Psyllium for cat with soft poops

Seems to be a never ending saga with my 2 kitties.  I adopted 2 cats a year and 2 months ago.  Within an hour of getting home, the little one ( who is my cat who was over grooming like crazy, making boo boo’s on her body – diagnosed allergy to dust mites & storage mites, currently being treated with atopica ) she had loose poops with fresh red blood on the poop.  Took her in and had a stool test came back negative.  She ended up on de wormer ( panacur ) which helped solidify the poops for awhile but then ended up going back to soft poops again.  I hate to be gross but they aren’t formed, almost like a pile but not full on diarrhea either.  She poops 1x per day so it’s not like she’s running to the little box constantly with soft poops.  I have also tried flagyl which kinda helped.  It’s really hard when you have 2 cats and multiple litter boxes to know exactly who’s poop is who’s.  Anyways – I was reading in various groups that people have had luck with s. boulardi as well as psyllium husk capsules.  I went out this weekend and bought both.  I tried to mix a ½ capsule of each into some baby food and typically she will eat anything in baby food but she wouldn’t touch it.  I tried mixing the psyllium into her wet food and she wouldn’t touch that either.  Ugh….so the past 2 days I have been coating 1 full capsule of psyllim with butter and pilling her along with her atopica pill in the mornings.  I stopped the s. boullardi completely for now because I feel bad pilling her with 3 pills daily.  This morning I cleaned the litter boxes and she jumped right in so I watched and she made a poop but it was still soft and unformed.  I squished it in the bag and it’s the right color brown and the nasty smell of soft poop wasn’t as bad as it normally has been.  I really don’t know what to think.  I have tried various foods – we tried a hydrolyzed diet for a short time but she refused to eat it so the vet said no point in continuing with that.  I did have them on the Rad Cat raw for awhile which was great however with the allergy kitty on atopica, the dermatologist said absolutely no raw food since the atopica weakens her immune system and she could be at risk for toxoplasma so now we’re back to feeding the weruva canned, Best Friends canned and Daves naturally healthy.   Sorry this is so long – I guess my questions are she was already on Prednisolone 5mg for almost 2 months while we were trying to get her itching under control and waiting for the atopica to take effect.  I read that prednisolone should help to firm up the poops and I don’t believe it was ever formed and firm on that either.   IF this was IBD – wouldn’t see be running to the litter box more than 1x per day with soft poops?  Does it just take more time for the psyllium to take effect and work it’s magic or after afew days should I be seeing firm poops?  Is 1 capsule not enough?  I didn’t want to give her too much too soon because it can cause discomfort and gas I think.  

Have you tried diet changes yet? I have a kitty who cannot tolerate the all grain-free diet we feed the other kitties and causes him to have loose stools.  We now feed him (& have fed him for the past 6 years) some prescription dry food mixed in with his other dry crunchies. He still gets his grain-free wet food 2x a day, but the dry food helps firm up his poops. 

My only other suggestion would be to have the diarrhea PCR test run on the stool to rule out any weird parasites or other illnesses that cause loose stools, even though your little one doesn't have diarrhea.

Re: feeling bad for 3 pills/day - If you haven't already tried, I wanted to suggest mixing the capsule contents with a small amount of wet food & water. I've had success mixing probiotics & psyllium this way for my kitties, so it may be worth a try.

s boulardii is way better for diarrhea than psyllium husk. s boulardii is a probiotic that actually works with the gut to prevent the diarrhea, while psyllium husk is a fiber. s boulardii is bitter, so you need to either pill or mix into a little tuna water and syringe (that's how i give it).

My Cat Has Diarrhea - What Do I Do?

I always used psyllium to have a cat poop when they're not going at all, so I think it makes stools softer rather than harder.

Antonio65 said:

I always used psyllium to have a cat poop when they're not going at all, so I think it makes stools softer rather than harder.

Click to expand...

Hi,

So my experience with psyllium is.. Not great. My cat wasn't pooing. I had changed her diet, moved house, she has just turned 1 years old so it's her first real experience of a summer and shes going out to play a lot more.. Basically, all of this combined to a stressed kitty.

Of course I had 3 days of no sleep waiting for her to poo after the vet prescribed Laxatract, getting ready to take her to the next step.. Ultrasound in case it was anything more severe. She pooped after her 3rd dose of laxatract and I was over the moon.

I went to look at alternative foods that support a healthy gut and was recommended by a junior staff at pets at home to try the Royal canine with psyllium husk. This didn't go was all bunged up feeling constipated again. So I stopped and did some reading. Luckily I still had a few more doses of laxatract and continued on this and she is regular again.

Basically, my kitty doesn't drink water. I trick her in creative ways to drink it by mixing in food, adding to lick e lix and even a syringe.

Basically, psyllium works well if your cat drinks.. And drinks a lot. Water is needed to help the excrement bulk and soften. If not.. Stay away and ask the vet for alternatives because psyllium ends up having the opposite effect and making kitty's more constipated and can be quite dangerous.

I hope this helps