Thirsty, hungry cat - No Diabetes, Kidney or Hyperthyroid

Hi all, I am hoping for any insight anyone may have on my kitty Miles. He is about 9-10 years old. We adopted him from a rescue in January and have been trying to figure out the cause of diarrhea, hunger and thirst. He went to the vet; tested for the usual culprits- only thing found was a hyperthroid in the high normal range and further tests found nothing. Vet gave him flagyl, seemed to help reduce the super liquidy and cow pie poos somewhay but not 100%. Prior to this, the rescuse tested a stool sample I brought them and didn't find parasites, and also gave us some fortiflora to use. Kitty is so happy, playful and active- loves to play fetch and purr like an engine (and EAT!). He has gained a little weight- from 8.4 to 9 lbs. Next steps at the vet just feel like shots in the dark (and expensive ones)... I wanted to see if anyone here has any advice. I am now leaning towards IBD myself. THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE for anything anyone can share

I might suspect IBD, too. What are you feeding Miles?

sarahviolett said:

Hi all, I am hoping for any insight anyone may have on my kitty Miles. He is about 9-10 years old. We adopted him from a rescue in January and have been trying to figure out the cause of diarrhea, hunger and thirst. He went to the vet; tested for the usual culprits- only thing found was a hyperthroid in the high normal range and further tests found nothing. Vet gave him flagyl, seemed to help reduce the super liquidy and cow pie poos somewhay but not 100%. Prior to this, the rescuse tested a stool sample I brought them and didn't find parasites, and also gave us some fortiflora to use. Kitty is so happy, playful and active- loves to play fetch and purr like an engine (and EAT!). He has gained a little weight- from 8.4 to 9 lbs. Next steps at the vet just feel like shots in the dark (and expensive ones)... I wanted to see if anyone here has any advice. I am now leaning towards IBD myself. THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE for anything anyone can share

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Hi and welcome to TCS

You will get (hopefully) a lot of good suggestions here that will hopefully help you have increasingly helpful conversations with your vet sa you sort all this out.  My first thought is that there may be 2 entirely separate conditions going on.  Did all of these symptoms start at the same time?

Did you discuss with your vet the possibility that his increased hunger could be connected to the high normal value for hyperthyroid?  And while changing a cats diet while he has diarrhea may not be a good idea, Hill's Y/D is specifically to control hyperthyroid without medication, and might have a positive effect on a high normal value.

The thirst might be connected to the diarrhea if he is dehydrated.  Did your vet examine Mile's gums for dehydrated? Did they do a simple 10 minute in house PCV/TS test can also yield info on dehydration.

Gaining weight is excellent both in terms of hyperthyroid and IBD.  For early stage IBD vets often reach tentative diagnoses of IBD by trying a combination (or separate trials) of various treatments for IBD which if successful lead to a tentative diagnosis.  In other words, if we treat for IBD and the cat responds, then there is a good chance it IS IBD assuming other causes have been ruled out.  Treatments include a novel protein/carb food which the cat's gut may not react to badly, Tylosin (a antibiotic that is helpful in the gut), Flagyl which you've already tried, are the common "starter" treatments.

And sometimes some combination of the above works for a while, and then stops working, and one has to go on to more aggressive treatments especially if the cat is loosing weight. 

We started with what my other baby eats- Purina One Sensitive Stomach, and friskies wet. Then I bought some EVO grain free dry and mixed it with the Purina to transition - it was recommended online as something for cats with thyroid (even though this was a no, It was still high normal so I am suspect.) I think this helped him gain ome weight. Still wet Friskies but I did buy some cans of blue grain free... now I just purcahsed limited ingredient dry food- duck based (forgot the company) cause I read IBD does better on this kind of food as there may be an allergy... haven't started this yet but will soon. Any kitty food advice?

Sorry, I am new to the site and am trying to figure out how to use everything..
All of this became apparent within the first few days of us adopting him in the end of January, so I am uncertain of when it all began. The vet did the standard exam and found nothing from just the physical- he could use a dental cleaning. She said he seemed happy and pretty content. Ohhh I forgot, and this is important - She said something about globulin? or proteins being a bit elevated!

sarahviolett said:

We started with what my other baby eats- Purina One Sensitive Stomach, and friskies wet. Then I bought some EVO grain free dry and mixed it with the Purina to transition - it was recommended online as something for cats with thyroid (even though this was a no, It was still high normal so I am suspect.) I think this helped him gain ome weight. Still wet Friskies but I did buy some cans of blue grain free... now I just purcahsed limited ingredient dry food- duck based (forgot the company) cause I read IBD does better on this kind of food as there may be an allergy... haven't started this yet but will soon. Any kitty food advice?

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Right, well i used to feed Evo until my newest cat got terrible diarrhea on it, and a friend of mine who works in the pet food industry told me that Innova changed their standards for certain ingredients and that even though the ingredient list remains the same, it isn't the same food that it used to be.  So in some ways i'm almost more suspicious of the foods that claim to be super healthy, but in any case you have fed a variety of foods with some good results.

The purpose of novel protein limited ingredient food is to find something that the cat's intestines don't react too.  Often it takes several tries with different foods, the best (and purest) ive been told by my vet are prescription versions, not OTC versions.  And even when they work, its possible that in time you will have to move on to another one, but to be effective, this is the *only* food your cat should eat.  No treats.

As to the globulin/proteins its hard to say but an elevated gammaglobulin could indicate that your cat is also fighting an infection, but if only slightly elevated than i don't know.  ALways best to ask your vet.

what about giving slippery elm bark whilst you wait for things to calm down?  Also steamed or raw chicken thighs (no bones) or scrambled eggs (no seasoning)?