Chronic Diarrhea

igroomcats

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Hi all. I "adopted" a cat from a coworker about 3 months ago. The previous owner had warned me about Boot's constant farting but failed to mention his constant diarrhea. His previous vet said that he ate too fast and to use a slow feeder bowl for him. That didn't sound right to me. Boots was previously on a not so good diet so when he came to us we switched him to 4-Health (our other cat and all our dogs have done very well on it). The farting cleared up for a few weeks but came back and stayed. He has constant loose stools and sometimes doesn't make it to the litter box. He is a very lean cat despite having constant acces to food. Other than that he is a bright, playful, talkative, healthy looking cat. He does not vomit. I'm looking for ideas on what to have the vet test him for. I hate being told I have to test for everything under the sun when there are logical things to test for first then go from there. What do you all think?
 
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igroomcats

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Forgot to add he is about a year and a half old.
 

denice

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I would start with a fecal PCR test, it finds parasites and bacterial overgrowth that the in office test doesn't find.  It takes a few days to a week to come back.  If that comes back clean then I would have complete blood work done including a test for B12 and folate levels.  Kitties with IBD often have abnormal B12 and/or folate levels.  There are no lab tests that are definitive for IBD but abnormal levels coupled with symptoms is a strong indication.
 
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