Someone please help - Cat Diarrhoea Probelms

[HPotter]

Hi

Please can somebody help/advise me on the problem I have with both my newly adopted cats.

We adopted our 4 year old cats, brother and sister, at the end of November last year. They came to us with upset stomach, with which the rescue center took no responsibility for and said it was nothing to do with them. Anyhow, I took them to the vets and they have been on probiotics, 2 different antibiotics, plain diets and have have thier stools tested which showed a clostridium overgrowth. They have just finished another set of antibiotics but still have it. The vet has now said try a white fish diet and Hills D/D. They don't like white fish and the D/D is being introduced slowly. They are both fine in themselves and showing no signs of discomfort and playing and acting normally.

I am at my wits end and for their sake, just want them to get better. Does anybody have any suggestions for me please. All advice welcome.

Many thanks

[GillianH]

A change of food can sometimes bring on this problem as can food that is way too rich.

I fed mine Applaws and it made one have a very bad stomach upset - liquid - if that's not too descriptive.

I did contact Applaws who said it could be the very high meat content, which it turns out was correct.

Since feeding them Arden Grange sensitive said problem has gone.

Best of luck

[lilynmitz]

I had this with two rescue cats, and we were back and forth to the vet for months. All the tests came up negative, and the fish and rice diet came out the other end as fish and rice!

Eventually in desperation the vet suggested that they might be sensitive to a particular protein in their food, which was difficult to isolate, so suggested a diet of a protein that they won't have encountered before, ie minced fresh venison (cooked by simmering in water) bulked out with a little potato mashed in. Instant success! First solids in months! I had to keep them on it for quite a while (it was years ago, but I think it was about 6 weeks?), since as soon as I started weaning them over to a "normal" diet, it started again, so obviously their guts were still very sensitive. But eventually I got them onto Hill dried food for sensitive tums, and finally onto Hills "normal" dried food. We never had the problem again, although I always kept some minced venison in the freezer just in case....

[HPotter]

Thank you for those answers, I will try and locate some minced venison, although have never seen it anywhere and they don't sell it at my butchers or local supermarket. Hopefully its not too expensive.
xx

[lilynmitz]

It is a bit pricey I'm afraid. I got it from my local butcher, but then we have deer roaming around wild here, so not difficult to get. Good luck. I've got a feeling there's an equivalent dried food, which you may be able to get on line, but the real thing is better as you know exactly what's gone into it (ie venison and potatoes) rather than a load of additives and extra ingredients, which may be part of the original problem anyway, so best avoided until you know whether you're on the right track.

[Kikimeows]

My cat used to have diarrhea for months too and sensitive stomach. We went to a vet and he suggested a dry food by hills too but it did not help.

We decided to change vet (recommended by a cat expert) and the vet suggested just boiling chicken in water for her for a few days. It really helped in her diarrhea. However, this diet cannot go on too long because there is not enough nutrients.

When we try to introduce normal diet back to her we realized she is sensitive to fish. Even dry food which has fish in it will set her off. She is also sensitive to too much dry food. If she eats more than a handful of dry food a day she will get diarrhea. So we only bought chicken canned wet food for her. We are worried about nutrient deficiency so we also fed her Vitalmix multi-vitamin. We tried to switch to another cheaper brand of multi-vitamin but it also caused her to have diarrhea. We also feed her bene-bac pro-biotics everyday (advised by vet). The above diet went on for more than a year with no diarrhea problems and a few months back we try to re-introduce fish to her (because she got tired of all the chicken and started refusing to eat) and she has no diarrhea at all. I think her stomach may have gotten stronger from the pro-biotics we have been giving her.

It is a rather long process of finding the problem and testing which food works. I suggest giving them really plain diet first and slowly try to introduce more variety. All the best! Hope they get well soon

[MarkB]

I find for most cats, a switch to Purina One sensitive (with turkey and rice, no wheat) and cereal-free wet food, such as bog standard felix and Whiskas, works wonders. Obviously it depends on which protein is causing the problem. It worked with one of mine (no longer with us) it more or less cured Alice's bloody diarrhea overnight. We also found out that she couldn't tolerate milk proteins - it wasn't the lactose, so even cat milk gave her the runs and made her throw up.

Gravy foods tend to be the worst offenders, although there is a food with gravy that doesn't contain any cereals or soya. I believe the same comany (in Ireland) supply for Co-op, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and maybe others for their own-brand.

My Kylie had such bad diarrhea for a couple of years that she was losing weight rapidly and we almost lost her last year. She had a course of B12 injections and probiotics and it seemed to do the trick, along with watching what she eats. She still isn't 100%, but over 2 years, she went from 6kg to 2.5kg - she is back up to 4kg, which is a healthier weight than her original weight, but I just have to watch she doesn't lose any more weight.

PS - Hill's D/D Venison, so a good alternative to fresh and great that it is compete. Cats with diarrhea can have absorption problems, so B12 (and other) vitamin deficiency is a possibility. I would be quite wary of feeding plain meat for more than a day or so.

[Marla]

HPotter, I understand when you say you're at your wits end as we've been there a few times with our cats!

You mentioned that they had a clostridium overgrowth. Have they been retested and is that gone now? If they still have it, you might look into using olive leaf extract which is naturally antibacterial but doesn't harm gut bacteria.

These comments are regarding diarrhoea in general:

The first time Flo had diarrhoea, changing to a raw diet cured her literally overnight. I think a grain-free canned wet food would be just as good as long as it's not too fatty. (Definitely not Lily's cat food as that's really fatty.)

Many years later, Flo had a really bad case of diarrhoea after antibiotics and a metacam injection. A B12 injection seemed to sort her out.

Recently, Teddy developed diarrhoea for no apparent reason, unless he ate or drank something he shouldn't have outside, we don't know. We gave him Pro-Kolin+ which contains:
- Probiotics: A natural 'friendly' bacterium, Enterococcus faecium (NCIMB 10415) E1707, which helps to keep the level of beneficial bacteria high and exclude pathogenic species.
- Preplex prebiotics: A prebiotic, consisting of fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) and acacia (Gum arabic), which helps to feed and stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria.
- Kaolin: natural binding agent which helps to firm up the faeces.
- Pectin: To help soothe the gut lining.
- Artificial beef flavouring: To improve palatability and compliance.

Pro-Kolin+ is good treatment for soothing and slowing down the gut, giving it time to heal. Be careful how much you give them though as you don't want them to get constipated either.

Did your vet tell you to use probiotics at a different time of day to the antibiotics?

At the same time as starting Pro-Kolin+, we changed Teddy's diet from a grain-free chicken wet canned food to ZiwiPeak Venison Daily Cat Cuisine:
http://www.thoughtfulpets.co.uk/daily-c ... e-venison-

Teddy's diarrhoea stopped after about 1-2 weeks. This venison food makes his stool very dark, but at least he's having proper stools again.

[misspaws]

It may be that you have solved your problem by now but I had the same problems when I adopted my cat Ziva five years ago. The one thing that produced miraculous results was to give Ziva Purina One Sensitive dry food and gradually over a week or so replace the whiskas she was eating with this. Unfortunately following a bout of cystitis I had to take heroff dry food and she now eats James Wellbelved wet food and her stools are perfect.

Hope this helps, I know how distressing this can be. Ziva was passing virtually liquidvstoolsvwith blood and even the et food did not stop this. James Wellbelved is grain free and suits her.

[ithai]

I too have a cat with same problem. My greatest find was crushing up a few Cheerios in his food. It works like a charm. I didn't know what to do either til my logic kicked in and I thought about it simply. What do humans who have the problem do? Sometimes it is that simple. His poo is better with meat or lamb but he likes his turkey too so Cheerios solve his little problem and I hope yours too. I have a Snowshoe Siamese and have read that such problems are common for the breed.

[Anonymous]

I adopted a kitten and his poo was not in the normal solid shape and really stinky. We took him to the vet to make sure there was nothing wrong as far as parasites and he had the kitten fecal test.

Nexabiotic Probiotics for Cats were recommended so I tried this one and it really helped. His poo is now normal shaped and less smelly. I tried taking him off once the bottle was empty and the symptoms returned, so it seems like I am now a customer for my kitten's life

[SarahRock]

My elderly cat has been vomiting on and off over the last 6 months and she’s only had Applaws wet food - various chicken flavours in particular have made her sick projectile. I am now cooking her fresh chicken breasts and she’s fine. The tuna variety of Applaws seems to be ok with her. My cat eats Purina dry biscuits too and she’s fine with those. However when she has the wet Applaws food she also has foul stools or diarreah.

The vet saw my cat a few months ago, and gave her a steroid injection thinking she had a bacterial tummy bug. It cleared after a week but is sick around 3 times a month with the wet Applaws chicken food - even the pumpkin chicken sachet, which at one point she didn’t have problems with. I have read about many other owner’s experience on other car forum boards who concur with the issues of Applaws.