Stools Are Half Solid, But Half Soft/liquid?

[daftcat75]

Diarrhea = poor digestion or no digestion.

Find a more digestible food.

If you can’t cut the dry, find a higher quality dry like Dr Elsey, Rawz, or Tiki Cat. Something with meat as the first ingredient and more animal than vegetable in the top five.

Next look at your wet’s ingredients list. It should read meat, moisture, organs (or byproducts, same thing), and supplements. Anything else is a potential irritant.

That should be the same formula for dry food too. Look at your dry and you’ll quickly realize why dry is bad news.

Add a high quality probiotic to his food. You can use the Search on this site to find brand/product recommendations.

Add 1/4 tsp pumpkin to his food, if he’ll eat it, or pick up a pumpkin based food like Tiki Cat Tuna with Pumpkin or Chicken with Pumpkin to get some pumpkin in him. These pouches are low calories so feed it only one meal or maybe just as a treat between meals so you’re not filling him up with low calorie foods. He is still a kitten. Use pumpkin to help firm up his stools while you are looking for more digestible foods. Pumpkin is a crutch, not a solution.

Find a bone broth (or make your own) that has no garlic or onions, salt or seasonings. I likes Butchers brand which is available in pet food stores in the freezer with the raw food or in supermarkets in the meat section. I like them because they have a turkey bone broth for cats who can’t have chicken and don’t like beef. Add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of that to his food as often as he’ll take it. That should help heal up his gut if there’s any inflammation going on.

Start with one of these and give it a few poops before you add another so you can see what effect it’s having. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t help immediately. It takes time to heal.

 

[wrenboii]

Wow, I'm so sorry I haven't responded. I have a theory that I was testing out, and I wasn't sure if it was correct yet, so I didn't want to reply. But since I see three messages here, I've decided not to leave you all hanging.

I did try going with a different protein source for one day, because I recalled that I stopped worrying about my cat's stools for a little while when I was giving him the LID Salmon. So I tried beef this time, mainly because I already had it, and it seemed a lot drier! There were one or two drops of liquid, but that was it. I'm not sure yet whether to attribute that to the chicken in the beef formula (I didn't realize that beef is often cut with chicken until I read the label later), or the slowness of healing. It only took a day to see a difference.

I'm going to try turkey or salmon next, because I don't really feel comfortable with feeding him beef all of the time, as I hear beef is another common allergen. I'm hoping it's just a chicken allergy and not all poultry.

I don't think I can afford cutting dry, unfortunately, but I will definitely be giving him more wet (1 - 2x per day. I'm even willing to consider making my own raw from time to time to stretch my dollar.) I've been buying wet food for my experiments, because I am obviously not going to buy a big bag of food for a few days' worth of experiments, and it made an immediate effect in how much water he drank: he refused to drink water, because he wasn't thirsty after having wet food.

I'm also going to see if it was having more wet food that made a difference.

I'll let you guys know which one it is in about a week!

 

[Gizmoandsooz]

Be careful when changing diets of a cat.

 

[wrenboii]

Here's a picture of the kitty

 

[Gizmoandsooz]

She’s cute.

 

[wrenboii]

Be careful when changing diets of a cat.

Thank you! Yes, I'm aware that there's supposed to be a seven day transition phase. He's still on his regular food. The wet food is being switched from time to time.

 

[daftcat75]

Common allergens are common because they are commonly fed. If a leaky gut encourages an immune response to undigested food in the bloodstream, then it is the food you are feeding that can become an allergen. But if you never fed beef or you rarely fed beef, then beef is a novel protein for him. But if you feed a beef cut with chicken and he's sensitive to chicken, you are challenging the immune system to also mobilize against beef. I approve of finding other single proteins that work. Personally, I think you should have three proteins you can feed because there will be preferences, and there may be supply issues. But also consider picking up a bone broth for it's sealing and regenerative effects. If he doesn't react to beef and he likes it, you're lucky, and you shouldn't waste it. Not all cats like red meat. If you do have to resort to novel proteins (e.g. novel to all cats and not just novel to your cat), most of those are game (red) meats. If you consider raw later down the road, Sprouts (a Whole Foods competitor) carries elk, venison, lamb, wild boar, and bison.

 

[Gizmoandsooz]

Thank you! Yes, I'm aware that there's supposed to be a seven day transition phase. He's still on his regular food. The wet food is being switched from time to time.

Best to stick to brands that you know he eats. Whether it’s fancy feast tins, to whiskas dryfood.

 

[wrenboii]

I didn't want to comment again, until I had something new to report. I moved him back to the salmon, because I wanted him to be on a protein I had had experience with and at least had made him drier. He still has chicken treats because I can't find salmon treats, and my dad would NEVER let him go without treats.

He seems to be doing better. There's maybe five percent wet stool, and the stools have a slight wet coating. But yesterday, he seemed a bit constipated, while still having the slight wet coating, although it was even slighter yesterday. I gave him some fishy wet food today (no chicken, but not salmon. It was unfortunately the only similar wet food I had on hand), and no constipation, I don't think, but he still had that wet coating.

Any thoughts on the coating/ideas on what I should do moving forward?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Is the coating actually liquified stool, or is it mucus? It makes a difference on what it could be.

 

[wrenboii]

I wanted to see him poop again before answering, but if I had to guess before answering, I'd just say it looks like a very thin layer of liquefied poop on top of obviously solid poop.

I did get a chance to look at his poop less than five minutes after he pooped today, and it seemed normal, Grade 2.5 on the Waltham Scoring System, but I wonder if it dried in that time?

Who knows. I think my cat might avoid pooping in front of me at this point

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Oh, good. You don't want to see mucus with the poop. That means a vet trip.

 

[daftcat75]

Who knows. I think my cat might avoid pooping in front of me at this point

This may provide more information than you ever wanted, but a webcam could help here. I like this one from D-link. It's about the size and shape of a salt shaker so it's pretty easy to hide or make inconspicuous. I have one in my Krista's favorite hiding spot. I am tempted to get one for her litterbox cabinet in case I need to solve a "what the fur?!?" mystery.

 

[wrenboii]

Haha, I am very poor right now from student loans, but I'll consider it in the future.

In the meantime, I plan on keeping better track of my cat's eating habits, because we're getting closer to completely solid stools! They've actually been completely solid a few times now, but sometimes I see some soft stools (no liquid, just soft) and I want to narrow down what it could be.

Thanks for all of your help guys

This may provide more information than you ever wanted, but a webcam could help here. I like this one from D-link. It's about the size and shape of a salt shaker so it's pretty easy to hide or make inconspicuous. I have one in my Krista's favorite hiding spot. I am tempted to get one for her litterbox cabinet in case I need to solve a "what the fur?!?" mystery.