Diarrhea with no obvious cause

Jasmine will be four years old later this month. She's a spayed domestic medium hair with some Maine Coon Cat ancestry in her recent gene pool. She is up to date on her shots, and is an indoor only cat. Her diet is all the Blue Buffalo kibble she wants (current flavor -- turkey, large bag almost gone) and 1/2 can of Luvsome canned food twice a day. No fish, ever. There have been no recent household changes to stress her out.

For the last week or so her stools have been extremely loose; I've noticed this both in her litter boxes and on her pantaloons.

I recently put the whole family on distilled water in order to avoid possible lead contamination from an older water heater; she had no obvious problem with this, and yes, unlike some cats she does drink from her water bowl. Even more recently I've been adding a pinch of pink Himalayan salt and a pinch of Rumford aluminum free baking powder to each half gallon of distilled water to remineralize it. This last is the only change I can think of that coincides with the beginning of the diarrhea. Could this be causing problems? Is it time to call the vet?

Margret

I would use filtered water rather than distilled and adding salt and baking powder.  That is most likely the culprit. 

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

Margret

My girl kitty needs a food higher in fiber or she gets diarrhea. It's something else to try if other things don't work.

Sophie

Do you mean kibble or canned? Jasmine refuses to eat any canned food other than Luvsome. She's not picky at all about her kibble (except for not liking fish, which is just fine with me).

I'm still inclined to think it's the water. I've just taken her off of the re-mineralized; it's too early to tell whether that will be effective.

Thank you.

Margret

Have your cat tested for roundworms or any kind of worms that might be doing it

The kind of food my cats get is called OM (overweight management). It's good for cats who need a diet higher in fiber even if they don't need to lose weight. You can get it as a dry food (kibble) or as a canned wet food. I use the dry one for my girl who gets the runs and it works well for her.

Sophie

Thank you both. If the change in water doesn't do it I'll try the OM kibble (she used to be overweight, which is why we put her on the grain free in the first place, and she's about due for a new bag anyway), and if that doesn't do it I'll call her personal physician.

She does get occasional walks on a leash (which she thinks means a chance to sniff every blade of grass in the yard :lol3 so she could have gotten worms; I have no illusions about other animals staying out of our yard. Most likely it's the water though; that's the most recent change.

Margret

I have a kitty that will always get diarrhea with the grain free kibble I have tried a few.  No matter how little I mix with her old kibble to start transitioning her she will get diarrhea.  I go to a smaller pet store that has knowledgeable staff and a good selection of foods.  One of the people there told me that is not a rare issue.  It happens more often with dogs but also does happen with kitties.

Denice said:

I have a kitty that will always get diarrhea with the grain free kibble I have tried a few.  No matter how little I mix with her old kibble to start transitioning her she will get diarrhea.  I go to a smaller pet store that has knowledgeable staff and a good selection of foods.  One of the people there told me that is not a rare issue.  It happens more often with dogs but also does happen with kitties.

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Thank you, but she's been on the grain free for well over a year with no trouble; I seriously doubt that the problem lies there. Before I put her on grain free, she had a serious weight problem. The vet wanted her on a diet, so I followed instructions and cut back on her kibble, with the sole result that she was always hungry, and still not losing weight. It broke my heart seeing her like that. On grain free she's been thriving. Her weight is healthy. She's not continually hungry. (Still perfectly willing to lie about how we never feed her, of course, but that's a cat thing and it's easy to tell the difference between that and genuine hunger.) This is a completely new problem, just the last week or so, and even with the diarrhea she's not in any obvious distress, except when I refuse to pick her up properly, with a hand supporting her poopy butt. I'm trying to take care of it before it becomes a serious problem, and reinstating an old problem is the last thing I'll try for it.

Margret

Thank you all. The change in water seems to have done the trick.



Margret

Yay! :hobbes:

Sophie