Soft and smelly poo

Hello! I'm new here and I need some help. I just adopted a cat through a series of unfortunate events (he's been abandoned four times previously) - he's six to seven years old, and when he came to me he had mites (cleared up now), a ear infection (treated with topical antibiotics), and poop that ranged from normal to soft and very smelly. I've had him for a month now, and the soft smelly poop hasn't gone away. I thought it was the food as I had been trying different wet food - although my dry food remained the same, and so I tried boiled chicken for a while, to the same results. I now exclusively give him dry food (it has grain in it, but I was told it's what his last owner gave him and advised not to deviate from it) but still it persists. He only poops once or twice a day, and it's soft and light to dark brown but not explosively so, and I saw blood in the stools twice but not more than that. He's active, cheerful and putting on weight (was underweight when I got him, put on two pounds at least), and other than the poop there's nothing seemingly wrong with him. Should I worry? I've brought him to the vet twice and the first time they de-wormed him and second time said the poop was nothing to worry about, but I'm not sure. I would change his food to grain-free but don't want to upset his stomach more. Any advice would be appreciated! This is my first cat and I'm a bit in the dark as to what's "normal" - he's definitely crazy and active for a senior cat though, and drinks and eats well enough.

I think you need to get a fecal flotation and PCR done. There's a chance it's parasites or Protozoa. Make sure they send it off to a lab and dont do it in-house. The in-house flotation method with a centrifuge only catches the parasites that float to the top but there are several kinds that sink to the bottom or that the centrifuge liquid destroys and distorts.

The proper collection method is a must. A saline colon flush is the most likely to pick something up but probably pricey. Getting it from there litter box is worthless, the litter messes everything up and can dry out Protozoa. Your best bet that cost effective is to change the box then wait with collection tube in hand. Catch it as it's coming out, and make sure to get the last part that comes out. Most of your common parasites are going to be in the last part of the poo that was closest to the colon.

Try giving him both a daily probiotic mixed in his wet food as well as a digestive enzyme. These two are excellent. The probiotic is a human one, but I use it for my cats its totally safe. 


https://www.chewy.com/animal-essentials-plant-enzyme/dp/49372

You also might want to look at cooking meats for him, especially if he likes boiled chicken. This is a supplement you can add to cooked meat to make your own cat food. My outside cat, that has some digestive issues from being abandoned and eating low quality dry food, does excellent on EZcomplete with cooked meats. He loves it.

http://www.foodfurlife.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

forgot to mention i'm in singapore, so i'm not sure about the vet care here or the availability of some kind of probiotics, but i will try both, thank you!

update on my cat! i switched his food to grain-free and the soft poo immediately stopped! although it's still stinky cos he refuses to cover it, hah. 

but progress!

hey everyone - my cat is currently on freeze-dried lamb + some canned chicken and the poop has stopped smelling at ALL and in fact looks dry and a bit weird...should I still bring him to the vet to check him out for parasites or can i conclude that it was the diet that caused the stinky poop?

whateverish said:

 
hey everyone - my cat is currently on freeze-dried lamb + some canned chicken and the poop has stopped smelling at ALL and in fact looks dry and a bit weird...should I still bring him to the vet to check him out for parasites or can i conclude that it was the diet that caused the stinky poop?

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Sounds normal, to me. The "dry" looking stool is likely because he's getting high meat based foods with no fillers. Raw fed cats often have very small firm stools. Some freeze dried foods are higher in bone so his stools may look more pale, which is okay as long as they're all pale or he's constipated. 

yesterday his poo was dry (but wet looking?! only it wasn't soft when i picked it up) and a consistent dark-beigy color. there were only 3 pieces of poo...i'm counting poo now, haha.

the only problem is now he's decided when i re-hydrate the frozen food he's only going to drink all the liquid in the bowl and be done with it. 

but then he'll also eat the dry freeze-dried food i leave in a bowl for him? 

idk if i should switch him back to kibble or not.