So, what's normal, anyhow?

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

The on-going saga of Montgomery...
We've made some big changes since his trip to the naturopath at the beginning of the month. The biggest change is that he no longer gets dry food at all. So far cat, cat's pancreas, and cat's small intestine all seem agreeable to this arrangement. He is currently eating Science Diet Light and Purina OM wet foods, something that we plan to change in the New Year. He did not get the trapped gas or explosive diarrhea he's experienced with diet changes in the past, to everyone's relief. (If you have not experienced a cat with explosive diarrhea, consider yourself lucky). Anyhow, as of Sunday, it will be a week without the kibble. The other new thing is that he gets red light therapy twice a day, morning and night. I ask him to "go to your cube and I'll plug you in," he goes quite happily because he really loves this thing.
Results? He's not bloated anymore. He has less difficulty going to the bathroom, and there is less stool when he does, though it is darker, but the Science Diet is fairly dark, so there you go.
So my question (see, I got there), is what's normal? How often should a normal nine, going on ten-year-old cat go to the bathroom, and how much (he's a massive seven and a half pounds of fury) should there be of it? He has EPI, IBD and SID, and a small intestine that looks like it was installed by a blindfolded drunk (he's been X-rayed), so I understand this cat will never be normal, but it would be nice to have some sort of idea what that is...?

 

[denice]

I don't know that there is a 'normal' as far as how often and how much. Diet has a lot to do with it. A cat on kibble will generally go more. Even with kibble a cat on a cheap kibble with a lot of filler will go more than one on a quality kibble that isn't as loaded with filler. The same is true of wet food, the more filler in the food the more they will go. I had an IBD cat, his was very well controlled the last 8 years of his life. He was on wet food exclusively and he generally went once a day.

 

[di and bob]

I was going to say once a day, maybe two stools in the box three inches long each. If more, good. But every cat seems to have their own 'normal'. I would go more on how he acts. With his problems, he may only go every other day, etc. I would also make sure he has plenty of water set around to encourage him to drink, water ALWAYS helps. As does staying active. I know cats sleep a lot, but try to get some playtime in with toys and a kickeroo. If he acts happy, looks good, go with that normal.
Thank you so much for sharing what has worked for you, it will come in handy for someone else who has this problem, I'm sure you are not the only one. All the luck!

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

Previously, he would go to the bathroom two to three times a day. The first one tended to be smaller and better formed, the second one would be HUGE, start out formed, and then sort of smash with the force used to expel it from his body. I'm not kidding. If there was a third, it was usually quite small. Lately, he seems to be going twice-ish? Yesterday, he did a smaller, well-formed bowel movement sort of mid-day and then a much larger one around nine-thirty. He tends to keep a pattern for about three days and then it changes again, though is meal times and his diet don't change. I'm going to feed him a chunk of cooked carrot and see how long it takes to come back out, get some idea of what's going on in there.
Thanks for all your help!