Hi all,

I was given a 13 year old female cat just before christmas by a relative who had kept her in a shed outdoors for the past year (I know the shed was bad but I couldn't do anything sooner).

When I got her I noticed that she had diarrhoea. I assumed it was the change of food.

After a couple of months she still had mild diarrhoea but was yowling in pain everytime she licked her bottom. I booked her in to the vets as soon as I knew it was causing her pain.

The vet said she had no idea what it was causing the problem and suggested a bloodtest as it could be something related to her age.

Blood test came back completely normal. Vet did give us some Protexin Pro Kolin to help with the diarrheoa.

Well she seemed to get a little more solid all the time we gave her the Pro Kolin, but we finished the tube and she still has diarrhoea.

It doesn't seem to be causing her pain but I feel so bad for her.

Apart from that she is a great friendly little cat.

Do you think it's worth taking her back to the vets?

Thanks, Tamsin

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* Hamilton (CKCS) * Poppy (Pomeranian) * James, Jessica and Tye (Cats) * Nuka, Mojo, Apollo and Starbuck (Degu's) * and some fish *

To my beloved Charlie, So cruely taken from me. I will love you always, sleep in peace.

i wud deff take her back.

even if its not painful it must be annoyin her, make sure they explore everythin. it may jst be somethin little but its better to get it checked out.

good luck

Might be worth having her feces tested. Blood tests dont always show up everything.

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November 2nd

Agreed,, pop her back to the vets, perhaps a 2nd opinion? What are you feeding her and what have you tried?

Although she may seem ok in herself, having diarrhoea will make her dehydrated so with this heat ensure she has plenty of cold water (my boy has a water fountain at the moment to encourage drinking in this weather) and a cool fan to pass out infront of if she wishes.

Ollie also likes ice cubes (filtered water) in a bowl so he can lick them .... and then knock them out and play with them and cause a lot of mess ..... but thats another story

When I see an older cat with diarrhea I usually think of either inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or intestinal lymphoma. IBD is the better of the 2 to have because lymphoma is a cancer.

Unfortunately it's hard to test for these because we would need a biopsy.

However, I will often put a cat on a low dose of steroids (which is perfectly safe) and see how things go. In either case we usually see improvement. But, if it is lymphoma the improvement is temporary.

If it's IBD the cat may need to stay on steroids for life. If it is lymphoma there are chemotherapy protocols that can help somewhat.

Dr. Marie.
I check this forum from time to time but if you would like to talk with me now, you can reach me at www.askavetquestion.com.

Hi,

I feed all my cats on dry biscuits. A 50:50 mix of Go Cat Complete Senior and Pets @ Home Purely Senior.

Yes she does seem to drink a lot of water - but I always make sure she has plenty of fresh water. She can also go out whenever she wants.

I will phone the vets again monday and try to get a different vet to see her.

Thanks for your help, I just want to find out whats wrong with her.

I'll keep you updated.

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* Hamilton (CKCS) * Poppy (Pomeranian) * James, Jessica and Tye (Cats) * Nuka, Mojo, Apollo and Starbuck (Degu's) * and some fish *

To my beloved Charlie, So cruely taken from me. I will love you always, sleep in peace.

She may not like the food - try her on a good quality wet that has much less grain in it (which the dry has), cats guts find it very difficultto digest grains and this could be her problem. P@H do a wet Purely.

Great name Tamsin ! lol
Tamsin aka spid!

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http://finesthourbirmans.webs.com

Hi

Would totally agree with Spid, its probably to do with the food. Hate to say it, but Go Cat has the nickname 'Gone Cat' among most cat experts. It is totally bulked out with grains and cats dont have a digestive system that can cope with grains as they are obligate carnivores (means they need to eat meat).

Have a look at this link, its by vet Lisa A. Pierson, DVM and it may explain things a bit better. http://www.catinfo.org/

I have just changed Misty over to HiLife. She too had terrible tummy. I was advised to feed her a dry diet only which did fix her tummy but she was almost starving after having her kittens.

I tried lots of different brands and observed (from a distance) and her tummy troubles seem to be over and she is now looking great once more. Better than she did when she was only on dried food to be honest.

I have just phoned the vets and explained about the continued diarrhoea.

They said that there isn't much point in seeing her again but I could have some more pro kolin... I also asked whether changing her food could help - they said it was worth a try but had to be done very gradually otherwise it could give her an upset stomach...( strange that as she already has diarrhoea! )

I might change my vets, but now i'm not sure what to do for the best.

Do I go with the gradual change to meat? Or get her checked again by a different vet?

I don't want to wait if it's something serious.

__________________

* Hamilton (CKCS) * Poppy (Pomeranian) * James, Jessica and Tye (Cats) * Nuka, Mojo, Apollo and Starbuck (Degu's) * and some fish *

To my beloved Charlie, So cruely taken from me. I will love you always, sleep in peace.