Please HELP.. I am at my whits end

[catwithissues]

 I have been trying to find help for our cat. She has not been diagnosed with ibd/s but due to the signs she has iam assuming that is what she has or some terrible food allergy/sensitive stomach issue. Our cat is 10 years old and the issues developed about 2 years ago off and on and seemed to get worse.

What iam dealing with is a cat that dosent have consistent formed poop. Depending on the food i feed her it fluctuates. Anywhere from very soft to runny to pretty hard stools. I have been trying different cat foods and some seem to help more then others but trying to find the best one that helps the issue. The food she is on now is natures variety limited ingredient rabbbit flavor. This food seems to work ok but iam finding still some inconsistencies in stool form. When she poops some comes out really soft.

Now one big issue with all of this is that our cat is overweight and therefore cant clean her anal area so if the poop comes out to soft it sticks back there and then causes pain etc which has caused her to not use the litter box. Ughhhhhh
If you have any suggestions i would love to hear.  Should I try a different food?   I need to get her going poop in the litter box again.
Thanks so much

 

[tulosai]

To clarify, has your cat been to the vet? If not, that should be your first stop. A vet will be able to tell you in a more definite way what if anything is medically wrong.  Especially given her age, I think a  vet visit is a necessary starting point.

Are you feeding her dry or wet food?

 

[catwithissues]

yes, cat has been to the vet...  The vet didnt do any testing for IBD/S because she said it can be very spendy and sometimes its hard to figure out for sure.  There are no other issues with my cat.   I have been feeding her dry.

I just dont know what to do.  My goal is to find some food or system that will keep her poop more consistently firm so that she dosent have issues but so far have not found that solution.

 

[stephenq]

Hi,

Honestly what you really need is a Vet.  That's step one.  Get an exam for your cat, and a stool sample and start there.  Has she not seen a vet in the past 2 years?

 

[catwithissues]

she has been to the vet and they did I believe a stool sample.  The vet told me that when you start testing for IBD etc it is very costly and involved and hard to pinpoint.  The vet did put my cat on some prescription food i believe ID or EN and that worked pretty good but then my cat stopped eating it... it would sit there all day and she would hardly touch it.  So that is when I started looking for other options in food.  I went to the pet store and they suggested trying a limited ingredient type food, 

 

[tulosai]

 
yes, cat has been to the vet...  The vet didn't do any testing for IBD/S because she said it can be very spendy and sometimes its hard to figure out for sure.  There are no other issues with my cat.   I have been feeding her dry.

I just dont know what to do.  My goal is to find some food or system that will keep her poop more consistently firm so that she dosent have issues but so far have not found that solution.

It is my understanding that blood tests are usually to rule other things OUT, not to diagnose IBS itself.  This could be very useful since if it is something else you are just wasting time messing with the food.  You say you think it may be an allergy.  Have you tried to eliminate certain ingredients entirely and see if it helps?

One major thing that I would consider is switching her to an all wet diet.  At the very least this would help her weight issues, which likely are contributing to the problem. Hopefully others will chime in with specific brand ideas.  I do know that if it is IBS you want something high fiber.

 

[stephenq]

It's true that a definitive diagnosis of IBD requires either a surgical or endoscopic biops, but if the cat is ill enough to be loosing weight (a symptom of advanced IBD) then vets will often treat without a complete diagnosis with prednisilone.  Without going to that step you could discuss a probiotic in the diet to help the stools, or the use of Tylosin, an antibiotic that can help restore the balance in the intestines.