Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

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LittlePenBigHeart
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Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by LittlePenBigHeart »

If you've read my previous posts, you'll know we've had on/off problems with Dylan and Pepsi's bowels ever since we adopted them last May. For a couple of months it looked as though we'd finally got it all sorted. Pepsi had been worse, while Dylan was fine, then FINALLY both were producing solid poos and everything was golden.

Three weeks ago, it all started back up again overnight. Both of them, at the same time, producing runny poos every single time. Definitely not a bug as our other cat has been completely fine.

We took them back to the vet last week, who was unsure what it was but he gave us a paste to put with their food, to help bind things up, and worming treatment in case it was worms. Since then Pepsi has improved and has passed solid stools for the last few days, but Dylan is, if anything, worse. When he does a poo it comes out with a lot of very unpleasant noises and it comes out in a huge puddle. In every other respect they are both absolutely fine. If you didn't see or smell Dylan's bottom you'd never know anything was wrong with him.

The vet has given us a pot in which to collect samples (can't tell you how yummy that has been) so we've been collecting Dylan's for a couple of days now and we're taking it back to the vet tomorrow morning so it can be sent for testing.

I'm just so worried about him. I mean, I'm worried about both of them because surely this is not at all normal?? I've had a LOT of cats throughout my life and I've never had this with any of the previous cats. I'm worried there's something seriously wrong. I'm worried that whatever it is means something bad for them in the long run. Has anyone had this with cats before and if so, please tell me how it turned out?!
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lilynmitz
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by lilynmitz »

I had two rescues who had terrible runs, and all the sample tests came back clear. Eventually the vet suggested they were probably reacting to some protein in their food that they were sensitive too, so he put them on a diet that excluded everything normally in cat food, and that they wouldn't have come across before, ie minced venison, bulked out with a little mashed potato. It worked pretty much overnight, much to everyone's relief, (and my butcher's amusement) and the cats were more than delighted with their new regime! I had to keep them on this exclusively for weeks (sorry, it was so long ago now I can't remember how long), and the first time I tried weaning them off it onto normal food again the squits came back, so I kept them on for a bit longer, then weaned them onto Hills Sensitive for dodgy tummies, which they also ate for months, then weaned them onto Hills normal food with the occasional good quality wet cat food for treats. Never had a problem with it again, but I always kept a bag of venison in the freezer just in case!
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by Janey »

We once adopted two cats from CP who were like that if they ate anything with cereals (I think it was mainly wheat) in, not siblings but from the same home and surprisingly both the same. Purina One dry with rice was their main food, and they were fine, we did give them treats they liked as well such as fresh fish (from the fish shop) and prawns, which they loved, but some of the treats give them a runny tummy again so we limited those. Very often it is food and finding out what is causing it and stopping that food, or at least limiting it a great deal.
Last edited by Janey on Thu Feb 16, 2017 1:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
LittlePenBigHeart
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by LittlePenBigHeart »

Thanks both.

I've been trying to get them onto a high meat content food (I've had training through my work on the various cat foods) and it was the first time they seemed to be okay. They were on the More Kitten biscuits for a couple of months and did really well. But then, out of the blue, with nothing at all having changed, this happened! It's so weird. They have dry skin as well as the runs, which made me conclude, just as you did, that it could well be the cereals in their food. But even when we had them only one cooked chicken morning and lunchtime, then cooked white fish at night, things didn't improve. I've toyed with whether Dylan might have a problem with chicken, so maybe I'll see if I can get some other meat from the butchers just as you did, Lilynmitz, and see if that helps.

Just so frustrating not being able to help them. :(
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Janey
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by Janey »

It doesn’t have to be cereals, I had a few cats sensitive to fish, one in particular was sick the minute he ate any fish foods and my current cat is sick the minute she has Webbox, although she was fine with Webbox for a long time, then suddenly couldn’t tolerate it. Also sometimes it takes a while to adjust when you cut out certain foods. I hope you manage to sort it soon. Fusses to them both.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by Crewella »

My old Minnie gradually became more and more intolerant of certain foods as she got older. Cereals, fish and dairy were big no-nos. I had the same thing with her a couple of times - she'd be fine on a certain food and the suddenly she'd get the runs again. The cat food companies do seem to tweak their ingredients from time to time, more than once she suddenly became unable to eat a brand and flavour that had previously been fine, so could it be that something has changed without you realising it?
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by meriad »

Helen, what did you feed Minnie; i struggled to find any food that didn't contain either fish or cereals. One or the other was OK, but not both - most will all have some form of fish derivative

I'd dearly love to get mine on a raw food diet, but they're just not interested.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by LittlePenBigHeart »

Janey wrote:It doesn’t have to be cereals, I had a few cats sensitive to fish, one in particular was sick the minute he ate any fish foods and my current cat is sick the minute she has Webbox, although she was fine with Webbox for a long time, then suddenly couldn’t tolerate it. Also sometimes it takes a while to adjust when you cut out certain foods. I hope you manage to sort it soon. Fusses to them both.
Oh believe me, I've done the slowly introducing foods thing til I'm blue in the face. They were on Purina One for ages because of their tummies being dodgy but it's filled with absolute rubbish so I worked on getting them onto the More biscuits but ended up doing it literally 2 kibble pieces at a time, for a few days at a time before introducing 2 more pieces. It took me a good 6 weeks to switch them over completely. Then they were fine for 2 months and suddenly this all went off again! No idea why at all. The recipe definitely hasn't changed and we didn't start giving them anything different. *scratches head in puzzlement*
Crewella wrote:My old Minnie gradually became more and more intolerant of certain foods as she got older. Cereals, fish and dairy were big no-nos. I had the same thing with her a couple of times - she'd be fine on a certain food and the suddenly she'd get the runs again. The cat food companies do seem to tweak their ingredients from time to time, more than once she suddenly became unable to eat a brand and flavour that had previously been fine, so could it be that something has changed without you realising it?
How strange!! Unfortunately it can't possibly be the case here because we only give them cooked chicken in the morning, we microwave a frozen white fish fillet for them each at night, and during the day they have a handful of biscuits, but that recipe definitely hasn't changed. Confused! How can he have a problem with chicken and fish!?!?

I think I'm going to try doing the venison thing, sort of. I work at an excellent pet store and we actually stock the raw foods. When my husband took Dylan to the vet this week, the vet said if all Dylan's tests come back clear, the next step is to try a strict exclusion diet of meat mixed with mashed potato. So we'll try him on the raw food mixed with mashed potato for a time and see how we get on.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by Janey »

LittlePenBigHeart wrote:
Janey wrote:It doesn’t have to be cereals, I had a few cats sensitive to fish, one in particular was sick the minute he ate any fish foods and my current cat is sick the minute she has Webbox, although she was fine with Webbox for a long time, then suddenly couldn’t tolerate it. Also sometimes it takes a while to adjust when you cut out certain foods. I hope you manage to sort it soon. Fusses to them both.
Oh believe me, I've done the slowly introducing foods thing til I'm blue in the face. They were on Purina One for ages because of their tummies being dodgy but it's filled with absolute rubbish so I worked on getting them onto the More biscuits but ended up doing it literally 2 kibble pieces at a time, for a few days at a time before introducing 2 more pieces. It took me a good 6 weeks to switch them over completely. Then they were fine for 2 months and suddenly this all went off again! No idea why at all. The recipe definitely hasn’t changed and we didn't start giving them anything different. *scratches head in puzzlement*
When you say they “They were on Purina One for ages because of their tummies being dodgy but it’s filled with absolute rubbish`’ did it work though? - If so, why change it, why is it filled with rubbish? As I said, Purina One was what we were told to the feed ours by the rescue, because that was obviously what worked for them, we found by actually changing from the Purina diet they were back to runny tums so we kept them on it with other treats occasionally . I know of others who use this for their cats with similar problems and it works well too. It’s quite a few years since we lost those cats though so the ingredients may have changed I’ve not checked. (eta: I’ve just checked and the ingredients look ok to me, I presume ours were wheat intolerant and that’s why it worked as it’s wheat free.)

Regarding the raw diet, on the old Cat Chat forum someone tried that it worked wonders. I was going to mention it actually but many people won’t try it; I’ve never tried it on mine either. I hope it works.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by Crewella »

I was confused about what was wrong with the Purina One too, as it seemed to have worked. In my view 'absolute rubbish' is mainly wheat cereals .... which it doesn't have.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by LittlePenBigHeart »

Janey wrote:
LittlePenBigHeart wrote:
Janey wrote:It doesn’t have to be cereals, I had a few cats sensitive to fish, one in particular was sick the minute he ate any fish foods and my current cat is sick the minute she has Webbox, although she was fine with Webbox for a long time, then suddenly couldn’t tolerate it. Also sometimes it takes a while to adjust when you cut out certain foods. I hope you manage to sort it soon. Fusses to them both.
Oh believe me, I've done the slowly introducing foods thing til I'm blue in the face. They were on Purina One for ages because of their tummies being dodgy but it's filled with absolute rubbish so I worked on getting them onto the More biscuits but ended up doing it literally 2 kibble pieces at a time, for a few days at a time before introducing 2 more pieces. It took me a good 6 weeks to switch them over completely. Then they were fine for 2 months and suddenly this all went off again! No idea why at all. The recipe definitely hasn’t changed and we didn't start giving them anything different. *scratches head in puzzlement*
When you say they “They were on Purina One for ages because of their tummies being dodgy but it’s filled with absolute rubbish`’ did it work though? - If so, why change it, why is it filled with rubbish? As I said, Purina One was what we were told to the feed ours by the rescue, because that was obviously what worked for them, we found by actually changing from the Purina diet they were back to runny tums so we kept them on it with other treats occasionally . I know of others who use this for their cats with similar problems and it works well too. It’s quite a few years since we lost those cats though so the ingredients may have changed I’ve not checked. (eta: I’ve just checked and the ingredients look ok to me, I presume ours were wheat intolerant and that’s why it worked as it’s wheat free.)

Regarding the raw diet, on the old Cat Chat forum someone tried that it worked wonders. I was going to mention it actually but many people won’t try it; I’ve never tried it on mine either. I hope it works.

It's a fair question. So basically, there are lots and lots of things that cats can react to in their food and one of those things can be the proteins, which will be very high in 'good' foods but lower in others. Purina One, like many of the other common brands in stores, is filled with over-processed ingredients and is very low in meat content. There is no legal standard for pet food products, otherwise it would be better. The only requirement is they have to contain a minimum of 4% meat products. There is no stipulation about what sort of meat it must be or where from. So when a product says '4% animal derivatives', that can mean it's all the stuff discarded by other parts of the meat industry, broken down, packed with fillers like cereals, and reconstituted into something that looks like, but is barely, meat. Cats are carnivores, so the higher the meat content in their food, the healthier it is for them. Purina One is one of those that processes every part of the food, chucks a load of stuff in that isn't any good for the cats, and then adds things like 'hydrolised proteins' that would have been in the original meat before they processed it out. The fact that it's all been broken down means it can be easier to digest so it's a short-term solution for cats with sensitive stomachs, but because it's so low in nutrition it's not the best long-term option, especially when there are foods like Canagan, which have a minimum of 60% real meat and no grains or cereals.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by Janey »

LittlePenBigHeart wrote:
Janey wrote:
LittlePenBigHeart wrote:
Oh believe me, I've done the slowly introducing foods thing til I'm blue in the face. They were on Purina One for ages because of their tummies being dodgy but it's filled with absolute rubbish so I worked on getting them onto the More biscuits but ended up doing it literally 2 kibble pieces at a time, for a few days at a time before introducing 2 more pieces. It took me a good 6 weeks to switch them over completely. Then they were fine for 2 months and suddenly this all went off again! No idea why at all. The recipe definitely hasn’t changed and we didn't start giving them anything different. *scratches head in puzzlement*
When you say they “They were on Purina One for ages because of their tummies being dodgy but it’s filled with absolute rubbish`’ did it work though? - If so, why change it, why is it filled with rubbish? As I said, Purina One was what we were told to the feed ours by the rescue, because that was obviously what worked for them, we found by actually changing from the Purina diet they were back to runny tums so we kept them on it with other treats occasionally . I know of others who use this for their cats with similar problems and it works well too. It’s quite a few years since we lost those cats though so the ingredients may have changed I’ve not checked. (eta: I’ve just checked and the ingredients look ok to me, I presume ours were wheat intolerant and that’s why it worked as it’s wheat free.)

Regarding the raw diet, on the old Cat Chat forum someone tried that it worked wonders. I was going to mention it actually but many people won’t try it; I’ve never tried it on mine either. I hope it works.

It's a fair question. So basically, there are lots and lots of things that cats can react to in their food and one of those things can be the proteins, which will be very high in 'good' foods but lower in others. Purina One, like many of the other common brands in stores, is filled with over-processed ingredients and is very low in meat content. There is no legal standard for pet food products, otherwise it would be better. The only requirement is they have to contain a minimum of 4% meat products. There is no stipulation about what sort of meat it must be or where from. So when a product says '4% animal derivatives', that can mean it's all the stuff discarded by other parts of the meat industry, broken down, packed with fillers like cereals, and reconstituted into something that looks like, but is barely, meat. Cats are carnivores, so the higher the meat content in their food, the healthier it is for them. Purina One is one of those that processes every part of the food, chucks a load of stuff in that isn't any good for the cats, and then adds things like 'hydrolised proteins' that would have been in the original meat before they processed it out. The fact that it’s all been broken down means it can be easier to digest so it's a short-term solution for cats with sensitive stomachs, but because it's so low in nutrition it's not the best long-term option, especially when there are foods like Canagan, which have a minimum of 60% real meat and no grains or cereals.
Well, I’m no expert but no novice and having looked at the ingredients they look fine to me. I would class Purina as a middle road cat food and if it helped my cat that’s what I would definitely use it, as I did. I would say probably Go Cat is a cheaper, less nutritious one and although I give mine a mix of foods, we’ve had feral cats live into their 20s eating mainly Go Cat, because they prefer that. I also think of us humans, there are some healther foods, e.g. fruit but some of us can’t tolerate them. I for one get acid if I eat a lot of fruits so although I would love to eat e.g. more oranges I can’t, just as some people have to be careful with veg with wholegrains when they have IBS. Anyway I’m rambling on a bit now lol :lol: I really do hope you manage to find something to help your little puddies tums that you’re happy giving them.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by Crewella »

@LittlePenBigHeart Thanks for explaining. :)
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by lilynmitz »

When my two had the squits I tried them on fish and rice, and it came out the other end as fish and rice! :roll: Chicken made no difference either. I think their guts were in such bad shape even the bland food didn't stay in long enough to get properly digested. It was only the venison that worked, which is a bit counter-intuitive as it's such a rich meat. I didn't give them ANY manufactured cat foods until their tummies were sorted.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

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lilynmitz wrote:When my two had the squits I tried them on fish and rice, and it came out the other end as fish and rice! :roll: Chicken made no difference either. I think their guts were in such bad shape even the bland food didn't stay in long enough to get properly digested. It was only the venison that worked, which is a bit counter-intuitive as it's such a rich meat. I didn't give them ANY manufactured cat foods until their tummies were sorted.
Well, we've been following your example (not with venison sadly. I'm a vegetarian and cannot stand the smell of butchers and my husband is so far refusing to purchase venison), and the last few days we've been feeding them beef and mashed potato, lamb and mashed potato and fish and mashed potato. He flatly refused to eat the beef. He ate a little of the lamb, then refused to eat it. He ate half of the fish. Today, I tried him on pork and mashed potato and he wolfed it down. I *think* it's the mashed potato he doesn't like, and while I give him meat with mashed potato, husband has been giving him mashed potato with meat, so maybe that's the way forwards. Don't think there's been any change to his bowels yet...but maybe the pork will have done the trick! He's only going once a day, which I take to be a sign of something better going on. It's just that it's still mostly liquid. Sigh!!

If this doesn't work I really will have to suck it up and go to the butchers myself. Yuck.
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by lilynmitz »

They're not keen on the spuds, so really only add a tiny bit. I've never forgotten Mo's face one time when he was so excited about getting his bowl of venison, then when he saw me adding potato, he gave me a look of utter horror, as if to say "are you MAD woman? What have you just done?!" He refused to eat it of course until I gave him another bowl, without spuds!
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by LittlePenBigHeart »

lilynmitz wrote:They're not keen on the spuds, so really only add a tiny bit. I've never forgotten Mo's face one time when he was so excited about getting his bowl of venison, then when he saw me adding potato, he gave me a look of utter horror, as if to say "are you MAD woman? What have you just done?!" He refused to eat it of course until I gave him another bowl, without spuds!
Hahaha!!! This is what I love and hate about cats - they are very sure of what they do or do not like!

We're having a successful time with it now, after a somewhat rocky start. Since I persuaded husband to increase the meat to potato ratio, it's been going a lot better. Today I made them all beef mince with sweet potato. Pepsi fell on it as though she hadn't eaten for a week. Gizzy wouldn't do more than sniff it and give me pleading looks for something else. Dylan sniffed his bowl, looked disgusted, decided to investigate Gizzy's abandoned bowl of food, licked it and obviously liked it because he went back to his bowl and ate the lot! :lol: Gizzy wouldn't eat hers for ages. I put it on a bookshelf only she can jump to and over the course of the afternoon she went back a couple of times and ate it. So happy cats all round, in the end! Dylan didn't do a poo at all yesterday, and I don't think he's done one today so far either, unless he did one out in the garden. Will keep him in tomorrow and see how he gets on.

Did the shopping this morning. Bought the cats beef skirt steak and lamb chops and husband is now rather aggrieved that the cats eat better than he does!
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Re: Kitty Diarrhoea - Worried

Post by lilynmitz »

That sounds really promising. Hope the "end result" is worth the effort! :lol:
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