Overweight cat diagnosed with IBD ...what should I feed him?

My 3 year old cat is a chubby little thing, he's active, drinks and eats anything in sight.

He's always had chronic diarrhea, and we recently was able to diagnose him with IBD.

His diarrhea wasn't very bad, when we first got him he was spewing liquid diarrhea, but since I changed his diet from the crappy meow mix to Nutrience Grain free, he had slightly more solid poop. But it still looked like little sludges of poop, not formed like "poop" you know?

When he was diagnosed with IBD from the vet, he was prescribed Metronidazole, and it cleared it up -- he had a solid, long but well formed poop. After the treatment he still had normal poop, but every other bowel movement was a half fully formed, half sludgy poo. The vet prescribed another dosage of Metronidazole (250mg over 7 days) ... But I'm wondering if I should switch his food? Could it be allergies?

I've tried many different kinds of grain free products including Blue Buffalo, but his poop never firmed up until Metronidazole. ..Should I wait till his treatment is over? or attempt to switch foods now?

I wouldn't necessarily switch foods at this point.  Have a look at this thread first and see what you think:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/293321/back-to-runny-stools-after-finishing-10-days-of-metronidazole

Hi!

Thanks so much for the thread, I did give it a read.

The only issue I see is that there's no other symptom for my cat other than chronic loose stools. he never misses his litterbox, and now has refused the medication because it tastes awful. He managed the first round perfectly fine... but his stools returned to normal (loose)

I'm currently looking into probiotics, ... I'm just getting tired and stressed out over the situation. I should be glad my cat doesnt display any other symptoms..

Mimiko said:

 
Hi!

Thanks so much for the thread, I did give it a read.

The only issue I see is that there's no other symptom for my cat other than chronic loose stools. he never misses his litterbox, and now has refused the medication because it tastes awful. He managed the first round perfectly fine... but his stools returned to normal (loose)

I'm currently looking into probiotics, ... I'm just getting tired and stressed out over the situation. I should be glad my cat doesnt display any other symptoms..

Click to expand...

So my reason for having you look at that thread was twofold:

1)  to make sure they have tested your little guy for ALL the baddies, including giardia, clostridium, coccidia, T foetus, etc.  (some of those require SPECIAL testing), and

2) to have you see the discussion on the probiotic, S boulardii

It's only natural for you be be stressed out over this...who wouldn't be?