Another Diarrhea Thread -- I have tried everything

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sarah8million

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Hi There. I wish I had a real update.

I have now switched food and my two kitties still have diarrhea (pudding consistency, not watery) and one has vomited once, which may be unrelated. Otherwise, they are normal, playful cats with healthy coats.

After taking a break while I did the food transition, I am restarted the S Boulardii and probiotics since they can't really hurt. I am also maintaining the Blissful Belly "easily digestible" diet that worked for my younger cat's sibling who is still with the foster so that I am not throwing more variables at these poor cats. I am back to my original belief that this has to be an infection of some kind that hasn't shown up on 2 PCR tests and beginning to strongly suspect t. foetus, which I will not treat unless I get a clear positive result.

I have a house call vet coming early next week since my fractious kitten is impossible to get to the vet. The plan is to do another fecal test and have them both examined to rule out anything that I am missing (is there any point in a blood draw?). If the PCR is negative again, I want to try another round of fenbendazole and metro combined since I saw one perfect poop the last time I tried that before both cats started evading every pilling trick I had in the book. (This time I will try concentrated per Daftcat 75's recommendation so that I can hopefully get it into both of them.)
 
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sarah8million

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I wanted to update folks. We are now on month 4 of diarrhea. I have done more vet visits and PCR tests and tried switching to Royal Canin fiber response food… nothing.

When I can get my cats to eat it, pro-pectalin helps a bit but as soon as I stop the poops go back to soft serve. The only thing I have not tried is raw and I guess it’s time.
 

Meowmee

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I wanted to update folks. We are now on month 4 of diarrhea. I have done more vet visits and PCR tests and tried switching to Royal Canin fiber response food… nothing.

When I can get my cats to eat it, pro-pectalin helps a bit but as soon as I stop the poops go back to soft serve. The only thing I have not tried is raw and I guess it’s time.
Don’t give up. Try the raw slowly or the cooked meat etc with supplements added in. No grains. That cured my guys.
 

Jcatbird

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You have gotten lots of great tips to follow up on. I just wondered if the kitties have been checked for Coccidia? That is something that won’t always show up on a test, can easily reinfect a cat and can be persistent. False negatives happen. Retesting might be worth it.
As for inability to medicate, I deal with ferals and this is not something you want to make part of a cat diet regularly but if it is crucial it might be worth using temporarily. I cook bacon and crumble it into tiny pieces and cover the pill with a very small amount. The oils from the bacon seem to hide taste and scent of most medications. The crunch of bacon mimics the crunch of a pill. Again, it isn’t something we normally want to feed our cats but in a pinch I have found it works. You should check with the vet since they have digestive issues but I just wanted to share that tip since , in some cases, it can help. Method of last resort.
 

CatladyJan

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I'm currently giving my foster momma Metro and so far I think we are having success poop wise. Vet didn't see any parasites in stool and he added lots of sugar to the metro lol

I hope your babies get better soon. It's so frustrating.
 

dolceshmolce

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I know this is an old post, but have you found any relief for your kitties? I am in the same exact situation with my two cats and at my wits end.
 

daftcat75

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I know this is an old post, but have you found any relief for your kitties? I am in the same exact situation with my two cats and at my wits end.
How old are your cats? That they are both having diarrhea tells me it's probably ingestion and/or environment rather than internal health. In other words, I would think it's something they ate or something they drank/inhaled rather than a disease process like IBD or lymphoma.

Have you done the Diarrhea PCR to screen for gut pathogens?

Do they have access to the outdoors? If they do, can you restrict their access to the outdoors for a couple of weeks? They could be eating a garden plant or grass or soil or just about anything. Restricting their access to the outdoors will certainly help you narrow this down.

What are they eating? Wet food? Dry food? What brands? Some brands ingredients like "green lipped mussels" for joint health sound like a good idea. But they aren't well-tolerated by all cats.

Do you have any house plants and have you checked that they are cat safe?

Do you use any essential oils in a diffuser?

What has the vet checked for so far?

Read this article all the way through. S. boulardii can do wonders while some other diarrhea treatments like rice and pumpkin may do nothing or make matters worse.
My Cat Has Diarrhea - What Do I Do?

Those people also have a supplement powder to make raw or cooked chicken into a complete meal. Unfortunately, they include green lipped mussels. It may work wonders for your kitties or it may be a bust. That's why they sell a sample if you send them a dollar. The shipping is quick. I just did this and they sent me the sample pack within a week.
 

Stressedcatmom

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i have a diarrhea problem with my old cat too, the other 2 been fine :( idk what to try next, she had normal stools after i switcher their food then the lactulose messed it up ... my thread not getting attention bc it got blended with an older one
 

maggiemay

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I didn’t see the supplement I used for diarrhea recommended on this thread. It was very effective on my Fritz. It is BM Toneup drops by Petwellbeing. You can purchase from the Petwellbeing website, from Chewy, and from Amazon. Fritz was fighting multiple battles (diabetes, hyperthyroidism, pancreatitis and probably pancreatic cancer per my vet), but through it all, I gave the drops to him twice a day via oral syringe. Diarrhea was one battle that we won! I highly recommend these drops. They are supposedly bacon flavored and can be mixed with food. Fritz hated the taste, but some cats love them. Fritz was a big cat, and the small bottle lasted for months. Best of luck to all of you who are fighting kitty diarrhea, We used DiaGel, ProPectalin, and generic Flagyl from the vet - none had any impact, but the BM Toneup kept his stools normal.
 

daftcat75

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i have a diarrhea problem with my old cat too, the other 2 been fine :( idk what to try next, she had normal stools after i switcher their food then the lactulose messed it up ... my thread not getting attention bc it got blended with an older one
Diarrhea can be caused by ingestion, infection, inflammation, or internal disease process. This is probably not a complete list. Older cat makes me think one of the last two. Has she had blood work and an ultrasound? Has she had a poop PCR (the expensive one, not the fecal float that only checks for ova, parasites, and giardia)? Is she losing weight?

I would give the s. boulardii a chance. I also mentioned Lithothamnium in another thread.

About s. boulardii
My Cat Has Diarrhea - What Do I Do?

Lithothamnium
Calcium Supplement for Cats | Lithothamnium, Sea | Vitality Science

I would also send Vitality Science an email. They might have other supplements to recommend as well as suggestions on what tests or treatments to pursue from your vet.
 

Stressedcatmom

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Diarrhea can be caused by ingestion, infection, inflammation, or internal disease process. This is probably not a complete list. Older cat makes me think one of the last two. Has she had blood work and an ultrasound? Has she had a poop PCR (the expensive one, not the fecal float that only checks for ova, parasites, and giardia)? Is she losing weight?

I would give the s. boulardii a chance. I also mentioned Lithothamnium in another thread.

About s. boulardii
My Cat Has Diarrhea - What Do I Do?

Lithothamnium
Calcium Supplement for Cats | Lithothamnium, Sea | Vitality Science

I would also send Vitality Science an email. They might have other supplements to recommend as well as suggestions on what tests or treatments to pursue from your vet.

Ultrasound, bloodwork, and pcr no she didn't have, she had the coproparasitology test only and it came out clean and shes not losing weight. I looked up boulardii but i cant find it in my country (chile)
 

Stressedcatmom

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She specifically had 2 ultrasounds, bloodwork and biochem profile taken. Everything came normal except some sign of food allergy on the ultrasound that was mild and we thought it was the previous food we switched 3 weeks ago.
After lactulose the diarrhea came back
 

daftcat75

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Also, if you can order from Vitality Science, they can put together a "Finicky Cat" supplement pack. Send them an email and they can decide which supplements might work for you. Then they can put together a cheaper sampler pack rather than buying full orders of each. I recommend Lithothamnium and their probiotic. They may also recommend Luxolite or something else. If you do suspect a food allergy, they may even have something for that. Working with them is a bit of trial and error. But you're probably used to that by now.
Cat Health Supplements | Finicky Cat Trial Pack | Vitality Science

I do recommend the PCR test even though it's one of the more expensive tests. The PCR test will be able to rule in or rule out infections that the parasitology test will not.
 

Meowmee

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I know this is an old post, but have you found any relief for your kitties? I am in the same exact situation with my two cats and at my wits end.
Hang in there. Try the diet change and medicated any parasites giardia etc.
 

Stressedcatmom

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Can you order from Amazon? This is the one I recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056GCLVO/?tag=thecatsite
this one is for human use right ?? i cant find one who ships to chile but i found a couple of Saccharomyces Boulardii in the farmacies here.
Also ive been feeding her only chicken these past 2 days and that seemed to tone down the diarrhea by a lot ( actually pooped only twice today) we are waiting the hypoallergenic food that should be here tomorrow or the day after
 

daftcat75

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this one is for human use right ?? i cant find one who ships to chile but i found a couple of Saccharomyces Boulardii in the farmacies here.
Also ive been feeding her only chicken these past 2 days and that seemed to tone down the diarrhea by a lot ( actually pooped only twice today) we are waiting the hypoallergenic food that should be here tomorrow or the day after
You can use that human one with your cat at about 1/4 to 1/2 a capsule two to four times a day depending on how well she likes it. Many cats like the taste and you can simply open the capsule into her food.

Chicken alone isn't complete. You can feed it for a week or two. Past that, you either need to add a completer powder (Alnutrin or TC Feline--I don't know if they ship to Chile) or she needs to be eating formulated cat food again. This shouldn't be an issue if the hypoallergenic food is coming in the next day or two. It is tempting to simply keep feeding her only chicken because the diarrhea resolves or tones down a lot. That's just trading a short-term solution for several long-term problems.
 

Stressedcatmom

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You can use that human one with your cat at about 1/4 to 1/2 a capsule two to four times a day depending on how well she likes it. Many cats like the taste and you can simply open the capsule into her food.

Chicken alone isn't complete. You can feed it for a week or two. Past that, you either need to add a completer powder (Alnutrin or TC Feline--I don't know if they ship to Chile) or she needs to be eating formulated cat food again. This shouldn't be an issue if the hypoallergenic food is coming in the next day or two. It is tempting to simply keep feeding her only chicken because the diarrhea resolves or tones down a lot. That's just trading a short-term solution for several long-term problems.
Yes im aware of that thank you. The formulated food is either coming in tomorrow or Monday the latest so it wont be for long.

Ill buy the boulardii then and give it to her asap too tyy
 

Meowmee

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Hi There. I wish I had a real update.

I have now switched food and my two kitties still have diarrhea (pudding consistency, not watery) and one has vomited once, which may be unrelated. Otherwise, they are normal, playful cats with healthy coats.

After taking a break while I did the food transition, I am restarted the S Boulardii and probiotics since they can't really hurt. I am also maintaining the Blissful Belly "easily digestible" diet that worked for my younger cat's sibling who is still with the foster so that I am not throwing more variables at these poor cats. I am back to my original belief that this has to be an infection of some kind that hasn't shown up on 2 PCR tests and beginning to strongly suspect t. foetus, which I will not treat unless I get a clear positive result.

I have a house call vet coming early next week since my fractious kitten is impossible to get to the vet. The plan is to do another fecal test and have them both examined to rule out anything that I am missing (is there any point in a blood draw?). If the PCR is negative again, I want to try another round of fenbendazole and metro combined since I saw one perfect poop the last time I tried that before both cats started evading every pilling trick I had in the book. (This time I will try concentrated per Daftcat 75's recommendation so that I can hopefully get it into both of them.)
Hang in there, it took a few months with Merlin. He was treated with everything including rinidazole and steroids but eventually I took him off of all meds and switched him to only h cooked with chicken, chicken liver and supplements from knowwhatyoufeed.com The diet
was really what helped his poop to be normal again I think at the end.

Same thing with Zena, our new rescue, he had really bad runs from giardia and hook worm. He had 3-4 metro rounds, 2 fenbendazole and he was on gabapentin for stress/ agression. Eventually I stopped all meds after he tested neg and put him on the home cooked and he is back to normal now. If he eats too much of the fussie cat, which they also eat, he can get a bit of mush but nothing major. I am not pos it is him though, it may be Merlin or Quinn because they are all using the same box now, most likely M because he occasionally gets it but goes back to normal on his own quickly.

M had a terrible reaction to sb and ff etc so I don’t use any of them now at all. Quinn is usually dry and needs pumpkin in his home cooked whereas M can go to mush if I give him pumpkin.
 

Stressedcatmom

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Also, if you can order from Vitality Science, they can put together a "Finicky Cat" supplement pack. Send them an email and they can decide which supplements might work for you. Then they can put together a cheaper sampler pack rather than buying full orders of each. I recommend Lithothamnium and their probiotic. They may also recommend Luxolite or something else. If you do suspect a food allergy, they may even have something for that. Working with them is a bit of trial and error. But you're probably used to that by now.
Cat Health Supplements | Finicky Cat Trial Pack | Vitality Science

I do recommend the PCR test even though it's one of the more expensive tests. The PCR test will be able to rule in or rule out infections that the parasitology test will not.
so we got the food on friday ! we 2 days into the transition and we have normal stools now but still frequent poop trips ( 3 a day) sadly today she strained and her bottom prolapsed again, went back in under a minute bc i guess the stitches from her colopexy still doing its job. Took a video and sent to my vet but they not very willingly to tell me what to do next without bringing her in again, shes otherwise perfectly normal.
so diarrhea fixed now prolapse, gotta mention she popped again after and i didnt see it prolapse, or maybe it went back in way quicker .. idk
ill see where i get the money from asap and take her in monday, poor baby
 
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