the beginning since i brought him home. when a first episode of diarrhea occurred the vet gave me some prescription Hills I/D can food to feed him, but he really didn't like it too much and kept taking the usual food from my other cat's bowl. I also per vet's recommendation got him some Hills kitten can food, but the result was the same he didn't like that food as well. And it was strange because he usually eats anything including some boiled chicken breast and rice i tried to give him when his worst diarrhea attack happened. So now did both cats are back on what they like best is friskies can food deluded with water and handful of dry Hills kitten food. Experimenting with other brands can food even more expensive didn't go very well. As for switching to raw food, i've been thinking about it for a while, but still didn't come up with any decision since it's a lot of controversy out there on the web about it. But it maybe something i'd still consider in the future. His behavior did really changed even with first bad case of diarrhea: he still was playful ran around a lot. But he was quite skinny despite his good appetite, i could feel his spine when touch him. Since it cleared up he's gained weight and feels normal to touch now. I gave him his 2nd distemper vaccine on Wednesday, and his looser stools I started noticing on Friday. Not sure if it could be just a coincident, or maybe vaccine could have something to do with it.