Another cat diet question, cat has chronic loose stools / diarrhea

[elmomax]

After both of my cats became sick with unremitting diarrhea from Wellness canned chicken, I trashed 5 cases of the food (at the advice of my vet) and as I mentioned, spent months trying to get my cats on course again with normal stools. Iggy now eats Nature's Variety LID Turkey (will try to rotate in some duck in a few weeks) and Zoey is eating Petguard Chicken with Wheat Germ. While I am not thrilled with Petguard since it is not grain free, I need to get Zoey stabilized. She started vommting after eating NVariety LID Turkey for 5 weeks and vet advised I change her to another brand of food. She has been holding steady for two weeks now (vommited only once) so I am not inclined to change her food at any time soon until I can see at least a month or two with no vomitting. She is also taking 1/2 tablet of Pepsid AC each morning. Need to check with vet to see if I can discontinue Pepsid at some point. Are there issues with side-effects of Pepsid AC?

Makes me wonder what exactly is in these cat foods that is causing my cats so many problems after six years of no issues whatsoever. 

Erica

 

[kollannia]

My Chagrin now once again has loose stools..........I JUST AM FEED UP WITH CAN FOOD FOR HIM. It seems like the others except Harpo are ok. Harpo looses his hair and the vet os like, I don't know....... nether do I ............ Ugh......... help......... chagrin is on candea can.  royal canin dry for sensitive tummies. He also likes salmon(in the pots, not cans. And tuna..........I am going to try just tuna, salmon and?.........I do wonder what is in the wet food they don't list??????????     K and Chang.........

 

[roguethecat]

this is why I don't feed any processed foods, I have two guys who get severe diarrhea on it (plus hairballs plus vomiting).

But don't trust me on this - do your own research on what to best feed a cat (like, for example, feline-nutrition.org).

 

[aloracats]

Fish is bad for cats!

http://m.petmd.com/blogs/nutritionnuggets/cat/jcoates/2013/july/is-fish-bad-for-cats-30648

http://www.sfgate.com/pets/askthevet/article/Limit-the-fish-in-your-cat-s-diet-3543894.php

 

[mspurr]

I am going through this now. chronic loose smelly stools in an otherwise healthy active cat. after a lot of tests and money we tested for tritrichomonas foetus and the test was positive.  I would advise any cat owner who's cat has loose smelly stools, negative fecal tests for giardia,coccidia etc.test for TRITRICHOMONAS FOETUS. I tried diet changes, one vet said it was stress, another said food allergy. the times she was on metronidazole the diarrhea would not be as bad,soon as the metronidazole stopped the smelly diarrhea was back.Finally after reading posts on this website I happened upon a link to Dr. Jody Gookin's Tritrichomonas website and my cat fit the symptoms,took the info to my vet and tested her and she was positive for tritrich. Had I  knew and tested sooner for tritrich I would have saved time and money on other ineffective treatments/remedies,vets don't usually think to test for tritrich,why I don't know and many aren't very familiar with current tritrich treatment and protocols, so we as pet owners have to be proactive in our pets care. I owe a big thanks to Dave and  twokatz for all their help and knowledge in educating me about tritrichomonas foetus.

 

 

[kagami]

Last year I had a terrible problem where all seven of our cats had diarrhea; I tried chicken breast, and fasting them, and a special food by hill's, but the only thing that helped to make their stools solid - and the only thing that ALWAYS works for a bout of diarrhea in any of our cats - has been pumpkin puree. Applaws do a pouch of pumpkin and chicken breast and I swear by it for solidifying a cat's stools.

 

[zoneout]

I am going through this now. chronic loose smelly stools in an otherwise healthy active cat. after a lot of tests and money we tested for tritrichomonas foetus and the test was positive.  I would advise any cat owner who's cat has loose smelly stools, negative fecal tests for giardia,coccidia etc.test for TRITRICHOMONAS FOETUS. I tried diet changes, one vet said it was stress, another said food allergy. the times she was on metronidazole the diarrhea would not be as bad,soon as the metronidazole stopped the smelly diarrhea was back.Finally after reading posts on this website I happened upon a link to Dr. Jody Gookin's Tritrichomonas website and my cat fit the symptoms,took the info to my vet and tested her and she was positive for tritrich. Had I  knew and tested sooner for tritrich I would have saved time and money on other ineffective treatments/remedies,vets don't usually think to test for tritrich,why I don't know and many aren't very familiar with current tritrich treatment and protocols, so we as pet owners have to be proactive in our pets care. I owe a big thanks to Dave and  twokatz for all their help and knowledge in educating me about tritrichomonas foetus.  

Really - so one vet said it was stress and handed you a bill with a straight face!?

I regret not going to vet school now.

 

[cymbal777]

Hi there. Read your post about cat diarhhea,and know for a fact this can be hard to diagnos. I had a beautiful yellow colored cat named Rusty,and when we first brought him home from the animal shelter,he started to have severe diarhhea. took him to the vet we had at the time,and she finally was able to stop the diarhhea. He was so skinny when we adopted him,and a close friend of ours said we never should have taken him. I loved him at first sight,and he gave us so much love and fun times. I believe you just have to be persistant with the caregivers,and try to educate yourself as much as you can to get the best care for your animal.

 

[kollannia]

Hi again, it's chagrin and kollanna,....... have I mentioned beside the crazy S.S. Siamese, we have twin 2year olds (grouchy and Harpo... just like the Marx brothers)and a blind kitty(hal) of 3.   we have been the loose stools, diarrhea, I b d. route. Ugh..........I have put chagrin on wellness(the various different cans, pouches, dry), besides cooked(not all the way like between rare-med rare), tuna, salmon and tilapia(MUST BE WILD CAUGHT, NOT FARM.  THE FARM DOES NOT TASTE GOOD TO THEM, BY EXPERIENCE AND OUR VET).... she said cats don't knock on a farm door and ask to have a fish....!!) and she is right. She has alot of other anecdotes. The twins and hal eat whatever is in their bowls...  Harpo has litter allergies, but that is a whole other topic.......

Back to the question at hand........ try, cooked chicken with pumpkin it will help them get back to normal.

 Chagrin is on GABEPENTIN for abnormal hip and arthritis in hips. He gets loose stools and water diarrhea, chick and pumpkin, helps, I also mix a little pumpkin in his wellness.   gotta run, it is so freezing here, got to hive chag his meds. Liquid gabepentin(chicken flavor, trust me, the flavor does not help....)

                                                                                                                      C & K  [emoji]128572[/emoji][emoji]128572[/emoji][emoji]128572[/emoji]         

 

[shannonmari1]

My other kitty, Chloe was having non stop diarrhea, to where she wasn't even making it to her litter box. We first tried changing out her food (gradually, as abruptly can make it worse, but that didn't work, so we tried  a prescription canned cat food with a probiotic (something that worked for my other cat, but his was simply stress), but to no avail. Other than the diarrhea issue, she was acting fine and playing normally, but she drank A LOT  of water. The vet finally put her on an antibiotic  (Metronidazole) and a strong dewormer--Panacur  (just in case, tho' they saw no parasites in her stool or under the mic) -- for a week and that actually cleared her up. She is having regular stools now.

The thing is, she never lost weight, in fact, she gained! I got her at the very end of August and she weighed 3 lbs (four months old). Last check up, which was last week as a follow up, she was 6.2 lbs!

Anyhooo, there are a lot of things that can cause diarrhea, my vet said. You just have to keep plugging away until you find the answer!

 

[zoneout]

 
Anyhooo, there are a lot of things that can cause diarrhea, my vet said. You just have to keep plugging away until you find the answer!

Very true!  Same applies for vomiting.   There are about 50 different conditions that can cause these symptoms.   You have to be persistent.   There is no magic bullet unfortunately.

 

[rickihag]

I know this is a post from several years back - just wondering if there is any advice for this - we have almost the exact situation with our kitty. He is bit over a year, we adopted him several months ago.  At first he did have a parasite - but that was cleared up.  Now he just has loose poop and sometimes stinky.  At the advice of our vet, we changed to Royal Canin - Gastro Intestinal food -and we have moved away for the really loose stool but it's still loose.  Not the best ingredients - and after a bit of research, we were reading that it's for constipated cats - which makes no sense!! My hubby will be talking to the vet tomorrow about this.

One thing I did notice, is we also stopped his treats and then about a week or so ago, I started giving him treats again and his stool got liquidy - so am now stopping them for good.

Looking for any advice here as well

 

[rickihag]

How did your vet finally stop the diarrhea??

 

[ankitty]

 
I know this is a post from several years back - just wondering if there is any advice for this - we have almost the exact situation with our kitty. He is bit over a year, we adopted him several months ago.  At first he did have a parasite - but that was cleared up.  Now he just has loose poop and sometimes stinky.  At the advice of our vet, we changed to Royal Canin - Gastro Intestinal food -and we have moved away for the really loose stool but it's still loose.  Not the best ingredients - and after a bit of research, we were reading that it's for constipated cats - which makes no sense!! My hubby will be talking to the vet tomorrow about this.

One thing I did notice, is we also stopped his treats and then about a week or so ago, I started giving him treats again and his stool got liquidy - so am now stopping them for good.

Looking for any advice here as well

For my cat, what worked was probiotics and Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Diet canned food. I got acidophiles from Wholefoods (refrigerated). 

 

[kollannia]

My chagrin has soft stools, he is on wellness, and has been for a couple of months. Talked to the vet, as long as it is not puddle soft, or liquidly, we are not changing him. He is not losing weight, and is active. Something I have noticed is, I have a cat that bearly drinks water, her stool is like rabbit pellets, chagrin drinks alot of water,(it has to be fresh and running),  and that can contribute to softer stools. The amount of water he drinks, always gets asked, is he diabetic, no he is not, been tested, he is just one of those cats that drinks alot.

 

[elmomax]

I have been struggling with digestive issues in both of my cats since Jan 2014 due to what we believe was a change in formula of Wellness Grain Free Canned Chicken cat food. Something in the change in formula, set off a rather nasty condition in both of my cats who became ill on the same day after a steady diet of this canned food for years.

 My male cat is now on Nature's Variety Limited Ingredient Turkey canned cat food.  Someone on this board suggested the brand to me.  After months of diarrhea he now tends toward constipation on this food, so I add water to each meal and sprinkle on unflavored Metamucil (per my vet's advice).  I gave him 1/4 teaspoon metamucil per day and that sent him into diarrhea.  I have cut back to less than 1/8 teaspoon a day or every other day. He also gets 1 capsule of Proviable DC each day.

My zoey developed sensitivity to NV limited ingredient and could not tolerate Natural Balance Limited Ingredient (various flavors) and vommited every meal, so she is now eating Petguard Organic Chicken with Vegetables. She also gets 1 cap sure of Proviable DC each day.

They both get upset tummies very easily so I stick to one brand and one flavor.  Prior to January of this year, they never had a problem.  While not ideal to only feed one brand/flavor, whenever i have tried introducing new flavors, even very slowly, the result is stinky diarrhea, so I have stayed to the course with what seems to be working for the past few months.

When they had very bad diarrhea, they were tested for parasites and all the obvious issues via blood work and x-rays to rule out liver issues, pancreatitis, etc and all tests came back fine.

Digestive issues are tough to treat in my experience and it has been trial and error and when they revert to diarrhea, they go on boiled chicken breast with beechnut baby food chicken stage one mixed in. They do not tolerate rice so i have given up on that. But i put them on boiled chicken for 3 days to rest their tummies and then gradually introduce their regular food. I keep my paws crossed that they will remain stable on their current regimen. Their weight has been holding fine.

Hope this helps.

Erica

 

[ankitty]

Proviable didn't do anything to my cat. I think non-refrigerated probiotics are not as effective as refrigerated ones. I gave my cat refrigerated acidophiles and he was gassy for a day and then his stool firmed up nicely after that. 

 

[mspurr]

my kitten Ginger had chronic loose smelly stools and was treated  with several medications and diet changes with only temporary improvement in her stools. She continued to gain weight and was very active even though she constantly had loose stools. all her fecal tests for parasites were negative until she was tested for tritrichomonas foetus. vets usually don't test for TF even though it is prevalent in catteries and shelters. She tested positive for TF and,was treated with ronidazole and finally no more loose smelly poo! I believe lots of cats are misdiagnosed with food intolerance  and IBD when they have tritrichomonas foetus, I've owned cats for 20 years and truly believe TF is the cause of many cats mystery diarrhea issues.

 

[elmomax]

I personally think that diarrhea and tummy issues are rough to diagnose. It is much about eliminating causes and trial and error and seeing what works. And what may work for awhile may not always work and get your cat's stools back to where they need to be.  It is very helpful to hear from others to get tips on what tests to tell your vet to do (if they do not suggest some you feel are needed).  I have found that being an informed cat owner and learning from others, has been extremely valuable through the years. 

My cats responded well to Proviable, other posters have used other probiotics -- it is often trial and error, unfortunately.

All my best to you!

Erica

 

[kittyfostermom]

When my foster kittens had diarrhea i gave them Fortiflora which is a probiotic powder that you sprinkle on the wet food. Also giving them a food for sensitive tummies might work. With all the moving maybe stress has caused a bit of the tummy troubles. Maybe go back to the food that you saw some improvement and use the Fortiflora powder with it and see if that helps. Also keep you cats routine as normal as possible.