Chronic cat diarrhea... diet ideas?

[LuckyCharm83]

So I’ve got this adorable little Problem Cat, and she’s got this unknown food allergy/sensitivity. Both cats had been eating Science Diet canned until she had a sudden and very serious episode of crazy vomiting and bloody diarrhea a couple of months ago. Her weight dropped and her coat went to crap.

To make a long story short, the vet did physicals, blood work, abdominal x-rays, fecal exams, the whole 9 yards. $800 later, still no leads. So we started treating it like a food sensitivity. Put her on Hills I/D temporarily and gave her famotidine, metronidazole, & Fortiflora. Got her back to a clinically normal state and tried reintroducing her old food, only to see a return of all the symptoms. Bingo. We put her back on the I/D food and, once she returned to normal, I slowly introduced Natural Balance duck & green pea canned food. Without knowing exactly what ingredient in her old food caused the problem, I figured this stuff might help because it’s a limited ingredient diet that is grain-free and uses a different protein source.

That was nearly 2 months ago now. She has done extremely well on it (coat & weight are in very good shape, no vomiting) with the exception of chronically loose stools. Fortiflora doesn’t make much of a difference. Anyone been through this with an IBS/food allergy kitty and have suggestions for other diets I could try?

[Heliodoro]

Our one kitty has a sensitive tummy and went through a looong bout of what we deemed “stinky butt” and left “butt drips” all over the place. Multiple vet visits, including a specialist, and multiple antiparasitics/biotics, we tried a last ditch effort of a food higher in fiber (look for the Hairball foods) and viola! No more butt drags or stinky butt!

We use the Purina One Indoor formula and she’s had a healthy butt for at least 6 months now.

[JB]

When I have fed NB to both the cats and the dogs, they too got loose stools.

Try Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul or Orijen. Neither are grain-free, the latter quite a bit more than the former, but both are very nice.

Wellness has a grain-free mix, and so does Taste of the Wild, both quite $$.

Quite a few brands have grain-free wet foods, including Evo and Wellness, so you might consider those as well.

[Swale01]

I have always been under the impression that Science Diet was not a very high quality food, that it has a lot of artificial ingredients that can mess up a sensitive cat.

When our cat (6 month old) had a runny, bloody stool digestive issue in the first weeks we had him, our vet told us to feed him nothing but cooked (boiled) shredded chicken for a week or so, and see if his digestive system stabilized. PURE protien - with NO additives or preservatives of any kind used to keep even the higher quality cat food fresh - is apparently something that should not cause any digestive issues, and our vet told us that if our cat still had problems after a week or more of just chicken, that the problem needed a much more thorough exam and was a problem beyond the common ‘sensitivity’ that causes bloody, runny stool. The pure chicken diet straightened him out. We then introduced him to his regular food (dry food - Royal Canin) and he has been fine since.

[Diamondindykin]

I have a cat that can’t eat Royal Canin foods. It took me years to figure out that it was that brand of food although my other 6 cats eat it just fine. This particular cat does fantastic on Science Diet Adult and Taste of the Wild.

[SquishTheBunny]

I agree a good food is important, but chronically loose stools is not normal. Maybe a diet higher in fibre may also help? THe hills I/D is higher in fibre, which is maybe why her diarrhea somewhat resolved on that?

Did you get GI biopsies? My kitty had the very similar symptoms and it was GI lymphoma. He did very well with prednisone therapy.

I would maybe consider having a referral with an internist, they may be able to narrow it down to a food or unrelated issue.

[tasia]

[QUOTE=LuckyCharm83;5839350]
So I’ve got this adorable little Problem Cat, and she’s got this unknown food allergy/sensitivity. Both cats had been eating Science Diet canned until she had a sudden and very serious episode of crazy vomiting and bloody diarrhea a couple of months ago. Her weight dropped and her coat went to crap.

To make a long story short, the vet did physicals, blood work, abdominal x-rays, fecal exams, the whole 9 yards. $800 later, still no leads. So we started treating it like a food sensitivity. Put her on Hills I/D temporarily and gave her famotidine, metronidazole, & Fortiflora. Got her back to a clinically normal state and tried reintroducing her old food, only to see a return of all the symptoms. Bingo. We put her back on the I/D food and, once she returned to normal, I slowly introduced Natural Balance duck & green pea canned food. Without knowing exactly what ingredient in her old food caused the problem, I figured this stuff might help because it’s a limited ingredient diet that is grain-free and uses a different protein source.

That was nearly 2 months ago now. She has done extremely well on it (coat & weight are in very good shape, no vomiting) with the exception of chronically loose stools. Fortiflora doesn’t make much of a difference. Anyone been through this with an IBS/food allergy kitty and have suggestions for other diets I could try?[/QUOTE]

Sounds like my cat sabastian. We started with the royal canin, then natural balance duck/gp. No luck. Vet said sometimes the less expensive brands seem to help. Sure enough after $$$ on limited ingredient foods, Iams proactive original chicken flavor did the trick:eek: Now we have perfect poop:cool:

[ddashaq]

All of my kitty herd is on Blue Buffalo because I have one with a sensitive tummy who gets diarrhea on any of the cheap kibble. They seem to love it and the worst of the litter box messes have cleared up. I liked Wellness as well, but the cats appear to prefer BB. I have not had to give a butt bath in 3 months since switching!

[Noms]

Oy, your cat sounds just like mine, poor thing. I spent a lot of time researching for a solution when my vet found nothing wrong. I believe it was an intollerance to the crap in commercial cat food, specifically Science Diet (full of garbage). I know it is a trendy cat food but, sorry why is the first ingredient corn? Purina, Science Diet, Royal Canin, all have species inappropriate ingredients, not suitable for felines. I find it soooooo ironic that every small animal vet’s office is stocked full of the Science Diet shyte.

I tried raw food diets, which are wonderful, but very inconvenient. Found alternatives with the commercially available stuff you can find at Petsmart. I learned to avoid pet foods with corn, wheat , gluten, crap. There are PLENTY of good brands that process food with meat proteins, and wet food is always better than dry! (blue buffalo and wellness are excellent). Cats need protein from meat sources, period. Read the labels.

http://www.catnutrition.org/

Hope your kitty feels better…

[diffuse01]

@Heliodoro;5839580

Our one kitty has a sensitive tummy and went through a looong bout of what we deemed “stinky butt” and left “butt drips” all over the place. Multiple vet visits, including a specialist, and multiple antiparasitics/biotics, we tried a last ditch effort of a food higher in fiber (look for the Hairball foods) and viola! No more butt drags or stinky butt!

We use the Purina One Indoor formula and she’s had a healthy butt for at least 6 months now.

Yup, fiber is key!

I went through this (no bloody stools, but constant loose stools) with my moms cat and my cat when they were younger, both Ragdolls. Fecals done, meds. given, even sent off a fecal for some special test for a random bacteria (I can’t remember what it was called…), all negative. Tried numerous different limited ingredient, grain free foods, none helped.

Finally said screw it and picked up a bag of Chicken Soup, the Hairball formula. Within 2 days, stools were completely normal. It was pretty amazing!

They did somewhat grow out of it, because they both now eat a prescription food for UTI’s which has lower fiber and they do just fine.

[LuckyCharm83]

Ahh COTH is amazing, thanks to all. Sorry to take so long to get back and read everyone’s responses. @Heliodoro – too funny that you call the condition “stinky butt” – Problem Cat’s nickname around the house has always been StinkButt :lol:

Oh, Science Diet. Believe me, I am no fan of that junk. :no: Sort of a complicated story how we ended up feeding it in the first place, but here’s a brief history. For a long time, both cats were on a diet of Purina U/R dry, because The Boycat has a history of FLUTD and the U/R kibble was very helpful in his recovery. (Stinkbutt had always been fed Boycat’s diet for convenience purposes.) However, Boycat’s recent urinalysis results suggest that he may have grown out of his FLUTD troubles, which prompted me to start considering gradual dietary changes for both cats. More specifically, the goal was to transition them to a 100% canned diet first and then gradually upgrade the nutritional quality.

Turned out that, as lifelong kibble addicts (read: picky little punks), Science Diet indoor chicken was the only canned food they’d eat, probably because it’s so nutritionally similar to the Rx food. Of course, now that they are both used to canned food, it has been much easier for me to introduce new things like the NB duck/gp, but when Stinkbutt’s diarrhea and vomiting issues started, her diet was SD. Hopefully that explains our temporary detour into unfortunate OTC foods such as SD.

I’m currently transitioning Stinkbutt back to the I/D canned formula, just for the time being, to get her back to a clinically normal state. I’ll pick up a couple cans each of a few of the foods mentioned here and see if any of them do the trick.

Will definitely keep fiber content in mind when shopping. I wonder if fat content is a factor as well. Looking at the guaranteed analyses of some of these foods and correcting for moisture content, NB seems to be quite a bit higher in fat, which could impact stool consistency.

[LuckyCharm83]

[QUOTE=diffuse01;5843811]
I went through this (no bloody stools, but constant loose stools) with my moms cat and my cat when they were younger, both Ragdolls.[/QUOTE]

The bloody stools were scary, but thankfully they weren’t one of the original issues. (It occurs to me that I didn’t explain the original symptoms very well.)

It started out as vomiting after every meal for three days while I was out of town (scared the heck out of the pet-sitter), and the diarrhea developed a few days after the vomiting had started. It took a few very stressful days for the vet to identify her diet as the issue and get her stabilized, and by that time the stools had begun to look bloody. My guess is that the blood was a result of so much sudden and violent GI upset for so many days before we were able to get her stabilized. It’s a testament to how ripped up her digestive system was she, little piggy that she is, had completely given up trying to eat. Her appetite only returned after she had been pumped full of all kinds of meds – anti-emetic, buprenorphine, metronidazole, & famotidine. Poor gal. That was just an awful time.

So it’s wonderful to have her back to a vastly more stable state, but these loose stools have just got to stop. Cross your fingers that one of these diets does the trick please!

[redkat]

My finicky-tummied cat did very well on California Natural, which is just chicken and rice. For years anything else gave him a very stinky butt, and his appetite on it was quite good. As soon as the runny stool stopped we were both MUCH happier.

Kitty is on a low-fat diet at present due to pancreatitis, but after he’s had a bout of illness I will still set out some California Natural to try and tempt his appetite because he is almost always interested in it.

[lolalola]

I had a cat with irritable bowel syndrome and mixing rice with his canned food helped a great deal.

[Bicoastal]

Hey LuckyCharm how is the food trial going? I didn’t see anyone mention canned pumpkin: it is the go-to for loose stools in foster kitties.

[java]

Were vitamin B12 levels checked on this kitty? If B12 is low because of chronic diarrhea/malabsorption the diarrhea will never resolve. The solution is a course of B12 inections which are inexpensive. It is worth checking the B12, a simple blood test, if it has not already been done, will give you the answer.

[btswass]

@diffuse01

Yup, fiber is key!

I went through this (no bloody stools, but constant loose stools) with my moms cat and my cat when they were younger, both Ragdolls. Fecals done, meds. given, even sent off a fecal for some special test for a random bacteria (I can’t remember what it was called…), all negative. Tried numerous different limited ingredient, grain free foods, none helped.

Finally said screw it and picked up a bag of Chicken Soup, the Hairball formula. Within 2 days, stools were completely normal. It was pretty amazing!

They did somewhat grow out of it, because they both now eat a prescription food for UTI’s which has lower fiber and they do just fine.

This is just so wrong. I have spent many sessions with a vet nutritionist when we brought dog and cat food into the store. You get runny stool from crap in the food (read: carbs). Dogs and cats cannot digest a large amount of carbs. Cheap foods are packed with fruits and vegetables which are a cheaper source of protein but packed with carbs. Then to reduce the runny stool the carbs are going to cause, the food companies pack the food full of fiber which is even worse! Have you read the ingredients in your dog or cat food lately? Chances are you will see one of these fiber fillers (which by the way are not grains so these foods can claim “grain-free”: beet pulp, tomato pomice, cellulose, husks, alfalfa, peanut hulls, peas, pumpkin/squash, flour, mill runs, potatoes/sweet potatoes.

Dog and cat food should be MEAT based with some carbs that may be in the form of some fruits and veggies or rice.

I know there is a lot of confusion out there regarding appropriate diets because of all the marketing. Honestly I thought dogs were classified as omnivores because of all the fruits and veggies I see in dog foods!

As others have mentioned wellness and taste of the wild are both fairly good foods to feed. Use this website if you are unsure of the quality of food https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ (you’d be surprised at the low rating of some popular expensive foods like blue buffalo)

[Gestalt]

Since this thread has risen from the grave I’ll put my two cents in. My older female had loose, not runny, stool for months. What cleared it up was changing to mainly wet food with crunchies just as a treat. I feed Fancy Feast.