Cat walking diarrhea through the house

[bravotango]

Hi everyone, desperately looking for advice! My 16 year old cat who is in otherwise good health has always had a sensitive stomach and it took some time to find food that didn't give him diarrhea all the time - he now has Purina sensitive stomach biscuits and sheba food in gravy. He's also up to date with worming treatments. Recently we've had this problem where his loose stools end up getting on his feet and he is walking it through the house. When we're around and we see if it's going to happen we're able to intervene and wipe his feet before he goes walking off, but I've just come in and there's poo on the floor,.sofa, window sills and I can't cope with this! I have a toddler who is crawling and it's just too much.

I suppose I'm looking for advice on different types.of litter or trays, any dietary changes we could try etc.

Thanks in advance

I would have a chat with the vet. At the very least you need to get to the bottom (no pun intended) of the loose poo but at that age it could be the start of dementia.

Meanwhile, confine to a room with a hard floor?

You are also right to be concerned for the risk. Toxoplasmosis is the biggest issue aside from smell and dirt on furniture.

This happened to my poor elderly cat. I stopped all wet food which was really hard as he loved his food. Helped a bit but ultimately his liver was failing so it only helped for a short while. Sorry 😞

I would gp to the vet, cats hate being dirty and it's a health hazard. Ask if they want a poo sample, there maybe something they can give that firms it up a bit but how far do you want to go with investigations and treatment at his age. I would stop the sheba. I would confine him I another room if you can. Have you got something like a travel pop up playpen and put pads down.

Thank you all so much for responding so quickly, I've been really upset about this today. I'll stop the Sheba and book an appointment with the vet. Unfortunately downstairs is all open plan so there's no way to stop him from tracking it around if it happens. I'm hoping the vet can prescribe something to help it firm up a bit because aside from this he's a gentle content little cat, especially now the sun's out.

I’ve had this problem with my cat. The vet gave tablets for a quick fix and I had to collect a sample to diagnose the bug she had picked up and then she had another course of tablets to deal with that. I found that reducing the level of litter in her tray helped as it seemed to stop her stepping in what she had produced, so might be worth giving that a go too

It's worth trying a prebiotic paste. We buy ours from Amazon (Prokolin) there are other brands too. It firms up their stools. Ours is 15 x

My 21 year oldd cat had this problem for the last 5 years of her life otherwise fit and well. Tried everything including steroids and medication. I loved her so I bought a spot cleaner and kept her in the kitchen diner with access to outside. Made sure she had a lovely bed and lots of toys.