We adopted a kitten at 5 months, he's almost 1 year now. He had some "dirty bum" issues nearly the entire time we've had him, where he had very soft stools - not diarrheic as they are almost always formed, just extremely soft. The problem is that there would almost always be some liquid fecal residue on his anus that would then transfer to whatever surface he sat on next, and over time would just build up and be a pretty nasty crust.
After a negative fecal exam the vet began focusing on diet. We've tried Purina One Indoor, Purina One Sensitive Skin & Stomach, Hill's GI Biome prescription food, Purina Pro Sensitive Turkey & Oatmeal, and we're now on Purina Pro Sensitive Lamb & Rice.
I would say the most improvement happened after switching to Lamb and Rice, where have gone probably 3 weeks of maybe 85-90% improvement. However, I've recently noticed some regression. First, he throws up partially digested food every 10 days or so. He hadn't thrown up any of the non-Purina Pro formulas. Second, in the last couple of days, I noticed his stools are getting softer/smellier and when I woke up today, saw the dreaded brown spot on his favorite place to sleep, which means he's bad enough to being back to transferring poop again. I had thought we might be out of the woods!
A few thoughts going through my head:
After a negative fecal exam the vet began focusing on diet. We've tried Purina One Indoor, Purina One Sensitive Skin & Stomach, Hill's GI Biome prescription food, Purina Pro Sensitive Turkey & Oatmeal, and we're now on Purina Pro Sensitive Lamb & Rice.
I would say the most improvement happened after switching to Lamb and Rice, where have gone probably 3 weeks of maybe 85-90% improvement. However, I've recently noticed some regression. First, he throws up partially digested food every 10 days or so. He hadn't thrown up any of the non-Purina Pro formulas. Second, in the last couple of days, I noticed his stools are getting softer/smellier and when I woke up today, saw the dreaded brown spot on his favorite place to sleep, which means he's bad enough to being back to transferring poop again. I had thought we might be out of the woods!
A few thoughts going through my head:
- I still don't know what's actually wrong with him, whether it's a food intolerance or something more serious like IBS or IBD, or maybe just general anxiety as he's a pretty skittish cat and we had just left town for 4 days. After doing better on the Lamb & Rice for weeks, why would his system suddenly regress?
- He's been on the Lamb & Rice for a month now. How long before I should switch his food again?
- And what should I switch it to? This was the last one on my list. I have one vet suggesting a hydrolyzed protein diet could be the next step, but I haven't been thrilled with that vet and obviously it's a very expensive step. Another vet suggested this Rx Clay supplement. Has anyone here had luck with some foods?