Ongoing Diarrhea Problems

[ymmcats]

Hello,

Long time reader of the site, first time poster.

I have an approx 2 year old siamese cat that I adopted from a not so great situation about a year and a half ago. She wasn't fixed no shots etc.

Immediately when I took her home I got her fixed, shots etc.

Approx two to three months after that she developed diarrhea. At the time I believe I was feeding her Wellness canned, but was successfully feeding for some time before the diarrhea developed. I took her to the vet and had the fecal exam done and they came back with nothing. They suggested Royal Canin digestive dry food, which actually did improve the situation - temporarily.

Fast forward to now, her stools have become soft again and lighter yellow in color, with some streaks? in them. I took her back to the vet and they suggested she might be allergic and provided me with Royal Canin hypoallergenic dry and I began feeding that. Almost the same result, at the beginning (almost overnight) her stool returned to normal dark, but then returned to light yellow, soft, streaky.

She also has been itching more than normal, especially in the facial area, which is why they believed it to be allergies. I'm starting to think it might just be because dry food isn't the best.

Today I decided to take her to a different vet, thinking the first vet was just pushing food and not actually testing. I am actually kind of surprised that I received pretty much the same result, however they were willing to do further testing. I brought another fecal sample with me and they are sending it off to a lab and as well I had blood work done - results pending.

They did send me away with some FortiFlora to see if it makes a difference as well, and as I type this she is eating wet food with it mixed in.

I guess I don't really know what advice I am seeking, just throwing this out there to see if anyone has been through a similar situation. I will keep this thread updated once I receive results on the blood test and fecal exam.

I noticed on other forums some just suggest feeding raw. I've pretty much decided if the results come back negative again I will try Natures Variety frozen raw and see how that goes.

She has been eating, drinking and otherwise acting normally.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

The PCR (test with an outside lab) is a great way to go, as it will test for some of the "baddies" that aren't normally found in a regular  fecal float.  If nothing comes back, than it probably is food related.

The itching around the face is indicative of food allergies.  What wet food did they put her on?  The Fortiflora is a probiotic that also helps with loose stools.  Problem is, if she has food allergies, I don't think it will help, or will simply mask the problem

Many people have been thru food allergies.  Luckily there are limited variety foods out there, both canned and dry (and you're correct...wet is better IMHO, AND raw.  Raw is never a bad option.  You can buy 100% nutritionally complete raw, or even make your own if you feel competent to do it.  That way you control all the ingredients.  Have you seen our forum on raw food?  Here's the link:  http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food

 

[ymmcats]

Thanks for the reply mrsgreenjeens

She is now currently on hills d/d wet (duck and pea).. the ingredients actually don't look too bad to me so I think if it works I'll feed it indefinitely. Having said that, way to soon to tell. I will keep you posted

 

[lisahe]

I agree with mrsgreenjeens about the probability of food allergies and the benefits of feeding canned and/or raw foods.

I'm not sure if either of your vets mentioned this, ymmcats, but ours, who's a cat specialist, told us when we adopted our two Siamese mix cats (also from a not-too-great situation) that Siamese and mixes tend to be prone to digestive issues. She recommended high-protein, low-carb, grain-free wet foods; we had them transitioned to only canned and raw foods within two or three months of adopting them. (They'd been horribly underfed so the first goal was to get them to a normal, healthy weight; they were also very skittish.)

We only had one diarrhea incident with one cat; she seems to have, hmm, an edgy stomach and isn't very food-motivated. The other cat had a fair bit of vomiting early on, both from foods with potato and from an empty stomach; she's a piglet. As a result, we feed a lot of small meals and avoid a lot of ingredients in their foods, including grains, potato, peas, carrots, and carrageenan, partly because of the vet's advice on carbs and partly because some of those ingredients tend to be GI system irritants, too. We feed a combination of canned food, commercial raw food, and homecooked food. That seems to work pretty well for both cats, who are now a little almost three and a half and have been with us for about two and a half years. Every cat is different, though, and sometimes a fair bit of trial and error goes into finding the right combination.

Good luck! And do let us know about the test results!

 

[ymmcats]

So results came back today..

Blood tests were all good and no issues

On fecal test she tested positive for feline coronavirus

The vet didn't really say much about it except find a food that works and it's untreatable.

Was wondering if anyone has dealt with this before?

 

[lisahe]

Sorry to hear there wasn't a clear answer. I don't know exactly what you've been feeding since you adopted your cat so don't know what ingredients might be common triggers but I might suggest starting with our vet's Siamese cat advice: wet food only, grain-free, high-protein, low-carb. If you've observed any patterns--such as problems seem worse after fish or chicken--you might want to go try cutting a certain protein, too.

I listed our no-nos in my previous post, things like potato, peas, large amounts of tapioca, and all carrageenan. We know potato is a big problem for one of our cats and others on the site have noted issues with most of these ingredients, too. (I don't specifically remember anyone mentioning problems with tapioca -- I avoid it mostly because of the carbs.)

Our canned food list includes brands like Tiki, Weruva, Merrick LID, Nutro Natural Choice, Bravo, and Soulistic. Our raw foods are Primal, Stella & Chewy's, and Rad Cat. I think Rad Cat and Tiki are among the best commercial foods available, largely because they have such simple recipes, something that's very important for cats with digestive issues. We also make homemade food, using EZcomplete supplement. The cats love it and it's easy to control their ingredients with that.

 

[missmimz]

Sounds like IBD. I would really encourage you to read this site about the benefits of switching to raw or homecooked. The number of success stories with cats just like yours is very, very high. 

http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/

 

[lisahe]

I'm glad you added that link, @missmimz! I forgot about the new site.

 

[catlover100]

I tried several different dry foods when my male cat was having loose stools. Nothing seemed to get better until I put him on canned food. I am not sure it is the grain or carbohydrates in the food because the last food I had him on was grain free.

But it really cleared up over night. I couldn't believe it. I never took him to the vet's because it never got to the point of being true diarrhea. 

Pumpkin can also help to firm up stools or look up what kind of human laxative you could sprinkle on the food.  Laxatives or pumpkin will add bulk to the stool.

Hope it gets better. It is so awful having to clean up after them and not knowing what is wrong.  

 

[lifeofreilly]

May I clarify, catlover100, are you sure you mean laxatives??? Laxitives will contribute to diarrhea. They are made for constipation problems and they increase bowel motility & water in the stool. Fiber is a bulking agent. Pumpkin has high amounts of fiber.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

@ymmcats, is the food working to help with the diarrhea?  That's the most important thing, I would imagine. 

As for testing positive for Feline Corona Virus, many cats test positive for that, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad news.  Sometimes they can sluff it off...most cats do.  If it turns into FIP, then your Vet is correct in that it can't be cured, and is actually deadly.  Let's hope that doesn't happen

 

[countlasagna]

@ymmcats I'm so so sorry for your cat trouble as I know how difficult and heart breaking it is, but am selfishly relieved to find someone in a similar boat as I am. Maybe we can help each other out.

I first took my senior cat Minnie to the vet about a year ago when I adopted her because of chronic loose stool. We did a fecal, nothing showed up. We did a pcr where they found tritrichomonis. We treated with ronidazole and symptoms did not get better, but my vet told me it would probably not be on her best interest to have another go with the ronidazole. So we did bloodwork. Everything came back clear. So we started a trial of b12 injections and prednisolone with a hypoallergenic food (RC rabbit). Nothing helped. We fell on some hard times with a job loss and a move so I weaned her off the pred as it wasn't doing anything anyway. Fast forward to last month. We did another fecal, a urinalysis, bloodwork, forti flora, different hypoallergenic food. No change. The vet is suggesting an ultrasound but at this point it's difficult to make that sort of decision, with money constantly being an issue. Also would an ultrasound give me a solution or just lead to more expensive tests.

The only thing that I ever found to help was a high quality canned food and some lithothamnium. Check out vitality science. I can't speak for all of their products but I did see improvement in my cat.

Hope things start looking up and please keep us all posted!

 

[ymmcats]

Just wanted to follow up with an update.

I've tried many diffeeent vet and high end foods to no avail.

About a week ago someone suggested raw - I've attempted this in the past but couldn't get her to even lick it.

The person i was talking to mentioned they had luck feeding the freeze dried varieties. I figured it was worth the shot.

I picked up a bag of Primal Freeze Dried Turkey nuggets...much to my surprise she devoured the whole serving in one sitting.. something i've never seen her do with any food, ever.

I anxiously waited to see if this would help the diaherra/loose stool problem. I noticed she hadn't "gone" the next day.. that was when i realized something is different...she had been pretty routinely going once a day prior.

Well today is the third day on only the Primal nuggets, and sure enough... solid, normal, stool!

I really expected an adjustment period especially given the past history and not gradually introducing the raw.

I'm posting this here in hopes it helps others...especially if you have doubts about raw.. this stuff doesn't stink, is super convenient, and at least in my case.. she loves it!

 

[missmimz]

Just wanted to follow up with an update.

I've tried many diffeeent vet and high end foods to no avail.

About a week ago someone suggested raw - I've attempted this in the past but couldn't get her to even lick it.

The person i was talking to mentioned they had luck feeding the freeze dried varieties. I figured it was worth the shot.

I picked up a bag of Primal Freeze Dried Turkey nuggets...much to my surprise she devoured the whole serving in one sitting.. something i've never seen her do with any food, ever.

I anxiously waited to see if this would help the diaherra/loose stool problem. I noticed she hadn't "gone" the next day.. that was when i realized something is different...she had been pretty routinely going once a day prior.

Well today is the third day on only the Primal nuggets, and sure enough... solid, normal, stool!

I really expected an adjustment period especially given the past history and not gradually introducing the raw.

I'm posting this here in hopes it helps others...especially if you have doubts about raw.. this stuff doesn't stink, is super convenient, and at least in my case.. she loves it!

That's excellent news. Primal is good quality food. This definetly supports the notion that whatever was causing your cats diarrhea was something in the food.