Hello,
I am new here and forums in general, thank you for having me.
First of all apologies if this will be long, but I am trying to give the whole picture as best as I can (I am not a native speaker, sorry if you see any "unconventional grammar" or spelling mistake)
I have a male cat that I have gotten from a breeder a few months ago (He was 4 months old at the time).
The breeder told me they were feeding him a bit of everything, from dry food to canned and raw meat.
I had always been feeding my other cat a mix of dry food (grain free 80% meat+ only) and raw meat, with excellent results (perfect stools, vitality and fur) and that's what I started the little guy on as well.
At the beginning he had loose stools, almost diarrhea like, but I assumed it was simply due to nervousness for changing environment and needing to settle in a new place and get used to a different kind of diet. Unfortunately those symptoms persisted, some days they would appear to get better to almost normal, other days worse, until the day I actually found out he has had half formed bloody stools.
Please note that in the meanwhile, I had attempted to change brands and varieties of foods. The poor guy has RAVENOUS appetite, he would eat no stop unless I rationed his food, and he isn't picky at all, in fact he ate pretty much anything I tried to feed him in order to see if his loose stools were something related to his diet.
After the "bloody" accident, I went to the vet, who checked his tummy, said he seemed to be well fed and well hydrated, and she suggested to try some antibiotics because she believed it was a simple infection. In addition she gave him an anti-parasite pill (The cat was coming from a cattery since less than a month) and told me to feed him only cooked chicken for a week.
I did that, and for a few days, he became constipated, no feces at all, until I actually started to worry and decided to feed him some kibbles as well, and that apparently helped him relieve himself, no blood.
For a week or so, everything seemed to be going well, until he started to have bloody stools again, this time out of his litter-box as well. His general health however, seemed to be good all this time.
Extremely active, cuddly, playful.
This time the vet suggested to try some fecal exams. She tested him for pretty much anything (for more than 100 pounds, I remember in Italy a fecal test for my other cat costed me 15 eur, not sure if the vet ripped me off because I was a foreigner), either way, the results were all negative.
She mentioned he might have been suffering from IBD even if she was skeptical because of his young age, stating that, according to her, it typically affects only older cats. She suggested I gave him more antibiotics, and when she was about to prescribe them, I said something along the lines of "I think I still got some left from the other time..." because I wasn't really sure about it, and she seemed very disappointed, answering "Ah. You still do? Right, try that then, come back if you need more".
I didn't even bother trying, as I wasn't really feeling like that could have been the solution.
I started to consider it might have been an allergy, but I couldn't understand how that was possible since among my various attempts to change his diet, I had also tried to give him raw meat only, and I couldn't quite picture in my mind how it could make any sense for a cat be allergic to "meat" rather than the other ingredients found in the dry kibbles.
I realized however that both the dry food and the raw meat I had been feeding him, has the only protein based on chicken, and I decided to try with something different.
At the beginning beef, lamb and so on seemed to work for a little while, I thought I had found the solution.
Eventually however the problem came back to haunt us both.
I started to do more research for some products that would help with a cat tummy/intestines, and I started to feed him different kinds of probiotics, until I found one that seemed to be very "complete", which basically "solved" the problem. Since I have been giving him that stuff, no matter what I feed him, the bloody stools stopped.
However this feels more like a workaround than a real solution, I definitely don't think it's a good thing to have a cat on probiotics or other artificial things for all his life if you can help it.
In fact as soon as I stop providing them, even after a long period of "no accidents" the loose stools / diarrhea is back.
Meanwhile I also contacted the breeder to inquire about the cat feeding habits, they said they never noticed any issues with his stools, until I started to press them asking them exactly which brands they were feeding, how often and so on, stating I had been having problems and I wanted to try and reproduce exactly their diet, and they finally mentioned that they had been giving him both PRE biotics and PRO biotics since pretty much after he was weaned.
Of course at the moment of selling the cat they never mentioned this, and they said they don't think the cat is ill at all, as far as they are concerned, every cat has a more or less sensitive intestine and that it's all normal...
In my opinion, this is pretty serious, it feels like to me that he is not able to produce a good flora at all on his own, and he's relying on what I provide him artificially to absorb the food, hence why he seems to be hungry all the time.
I would like to understand if there's some sort of cure to solve the problem permanently, or if my poor kitten is damned to rely on those substances for the rest of his life.
I am also worrying about how long he has to live since he is only 8 months old!
Unfortunately I hardly know any people here, and there's no vet I can trust or anyone I know with cats to give me any suggestions.
I would appreciate very much any advice.
I am new here and forums in general, thank you for having me.
First of all apologies if this will be long, but I am trying to give the whole picture as best as I can (I am not a native speaker, sorry if you see any "unconventional grammar" or spelling mistake)
I have a male cat that I have gotten from a breeder a few months ago (He was 4 months old at the time).
The breeder told me they were feeding him a bit of everything, from dry food to canned and raw meat.
I had always been feeding my other cat a mix of dry food (grain free 80% meat+ only) and raw meat, with excellent results (perfect stools, vitality and fur) and that's what I started the little guy on as well.
At the beginning he had loose stools, almost diarrhea like, but I assumed it was simply due to nervousness for changing environment and needing to settle in a new place and get used to a different kind of diet. Unfortunately those symptoms persisted, some days they would appear to get better to almost normal, other days worse, until the day I actually found out he has had half formed bloody stools.
Please note that in the meanwhile, I had attempted to change brands and varieties of foods. The poor guy has RAVENOUS appetite, he would eat no stop unless I rationed his food, and he isn't picky at all, in fact he ate pretty much anything I tried to feed him in order to see if his loose stools were something related to his diet.
After the "bloody" accident, I went to the vet, who checked his tummy, said he seemed to be well fed and well hydrated, and she suggested to try some antibiotics because she believed it was a simple infection. In addition she gave him an anti-parasite pill (The cat was coming from a cattery since less than a month) and told me to feed him only cooked chicken for a week.
I did that, and for a few days, he became constipated, no feces at all, until I actually started to worry and decided to feed him some kibbles as well, and that apparently helped him relieve himself, no blood.
For a week or so, everything seemed to be going well, until he started to have bloody stools again, this time out of his litter-box as well. His general health however, seemed to be good all this time.
Extremely active, cuddly, playful.
This time the vet suggested to try some fecal exams. She tested him for pretty much anything (for more than 100 pounds, I remember in Italy a fecal test for my other cat costed me 15 eur, not sure if the vet ripped me off because I was a foreigner), either way, the results were all negative.
She mentioned he might have been suffering from IBD even if she was skeptical because of his young age, stating that, according to her, it typically affects only older cats. She suggested I gave him more antibiotics, and when she was about to prescribe them, I said something along the lines of "I think I still got some left from the other time..." because I wasn't really sure about it, and she seemed very disappointed, answering "Ah. You still do? Right, try that then, come back if you need more".
I didn't even bother trying, as I wasn't really feeling like that could have been the solution.
I started to consider it might have been an allergy, but I couldn't understand how that was possible since among my various attempts to change his diet, I had also tried to give him raw meat only, and I couldn't quite picture in my mind how it could make any sense for a cat be allergic to "meat" rather than the other ingredients found in the dry kibbles.
I realized however that both the dry food and the raw meat I had been feeding him, has the only protein based on chicken, and I decided to try with something different.
At the beginning beef, lamb and so on seemed to work for a little while, I thought I had found the solution.
Eventually however the problem came back to haunt us both.
I started to do more research for some products that would help with a cat tummy/intestines, and I started to feed him different kinds of probiotics, until I found one that seemed to be very "complete", which basically "solved" the problem. Since I have been giving him that stuff, no matter what I feed him, the bloody stools stopped.
However this feels more like a workaround than a real solution, I definitely don't think it's a good thing to have a cat on probiotics or other artificial things for all his life if you can help it.
In fact as soon as I stop providing them, even after a long period of "no accidents" the loose stools / diarrhea is back.
Meanwhile I also contacted the breeder to inquire about the cat feeding habits, they said they never noticed any issues with his stools, until I started to press them asking them exactly which brands they were feeding, how often and so on, stating I had been having problems and I wanted to try and reproduce exactly their diet, and they finally mentioned that they had been giving him both PRE biotics and PRO biotics since pretty much after he was weaned.
Of course at the moment of selling the cat they never mentioned this, and they said they don't think the cat is ill at all, as far as they are concerned, every cat has a more or less sensitive intestine and that it's all normal...
In my opinion, this is pretty serious, it feels like to me that he is not able to produce a good flora at all on his own, and he's relying on what I provide him artificially to absorb the food, hence why he seems to be hungry all the time.
I would like to understand if there's some sort of cure to solve the problem permanently, or if my poor kitten is damned to rely on those substances for the rest of his life.
I am also worrying about how long he has to live since he is only 8 months old!
Unfortunately I hardly know any people here, and there's no vet I can trust or anyone I know with cats to give me any suggestions.
I would appreciate very much any advice.
My top pick would be the Catz Finefood Purrr - it's limited ingredient as well as novel protein, and is designed for ibd cats. The only brand on that list I've not used myself is Integra Protect. I listed it because it is formulated for ibd cats, and the ingredients aren't bad.
