I can't figure out which cat made bloody stool

[nartyteek]

FIRST OFF I'M GOING TO THE VET IN A FEW HOURS. Just to head off those comments, ha. Anyway, I have three cats, two being feral, one being elderly and high risk for illnesses in general. The 5yo feral female has been showing odd behavior in terms of where she's been sleeping, but otherwise, I can't get my hands on her. She always has had digestive issues, but I tend to blame that on feral-style food anxiety. The ???yo adult male feral has a messy backside, but he has hygiene issues in general. He's disabled mentally and physically, and doesn't like social grooming. The 16yo male made a good-looking poo that I actually saw him make, but still, he's on blood-thinners, so the possibility is always there. He's only on my list of suspects because if it is him, then he's higher risk. Anybody else have to deal with this? I'm going to ask if I can run poop in and get in analyzed so I don't waste money I don't have getting two extra animals examined because I feel like there's a time crunch since there's blood involved. Hopefully it's not cancer, that ****er. I haven't slept, I've been submerged in cat butts and litter boxes all night, so apologies if this is incoherent.

 

[Heart For Cats]

I understand how stressful it is not knowing who made a mess when there are three cats. What are their names?

It does not hurt to ask the vet if blood thinners can cause bloody poop, but that would surprise me. Is this the first time you have seen it or not?

Bad hygiene does not make poop bloody. When the dirty cat is walking around, do you see any blood on his butt?

The cat to worry about is definitely your girl. I don;'t know what you mean by "feral cat eating behavior," but cats who eat too fast vomit all the food minutes later. What specific digestive issues did she have in the past?

 

[nartyteek]

My use of the F word got censored in the first post, lol. I didn't know that would happen. I called cancer "that effer." I just think it looks even more obscene censored. Oh, well.

I meant, I think the male feral, Jack, has a messy backside for the usual reasons of him not being able to clean himself. I don't see any blood on him, so that's probably not him, but I can't safely eliminate him yet since there wasn't a huge amount of blood.
Poesy has food anxiety, she's territorial and paranoid, and even with a slowfeeder she can still occasionally vomit. She used to do it all the time before I made her use a slowfeeder. She has severe anxiety in general, and also has a history of some serious hairballs that were the reason for a vet visit once. The vet says she's not willing to go ahead with testing until I can be sure which cat it is, so back to waiting, but Poesy is probably the one to bet on so far

 

[nartyteek]

Well, it was the feral male Jack! And all we got right now is maybe "stress," which feels like code for, "we don't know what's wrong," but that's just how it goes sometimes. I've been making him extra chill and calm, and his poops do look good now. He has serious mental health issues from a history of abuse, and is even medicated daily already, so it totally is possible. I just wish it was something easier to pinpoint and eliminate, like parasites. Not that parasites are easy to cure tbh. I had giardia from a cat some decades ago, and I'll never forget that.

 

[fionasmom]

I am glad that you have resolved this as much as you can. It is really hard to figure this out when you have multiple cats; I have been in the same position. Jack is lucky that you are taking care of him. I agree that "stress" can be a catch all diagnosis, but it can also be at least partly the cause of some of this.

 

[nartyteek]

He actually does process stress poorly. He's on psych meds and everything. He clearly suffered by human hands before animal control caught him, and it's good of him to trust me as much as he does. I think human contact always stresses out recovering street cats a bit tbh.