Hey Kirsty, the blood and mucus indicate that your little man is suffering from colitis, which is often brought on by food allergies. Considering that he didn't seem to be getting better on just boiled chicken, I would suggest that you take him to the vets for a stool test as suggested by Aurelia (to rule out any possible parasites and bacteria) and ask them about a proper elimination diet or what they would consider the way forward (without resorting to the hypoallergenic Hills foods because that doesn't actually tell you what your little mite might be allergic to, if anything else at all).

For the time being I would desist from feeding him anything chicken based (it could be that the NI minces were ok for the time being because they contain something like 40% beef hearts - or at least they used to). Until you get to the vet to speak to them about his diet, you ideally would need to feed a food he isn't likely to have encountered before. I cannot remember what he has been fed before the NI minces, but has he ever had lamb? Venison? If not, then I would just pop to the shops, get some of that meat, lightly sear it and feed that instead of the cooked chicken for now.

Before the NI minces he was on Purina Pro Plan Kitten Sensitive Dry and Felix Wet (as that was what the breeder had him on). I gave him a couple of other wet foods as well (the old Purely by P@H), but no lamb (unless it was hidden in the wet somewhere but I doubt that...will check) nor venison.

I've booked a vet appointment for this eve and will take some poop along with me as well - obviously will have to get results back so in the meantime, shall feed him on lightly seared lamb (I guess I should stick to just one meat?). I'm assuming giving him cat milk would be a stupid thing to do - the only reason I ask is that he is SO hungry bless him and it breaks my heart and if I can give him something to fill him up, I will!

From all the copious reading I have done over the last couple of days, colitis does seem like a possibility. Which is freaky as I have Crohn's - I guess they do say pets can be like their owners...I hope it's not though, wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, let alone my little man!

Thanks for all your help so far guys

Shall keep you posted and probably will have a gazillion more questions

Kirsty x

Kirsty, if your vet agrees that an elimination diet is needed then when you get home go online on to zooplus and order some tinned horse meat. You will find it over in the dog section and a company called herrmanns is making it. You only need to add taurine, though it isn't a complete food it will be good to feed for a few weeks for his stomach to calm down.

And no, I wouldn't feed any milk or cat milk for the minute.

What also helped our cat when he had colitis was slippery elm powder which helps protect the stomach lining and calms the gut.

Thanks Hobbs.

I'll see what the vet says tonight. As I will have to wait a few days for the tes t results to come back before we know if there are bacteria or not, what do you suggest feeding him in the interim before a) the results come back, and b) the (potential) delivery from Zooplus arrives?

Sorry to ask so many questions - we've never really had issues like this with my parents cats and OH has never owned a cat before so I feel a bit alone with it all really!

Kirsty x

I´m sorry this is happening to your little guy, please keep us informed. I also have BSH and sometime he has runny stools with food change but the vet says to give him i/d

Hello everyone.

Just a bit of an update on the loftus front.

Took him to the vet, who didn't want to test for giardia again, as he quite recently had a negative test (I know it could have been a false negative) but she thinks it could be IBD that's been caused by the giardia damaging and inflaming his bowel lining. She's going to put him on metrodizonole (sp?) which would hopefully kill any giardia that's there, and also help calm his tummy down. She did say they could do biopsies etc to confirm the IBD but I don't want him to go through all of that if not necessary.

We're going to do an elimination diet to work out what upsets him. To start with she gave me some Hills (yes, I know) dd venison - I've checked the ingredients and there is no chicken or grain in it and he's never had venison before so am hoping he'll be ok with it. He ate the pate no problems (although the poor thing is so hungry he'll eat anything!) and that was 2.5 hours ago. We've had no sickness nor poo yet. I'll keep him on that for a month (as long
as there is no reaction obviously) and then will try and introduce one thing back in at a time and see what happens.

I didn't really want to fall into the Hills thing but to be honest, it's the most convenient way to go for me - I can't afford to get myself any more stressed out and upset about it or else I'LL get ill and that won't help anyone! If it doesn't work, I'll get the horse meat in from zooplus

Thanks to everyone for your help so far and I'm sure there will be another chapter in the Loftus-IBD saga.

Kirsty x

We had a reasonable poop this morning - not totally firm but not watery either. And it was a good colour, although smelt a bit.

HOWEVER - it was behind the TV, as opposed to his litter box. I noticed him scratching around, and then just as I was about to pick him up, to put him in his box (he goes behind the TV sometimes when it's not totally firm), he let loose. I wasn't impressed at 730 in the morning!

Although who can't be impressed, with this little face....

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Ok, well I guess that is good news in a way. Keep us posted.

I personally just wish that vets would clue themselves up a little more about the foods that are available for a proper elimination diet now without resorting to Hills D/D food, which in all fairness isn't a true elimination diet food because it still contains a whack of ingredients.