Cat diarrhoea

[Jennyfi]

Has anyone had any luck settling a cat's diarrhoea down? Our cat has a huge appetite (I posted a few days ago that he'll quite happily eat 5 pouches a day!), but also seems to have chronic diarrhoea. It'll settle for about two days, then start up again. It really doesn't seem to be related to the food - we've tried Royal Canin Digest Sensitive, Hills Science and Whiskas, and nothing seems to make him particularly much worse or better.

The breeder used to feed him on Whiskas, and said he was absolutely fine on it. He's also been to the vet twice and they can't find any underlying cause.

I'm going to move him to a grain-free food just in case, but because of what the breeder said about him being fine on Whiskas, I'm not too hopeful. I'm really hoping it's just about finding the right food, and not that he might be poorly all his life.

Has anyone else had anything similar? What did you do?

My vet prescribed pro kolin paste when mine had diarrhoea. It's a pro biotic to help settle the stomach. Think you can buy it online too. I'd try grain free as I don't think any of what you have given him so far is grain free

Will he not eat any dry food? Mine like Encore which is high meat and grain free. I get it from asda

He actually seems worse on dry food! He also hates drinking, so I'd like to keep him on wet if we can.

We've been giving him the pro kolin paste twice a day, which I think is helping a little, but it's so hard to tell. I really, really want it "just" to be a problem with grain - and you're right, none of those foods are grain-free. I've just been out to buy James Wellbeloved, which is definitely grain-free, and I'm going to try him on that tonight.

I'm almost doubting that it'll make a difference though, because the breeder said he was fine on Whiskas. Could that be true, if he's so poorly now? I just want him to feel better

Is he ok at trying new food? Mine are fussy buggers and turn their noses up at pate style or something that smells different. You know it's a bad choice when they sniff it and walk away!

That's the only saving grace - he loves all the food we've tried. The vet had him on metronidazole to see if that settled his tummy, and we put the tablet into his bowl with the tiniest lick of jelly from his food. He sniffed it, looked up at us as if to say "this isn't actually very nice"... and then wolfed it down. I don't know how we'd cope with fussy buggers like yours!

I'd really like to just give his tummy a break. But we tried him on plain chicken and he got worse than we've ever seen him before, even vomiting. I don't suppose he could be intolerant to chicken??

Hmmm. Our old cat had IBD which meant we had to feed her alternative proteins so chicken could cause a problem. It could have been grains who knows? Current cat has grain free.
The CP centre I volunteer at give Purina EN food to cats wirh diarrhoea and then wean them back to regular food. That often works. Any food changes have to be done gradually.
Steroids can be used to reduce any inflammation but obviously that isn't a first course of action.

It's hard to tell how much is coincidence, because we've been changing his food and trying to find one that settles him. It all seemed to start after he was neutered, but since that was so soon after he came to us, I don't even know if it's relevant.

I'm going to try him - slowly! - on a non-chicken protein like the James Wellbeloved duck. If it is the food affecting him, does anyone know how soon we ought to see an improvement?

I’d try to avoid any food containing chicken for a while to see if he is sensitive to that.

My cat recently had diarrhea that sounded like she was peeing (i.e. plain liquid). However, that was limited to a new brand though I tried two different varieties that both led to diarrhea.

I am in Germany so we have some different brands. My cat is fine with Leonardo, MAC and Granatapet which can be bought via Zooplus www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches

Are you changing up his food a lot? Cats need to be introduced really slowly to any new food as giving them a brand new type can cause pretty upset stomachs.

I had to take my long haired Persian to the vets for an emergency haircut last week after a dose of the squits. Fortunately it had mainly cleared up by then. But it was being smeared all round the house!

We've just given him a wet wipe and a trim, so I feel your pain!

We've been sticking to the Royal Canin and the Whiskas so far, but tonight he had a pouch of James Wellbeloved turkey. I figure if we take a week to switch him onto the JW that should be gradual enough?

A pouch at a time might be a bit much for a dodgy tummy. Maybe should have done a small amount of the new one in with the old and work up to a full pouch at a time

Exactly what dementedpixie said. The cat cat have a full dish of the new food. Slowly mix in more of the new food in to the old one till its only getting the new stuff and its do it way longer than a week

Oh no I found a website that said you should start with 25% new food and introduce over a week, but it sounds like that's way too fast from what you lovely people are saying.
I'll go back to the old food today, and add in a couple of spoonfuls of the new JW food to his breakfast, then try another spoonful added in tomorrow.

We just might have cracked it... he had completely normal stool this morning. We've only been giving him a tiny portion of the new food after that first day, so although we're weaning him off the grain food, he is still getting mainly that.

The thing we did do differently was to feed him less (3 pouches) and to give it in half-pouches at a time. He always gobbles his food very fast, and up till now we've been giving him a pouch at one sitting. Could that have just been too much food / grain all at once?

For reference, he's an 8-month old Maine Coon and really wants to eat at least 5 pouches a day. He's not fat at all but is probably about 4.5 kg.