Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi all.

You may recall that one of my cats has had sporadic diarrhoea and blood in her faeces (usually about once every six months), that the vets aren't concerned about. Now another cat has had the same thing, only it has happened every day since thursday. She is straining, and watery, often bright red bloody diarrhoea is produced. Blood has been present for four days, but her demeanour hasn't significantly changed (a little off her food but not significant, and not hiding away).

I took her to the vet yesterday and he suspected colitis, and prescribed Metronidazole, which I have to squirt onto her food twice a day (yeah right), and to take her back in a week if it hasn't improved.

Anyone else had anything similar, or any experience with Metronidazole?

I've never known it prescribed in liquid form as it has such a bitter taste, good luck!

Anyone with a cat whose had colitis ?

My old boy had colitis when he was younger. He was dumped near our house when his owner left the country and very slowly came to choose us to be his family. When he started eating cat food he was on whiskers or felix and his delicate stomach simply couldn't tolerate it; whether that was because he had always been sensitive or because he had lived on what he could find for well over a year we don't know. We finally caught him and took him off to the vet, he was given medication and the vet said we needed to look at his food. We changed food so that he only gets high meat content wet and dry food and he has only ever had one further bout. He is a terror for finding milk and was raiding my daughter's cereal bowl, as a one off it wouldn't have been a problem but once he got the taste for it he would harass her and steal the milk from the bowl while she was eating - that led to a runny tummy and some blood. He was duly banished to another room at breakfast time and was fine the following day.

He is 20 now and while he costs a fortune in cat food he is a happy cat; I spend so much time finding food that he will eat (he occasionally goes on strike with his biscuits and has been tested for everything because we couldn't figure out why he had stopped eating them - it turns out he is simply contrary - especially if I have bought two bags!) He is currently on Vet's kitchen chicken biscuits in the morning and then has Wainright's or Nature's menu wet food in the evening.

I hope you manage to find something that will settle her. Have a chat with the vet about the high meat content diet, as it definitely worked for us.

Thanks all. I'm squirting the medication into her mouth after food (much to her chagrin) and have seen diarrhoea in the tray. I saw her straining yesterday and she produced a small amount of diarrhoea. I haven't noticed any blood for two days (touch wood). Eating normally, and diarrhoea stools seem to have more volume overnight (assuming they are hers and not the other cats). Fingers crossed.

I am going through similar with my cat. He has had a combination of blood with firm stools and more recently bloody diarhoah, which he was hospitalised for. He was prescribed metronidazole for one week and is now on steroids for a month. I would suggest taking him to the vet and getting a full blood screen carried out as this is always a good starter for ten. It might also be worth getting a fecal analysis on a stool sample, as it could be parasites given that there is more than one cat in the house and another cat has had similar symptoms. The other thing I would say is bear in mind that cats can become dehydrated from diarhoah, so keep an eyes on things in that regard.

Don't want to speak too soon, but there's been no recurrence for 15 days and noticed her faeces were solid yesterday.