Our sweet sick boy came from an odd shelter

tarasgirl06

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When we first had him he had horrible diarrhea on Hills I/D and still diarrhea and puddles with Hills Z/D. He’s been fully transitioned now to Ziwi Peak Rabbit+Lamb and we haven’t had any diarrhea since. But the poops are rather long in size, and they’re formed which is great but can still be on the softer side from time to time.
Although a lot of US vets push Hills aggressively, I do not like the brand or ingredients used and I would never feed it to my cats under any conditions. I have no experience with Ziwi Peak of any formula. My cats have done well over years on Blue Buffalo different formulas and Soulistic different formulas. These are available through Petco.com if you are able to access and are interested. They are not special health formulas but rather high-quality diets.
I do not know what is causing Luci's complaints but I continue to pray for him and think the best thoughts of wellbeing for him. Thank you so much for following up with his vet!
 

crouton

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Although a lot of US vets push Hills aggressively, I do not like the brand or ingredients used and I would never feed it to my cats under any conditions. I have no experience with Ziwi Peak of any formula. My cats have done well over years on Blue Buffalo different formulas and Soulistic different formulas. These are available through Petco.com if you are able to access and are interested. They are not special health formulas but rather high-quality diets.
I do not know what is causing Luci's complaints but I continue to pray for him and think the best thoughts of wellbeing for him. Thank you so much for following up with his vet!
I really wanted my cats to like the soulistic and they did but every variety gave them diarrhea.
I would be wary of the mussels inthe ziwi peak and try to find something without seafood or fish to test. If the poops are still soft it may not agree with him
 
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lucifur_

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I really wanted my cats to like the soulistic and they did but every variety gave them diarrhea.
I would be wary of the mussels inthe ziwi peak and try to find something without seafood or fish to test. If the poops are still soft it may not agree with him
I was just thinking this actually, about the muscles. Sigh, why must they add that into all of their varieties 😭 I bet he’s intolerant of shellfish/seafood. The Mackerel one gave him liquid poo and gas and boy oh boy did it smell rotten. Stopped the Mackerel flavor immediately and went back to the Rabbit&Lamb - no diarrhea since. But yeah still soft and in pain, wonder if that seafood ingredient is the culprit. Very well could be. We picked Ziwi after doing research online and every thing I saw swore it was ‘the closest thing to raw’ in canned form, without any additives or grains so we were intrigued. But yeah if he’s intolerant of seafood well then it’s back to the store 🤦🏻
 
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lucifur_

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Although a lot of US vets push Hills aggressively, I do not like the brand or ingredients used and I would never feed it to my cats under any conditions. I have no experience with Ziwi Peak of any formula. My cats have done well over years on Blue Buffalo different formulas and Soulistic different formulas. These are available through Petco.com if you are able to access and are interested. They are not special health formulas but rather high-quality diets.
I do not know what is causing Luci's complaints but I continue to pray for him and think the best thoughts of wellbeing for him. Thank you so much for following up with his vet!
Wish we would have known about the Hills Rx foods beforehand, they really did make everything worse at the beginning. They kept pushing and pushing us to give it to him even after I explained it’s definitely NOT helping 🙄
 

crouton

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I was just thinking this actually, about the muscles. Sigh, why must they add that into all of their varieties 😭 I bet he’s intolerant of shellfish/seafood. The Mackerel one gave him liquid poo and gas and boy oh boy did it smell rotten. Stopped the Mackerel flavor immediately and went back to the Rabbit&Lamb - no diarrhea since. But yeah still soft and in pain, wonder if that seafood ingredient is the culprit. Very well could be. We picked Ziwi after doing research online and every thing I saw swore it was ‘the closest thing to raw’ in canned form, without any additives or grains so we were intrigued. But yeah if he’s intolerant of seafood well then it’s back to the store 🤦🏻
See if you can source another single ingredient like applaws at Petco, not a complete food but they have an all chicken. Tiki cat dies too. Another thought one of my cats is severely reactive to venison and gets these soft poops. Could be the rabbit or lamb.
 
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lucifur_

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Wish we would have known about the Hills Rx foods beforehand, they really did make everything worse at the beginning. They kept pushing and pushing us to give it to him even after I explained it’s definitely NOT helping 🙄
...never mind my typo, look away lol **MUSSELS 😂
 

Talien

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Chicken may not be the issue then. Tiki Cat has some chicken varieties that have virtually no junk or strange ingredients, you could try that and see. If nothing else there's always commercial raw foods that some pet stores sell like stella&chewy's or instinct.
 
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lucifur_

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What stores are near you?
We have both a Petco and Petsmart nearby, as well as a Pet Supplies Plus.
Back when we were feeding him the Z/D, he wouldn’t always take to it, so we tried to top it with a half a teaspoon of the chicken from Tiki Cat and it made things exponentially worse. We also tried just plain old chicken bone broth from stella&chewy so he could be tempted to eat the Z/D. It did work really well to get him to eat it, but again horrible explosive diarrhea afterward, and I mean within 20-30 mins of him having just ate. It was the same thing that happened on the I/D which is primarily chicken so that’s how we came to the conclusion that chicken is a no-no.
We eventually got him to eat just the Z/D on its own and the profuse watery diarrhea episodes subsided but the Z/D it and of itself didn’t do much good either, as he still had pudding poos with it. We just figured the chicken may be a problem because his stool was much worse with it than without.
 
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lucifur_

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I’m thinking commercial raw might be the next thing we will look at. We’re trying to steer clear of anything with additives as much as possible.
His poos smell heavily of ammonia still. It’s definitely not his urine. I watched him when he went poo earlier today when he was in pain, and he didn’t pee prior/after, but man his rear end and the entire area by the box reeked of ammonia. I scooped out the poo right away and yep, heavily like ammonia. THAT didn’t happen on the Z/D, but I’m not sure if it’s related to the new food or if it’s all about what’s wrong in his insides this entire time.
 

tarasgirl06

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I’m thinking commercial raw might be the next thing we will look at. We’re trying to steer clear of anything with additives as much as possible.
His poos smell heavily of ammonia still. It’s definitely not his urine. I watched him when he went poo earlier today when he was in pain, and he didn’t pee prior/after, but man his rear end and the entire area by the box reeked of ammonia. I scooped out the poo right away and yep, heavily like ammonia. THAT didn’t happen on the Z/D, but I’m not sure if it’s related to the new food or if it’s all about what’s wrong in his insides this entire time.
https://www.petco.com/shop/SearchDi...acet":"cat1:facet_idQ2F0","categoryLevel":"2"} (HOPING it's okay to post this long URL. But if not, just search Petco.com>wet cat food>limited ingredient diet and you'll get a long list of brands and formulas. If you didn't know and could use it, they have an excellent auto-delivery program.)
 

crouton

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Ok so at this point you could skip all poultry if you are concerned (chicken, turkey, duck, quail) and try other proteins like beef, lamb, and rabbit as you are now but alone. It’s tough to figure out when you are feeding a blend. My cats can eat chicken but the tiki cat gave them diarrhea all over. Idk why. if it were me here I’d try other chicken too.

I honestly wouldn’t introduce raw right now, for healthy cats it can give stomach troubles in the beginning (note don’t attack me I’m not anti raw feeding at all I just don’t think it’s a good time for it here for this stressed fsmiky

Some I would recommend trying:

Weruva steak frite- beef and pumpkin

Soulistic duck dinner in gravy - does have tuna but be worth a shot

Epigen canned food in beef, rabbit and turkey. All one protein per can.

things I would avoid in food right now: flaxseed, egg in any form, inulin, greens, high fiber (he could have too much fiber or too little both can exacerbate diarrhea)

unpopular opinion: when my cats were really sick when I first got them we struggled with food reactions. One of our vets had to convince me to try feeding them purina one sensitive stomach (dry) or the healthy weight dry. It helped them a lot but it was hard to do given what I know about food. However companies like Purina have a lot of customers that have found success with certain products.

for an interim for your cat if it were me I’d try some of the plain meat baby food in the beef flavor to see if there is a reaction make sure it’s beech nut or gerber and read the label. Remember cats cannot have onion and such. This is not a long term solution and also it may be that he (like my cats) cannot tolerate very rich in protein food in any form (wet, dry, raw, freeze dried) if I go over a certain protein percentage it’s diarrhea fest. Wet food is very rich and high in protein. I’m not saying feed tour cat all carbs. I’m saying not all diets work for all cats and it’s ok to try to find what works for him.

Please feel free to reach out if you need moral support. We in my household know what you are going through and it’s hard. But know that you can do it and we will try and help you find some answers.
 
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tarasgirl06

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Gerber Second Stages little squatty round jars. Beef, turkey, lamb? Allergy to chicken does not mean turkey will also be a problem.
Also, canned pumpkin WITHOUT SPICES can help diarrhea or constipation -- add a couple of spoonsful to wet food and mix.
 

Talien

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Epigen canned food in beef, rabbit and turkey. All one protein per can.
One thing you have to be aware of if you feed your Cats epigen, it is not nutritionally complete and lacks keys nutrients like taurine. It is designed as a topping for the epigen dry foods or to be taken with suppliments.
 

crouton

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One thing you have to be aware of if you feed your Cats epigen, it is not nutritionally complete and lacks keys nutrients like taurine. It is designed as a topping for the epigen dry foods or to be taken with suppliments.
That’s true, I should have pointed that out above like I did regarding the applaws and baby food. Sorry.
 
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lucifur_

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So a quick update:
Switched to a different vet clinic, had a MUCH better experience with the doctors there. They were attentive to his symptoms and needs.
He has an ear infection and apparently a “raging UTI” per the doc, she ran further testing just to help rule out other problems. Negative for FIV, she drew blood to check a few things regarding his kidneys and liver, all completely normal.
Doc wasn’t sure what could be causing that chemical smell from his stool/anus, that’s why she wanted to check his blood because she said she noticed on his panel last month, his “BUNs” were low, indicating potential issues with the liver hence the smells. But his BUNs are in normal range now. She mentioned the possibility of checking for gallbladder/pancreatic problems, diabetes etc if the BUNs were low, but they were not.

He’s on antibiotics for the 2 infections.
We also swapped his old smaller boxes for 2 new litter boxes (we used under bed storage containers, about twice the amount of room!).
We are going to keep him on the current food and probiotic until he is done with his meds, then they want to check his UTI status afterward.
Once those are squared away the plan is to treat with steroids as if he has IBD, just for a week only to see if there’s improvement. She will be referring us to a specialist to run an ultrasound later. They used to have a traveling guy visit but he no longer does. I asked if they have ultrasound equipment and she said they do, but due to his duration and complexity of symptoms she would rather we get the specialist involved as they’re able to look further into the intestines than they are because they’re equipment is only “level 1” and not as advanced. We’re happy with her professional opinion for the time being. I know it’s probably possible to get a diagnosis using the less advanced equipment, but it’s also possible that if we do that nothing comes up thus wasting time and $$$ as we would need to do the more extensive one later anyway. Either way we will need a diagnosis to confirm so that he can be given a proper dosage of rx steroids, prednisone I’m assuming. Thankful we have insurance! His first visit back in January already hit the deductible so now it’s just a matter of pay first reimburse later.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and comments the past few days. We will continue to give updates on Luci throughout his journey to good health. We have an Instagram page if anyone would like to follow and see more photos, he’s on there as “meowlucifer_” 🐾❤
 

crouton

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So a quick update:
Switched to a different vet clinic, had a MUCH better experience with the doctors there. They were attentive to his symptoms and needs.
He has an ear infection and apparently a “raging UTI” per the doc, she ran further testing just to help rule out other problems. Negative for FIV, she drew blood to check a few things regarding his kidneys and liver, all completely normal.
Doc wasn’t sure what could be causing that chemical smell from his stool/anus, that’s why she wanted to check his blood because she said she noticed on his panel last month, his “BUNs” were low, indicating potential issues with the liver hence the smells. But his BUNs are in normal range now. She mentioned the possibility of checking for gallbladder/pancreatic problems, diabetes etc if the BUNs were low, but they were not.
Just wondering if they ran another fecal test on the ammonia smelling stool. Might be a good idea if not. Glad to hear you are getting such good support!
 
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lucifur_

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Just wondering if they ran another fecal test on the ammonia smelling stool. Might be a good idea if not. Glad to hear you are getting such good support!
Ah yes I forgot about that. Yes I gave them a rather large sample today lol they are running a fecal on it, should have results of that soon.
 

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Thank you so much for your comments!! It’s very on the nose for my wife and I to assume the worst so it’s good to hear it’s most likely not FIP just from your experience. We will obviously still keep an eye out for those kinds of symptoms but since he doesn’t have any of those at the moment its nice to be able to ease those worries for sure.
Thank you for letting me know there’s a clear distinction between the ‘invasive surgery’ and just needing an ultrasound!!! The ER he has been at twice does not have ultrasound equipment but they did X-rays and didn’t see anything from that, however I’ll make some calls and see if I can find a clinic or other urgent care with ultrasound equipment, or a specialist instead.
Re the shelter: it’s way out in the middle of nowhere, I have no idea about any illegal animal testing but I would 100% love for them to be investigated. It’s 100% possible he ingested something in that room, especially if they let him out of the kennel to “play” in there unsupervised. It was so filthy I couldn’t believe it. I asked them why him and Charlie were in that room in the first place because it clearly was not meant to be a room for them to be in, it was definitely a break room/utility room of sorts. They told me that any cats that are sick or not feeling well get put in there, and since Luci had the loose stools making a mess and Charlie had his mobility issues that’s why they roomed together. Honestly I would understand quarantining Luci for a time if they didn’t know if he had something contagious, but THAT room? I don’t get it. The whole place was mismanaged, all the paperwork was handwritten and they couldn’t seem to keep track of my EMAILED completed documents several times, forgot to write down dates I would be coming etc.
Re food: I will see about getting some of the dry rice baby food see if that helps them firm up. I have noticed while he’s on this Ziwi Peak rabbit&lamb, he will sometimes have little pieces of what I assume are bone(?) on his bum. They’re like little flat flecks I almost thought it was a piece of oat or wood lol. What do you make of that is that normal??
Re the wipes: wow, I didn’t even think of that. Just checked the ingredients and there’s quite a few. He doesn’t like it very much when his bum gets gently wiped (I mean really who would lol) but he’s such a good boy when I have to help him get it off his paws or in between his toes. He lays down and stretches his toes out for me and everything 🥺❤
The little bits of "bone" you're seeing sound like tapeworms. They look like little pieces of rice. Has he been dewormed with Drontal (which is best for all types of worms). Worms wouldn't help and may be contributing to his diarrhea.
 
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