Black stool with tar like texture in a normally healthy cat?

My cat didn't cover his stool and I noticed it looked like black tar. I was medium sized, not small like which can sometimes be seen in raw fed cats. I didn't notice the smell as I covered my nose with my shirt when I went to put litter over it. I read that I could be a sign of stomach or upper intestinal bleeding, or possibly an infection or virus.

My cat stays inside all the time so there is no way he could have caught something or ate something weird outside. No other animals in the house either. He is 4 years old.

His diet used to consist of Friskies canned chicken half mixed with boiled chicken thigh or sometimes boiled chicken gizzards and hearts. I switched him over to pure boiled meat about 5 weeks ago just as an experiment. Depending on what I can find at the store he either gets chicken gizzard and hearts or plain thighs.

I know cats need certain vitamins and minerals like taurine and others which you can add to their food yourself if you find them all and buy them regularly, or you can just get premade cat food from the store which is supposed to have all or at least most of them. This is the reason I was just experimenting when I switched him over to pure boiled meat, I knew I'd have to return to that commercial cat food because of the lack of essential vitamins and minerals.

I will switch him back over to half Friskies chicken and boiled chicken thighs tomorrow. Maybe its possible the straight gizzards and hearts are disrupting his stomach or upper intestines?

I guess I'll find out in a few days.

Now, what might be the cause of black, tar like stool in a case like this?

The most common cause of black tarry stool is blood in the stool.  This can obviosly be serious and the cause needs a vet's diagnosis.  I would collect a stool sample and make an appointment asap.  See http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/digestive/c_ct_melena

5 weeks is a long time to experiment with a diet where nutritional needs are not being met. Adding in the premixed U-stew is a really easy fix. No need to go entirely back to purchased food if you can add this. Otherwise, it's not a safe diet.

That said, I do agree that your cat should see a vet.

poofpoof said:

 
....I switched him over to pure boiled meat about 5 weeks ago just as an experiment.....

I know cats need certain vitamins and minerals like taurine.......... I knew I'd have to return to that commercial cat food because of the lack of essential vitamins and minerals.

I will switch him back over to half Friskies chicken and boiled chicken thighs tomorrow....
 
Now, what might be the cause of black, tar like stool in a case like this?

Click to expand...

Well, while you knew that cats need taurine (which is not a 'vitamin' nor 'mineral').........you obviously did not know the effects of the lack of taurine....nor how quickly a low/no taurine diet can affct a cat's health.

We're talking weeks, poofpoof.

Here's a older post of mine that explains:

Originally Posted by White Shadow  

 

It can take anywhere from a few months to a few years for symptoms of taurine deficiency to develop.............

Click to expand...

That's not accurate....it's closer to suggest a few weeks to a few months....it's accurate to say 10 to 16 weeks - and that better emphasizes the potential gravity of the dangers. Furthermore, cellular damage was occurring long before the condition became apparent through examination.

Quote:

Within 10 weeks of eating a diet low in taurine, the cone photo-receptors of the retina begin to deteriorate. The cones are responsible for bright-light and color vision. Within 20 weeks, many of the cones are dead. If taurine remains deficient, eventually the rod photoreceptors (responsible for dim-light vision) are also affected.Taurine affects both eyes in a symmetrical fashion, and the end result is complete blindness.

Rhea V. Morgan, DVM, DACVIM (Small Animal), DACVO

http://www.saintfrancis.org/wp-content/uploads/Taurine-Retinopathy.pdf

also in  Small Animal Practice Client Handouts - Rhea V. Morgan

Click to expand...

In addition to permanent retinal damage (and, any amount of damage is irreparable), heart disease - dilated cardiomyopathy - also results from taurine deficiency. In one study, 91% of the cats showed significant heart impairment after just 4 months on a taurine-deficient diet: http://cdn.intechweb.org/pdfs/27287.pdf   This may be reversible if diagnosed early enough....but, the start and the progression of both DCM and vision loss occurs without noticeable symptoms.

If you have a cat who's eating noticeably less than usual, start some sort of documentation and, if it persists, begin Taurine supplementation while working on a nutrition solution - it's absolutely safe, as any excess Taurine will be excreted. If you suddenly notice that a cat has lost weight (as frequently reported by new posters in this forum) it can be assumed that this occurred over an extended period of time - therefore immediate taurine supplementation should begin. A careful read of Dr Morgan's "Treatment" section shows that this supplementation could continue indefinitely.

I'm particularly sensitive/aware of all this because one of my cats had an extended period of inappetence/reduced food intake. He subsequently developed an unrelated eye ulcer which proved almost intractable and so was seen by an ophthalmologist...who discovered degeneration in both retinas. If only I had known....

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/314726/taurine-and-blindness#post_3943929

Click to expand...

After 5 weeks of your 'experimental' diet, you can be sure that the damage has begun......in fact, you were adding cooked meat to the Friskies - thereby lessening his taurine intake - long before eliminating the Friskies. So, the potential timeframe for permanent vision/cardiac damage may well be in play.

I suggest that, not only getting him back on a 'complete and balanced' diet, you should also immediately begin adding taurine to that food - it's tasteless and can easily be added to wet foods. You can find it at health supplements suppliers. One trusted brand is "Now". I'd be using at least 500mg/day - and, I'd be talking to a competent feline Vet for further guidance.

And, yes, what you read about black tarry stool is at least partially correct - it is the result of upper GI track bleeding.....which is quite serious.

Something which you may not have read is that not all Veterinarians are created equal......with what you have going on, I suggest you find a cat-only Vet - quickly.

I just discovered that chicken hearts have large amounts of taurine in them and are all around great sources of nutrients for cats.

I think the reason my cat was having black tar stool was from eating pure diet of rough textured chicken gizzards and hearts. I never really felt those little things using my fingers and tried to tear them apart with my fingernails until today. I noticed that the gizzards are way too tough for a cat to eat everyday, and the hearts were surprisingly tough as well. So I stopped giving him gizzard and cooked up the rest of the hearts, cut off the artery trunks, fine chopped them and mixed them with canned food and a little water.

I think giving him a soupy like meat platter will aid with the black stool, unless he as a virus or bacterial infection, which I do not think is the case.

I have increased his servings by a few ounces and will be paying closer attention when cleaning the litter box from now on.

I definitely like the idea of going to a cats only vet too.

Again, I would advise you to please speak with a vet as soon as you can. You should run your diet ideas and health concerns by a professional.

poofpoof said:

 
I just discovered that chicken hearts have large amounts of taurine in them and are all around great sources of nutrients for cats.

I think the reason my cat was having black tar stool was from eating pure diet of rough textured chicken gizzards and hearts. I never really felt those little things using my fingers and tried to tear them apart with my fingernails until today. I noticed that the gizzards are way too tough for a cat to eat everyday, and the hearts were surprisingly tough as well. So I stopped giving him gizzard and cooked up the rest of the hearts, cut off the artery trunks, fine chopped them and mixed them with canned food and a little water.

I think giving him a soupy like meat platter will aid with the black stool, unless he as a virus or bacterial infection, which I do not think is the case.

I have increased his servings by a few ounces and will be paying closer attention when cleaning the litter box from now on.

I definitely like the idea of going to a cats only vet too.

Click to expand...

As others have said or implied, experimenting with a cat's diet with non-approved "complete" diets isn't safe.  There are home made recipes that are safe and are well balanced, but they are the result of a lot of work by experts.  The Cat Nutrition forum would be a good place to look. As an example, pure meat isn't safe.  Cats ingest the bones of animals they eat and they get very important nutrients from that like calcium, and without it would become quite ill.  That's why you will see bone meal or the equivalent in commercial cat food.  Dogs and humans are omnivores and can do well with all sorts of foods.  Cats aren't and their diet is highly specific to basically the nutritional content of mice.  From the partially digested stomach content of the mouth (cats can't digest carbs without some help from the mouse) to the meat, fat, bones, and everything else.  A really great and well respected raw diet (freeze dried) is from http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/

Besides all the above, if your cat is bleeding internally - the classic  sign being black tarry stool - then a vet is needed as soon as you can arrange it.

Chicken gizzards, thighs, and hearts all have taurine in them. Raw obviously has the most. The length of time that you boil them determines how much is lost. I don't think I boiled out 2/3 of the taurine content, I'd say more like 2/5 as it was a light boil.

I wish I could afford to go to a vet. If I could, I probably wouldn't be rummaging around on Google and whatnot and making posts like this.

Sorry if I sound like a troll or something.

How is your cat now?

He got better in 3 days after I changed his diet a little bit.

I switched him over to 80% canned food mixed with 20% lightly boiled chicken thighs, stirred up with added water. I mix all this up in a big metal bowl and feed him 3 times daily.

His stool went from solid, normal shaped, but black colored; to a solid, normal brown color.

There were some odor issues when I put him back on the canned food, but they disappeared after another 3 days.

Also, I actually saw some real "tar like" stool outside in my apartment complex, and let me state that this was "TAR LIKE", it literally looked like black, liquid goop. I'd say it had to of been a few days aged, and after being baked by the sun for those few days it looked just like that tar you'd see on a roof top. This is a serious case of black tar stool.

My cat just had regular black stool because of eating straight boiled chicken.

Note, my cat NEVER goes outside.

And I took another look at the ingredient label on Friskies and noticed it has everything cats need to survive like taurine, so its really not that bad.