Poo samples clear: 6 months kitten still has persistent diorheah

[Puddywoodycat]

So...what on earth do we do now.

She seemed to come to us fine at about 3 months old...brown poo , reasonably frim.

Then we changed her food and went down hill, swooped around probably too much.

Then vet's sent off several poo samples covering all sorts of things.
All clear.
The moment she has antibiotics she clears up.
Probiotics don't seem to help her.

She's been on gastro sensitive royal canine for about two weeks now.

Nothing else so I would have hoped if it was her diet, thing's would have stabilised by now?

What's next?

She's currently on a very low dose of antibiotics short term.

She's a ragdoll cross.

Cushion not yet no.

I would try her with wet food 4 small meals a day. Good quality wet food not the cheap supermarket stuff.

Watching this as our little rescue cat also had huge poo explosions and the smell was unreal.

I was feeding him Iams kitten.

I then tried plain chicken and rice and it stopped but he started bringing up the rice.

So we went to alternate meals of chicken only with, I think it's Royal Canin kitten food.

Took him on holiday to my parents and only had Iams there and more smell and explosions. I've always fed previous cats Iams but it seems this little one can't handle it.

But he's as bright as a button with it. Not lethargic or stroppy.

So watching with interest

@Puddywoodycat , sorry I just saw that you'd asked if the Hills Prescription food was for kittens. It doesn't say it is, but Chewie is 7months old (so very much a kitten, even though he is over 5.5kg in weight!!) and the vet said to use this for him. I was a bit concerned about the fact it isn't grain free/contains cereals, but if it helps him, then I'll go with that. He's only ever been fed (very expensive) grain free, high protein/meat content dry and wet food ---> and is extremely pissed off that he's not getting his usual amounts!

@Definitelycross .
Interesting because it was the iams we had kittens on...

Before that breeders had her on royal canin.

Maybe it was the iams

@TicTac80

Thank you, sorry for so many questions,I'm pretty desperate and there is kitten and non kitten food then dry or wet etc!!

Ask away!! It's natural to be worried about our cats!! Actually thinking about it, when Chewie had the first bout of diarrhoea (when we first got him, and at that point, I hadn't changed his diet at all - I'd bought in exactly what the breeder had given him), the vet put him on probiotics and got me to give him the Applaws chicken in broth (it had some rice in it). That also wasn't a food that was for kittens, but the vet said it was just the thing he needed to settle his tummy. Vet put it down to him being in a new place/new environment.

Have you considered feeding only a high quality pure meat wet food like KatKin or Untamed?

Personally I am really suspicious of the vetinary diets - they are hugely commercial and very heavily processed. I think there is a lot of marketing and very little scientific evidence to support them.

The good quality veterinary diets hills, Royal canin and Purina have huge amounts of long term high quality research behind. Long term ( years) diet trials ensuring they are nutritionally complete and do what they are designed to do.
There are many many articles published in the journal of American veterinary medicine, the vet record, the journal of feline medicine.
this is from the journal of American veterinary medicine.
this from the journal of feline medicine.
I could spend all day linking good quality research. As vets we recommend these diets as there is good quality evidence behind there use and we practice evidence based medicine. We get no 'kick backs' for selling the diets, the clinic makes a small amount of profit in the exact same way as any pet store does.

Lonecat, apologies, I wasn't implying that individual vets are pushing these diets for financial motives. But there is no avoiding the fact that they are huge commercial organisations with the money to back their own research and highly sophisticated marketing.

There is mounting evidence about the disastrous impact that ulta processed food is having on human health and I can't help but draw a comparison with veterinary diets.

It's total anectada I know, but our kitten came to us on Hills. He had what I thought was 'normall' cat poo - never loose, but slightly soft, and very smelly. He has longish fur and he would often have a messy rear end after using his tray.

Since switching to a low processed, pure meat based food his poo has halved in volume, is totally solid, and complety odourless. I think it speaks for itself.

I hear what you’re saying @dontknowwhatisbest , but in my kitten’s situation, he was already on a raw diet (Nutriment), and high quality, grain free dry food. Yet he got diarrhoea. I then switched to a non-raw but single protein, high meat content wet food (i only give him chicken and occasionally fish), yet diarrhoea has come back. I think it’s such an individual thing with cats.

high quality, grain free dry food

That still sounds very heavily processed, though, even if the constituent ingredients appear to be 'natural'?

Don't get me wrong I am not an expert! And obviously all cats (and people) are different. I've just become increasingly cynical of the efforts Big Food and Big Pharma have gone to to convince us that heavily processed products are good for us.

There is no one food that suits every cat though. I have a cat who only has formed faeces in Purina HA all other food gives her diarrhoea, but my other two cats eat a variety of foods and have normal faeces.
I don't think you can demonise a whole group of foods that have good ratifies behind them.

@dontknowwhatisbest

To be honest I've not really had any diet advice at all from vet. It's been such a slow process trying to wait for poo samples for all these various things etc.
I've also been extremely wary of changing the diet and I wanted to stay on one product.

Now we know it's probably diet then I am feeling braver to try other stuff however, it's hugely expenses!