Chronic Diarrhea Solutions?

jazee

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I have an American Shorthair, 11 years old, very healthy (good weight, energetic). He's been on the same diet for about the last two years: Kirkland Premium Dry Cat Food and Fancy Feast Fish & Shrimp wet (half small can.) The Fancy Feast is a bit of a surprise for a lot of people as this particular flavor has an excellent ingredient profile for a brand generally considered as a 'cheap grocery store brand' (and rightfully so.) But this flavor is basically just fish and shrimp, no by products or lots of fillers. And that's what it looks like, just like canned tuna a human eats.

Over the past year it seems that he has gotten diarrhea gradually more frequently to now it's like 80-90% of the time but not 100%. So there was no abrupt change to his stools, and as I mentioned no change to his physical appearance or behavior. No changes to the food. No changes to the water source. No moving to a new home or other change that could be an environmental/stress factor. The Kirkland brand dry food comes in such a huge bag (ridiculous for a cat) that it's probably at least a year and a half old.

So I tried so more 'premium' wet food brands, like Wellness, to see if it made a difference. It didn't.

Next figured, maybe the Kirkland dry foot is too old? So started three days ago on Buffalo Sensitive Stomach which has brown rice and was hoping the added fiber (or just having fresher food) would be the cure. Not so far.

Unsure how long I should wait to try something different and what to try? This breed is probably pickier than average but not extraordinarily picky.
 
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jazee

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Forgot to mention also, INDOOR ONLY cat.
 

Azazel

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Fish and shrimp in large amounts are irritants for cats. Dry food is also high in carbs and can lead to bulky, smelly, soft poo. I would transition him to a better quality primarily wet food brand diet. (Wellness is not a premium brand). Any new food should be introduced slowly over a period of 10 days. A teaspoon of plain canned pumpkin added daily to food might help if the issue is soluble fiber. I would also have the vet run a fecal test and examination to rule out underlying health issues.
 

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When was the last vet visit? If it's been awhile, a check up soon would be a good idea. Senior aged cats are prone to various health issues. Diarrhea may indicate something more going on. A full senior blood work panel would be good to do.
 
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jazee

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My purpose for posting was mainly to get some recommendations from other cat owners of some dry and or wet foods to try that experienced moderate diarrhea issues. Vet would be phase 2 as he is otherwise showing the same physical and behavioral health he has all his life and is not showing symptoms that would indicate IBS. It's not very watery diarrhea and it is semi-solid to solid on brief occasions. He has no accidents. No vomiting.

Thank you Azazel for the common sense points and recommendations. I'm skeptical on the contention that fish doesn't agree with felines. As he's a picky eater and fish is primarily what he will eat and he ate Iams Tuna and now Fancy Feast Fish & Shrimp for years with no problems. Doesn't matter how good the food is for him if he won't eat it. It's interesting to read hundreds of cat food reviews on various websites (Petco, Amazon, Chewy) and see the huge variance - some owners thinks the food almost killed their pet, others claim the same food is a savior; a testament to both how different pets can respond and/or how accurate (or lack thereof) pet owner's assessments are of underlying causes of vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Everyone is hoping for a simple (and usually cheap) solution -- including myself.

Grain free... limited ingredients... bla bla bla. How much of it really makes a difference versus it being herd mentality based on the lastest marketing hype targeted at OCD Pet Owners? But maybe that's for another discussion thread...

For example, I'd say one of the dry foods that seems to get the most consistent praises for solving gastrointestinal issues, is the Royal Canin Digestive Care. Supposedly frequently recommend by Vets based on dozens and dozens of reviews I read. Let's take a look at the first three ingredients shall we?

Brewers rice, wheat gluten, chicken meal. That ain't low carb. A lot of food snob cat owners would scoff at those ingredients. Yet...

"This product is a miracle. Our cat has always had the most vile disgusting diarrhea... . That’s being said we had tried multiple foods ranging from low end all the way to holistic foods and everything labeled “sensitive” in between. Nothing touched the frequency or smell."
"The only cat food that doesn’t give my cat runny bowels."

Then next review:

"In reality, She liked it at first and ate it well. Not even 24 hours later she had bad diarrhea. "

It's all about trial and error if there's no serious underlying health condition. I'd just like to hear from other people that tried a dozen different foods to solve a similar problem.
 
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jazee

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My cat just took a poop as I finished writing my last reply, and it was solid. LOL. So maybe is just taking a few days for the Buffalo Sensitive Stomach to kick in. Time will tell.
 

minish

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Minish always has diarrhea if there is significant change of food (i.e. no problems with same brand flavors but problems switching to low fat versions) but it passes on its own. The problem may be due to the food he is used to. The company might have changed composition, sources etc. Since he's used to same diet, any change of food will cause diarrhea for a couple of days as well.
Here in turkey, vets suggest human-like precautions for sudden or acute diarrhea: low fat, easily digestible food. The cat version is boiled potatoes or rice mixed with boiled chicken breast. If possible, you may try for a few days before switching to alternative diets.
 
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jazee

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There was no changed to his food. The bag of Kirkland Brand (Costco) Premium Cat Food is HUGE. For one cat it could last easily a couple years. That's one of the reasons I changed was in case it was stale. There has been no abrupt change to the cats stools. With all my cats I've had over the years, the stool isn't going to be consistent 100% of the time. I just noticed this one he has very loose stools more often then I recall a year or two ago but it didn't change over a short period. He still has solid, well formed stools, but it's probably 10-20% of the time at most now where as a couple years ago, it may have been around 3/4 of the time. I didn't want to buy the same food to see if it was a problem with the food degrading because it's such a big bag, but Costco would definitely take it back. I may go back to IAMS dry food as that is what I used 3+ years ago when I remember the loose stools being very infrequent.
 
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jazee

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He's been on the same wet food for three years. The wet food is in my opinion more likely to have changed. This partcular wet food is just fish and shrimp, no fillers but I noted in the reviews that every few months people notice it looks or smells different probably from the company changing suppliers of the raw ingredients. I've tried at least 6 different cans of other food and didn't make a difference.

The problem is, as people point out, just changing food can give the cats diarrhea so trying to rule out food can be a lengthy process: gradually change over 1-2 weeks, wait another 1+ weeks to see if things change = 3+ weeks per change X 6 different foods and this takes several months. He's otherwise physically healthy, good wait, playful/active, but I'm about to pull the trigger to a vet visit for testing even though my gut with over 50 years of having cats tells me it's just an increasingly sensitive digestive system associated with aging and the vet trip will be a dead end. I just wanted to first see if a diet change can do the trick.
 

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80%-90% diarrhea in the last year is a lot and I would definitely take him to the vet, at least to check dehydration level and maybe administer some fluids if required. I would also ask for Feline PCR diarrhea panel to check if there's any bacterial problem causing diarrhea, it's expensive (+$100) but will give you some definitive answers to what problems can be safely ruled out, so that the visit won't be a total waste of time if that's what your gut tells you.

It is my understanding that once opened, dry food should be eaten within 1-2 months, unless kept in the freezer, as otherwise the risk of fungus, mold and mycotoxins is pretty high; maybe that have caused the irritation?

When my cats had intestines irritated after giardia infection, they were getting Royal Canin Gastrointestinal, I believe it's prescription only in the US, and that really helped to stop their diarrhea. This food has horrible ingredients though (as expensive as it is), so I'd feed it for several weeks at the most, and then I'd slowly transition to the healthier food.
Saccharomyces boulardii is also known to be very helpful so that's also something I would consider.
 

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If he hasnt had his yearly exam this year, I would just go and do it. Seniors age 4 human years every year so that's why their health can change so dramatically. Cats are amazing at hiding illnesses until it's too late, thats why the yearly exam and blood work is so important.
 
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jazee

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One thing that is driving me crazy is there appears to be conflicting information on whether high fiber is good or bad for diarrhea. I always thought fiber was good for constipation and therefore a grain free, low fiber diet might help. However what I've found, and as Witch pointed out, the ingredients in some of the GI issue targeted foods are high in grain/carbs, and low in protein, most of them have corn for example. These are from reputable makers like Hills, Royal Canin, and Blue Buffalo including prescription formulas recommended by Vets.

Corn has a bad wrap though. It is used because it's cheap but it's not the 'poison' that many cat fanatics want to make it out to be that think their cat is allergic to everything except sunlight (reminds me of the Gluten Free craze in the grocery stores when only a fraction of society is allergic to Gluten.) The Premium Cat food game is to convince you many of these cheaper ingredients are poison for your cat and you have to fork out big bucks to avoid feeling guilty. It's an animal, not your human offspring. Basically it boils down to finding something that (a) the cat will even eat, and (b) not have adverse reactions to, and then (c) has quality meat as the first ingredient. By-product meat later in the ingredient list isn't bad for you cat, it's just doesn't meet standards for human consumption. Cats are animals not humans. You see people saying, but they just eat meat in the wild so grain is bad. Well yes they would eat meat in the wild, including the parts we consider by products. But we all want to feel good about ourselves based on an ingredient list. Sorry, got sort of off on a tangent.
 

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One thing that is driving me crazy is there appears to be conflicting information on whether high fiber is good or bad for diarrhea. I always thought fiber was good for constipation and therefore a grain free, low fiber diet might help. However what I've found, and as Witch pointed out, the ingredients in some of the GI issue targeted foods are high in grain/carbs, and low in protein, most of them have corn for example. These are from reputable makers like Hills, Royal Canin, and Blue Buffalo including prescription formulas recommended by Vets.

Corn has a bad wrap though. It is used because it's cheap but it's not the 'poison' that many cat fanatics want to make it out to be that think their cat is allergic to everything except sunlight (reminds me of the Gluten Free craze in the grocery stores when only a fraction of society is allergic to Gluten.) The Premium Cat food game is to convince you many of these cheaper ingredients are poison for your cat and you have to fork out big bucks to avoid feeling guilty. It's an animal, not your human offspring. Basically it boils down to finding something that (a) the cat will even eat, and (b) not have adverse reactions to, and then (c) has quality meat as the first ingredient. By-product meat later in the ingredient list isn't bad for you cat, it's just doesn't meet standards for human consumption. Cats are animals not humans. You see people saying, but they just eat meat in the wild so grain is bad. Well yes they would eat meat in the wild, including the parts we consider by products. But we all want to feel good about ourselves based on an ingredient list. Sorry, got sort of off on a tangent.
I wouldn’t call Hills, Royal Canin or Blue Buffalo “reputable.” That’s quite the stretch. The way their products work is you feed one of their regular products until your cat develops some issue and then you switch to a “prescription” product to try and regulate the issue which your cat probably wouldn’t have had in the first place if they weren’t eating the inappropriate ingredients in their food

Corn isn’t poison, but it’s biologically inappropriate food for an obligate carnivore. Having the majority of a cat’s diet or protein source be plant-based can lead to long term health issues. Yes, you can view them as “just cats.” Some of us value them more than that though.

If by-products means organs, then yes, it’s good for cats, not as the primary ingredient though. The “fit for human consumption” issue is separate. If you’re okay with feeding diseased animal parts to your cat, then yes, you can ignore that issue. Again, some of us aren’t okay with that.

The “premium” products are often problematic too because they replace grains with legumes.

The pet feed industry is a mess. That’s why many of us choose to educate ourselves and make our own food.
 

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My understanding is that there are some additives in veterinary diets that are more important in the short run than its ingredients. My vet made it clear that this kind of food should not be fed permanently, but on a recovery basis only.
I think long term effect of the carby food is what is often overlooked. People often say: “my cat is doing great on x food”, but then you see lots of cats ending up with kidney disease or IBD or other GI issues. My vet observes that cats on high protein, low carb wet diet are generally much healthier than these on kibbles, but that’s his observation only. But that’s what my research confirms.

Btw humans are animals too. Some people prefer cats as their “babies” and that’s their choice. I personally don’t like human babies but I generally don’t like adult humans even more :) luckily, it’s not imperative for humans to treat their own species as the best and the only one requiring respect and best care possible. And I don’t mind spending on my cats what I think it’s the best food, but I also don’t mind spending money on my high quality food, which is more expensive than my cats’ food. I can only hope I’ll spend less on vet’s/doctor’s visits. Of course, it’d be a different story if I couldn’t afford it, but right now I can spare $3 per cat per day.
 
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