My Kitty Has Chronic Diarrhea, Nothing Helps

Hey everyone,
I am new here, but I wanted to reach out because nothing I do seems to have worked. My poor kitty, Franklin, has chronic diarrhea. He's had this problem for a few years now, and we've tried so many things. His stool has been tested repeatedly, and there is no evidence of an infection or parasite. We've changed foods a few times, and now he is on a food that contains probiotics, and he gets supplemental powdered probiotic one meal per day. For a while he was on a food that contained no chicken or "common" proteins, only rabbit and trout, I think. But nothing has really seemed to help. We've tried grain-free, sensitive stomach food, medications...
The thing is, he doesn't seem overly thirsty. He drinks water at a regular pace, and gets as excited about food and treats as our other cat, and he purrs, and spends time with us, and is affectionate. He just has chronic (and often very smelly) diarrhea.
Has anyone else had a similar issue? What other suggestions do people have that I might not have thought of?
Thanks!

Can you list for us what foods and treats he is eating? Is he eating any canned food? The one treat that gave my cats diarrhea was those jerky type treats, I guess they were too salty.

This sounds similar to one of my cats. He's had chronic diarrhea for years and the vets haven't been able to find anything wrong with him. He also doesn't have any other symptoms, doesn't poop more often than any normal cat, no weight loss, and no apparent discomfort. We have given up and feed him Royal Canin's Sensible which seems to sit better with his stomach and keep him on a soft-not-quite-diarrhea limbo. Looking forward to see what people's suggestions are.

Since this is a chronic problem, and food changes have not helped, I would at this point ask your Vet about getting a GI Ultrasound to rule out IBD. Based on my experience with 5 IBD kitties, if the chronic symptoms are diarrhea, the problem is usually centered in the Colon and/or Ileum. Food changes alone will usually not resolve it. A steroid is usually prescribed to control the intestinal inflammation which is the cause of the diarrhea.

I would start with the ultrasound, then based upon the findings, your Vet can advise from there.

try searching s. boullardi on this forum, I have posted multiple times about it.

What type of tests for parasites were run? Sounds a lot like Tritrichamonas feotus.

FranklinsMom said:

Hey everyone,
I am new here, but I wanted to reach out because nothing I do seems to have worked. My poor kitty, Franklin, has chronic diarrhea. He's had this problem for a few years now, and we've tried so many things. His stool has been tested repeatedly, and there is no evidence of an infection or parasite. We've changed foods a few times, and now he is on a food that contains probiotics, and he gets supplemental powdered probiotic one meal per day. For a while he was on a food that contained no chicken or "common" proteins, only rabbit and trout, I think. But nothing has really seemed to help. We've tried grain-free, sensitive stomach food, medications...
The thing is, he doesn't seem overly thirsty. He drinks water at a regular pace, and gets as excited about food and treats as our other cat, and he purrs, and spends time with us, and is affectionate. He just has chronic (and often very smelly) diarrhea.
Has anyone else had a similar issue? What other suggestions do people have that I might not have thought of?
Thanks!

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I agree with other posts about ruling out IBD which is a common cause of persistent diarrhea that doesn't respond to the treatments you've described. A Ultrasound if it shows thickened bowels is a very strong indicator for IBD. Prednisolone could be tried (before or after an U/S) and if the diarrhea clears up, then you have some confirmation. If it is IBD, you want to get it into remission, failing that it can in time become severe or morph into small cell lymphoma and take your cats life, like it eventually did mine.