Hey there,
I've got a problem that I'd love to hear your opinion on; our cat's been having diarrhoea infrequently of late. We've first attributed it to food and restricted her diet to only dry food and no snacks. When it wouldn't get better, we restricted her movement to first only the house and then only our flat (she's usually in the cellar when roaming the house, not in the main part with my parents because dogs). That's improved the issue; she hasn't had it since. To ensure it wasn't just a coincidence, we let her into the cellar again, and she promptly had diarrhoea the following day.
As a whole, she doesn't appear like she's in pain and behaves normally once her diarrhoea has stopped. When she has it, she appears to be in pain or at least, unsurprisingly, uncomfortable, running around the flat like crazy. The pain aspect we deduced from her lying on the side, flexing her paws a little and shaking (similar behaviour our other cat showed after we had her neutered). I.e. no lingering symptoms once her diarrhoea is over.
Now, there's the problem: what could be causing it? We've had her stool analysed and the results came back as normal, no parasites and nothing out of whack, meaning it isn't worms nor any chronic illness. We don't have any rat poison or something stored or laid out for obvious reasons (plus, she's a good hunter), and we don't store food downstairs. It's a bit messy and there's a slight issue with mould, however, the latter should have long lasting and not immediate effects. We're left a bit puzzled and scratching our heads what it could be - all there is is effectively books, some old clothes, some miscellaneous non-edible non-decomposing items, tools, and some horse-related stuff restricted to a closet she cannot access. I don't think she's killed a rat and hidden it somewhere to go munching on any time she's downstairs, because I'd wager we'd see it and it'd smell, especially since this has been going on for well over a month now. Haven't seen any traces of mice or the like, either. There's no way she can sneak outside, either, so the issue is definitely in the cellar. She loves it there, too (for whatever reason; it's pretty damn cold down there in the winter), so stress isn't the answer, either, imho, since she's more stressed out now that she's confined to the flat. We've had issues with food moths that have/had taken up residence in the storage room where I keep my tobacco harvest, yet she does not enter the room and due to lack of organic matter, the infestation is/was limited to this area; there are none active currently that I can see (and hope they've been dealt with by destroying any infested material). Should also mention that she doesn't eat tobacco, either, so that is not the issue, also she's a picky eater and scoffs at rubbish. There's no litter box in the cellar, but she's not locked out of the flat and frequently travels between downstairs and upstairs, meaning she isn't limited when she has to go (thought I'd include that since she doesn't go when she's outside, instead waiting until we let her back in to run upstairs and take a dump).
Current theories of us are:
- allergies
- potentially eating rodents and being good at hiding the remains
It must be something that is fast-acting to induce it within a day. Completely puzzled as to what it can be, so feel free to go all House on this ;-)
Thanks in advance for your replies :-)
I've got a problem that I'd love to hear your opinion on; our cat's been having diarrhoea infrequently of late. We've first attributed it to food and restricted her diet to only dry food and no snacks. When it wouldn't get better, we restricted her movement to first only the house and then only our flat (she's usually in the cellar when roaming the house, not in the main part with my parents because dogs). That's improved the issue; she hasn't had it since. To ensure it wasn't just a coincidence, we let her into the cellar again, and she promptly had diarrhoea the following day.
As a whole, she doesn't appear like she's in pain and behaves normally once her diarrhoea has stopped. When she has it, she appears to be in pain or at least, unsurprisingly, uncomfortable, running around the flat like crazy. The pain aspect we deduced from her lying on the side, flexing her paws a little and shaking (similar behaviour our other cat showed after we had her neutered). I.e. no lingering symptoms once her diarrhoea is over.
Now, there's the problem: what could be causing it? We've had her stool analysed and the results came back as normal, no parasites and nothing out of whack, meaning it isn't worms nor any chronic illness. We don't have any rat poison or something stored or laid out for obvious reasons (plus, she's a good hunter), and we don't store food downstairs. It's a bit messy and there's a slight issue with mould, however, the latter should have long lasting and not immediate effects. We're left a bit puzzled and scratching our heads what it could be - all there is is effectively books, some old clothes, some miscellaneous non-edible non-decomposing items, tools, and some horse-related stuff restricted to a closet she cannot access. I don't think she's killed a rat and hidden it somewhere to go munching on any time she's downstairs, because I'd wager we'd see it and it'd smell, especially since this has been going on for well over a month now. Haven't seen any traces of mice or the like, either. There's no way she can sneak outside, either, so the issue is definitely in the cellar. She loves it there, too (for whatever reason; it's pretty damn cold down there in the winter), so stress isn't the answer, either, imho, since she's more stressed out now that she's confined to the flat. We've had issues with food moths that have/had taken up residence in the storage room where I keep my tobacco harvest, yet she does not enter the room and due to lack of organic matter, the infestation is/was limited to this area; there are none active currently that I can see (and hope they've been dealt with by destroying any infested material). Should also mention that she doesn't eat tobacco, either, so that is not the issue, also she's a picky eater and scoffs at rubbish. There's no litter box in the cellar, but she's not locked out of the flat and frequently travels between downstairs and upstairs, meaning she isn't limited when she has to go (thought I'd include that since she doesn't go when she's outside, instead waiting until we let her back in to run upstairs and take a dump).
Current theories of us are:
- allergies
- potentially eating rodents and being good at hiding the remains
It must be something that is fast-acting to induce it within a day. Completely puzzled as to what it can be, so feel free to go all House on this ;-)
Thanks in advance for your replies :-)