Blood in Poo

[InappropriateGavels]

Afternoon,

So...I have a four year old boy cat who I rescued from Battersea last summer. Shortly after we started letting him outside he began to have blood in his poo. He's been to the vets now four or five times about it. He's had steriods which helped, but they can't keep giving them to him. he had a gastro recovery diet which also helped, but again it's a short term solution. They've never found a mass in his stomach/bowels, no infections, no worms and nothing to concern them.

His behaviour has never changed - he is always still playful, fun, affectionate, sleeps the same amount I would expect him to. He eats as normal (well, he eats his dry food and does that annoying cat thing where a lot of time he only licks the jelly off the wet food), and seems like a very happy cat.

When we got him we had him on Whiskas, then found out that was like McDonald's for cats, so as the vet believes he probably has colitis we've got him on Purina Bifensis Sensitive dry food (which he loves), and Royal Canin Digest Sensitive wet food. Since putting him on this combination his fur has become so shiny and soft, he looks absolutely beautiful, and when he does poop indoors it really doesn't smell anywhere near as bad as it used to. Because he's allowed out a lot now, we might only see him use the litter tray once every three days on average, so the blood in his poo issue was beginning to slip my mind until today - it's still going on.

I would have thought that the sensitive food solutions would have helped with this. I'm aware he goes to other neighbours and eats their food. He may even be eating the odd mouse and these two things I can't really stop. The vet has found nothing of concern, so I'm now at a loss. Has anyone had a cat who has had this long term and been fine? Are there cats out there who are just like this?

As a human being I am just like this and I'm fine...but I'm not sure if it's the same with animals as this is the first cat I've ever had.

Any help, much appreciated!

[Want2beme]

One of my cats sometimes had blood in his poo, which occurred after constipation. He was also a longhaired cat, which I believe can cause blood. Does he drink enough water? I understand this can help as well as changing food, which you've done. Is he itchy in that area? It must be really frustrating for you.

[Doobigetta]

Mine (also longhaired) has had this a lot, and we took her to the vet 4 or 5 times. They couldn't find any sign of infection or parasites, and she never had any other symptoms or seemed anything other than bouncy and healthy. The next stage with the vet was going to be a full set of blood tests under anaesthetic to check for allergies. Before going down that road we decided to try her on a diet of plain fresh chicken, along with a multivitamin paste to make sure she got some taurine etc. We did that for a few weeks and then gradually introduced Symple dry food. And it has done the trick. The mild diarrhoea has gone and she no longer has blood in her poo. Worth a try?

[InappropriateGavels]

Thanks for the replies

Mine's a domestic shorthair. I see him drinking water fairly regularly, and he gets up deliberately from a sleep just to have a drink. For a very short while he was on a dry food only diet and he had trouble having a wee, so I cut that short. He was going to the litter tray and sitting in it for ages with nothing happening, getting out again, then returning a few minutes later - eventually he wee'd in the corner and looked mortified.

Doobigetta - I'd been contemplating recently the idea of chicken for a while to see if it cleared up or just got a bit better. I think we're at that stage now. He doesn't seem distressed at all, but it's bothering me, so in some ways it can't be nice for him. Plus, it's cost me over £300 so far, which I'm just claiming back through insurance, and I'd rather not have to!

[Doobigetta]

We've found that the chicken is actually slightly cheaper than buying expensive special diet food from the vet that got abandoned half way through because it hadn't helped. We buy packs of boneless thighs and just stick them in a covered dish in the oven for half an hour. If you let them cool in the dish after cooking the fat turns to jelly and keeps them nice and juicy. You do need a supplement as well though, for the taurine- we get Smilla paste.

[InappropriateGavels]

Do you put the paste over the food or find your cat will just take the paste?

My Hairy little friend likes the lick-e-lix so he's not unacquainted with stuff like that, but I've found the Smilla multi-vitamin paste listed on a website I use regularly and it doesn't say what flavour it is.