A little daily record on my cat's diarrhea (also looking for advice)

[PotatoCatto]

This is gonna be pretty long. I appreciate all of your patience reading through this.

Backstory - I last posted around a year ago. At the time I was not sure whether should rehome my kitty. I ended up keeping him. I still have pretty complex feelings about this but I love him to death. My cat is now 1 year and 3 months old, male, neutered. He has a history of having diarrhea and soft stool. We suspected IBD but the vet told me the only way of diagnosing is through a surgery, which we found unnecessary since he was otherwise happy and healthy. I ended up getting it under control when he was maybe 7 months or so, and his poop has been pretty good (I would rate it 8-10 out of a 10) ever since - until yesterday.

I think this is partially my fault. He has been doing quite well - he was on a single type of dry food, no wet food, and some treats (a few pieces of freeze dried chicken + a few dental treats) everyday. The reason we didn't feed wet food was because he had wet food with pumpkin puree in the past for his diarrhea, and was vomiting daily. I was terribly worried but found that once we stopped that the vomiting was completely gone, so I didn't try again for another 6 months or so - until now. I thought perhaps his vomiting was due to the pumpkin puree, so I got a limited ingredient wet food for him. He tried the first can and was very much OK (he only got 1/3 of a can a day, a pretty small amount). However, he starting having diarrhea after the first 1/3 can of the 2.5second can of wet food :'( It started off with soft-ish stool and quickly went downhill in a single day.

How he's doing now: he is going to the bathroom 7 or 8 times a day, with very small amount of very watery stool and mucus. Sometimes he can only squeeze a little bit out. He sometimes sounds gassy. He is otherwise doing OK, maybe a little more tired than usual, but still quite playful.

What I have been doing - I just gave him 2.5 billion CFU of s. boulardii. I'm debating whether I should be pilling him every other hour with a smaller amount, but I'm worried the capsule is going to further upset his tummy. I've made the mistake in the past where I tried way too many things and I think that just upset his tummy even more.

I'm going to bring him to the vet tomorrow. I need to rule out parasites. Probably also going to ask if they can test his b12 and pancreas levels etc. I want to get his butt shaved as it's terribly difficult for me to wipe his butt right now. My hope is to not put him on meds for another week or two (obviously, I will listen to the vet's suggestion and need to adjust the action based on lab results etc.) see if he stablizes. I don't want to put him on meds immediately because I don't want meds to further upset his tummy. He had a history of having diarrhea and had been on metronidazole multiple times, but it never really helped I think, and I know that's what the vet usually prescribes.

I am writing this as I want to keep a little record on my cat's condition. Hopefully it's nothing serious. Obviously things may go terribly wrong - and I'm trying to not do any of the catastrophic thinking kind of thing, as I always do. It's very much possible that I get overwhelmed/lazy/bored and stop updating this, but I'm going to try to keep a record of his current condition, both for others and for myself.

Also looking for some advice and perhaps reassurance... It's a hard time :/

 

[PotatoCatto]

Didn't expect the first update to come so quickly... he started vomiting.

 

[Margot Lane]

So sorry. I think it’s wise about the vet and to listen to what they say. My IBD cat just started having the runs after a positive 2 year stint on quail and pumpkin with pred & chemo pills -long story- and I’ve just given him lots of rice and boiled chicken. Now I wish to Heaven he WOULD poo. Anyway you are seeking advice and I think you are heading on the right track: see your vet, and as you said maybe limit what you give him, so you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ll be interested to read your records from the sidelines, and will be rooting for you both! (Is his name Potato?).

 

[PotatoCatto]

So sorry. I think it’s wise about the vet and to listen to what they say. My IBD cat just started having the runs after a positive 2 year stint on quail and pumpkin with pred & chemo pills -long story- and I’ve just given him lots of rice and boiled chicken. Now I wish to Heaven he WOULD poo. Anyway you are seeking advice and I think you are heading on the right track: see your vet, and as you said maybe limit what you give him, so you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ll be interested to read your records from the sidelines, and will be rooting for you both! (Is his name Potato?).

Thanks for the support!

We pretty much stayed med free for the past 6 months or so. I think the best thing to do is always to put him through a vet check. My suspicion (not confirmed) is that he probably has large bowel problems because he never passed large amount of stool - just small amount of watery stool. Also even when it's really bad he was still consistently gaining weight. It's hard to know what to do. The mistake I made the first time around was to try wayyyy too much stuff and I think that upset his tummy even more. If everyting comes out clear (fingers crossed) my hope is to not change anything in our routine for a month or so to see if that makes him stable (usually he only gets dry kibbles twice a day, and then a bit of probiotics with a bit of crushed freesze dried chicken, but I'm replacing the probiotics with s boulardii right now because I'm not sure if the probiotics has gone bad due to the humidity...) and if he doesn't get better we will go on food trials. The other thing that our vet suggested was to put him on steroid for a bit. I am unfortunately very easily overwhelmed.

No. I simply really like potatoes haha

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi.

I am not a veterinarian. I can only tell you what I would do if he were my cat, and I had the funds to do so.

I would not change anything till he sees the vet tomorrow. If you think the probiotics are not good, just don’t give them.
I would discuss with the vet doing a fecal PCR through the lab to test for not only Protozoa but for bacterial overgrowth. I think Antech has a reasonabley priced one.
I would also request a GI panel to check the B12 levels and make sure it is also testing for pancreatitis, an FPLI.
If virals have never been checked or if an outside cat, check virals. FELV/FIV.
Ask your veterinarian about referral to a board certified internal medicine veterinarian for an abdominal ultrasound. IBD can be strongly suggested in an ultrasound.
Discuss protein limited antigen diet with your vet. Very important, if you do a limited antigen diet with a novel protein source, it has to be a protein he has never had before. The common ( uncommon) proteins tried are, rabbit, duck, venison. But that has to be all he eats. No snacks or treats. Just that food or there is no point in doing it and you’ve wasted a protein source.
You have to look at the ingredients of the previous foods you have fed. Some companies love to put various things in their food, thus limiting what can be used as a novel protein. Then you have to find buffalo or some other unused protein cat food.
Also discuss that some cats have such a problem processing carbohydrates that they develope inflammation from it resulting in the symptoms you describe. All dry food is high in carbohydrates. You really have to become an investigator to find low or no carb diets. If you do a prescription canned novel protein source, it should be fine. But no treats. One temptation treat is going to mess things up.
Just because he was ok eating something before, doesn’t mean he is ok eating it now. Food allergy can develope at any time.
If offered medications, I would use them. There is a reason they are prescribed, ask your vet why before you get them.
If you feel that your vet is just giving metronidazole every time you see them, ask for a referral to a specialist. Not all vets are good at all things. Vets don’t take it personal if you seek advice from a specialist.

Anyway, that’s what I would do it this was my cat. Please let us know how it goes. The under the tail trim is a great idea. I hope your guy is feeling better soon.

One final thing. Always think outside the box as well. Could the vomiting be unrelated and just coincidence. Does your cat play with hair ties or eat things he shouldn’t?

Great name by the way, and good idea keeping track of his health here.

 

[PotatoCatto]

Hi.

I am not a veterinarian. I can only tell you what I would do if he were my cat, and I had the funds to do so.

I would not change anything till he sees the vet tomorrow. If you think the probiotics are not good, just don’t give them.
I would discuss with the vet doing a fecal PCR through the lab to test for not only Protozoa but for bacterial overgrowth. I think Antech has a reasonabley priced one.
I would also request a GI panel to check the B12 levels and make sure it is also testing for pancreatitis, an FPLI.
If virals have never been checked or if an outside cat, check virals. FELV/FIV.
Ask your veterinarian about referral to a board certified internal medicine veterinarian for an abdominal ultrasound. IBD can be strongly suggested in an ultrasound.
Discuss protein limited antigen diet with your vet. Very important, if you do a limited antigen diet with a novel protein source, it has to be a protein he has never had before. The common ( uncommon) proteins tried are, rabbit, duck, venison. But that has to be all he eats. No snacks or treats. Just that food or there is no point in doing it and you’ve wasted a protein source.
You have to look at the ingredients of the previous foods you have fed. Some companies love to put various things in their food, thus limiting what can be used as a novel protein. Then you have to find buffalo or some other unused protein cat food.
Also discuss that some cats have such a problem processing carbohydrates that they develope inflammation from it resulting in the symptoms you describe. All dry food is high in carbohydrates. You really have to become an investigator to find low or no carb diets. If you do a prescription canned novel protein source, it should be fine. But no treats. One temptation treat is going to mess things up.
Just because he was ok eating something before, doesn’t mean he is ok eating it now. Food allergy can develope at any time.
If offered medications, I would use them. There is a reason they are prescribed, ask your vet why before you get them.
If you feel that your vet is just giving metronidazole every time you see them, ask for a referral to a specialist. Not all vets are good at all things. Vets don’t take it personal if you seek advice from a specialist.

Anyway, that’s what I would do it this was my cat. Please let us know how it goes. The under the tail trim is a great idea. I hope your guy is feeling better soon.

One final thing. Always think outside the box as well. Could the vomiting be unrelated and just coincidence. Does your cat play with hair ties or eat things he shouldn’t?

Great name by the way, and good idea keeping track of his health here.

Thanks for the great advice! You're right, I probably shouldn't have given him anything beyond his normal food before going to the vet. Thanks for the suggestions on the tests! I will definitely get him thoroughly checked out. We checked for virals when he was a kitten, and at the time he had feline coronavirus which the vet suggested could cause some mild tummy upset and may never go away.

I think our vet suggested in the past that if his symptom doesn't stop we might want to proceed with an ultrasound, but ended up telling me that since he was doing well at the time an ultrasound would be unnecessary. I'll definitely ask if my vet thinks it would be nice to just get it done so we know what's going on in the first place. I am definitely not against giving him meds, but since he did at one point experience an acute diarrhea that just healed on its own within a day, I do want to ask if the vet think this might just be due to a diet change or something and that perhaps we can see if he stablizes with his original diet, especially since he did (possibly) have a prior history of getting tummy upset from wet food, even though it's not this specific brand. But I will follow the vet's directions.

It's not impossible that he simply ate something he shouldn't. He does occasionally want to lick off just very random dots (a little piece of dirt, etc.) on the floor.

 

[silent meowlook]

I would talk to your vet about rechecking the fecal PCR just to make sure the coronavirus has been cleared.
It seems like you have knowledge and are proactive about your cats health. That is wonderful!

 

[PotatoCatto]

We're back from the vet appointment! I'm so tired from the lack of sleep since his condition gives me loks of anxiety... so this post is just going to be me rambling on/

He has been doing OK - he eats alright, and is still energetic. He pooped 3 times this morning, very liquidy poop or mucus (but in very small amount).

The vet says she's not too worried about his condition, and that it might just be because of the introduction of a different food/protein. I brought in samples for them to do PCR tets and parasite test, but she said she thinks bloodwords, B12 and pancreas level is unnecessary at the moment, but if there is a need I will definitely bring him in to get them tested. She also thinks that currently we don't need meds while waiting for lab results since he is pretty well hydrated and seems to be stable otherwise. She says I can keep on feeding him his old food for a few more days and if that doesn't help we will switch his food to one for sensitive GI system (she says that food doesn't require transition so hopefully it's going to go smoothly). He got his bum shaved (poor baby!) so hopefully I can wipe it more easily.

 

[stephanietx]

I am in a similar situation. My cat had pancreatitis. My vet basically said that if the pancreas is unhappy, the rest of the GI tract isn't happy and one of the big symptoms is picky eating and vomiting. Also, pancreatitis is very common in IBD cats. My cat hasn't been tested for IBD, but he has most of the symptoms, so my vet is treating him as if he has IBD. Ten days ago, he started with diarrhea. We started him on prednisone and in a couple of days, the diarrhea is gone, but he's still not using the litterbox. He's getting closer, but not there yet. My boy is getting 3 capsules of s. boulardii a day and his regular probiotic. I've ordered Adored Beast Gut Soothe, but I don't know when that will be here. I find it interesting that they didn't do the test for pancreatitis.

 

[PotatoCatto]

I am in a similar situation. My cat had pancreatitis. My vet basically said that if the pancreas is unhappy, the rest of the GI tract isn't happy and one of the big symptoms is picky eating and vomiting. Also, pancreatitis is very common in IBD cats. My cat hasn't been tested for IBD, but he has most of the symptoms, so my vet is treating him as if he has IBD. Ten days ago, he started with diarrhea. We started him on prednisone and in a couple of days, the diarrhea is gone, but he's still not using the litterbox. He's getting closer, but not there yet. My boy is getting 3 capsules of s. boulardii a day and his regular probiotic. I've ordered Adored Beast Gut Soothe, but I don't know when that will be here. I find it interesting that they didn't do the test for pancreatitis.

Thanks for the info! I wonder if it's because my cat has had a history of chronic diarrhea / soft stool as a kitten, and that he doesn't have any other symptoms beside diarrhea (he's energetic, and eats OK) and that his previous record already suggested that he might have chronic IBD. When he was a kitten we tested for his B12 and pancreas levels and both were OK (that was maybe 7 or 8 months ago). Obviously that does not suggest that he's still OK on both fronts, so if the symptom continues I'll definitely have him tested again.

 

[PotatoCatto]

Took a long nap and finally woke up and feel much better now . I was so anxious that I couldn't sleep last night.

I think the bum shave really helped, he went to the box once an hour ago and didn't get much of anything on himself. Although I wonder if that might be because his stool seemed to have firmed up a tiny bit. I certainly think it firmed up at least a little because (sorry this sounds gross) yesterday morning his poop was dripping off of his hair...

Here's a question - what do you do to try to keep your place and your cat's bum clean during these situations. I am really worried that he's gonna get poop everywhere. Last night I set up a camera pointing to his box that would detect his movement and send me a notification so I can get off the bed and clean him. Because the notification is not as loud as a phone call I pretty much stayed semi-awake for the entire night :'( Also if he moves around the general area of his litterbox I also get woken up. I don't know if I want to do the same thing again. How does everyone deal with it? I think I must have a much easier time than a lot of people already since I don't have carpeted floor and my place is very small, but even then I find it a little annoying.

 

[stephanietx]

I sleep with a small flashlight next to my bed so that if I get up in the night, I can see if there's any diarrhea. We clean him with pet wipes I got from Amazon. When he does poop, I wipe it up and then spray with Biokleen Bac-Out Pet. It comes in a spray. Be sure to get the one for pets. It really helps with the smell and keeps them from going back to that spot.

 

[Margot Lane]

My cat’s poo today is NORMAL so I immediately thought of you! (I’m doing the happy poo dance today!). Not saying you should do this but maybe as backup in your pocket:

1. I made sure the cat food was at room temp which I don’t always do (cold cat food can cause diarrhea).
2. I switched to plain boiled chicken and Japanese white sticky rice.
3. I put some of the rice/chicken water in his drinking water which makes him drink more/kept him hydrated during the runny poo.
4. Am now cautiously transitioning him back to his novel protein (quail) with rice (not puréed pumpkin) to see if the pumpkin (or, too much pumpkin) was the culprit.
5. I have a backup novel protein to try if that goes south, as well as more frozen chicken.

GOOD LUCK. Also, try to do something nice for yourself: yoga, massage, meditation, tai chi…cats pick up on your worry, like little kids, but also pick up on your happiness.

 

[PotatoCatto]

I'm back! tl dr not much has changed

Today is kind of business as usual. Sadly his poop is still not formed, he went to the box maybe 5 times in the morning (with very little stuff) and vomited once. I'm not terribly worried about his general health (however, if you have a cat that is like this bring him/her to the vet ASAP) since he eats, drinks and plays normally and is hydrated. In addition, this has happened before when he was a kitten, and it took somewhat long to resolve (maybe 2 weeks? I don't remember, that's why I want to keep track of his progress in hope that it can also help others. I know when they are sick a day feels like a week). In the past we have been to the vet a few times and the response was almost always for me to not worry too much. We're just waiting for lab results. I guess I forgot to mention this but he's strictly indoors, so while there's still a chance of him getting parasites from my belongings I guess he's pretty safe on stuff like FIV/FeLV

Also forgot to mention that the vet said I can keep on giving him the same probiotics for now, but if he keep on having diarrhea we might change it. I bought a new can of probiotics since it was very humid and the old one had little chunks forming in them. I'm not sure if they go bad and I just want to stay safe. For his food we are staying on the old food but I opened a new bag of it, just wanting to make sure it's not because the old bag has gone bad or something. Besides changing into new bags of the same product that we are using the only thing I added was a bit of s. boulardii. Overall I want to minimize the change as this has worked in the past (as I mentioned before, the first time this happened I panicked so much and tried like all kinds of different dried food and canned food and I think that only made the situation worse).

I appreciate all the advice regarding food change. I think if he doesn't make any progress in a week or so I will change his food to the prescribed food and hopefully we can wean him off of that food after he stablizes. I hesitate making any changes because... well... we think a 1/3 can of wet food got us here. Obviously prescribed food is different but I still feel uneasy about it. I also didn't realize it yesterday but I examined the bag of the veterinary diet and I think we have tried that one before when he was young and at the time it didn't help that much (but also I was a new cat mom and I was probably feeding him other things and treats, so it's probably not the food's problem). I am definitely not against veterinary diets. I will make diet changes if we absolutely have to, and perhaps if his (suspected) IBD gets worse we will need to, but I just want to push our luck with regular food for a bit longer. My biggest concern what if he develops other health conditions (kidney problems etc.) that requires other specialized diet, it would be harder to find a combination diet that would accommodate multiple conditions. However, the vet did say that if I stay proactive we can probably detect signs of kidney problems and hyperthyroidism early on and they can both be managed.

Thanks for all the encouragement!

 

[PotatoCatto]

Also, shaving him bum helped SO MUCH. It's so helpful to not have to rub poop off of his hair

 

[Margot Lane]

I suppose prednisolone is also a matter to discuss w/ your vet…it has helped my IBD kitty a LOT. He also gets a monthly B12 shot. I can see from your entries you long for the least impactful/medical route (who doesn’t?) but if all else fails this might be an option. Glad your cat’s butt is happier! Do you have to do that regularly, to prevent itchiness when it grows back?

 

[PotatoCatto]

I suppose prednisolone is also a matter to discuss w/ your vet…it has helped my IBD kitty a LOT. He also gets a monthly B12 shot. I can see from your entries you long for the least impactful/medical route (who doesn’t?) but if all else fails this might be an option. Glad your cat’s butt is happier! Do you have to do that regularly, to prevent itchiness when it grows back?

Hmmm.... I didn't know that cats can get itchy butt when their hair grows back. I guess I completely overlooked that part. When he has good poop he generally keeps himself pretty clean so if everything goes well hopefully he doesn't need to get his full Brazillian again and it can just grow back no problem.

Also thanks for the suggestion! I do have some concerns over giving him medication, but I'm not against doing it (poor baby had to be held down so many times as a kitten to for meds). To be honest a little slice of me just hopes that maybe the lab result will show that it's some sort of easily curable thing and we can just administer a bit of med and he'll be back to normal. And if nothing works I will definitely talk to my vet about prednisolone (one of the treatment plans proposed when he we young was to give him a bit of steroids and wean him off of it, but he ended up healing on his own) but I am hoping to do it without. At the moment my vet has not talked about giving him medications yet, and I didn't even mention his past record with metronidazole.

Again, this might be irrational of me and for anyone in the future reading this, please follow your vet's medical advice, rather than listening to me, a random person on the Internet who doesn't know anything about medicine. But my thought is that just like prescription food, I am kind of hoping to push at least long term administration of medications as late as possible since he is so young (only 15 months old, my precious litle baby) - my understanding is that it will probably put a bit of strain on his liver/kidney, and it always comes with potential side effects. In addition, if he does develop other medical problems in the future, I hope to keep his options as open as possible. All of these being said, we will do it if the vet thinks it's necessary as I'm not a professional.

Sorry about the rambling. I'm trying to stay calm since we don't know what the future holds.

 

[PotatoCatto]

A small update for today. Not much has changed. He's eating well, drinking well, but is still going to his box a lot. I think he often feels irritated but cannot push much (or anything out). I am not TOO worried because I know for him it took a long time for it to resolve last time as well.

I looked back to my old messages with a friend when he had similar symptoms and ya... I was just a ball of chaos. But it's hard for me to determine how long it took for him to get better last time, because honestly it felt like years and I was less experienced back then.

 

[Margot Lane]

I am relieved to hear you have a friend who has also gone through this, as it can be a lot! I am glad you stay in close touch w/ your vet b/c runny poop for a very long time = dehydration, as you know. Stay centered, deep breaths.

 

[PotatoCatto]

I am relieved to hear you have a friend who has also gone through this, as it can be a lot! I am glad you stay in close touch w/ your vet b/c runny poop for a very long time = dehydration, as you know. Stay centered, deep breaths.

Haha, it's not her pet, it's mine who has gone through this pretty much exact thing (sorry when I said "he" I was pointing to my cat). I think that time it's also caused by me switching food, although I had no choice because at the time his old food was out of stock everywhere :'( Although my friend does have a pet with some chronic diarrhea symptoms as well, so we literally just talk about poop everyday lol.

Thanks for the hydration reminder! I am keeping an eye on his hydration level (by gently pinching his back/scruff area) but for him even though he goes to his box a lot most of the time I think it's because of irritation and he can't push much out. I'd be a lot more worried if he goes many times and has larger volume of diarrhea.