Hello everyone, I'm new to Petforums but I'm in need of some help please. My beloved 13 year old cat has had bowel issues all her life, she has been informally diagnosed with IBD and is currently having a really bad spell. She's lost a lot of weight and is down to 2.8kg and looking very frail so we really need to turn things around and quickly. She is on hills prescription dry cat food which is hypoallergenic and she is also being fed fillet steak from our local butchers (yes its expensive but we love her so much). She is having constant diarrhoea and has started being sick in the mornings. She's had a worming tablet and is on steroids but nothing seems to be working. Last time this happened she had vitamin B injections but our vets have said that the 'cat vitamin B injections' aren't being made anymore so she has been having human vitamin B injections and aren't working.
Please could you give me some advice, willing to try anything.

Hi @Catlover21 sorry to hear how ill your dear cat is, sounds similar to my dear Tessy-Two-Shoes. Your vet could order you in the Cobalaplex B12 capsules to sprinkle on food. Your cat may well have food intolerances. Has your cat been checked for pancreatitis? Or Hyperthyroidism? Or for bacterial infections such as Clostridium Perfrindgens? You really need to keep a food diary to watch out for reactions to foods, such as vomiting and diarrhoea. Your cat is likely to need at least one meal in the night also. My cat does well on roast turkey, turkey mince gently fried in goose fat and also baked mackerel. Some foods from Germany are good too. She use to do well on cooked chicken and cooked white fish. Cats are different and can suddenly start reacting to foods they have been eating fine for years. If your cat has pancreatitis, it will need pancreatic enzymes, but all this needs to be discussed and approved by your vet. Good luck and please let us know how your cat gets on. Presumably it's drinking a lot too? Leave out lots of water of course.

 

Hello, I'm new to pet forums but could definitely use some advice.
I have a 3.5 year old Siberian cat. He had a little diarrhea as a kitten but it went away and he hasn't had any other problems in his life. Suddenly about two months ago he had acute onset diarrhea, and was pooping mucousy poo every 5-7 hours. After the second day he vomited so we took him to vet. He received anti-nausea medication, probiotics, and Hill's i/d digestive food. Diarrhea and vomiting stopped. He had stool samples which came back all negative.

After this visit we kept him on the digestive food and the probiotic. However, he would have intermittent diarrhea - he would be fine for a week (would almost swing to constipated) and then have 24-36 hours of a diarrhea episode with mucousy poop. The vomiting never returned - all the while he was eating and acting normally.
Finally after a month the vet recommended that we put him on Metronidazole and change him to a hypoallergenic food. I am not sure whether it was the food or the antibiotics, but his diarrhea cleared up. Since then he's had an occasional half-diarrhea poop every 10 days or so but he's pooping regularly (every 24-36 hours). I suspect the food had a big impact because I noticed the Hill's i/d wet and dry food had grains and gluten which he might have been sensitive to.
We went back for a checkup and he hasn't lost any weight. The vet also did a blood test which came back normal, except that his folate was high and his B12 was really high, to the point where she asked if we had been giving him supplements (we hadn't). He also has been having a hairball issue, where he vomits a hairball every 1-2 weeks or so. Some of them have been huge.

Anyway I opened a new bag of the Purina HA food two days ago and he ate it for a day, but all of the sudden today and yesterday he's had no interest in it. He keeps walking over to his bowl and sniffing it, clearly hungry, but doesn't eat the food. Meanwhile he will gobble up treats and I gave him a few kibbles of the dry i/d food which he also happily ate but I don't want to give him too much because I think that food upset his tummy in the past. He also had another half diarrhea this morning.
He's always been a picky eater and I'm worried he's gone off the food now. I want to make a change but I am afraid his diarrhea will return. Has anyone had experience with this? Is there a way I can encourage him to keep eating the HA food?

 

Hello @casey25 and welcome

Can I ask - has the vet diagnosed your cat with IBD? The symptoms sound very similar. I have had 3 cats with IBD, one cat is one of my current cats. The vet diagnosed him with IBD based on a clinical assessment of symptoms, 8 years ago. His symptoms are well controlled by diet, and a small dose of Famotidine (antacid) daily. (5 mg).

My experience is that any kind of dry food made the symptoms (vomiting and/or diarrhoea) much worse for all my cats. Even a small amount as treats caused problems, so now I have no dry food in the house at all, so there is no smell of it to attract any of my cats.

For treats I buy the Thrive or Cosma freeze dried pure protein treats available from most pet stores or online from Zooplus UK.

Diet-wise, I put all my IBD cats on elimination diets and found there were certain foods that made their symptoms worse.

In the case of my current cat with IBD, he cannot tolerate beef, oily fish, lamb, pork or venison. His diet consists of single protein wet foods containing chicken or turkey. And he has poached white fish a couple of times a week, home cooked casseroled kangaroo once a week and occasionally home-cooked wild rabbit.

He loves raw meat but more than a teaspoonful causes him to vomit.

I tried him on the various specialist veterinary foods years ago, and none of them suited him, and did not control his symptoms.

There is a pinned thread on how to operate the elimination diet for diagnosing food sensitivities. You may find it of interest to read:

https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads/elimination-diets.509821/

I suggest the best thing right now for your cat is to put him on a bland diet to rest his bowel and stop the loose stools he has at present. This can either be home-cooked chicken legs or home-cooked poached white fish. I find the poached white fish works a treat for my boy with IBD when his stools are a bit loose. It is very soothing to his gut and he always has a lovely sleep after a bowl of white fish.

In my cat's case I just give him one meal of fish, but you may need to give your cat the white fish for a day to have best effect. Once his stools are formed you can give him cat food again, but I really would avoid all dry food. The fact he is refusing the Purina HA shows that he associates it with feeling unwell in his gut. It is even possible you have a bag of Purine HA that has gone off or is contaminated. (It can happen).

I hope he soon feels better. Please let us know how he gets on. Thanks

 

Thanks. The vet did mention IBD after a few weeks of unresolved diarrhea. However the last six weeks or so since moving to the Purina HA food he's only had a partial/somewhat loose diarrhoea every week and a half or so, it's much improved from the first month when he would have episodic diarrhoea lasting 24-36 hours. He does not have an issue with vomiting in general, but he does have an issue with hairballs. It sounds like it might be the more mild beginning of IBD compared to some of the other things I've read. Thankfully no excessive vomiting, weight loss, or scary diarrhoea.

I will try him on an elimination diet - I ordered some single protein chicken Kattovit wet food so will try him on that soon. For sure he is gluten sensitive, he has had poor reactions to any food with gluten. Just want my baby to feel comfortable and happy again

 

Hi all
I'm in a real muddle with my 6yr old boy and I'm really at my wits end - I have a few questions about "Silent IBD", medications and Diets. Hopefully I've chosen the right thread, this is mainly about IBD, but crosses over with elimination diets.
Sydney has been diagnosed with Cholangiohepatitis, secondary to a new diagnosis of IBD. Sydney was a rescue at 7 weeks old (deceased mother), he had lots of weaning issues and was very late developing social skills. He has a lifelong neophobic issues with food, as well as anxiety and aggression, but with me is often very loving. He has history of "general iffy health" - diarrhoea up until he was 3 yrs old (clostridium perfringens), a midly greasy coat, a runny eye and can be lax in grooming. Significantly very summer through until about November he has significant issues with hairball vomits (weekly), but he is free of diarrhoea for the last 3 years. However over the last year he's started spraying indoors and has become increasingly antisocial.

9 weeks ago he became very unwell - stopped eating, listless - but no vomits (this year) and no obvious diarrhoea either. He's had appetite stimulants, Destolit, and 3 fortnightly steroid injections - since having these he has been a different cat - almost relaxed, no spraying and no aggression. He improved quite a bit, but is still only eating one pouch of wet food a day, sometimes less.
He's has ultrasounds (normal and a "small liver") but blood show liver functions are very out of range, cause thought to be lymphocytic not infectious. He had surgery 2 weeks ago - internally he look relatively normal, but they said the steroids may have masked any inflammation so there was no abnormality to biopsy of his bowel, however his gastric lymph nodes were enlarged. They took several lymph nodes biopsies and bile fluids etc, lymphoma is ruled out. The vets are a big group practice, they have discussed Sydney and his biopsy results at a multidisciplinary team meeting, and they have unanimously agreed he does have IBD.
I tried to switch his diet from the "cat version of McDonald's in Gravy", to a novel grain-free diet but with no luck. The vet advised to put him back on McDonald's as he was losing too much with (1.2kg), but now he's stronger I have to try again.
I've been advised he needs to start either a hydrolysed diet (Hill's ZD, or RC Hypoallergenic etc), or have a single novel protein diet for 6 to 8 wks. The vet has strongly advised against commercial single protein canned food due to the potential for factory contamination. As Sydney will not display symptoms if a contaminant disagrees with him, the vet think Hill's or RC are his best best option, and if he won't tolerate that then a home cooked "meat only" elimination diet.

I am willing to try this, but Sydney has a long history of food issues, so I know this is going to be very difficult.

So I feel like I am blindfolded down a dark alley, so I don't really know what all my questions are. But has anyone else had to deal with "silent IBD"? How will I know if an elimination question diet is working? And when reintroducing proteins how would this work if they do not trigger classic IBD symptoms??

Secondly, re the elimination diet, I'm trying the home cooked diet. He won't go for raw, and I think dry kibble if likely to fail. So is there any way I can make the dry meat more palatable without breaking the elimination rules?

Thirdly, because of his liver disease, he has just been started on Hepatosyl, but there is too much powder - I cannot work out how to get it down him? I can't put it in his food as its plain venison meat. I've tried liquidising a small amount of meat but he hates it and I don't want to turn him off the only meat he will eat, but Lick-e-Lix is banned as well.

What do you all think? Any suggestions? Medication suggestions? Anything really....

Many thanks in advance.

 

Hi @SydeniSass and welcome

I am sorry to hear about your poor boy's problems.

Do you have the capsules of Hepatosyl? I haven't seen the actual size of them but I assume they're too big for you to pill your boy straight down his throat? So you could open the capsule and split the powder between 2 smaller capsules and pill him directly with those? .

Empty gel capsules can be bought from ebay in tubs of 100 or more. Size 1 is the largest size and too big for a cat. I have used size 3 and size 4. Size 4 is very small and pretty easy to get down the cat's throat but is hard to fill; Size 3 is easier to fill but not so easy to get down the cat's throat.

I haven't heard of "Silent" IBD. I have had 3 cats with IBD, one of them is still with me. He is now aged 10, was diagnosed with IBD about 8 years ago and was diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus a year ago. All 3 cats had symptoms with their IBD - either vomiting; or vomiting + diarrhoea; or diarrhoea alone. Food intolerances were a major problem for all 3.

I found the hydrolised veterinary diet foods did not help my current IBD cat, and he continued to vomit regularly.

I put him on an elimination diet and ascertained that he was reacting badly to beef, lamb, pork, venison and oily fish. But he is OK with chicken, turkey, white fish and small amounts of home cooked rabbit and kangaroo. I give him no dry food at all. The only treats he has are the freeze dried pure protein treats.

Another thing I found is that he does better on a low fat diet. This apparently is quite often the case with IBD cats (according to my vet).

He has 5 mg Famotidine (antacid) a day and it has made a big difference to him. He was constantly hungry before that and I was struggling to get his Diabetes under control. Now he looks well, has bright eyes and a lovely shiny coat, and more energy.

I put the antacid in Easypill cat putty but you won't be able to use that while your boy is on the elimination diet.

After discussion with my vet it was decided I would feed my boy every 3 hours day and night. So he has 6 meals a day of 32 grams each and 2 meals at night of 30 grams each, making a total of 252 grams of food a day, which is the right amount of food for his size/build. All his meals are weighed (on digital scales) and logged.

Feeding him as frequently has made a big difference to improving management of his IBD. I wish I had thought of doing it years ago.

For the elimination diet for your boy I suggest using kangaroo meat as a novel protein. It seems to be the most well accepted by cats, amongst the "exotic" meats. It is less expensive than some of the other novel protein meats.

Kangaroo Is quite a tough meat and benefits from slow cooking. I just bought a slow cooker for the purpose. I have up til now been cooking it in the oven in a covered casserole dish with enough water added to cover the meat. Cook at gas mark 4 for 1 and a half hours, or gas mark 3 for 2 hours. Check every half hour and add more hot water from the kettle if need be, to stop the meat drying out. I serve chopped into quite small pieces and add a couple of dessertspoonfuls of the cooking stock to each meal.

I buy the raw kangaroo meat chunks from either Kiezebrink or Kezie.

https://www.kiezebrink.co.uk/product/640-paleo-ridge-kangaroo-chunks-500gm

https://www.keziefoods.co.uk/Catalo.../Lean-Meats/Exotic-Meats/Kangaroo-Meat/Kangaroo-Diced-Steak-250g-Pack-MKADIFP52

I really hope the diet will help him. Please ask if you have any questions I can help with.

 

Hi @chillminx, thank you so much for your response and the effort you have made. I am really sorry I have not responded before now, I ddidnt intend to appear ungrateful. Unfortunately I have a family bereavement, not somebody I was personally close to, but I have had to help my elderly parents with organising the funeral.
Sydney is doing a bit better healthwise and I think he is improving, although I won't know really until he has had his next bloods done. Fortunately he is eating an adequate amount of RC Hypoallergenic dry kibble, but I would rather not be giving him this at all. Ideally I'd like him to eat homemade cooked or raw meat. I've spent a small fortune over the last couple of months trying different meats and he just won't eat any of it. Nada, nothing, zero, nil, none. I've tried changing the textures - mincing, puree, flaked, chopped, with broth, without broth - nothing works regardless of which meat. The problem seems to be with it being actual "real meat", so whilst I could try goat, or kangeroo as you say, I really think I am wasting my time. All he wants is crap food in gravy, I'd try the Hills Zd wet, but it is so expensive to buy in such a large amount, and even if the gravy is good he won't eat it if the smell or texture is not right. I just can't afford to keep buying more wasted food.
In the meantime he is really miserable mood-wise, he is constantly searching the house for food - "smelling the air" and sniffing around the furniture. I feel so bad for him :Arghh.
The situation with the tablets has worsened, because I can't get the tablets down via any wet food, so I'm having to mix it into something wet (pureed meat, etc) and give it to him straight into his mouth. He hates it and we are now "at war" over this, and he is running away to hide from me whenever I enter the room. I've now stopped giving the hepatosyl altogether, I may ask the vet is there is a different formulation. But I will look at the empty capsules on ebay you suggest, possibly this will be a way forward - do you think I could coat them in butter to help him swallow then more easily?
Thank you again

 

One other quick question. He has eaten tuna before, but not salmon or white fish. Is all fish excluded from elimination diet because of tuna?

 

All fish is excluded from the elimination diet because no type of fish is a 'novel' protein. The inclusion of fish (including salmon and white fish) in dry foods and wet foods for cats is fairly ubiquitous. So it's likely your cat would have eaten various types of fish in his life.

Yes you can coat the gel capsules in butter but you may find they stick to your hand. I found it easier to slip them down the cat's throat and immediately offer some treats or a meal after. Some people put water in an oral syringe or a pipette and squirt a bit into the side of the cat's mouth after pilling them to make sure they swallow.

There are liquid formulations of milk thistle for treating the liver. They may not have the extra content that the Hepatosyl has. But would be better than him having no treatment for his liver at all.

If he will eat cat food have you tried him with any of the manufactured recipes of Kangaroo e.g. Catz Finefood PurrrKangaroo (from Zooplus UK)? or Mjamjam Kangaroo from Zoo-bio UK? They are both a pate texture.

 

I tried him with Feringa Pure Meat Menu and MAC'S Mono Sensitive but they were both rejected. I'll try the Catz Finefood though, frankly anything is worth a go. :Banghead
I'll ask the vets about the liquid milk thistle - thank you

 

So this morning Gracie vomited some undigested food from last night. She has just been diagnosed with IBD, and now she doesn't want to eat. She was eating so well these past few days but is now having a flare up of her symptoms.

I've boiled some chicken, she sat up, sniffed it and purred but was still not wanting to take a bite. So I syringed some of the broth into the side of her mouth, 2 syringes full.

I hope this will help her until her vet check up tomorrow. Is there anything more I can do to help her until then? I'm not sure how long a flare up like this usually lasts.

 

I was wondering if anyone else’s IBD cat has tummy ache with only very occasional diarrhea or vomiting as symptoms - and if so, what you’ve found best encourages them to eat. Dumble hasn’t eaten anything today

 

I was wondering if anyone else's IBD cat has tummy ache with only very occasional diarrhea or vomiting as symptoms - and if so, what you've found best encourages them to eat. Dumble hasn't eaten anything today

Can you try him with home-made chicken or turkey broth? Very nourishing and it will keep him hydrated.

 

Hi everyone. I have posted before about our little bear who was recently diagnosed with IBD. The vet recommended Purina hypoallergenic dry cat food and only this food. We weren't very keen on this since we don't like feeding her just dry food. However she did like it and her poo was better, no vomiting at all.

However, after buying her a HUGE bag of the food she suddenly went off it (as cats do) so we were back to square one. After reading through the threads we came across the 'one protein' advice and checked our local pet food shop. They had James Wellbeloved. She had this before and thrived on it but went off it after a teeth opp. We decided to try again and thank goodness she loves it again and so does her belly!! Proper solid poo and no vomiting at all. She has put weight on, she's got bundles of energy and best of all she is no longer lying on the floor in pain. She is back to sleeping in all her favourite spots around the house.

So happy. Fingers and paws crossed that she keeps eating JW! Thank you for all the very helpful threads and responses too x

 

Hi everyone!

Decided to post here in case anyone has been through anything similar.

Our Maine coon kitten Kobe has had diarrhea/soft stool for about 3 months now, so pretty much since we got him. Our other kitten Bamboo started having the same about 3 weeks ago, and since then they’ve both been going 2-3 times a day, each time either liquid, soft, or a mixture of both. Bamboo also vomits sometimes but I think that’s because of hair balls.

I sent 3-day stool samples off to a lab and the results have come back negative. I’m at my wits’ end and so are they! They sometimes step in their diarrhoea and drag it around the house, and I have to wipe/wash their butts at least once a day. It’s getting too much now, and I can’t imagine how they feel either

I do think it’s diet related as Bamboo has never ever had issues. Kobe started having issues a while after we got him, a while after I changed his food from what the breeder was giving him. I did a gradual transition over a few days. I was feeding them both wet food and Applaws, and if I remember correctly that’s when he started becoming extremely gassy and doing soft poos.

Can anyone advise? Have you been through anything similar with your cats, and if so, what do you recommend food or supplement-wise?

Thanks in advance!

 

@Catmum -

Did you also have a separate qPCR test done at the lab for Tritrichominas Foetus (TF) ? It is not included in the standard test but can be the cause of chronic diarrhoea in some cases.

The fact that both kittens have diarrhoea does suggest it could be something contagious which Kobe had passed to Bamboo.

Is Bamboo longhaired? It is not normal for cats to keep vomiting hairballs. Shorthaired cats with a healthy gut very rarely, if ever, have them. A long haired cat may have occasional hairballs simply because there is so much hair being swallowed. Daily grooming of longhaired cats is a way of helping them cope with all the extra hair they would swallow without some help.

What foods are you feeding them at present ? (if you can you give the makes and which recipes I can look up the ingredients)

However, the thing to do now is to take them off cat food for a few days and put them on a bland home cooked diet of chicken (legs, thighs or drumsticks)

Serve the meat and skin chopped without bones and add a couple of dessertspoons of the cooking stock for fluids.

No other food, no dry food, no treats, no cat milk, no table scraps. Just plain filtered (or cooled boiled) water to drink. The simple diet will slow down peristalsis and rest the bowel.

It is likely they will pass no stools for a few days. When they pass formed stools gradually transfer them back to wet cat food, taking a few days to complete the transfer.

No dry food

If the stools turn soft again on the wet food, immediately put them back on the plain chicken diet. Then you may need review what food to transfer them to after their stools are formed again as they cannot stay on the home cooked chicken for more than a few days without adding vitamins and minerals.

Worth considering (for transferring them to after the home cooked chicken) would be the simple chicken recipes such as Thrive Complete, Seriously Good Chicken (both from Pets at Home) or Sainsbury's Delicious Chicken. They are good for sensitive tummies and are all complete foods, so you can feed them permanently if necessary. Though the aim in time would be to able to introduce a couple more wet foods, different makes and different recipes.

I would keep them off dry food though, and also kitten milk.

Please let us know how things progress.

 

@chillminx

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a lengthy, informative response!

I didn't have that test done as it's pretty expensive and having read the symptoms I don't think it applies to them, or at least not Bamboo. It does seem to be related to the food. I've been changing their food a lot the past month or so, trying to find something that works for Kobe, and I guess it's affected Bamboo as well. I can't be sure, but it makes sense, I think.

Bamboo is long haired, yes. He's been throwing up maybe once a week, so it isn't very often but it's definitely new for him. I thought it may be due to him shedding a lot more now that it's autumn (if that's actually a thing!) I've been brushing him a lot more and giving him malt paste, which I think helps but I can't know for sure whether this is food related, hair related, or something else.

At the moment I'm feeding them Animoda Integra veterinary diet, dry (rabbit and potato), and concept for life veterinary diet, wet (turkey and pumpkin). I know pumpkin helps firm up the stool and turkey should be pretty easily digested, especially if they have some sort of intolerance, right?

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats...p/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/concept_for_life_vet_cat/gastrointestinal/742008
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/integra/596594

I've read dry food isn't great for cats, especially if they have soft stool, but at one point I thought all wet food was causing them issues and wanted to see if a sensitive dry food would help.

I started feeding them cooked chicken breast in broth today (are drumsticks better? They're picky when it comes to skin!) and will continue to do so until they pass hard stool. Once they do, how do I go about transitioning to wet food? Do I mix it with the chicken and slowly increase the amount of wet food over two or three days?

Again, thanks a lot!

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats...p/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/concept_for_life_vet_cat/gastrointestinal/742008

 

@Catmum - cats shed more hair in the Spring as that is the start of the annual moult. By around October they are usually growing their winter coats.

A longhaired cat vomiting a hairball once a week is rather a lot. One hairball every 3 months or so would be more usual (in a LH cat). Cat hair normally passes easily from the stomach through the pyloric sphincter into the digestive tract. If something is preventing this happening (e.g. inflammation of the stomach,) the hair will sit in the stomach, and will be joined by more fur as the cat grooms themselves. The hair in the stomach gets churned about and forms a matted lump which cannot possibly go down the digestive tract so it is thrown up as a hairball.

IMO dry food is not suitable for a cat who is prone to hairballs as Bamboo is. This is because a cat rarely drinks enough water to hydrate dry food and turn it into a "soupy" consistency which is able to leave the stomach through the pyloric sphincter. The dry food in the stomach gets mixed up with the swallowed hair in the stomach, which also needs plenty of fluids to enable it to leave the stomach. The resulting mix is going to reach the point where the body gives up trying to digest it and vomits it up.

Some malt pastes contain a petroleum by product called petrolatum, which is best used only occasionally because it can cause damage to the lining of the intestine. Check the ingredients of your paste to make sure it does not contain this.

The Concept for Life wet will be better for him than the dry food. If he has a food intolerance it depends which ingredients or meats he is intolerant of, as to whether a certain food suits him. He may be OK with turkey, he may not. Fingers crossed he is Ok with it.

Chicken legs, thighs or drumsticks are best as they contain more taurine than breast, and also they have more flavour. You can always remove the skin once the meat is cooked.

Once they've passed a formed stool (no need to wait for a 'hard' stool as such), you can start giving them a spoonful of their wet cat food on a separate dish alongside their chicken. Do not mix the two foods together. Next day increase to 2 spoonfuls of their wet cat food. At the same time reduce the amount of cooked chicken. If you take about 3 days over the transition they should be Ok. if the stools go soft again then, back on the chicken diet.

 

@chillminx they haven't passed any stool today, which honestly is amazing for me because I haven't had to clean up any diarrhea

I'm going to try transitioning to the turkey/pumpkin wet food and see how that affects them. The fact that they don't have any diarrhea now means that their issues are food-related, I'm assuming? If this doesn't work I'll try a different wet food. The ones you mentioned are a bit pricey

I used to feed them wet food and applaws dry kitten food when we first got Kobe and that's when his problems began. Applaws contains citrus extract and I found it it's not good for cats and could cause gastrointestinal upset - could this be the cause? Since then I've tried a few different dry and wet foods and I fear the constant change may have messed with Bamboo's stomach, too, causing him to not just have diarrhoea but vomit as well.

 

I really would skip the dry food for now and the future. All makes of dry have some ingredients that could potentially upset their bowels. It is not worth the risk,

Just to confirm, do not transfer each kitty back to wet food until they have passed a formed stool. This is important.

The shredded chicken recipes that are complete are quite expensive I agree. I was meaning it to be a temporary diet until they are feeling better, maybe a few weeks. There are cheaper shredded chicken recipes but they are not complete foods, so that is not good for kittens. B

If you want a cheaper food I suggest Felix AGAIL - it usually agrees with most kittens' bowels even if it is not the best of foods.

What make is the turkey and pumpkin wet food? Is it JWB?

We can't be 100% sure their diarrhoea is purely diet related, though it is a definite possibility. The stools often improve on the home cooked chicken diet even when there is a bowel infection or parasite. The true test is what happens once they are transferred back to a cat food diet.

The bowel will still be sensitive for some while, easily upset again unless you are very careful, hence I advise not feeding them any dry food.

 

I really would skip the dry food for now and the future. All makes of dry have some ingredients that could potentially upset their bowels. It is not worth the risk,

Just to confirm, do not transfer each kitty back to wet food until they have passed a formed stool. This is important.

The shredded chicken recipes that are complete are quite expensive I agree. I was meaning it to be a temporary diet until they are feeling better, maybe a few weeks. There are cheaper shredded chicken recipes but they are not complete foods, so that is not good for kittens. B

If you want a cheaper food I suggest Felix AGAIL - it usually agrees with most kittens' bowels even if it is not the best of foods.

What make is the turkey and pumpkin wet food? Is it JWB?

We can't be 100% sure their diarrhoea is purely diet related, though it is a definite possibility. The stools often improve on the home cooked chicken diet even when there is a bowel infection or parasite. The true test is what happens once they are transferred back to a cat food diet.

The bowel will still be sensitive for some while, easily upset again unless you are very careful, hence I advise not feeding them any dry food.

the turkey and pumpkin wet food is concept for life. I linked it earlier.

Thanks so much for the recommendations! I'll have a look and see what my options are.

I won't be transitioning to the turkey and pumpkin until they pass any stool. Really hoping it's food related and not something else!

 

@chillminx Also, not sure I want to feed them Felix as it seems to contain a lot of by-products and sugar, which I think they may be sensitive to. I've fed them Sheba and Gourmet before and it caused them to have really watery explosive diarrhoea. Poor guys!

 

Concept for Life is probably a slightly better quality food than Felix AGAIL. i'n sorry, I had momentarily forgotten you linked it earlier.

Yes, I would use the Concept 4Life to transfer them to after the home-cooked chicken. I'm assuming they had no diarrhoea when on Concept and the diarrhoea was caused by dry food...so the Concept should be fine.

 

@Catmum, yes you're right the Concept 4Life is a special dietary food. It's new for Zooplus to stock it and it may even be a fairly new food to the market.

It should be an OK food to transfer them to after the chicken diet. I have just been having a look at the ingredients of it:

"Ingredients:
53% turkey (heart, liver, meat, neck), 38.2% stock, 7% pumpkin, 1% minerals, 0.5% salmon oil, 0.2% mannan oligosaccharides, 0.1% medicinal clay, calcium carbonate
Highly digestible ingredients: turkey, pumpkin, salmon oil"

Three things to note:

It contains 0.1% medicinal clay - this is to bind the stools. This is fine for an interim diet. I would not want young cats on it for long.

It contains mannan oligosaccharides, a prebiotic. I would be cautious because prebiotics can cause bowel disturbances such as flatulence, and loose stools in some cats with a sensitive bowel.

It contains salmon oil and this causes loose stools in some cats. My boys with IBD reacted with diarrhoea to salmon oil in their food.

Otherwise the ingredients look good and it is better than the normal Concept 4Life.

 

Which brand would you recommend putting them on if concept for life turns out to be bad for them? Other than the shredded chicken recipes like Thrive, etc. as they're too pricey.

I was feeding them Animoda integra sensitive before I switched to concept for life, but I was feeding them the dry food at the same time, so it may have actually been good for them. They have a pure chicken wet food with the following ingredients:

Chicken (63%), calcium carbonate, rapeseed oil (0.4%), sodium chloride

There's also miamor, which seems to contain minimal ingredients, but does include rice:

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats...ategy=31963529&rk=1-4&slot=3&pi=377490&rri=0d7fabb5-add2-4887-99b6-8a6261abc153

What do you think?

Thanks so much!

 

@Catmum - yes you are right - the Integra Protect pure chicken doesn't contain rice.

I'm happy to share details of the foods I feed my cats

My diabetic cat with IBD eats Leonardos pouches of pure chicken, Tundra pure turkey + poached white fish, home cooked chicken leg or turkey thigh.
The one who has severe food allergies eats home cooked kangaroo, goat and lamb + a completer supplement. No cat food at all.
The others eat a rotation of Catz FineFood Game, CFF Lamb & Rabbit, Mjamjam lamb, MJ kangaroo, MJ horse, MJ duck, MJ turkey, Catz FF Purrr Pork, Schesir Pork, Venandi Turkey, Venandi Duck, with occasional home cooked rabbit or fried turkey mince.

For treats they have Thrive and Cosma freeze dried pure protein treats in Chicken or White Fish flavours.

No kibble at all.

 

@Catmum - yes you are right - the Integra Protect pure chicken doesn't contain rice.

I'm happy to share details of the foods I feed my cats

My diabetic cat with IBD eats Leonardos pouches of pure chicken, Tundra pure turkey + poached white fish, home cooked chicken leg or turkey thigh.
The one who has severe food allergies eats home cooked kangaroo, goat and lamb + a completer supplement. No cat food at all.
The others eat a rotation of Catz FineFood Game, CFF Lamb & Rabbit, Mjamjam lamb, MJ kangaroo, MJ horse, MJ duck, MJ turkey, Catz FF Purrr Pork, Schesir Pork, Venandi Turkey, Venandi Duck, with occasional home cooked rabbit or fried turkey mince.

For treats they have Thrive and Cosma freeze dried pure protein treats in Chicken or White Fish flavours.

No kibble at all.

Thank you! So much food to look up now

A little update: I started feeding them both wet food now alongside the chicken as they both passed hard stool today.

Bamboo used the litter about an hour ago and it was hard, except for a little bit of soft stool. Is this okay? Does it take a bit of time before the stools are 100% formed and there is no more softness? Or is this a sign that the wet food isn't good for them?

 

@Catmum, yes you can certainly give them home cooked chicken and add a completer to it (the one I mentioned earlier. Not all vitamin supplements are suitable for adding to cooked food, but that one is).

However, if you decide to do that I'd recommend that perhaps when they're a few months older and their digestive systems are more mature, you try introducing some safe wet cat foods to their diet. For one thing it's good for them to eat a variety of meats, not just chicken. For another thing there may come a time in the future when it will be more convenient for them to have a cat food diet, e.g. if you ever go on holiday and leave them in the care of a cat sitter, or have to put them in a cattery.

Pumpkin does not usually firm up stools.. It adds bulk to the diet and softens a hard stool, when there is constipation. I can't imagine a vegetable could stop diarrhoea.. I think the pumpkin is in the CFL to balance the effect of the medicinal clay the food contains. Medicinal clay can be very binding (constipating)

 

Thanks so much, this is very informative.

Unfortunately Bamboo passed some pretty soft stool this morning. Some parts were semi-formed but the rest was quite wet. Do I put him back on the chicken? I've only been giving them wet food for about 2 days now. I have a feeling it might be the pumpkin or any of the other ingredients you mentioned like the prebiotic, so not sure what to do now. Kobe passed hard stool last night - just three small pellets, actually.

 

@chillminx I think I'll go with animoda vom Feinsten pure turkey for them both.

Do you know anything about HiLife chicken dinner and whether it's suitable for cats with sensitive tummies? These are the ingredients:

Chicken (50%), Sunflower Oil, Minerals, Cassava Extract, Taurine

Seems pretty safe, I think.

 

@Catmum - sorry can you remind me - were the stools samples you had tested at the lab all normal?

 

From what I understood, yes. I took the samples over three days. I'll include the results below:

(Bamboo)

MICROBIOLOGY

Culture Aerobic cultures show a moderate mixed growth
consistent with normal faecal flora

Salmonella Negative

Campylobacter Negative
Direct No ova, cysts or parasites seen.
Concentrate No ova, cysts or parasites seen.
Cryptosporidium Negative

SENSITIVITIES Not indicated.
*NORMAL FAECAL RESULT*

(Kobe)

MICROBIOLOGY

Culture Aerobic cultures show a very scanty mixed growth
consistent with normal faecal flora

Salmonella Negative

Campylobacter Negative
Direct No ova, cysts or parasites seen.
Concentrate No ova, cysts or parasites seen.
Cryptosporidium Negative

SENSITIVITIES Not indicated.
*NORMAL FAECAL RESULT*

 

@chillminx Bamboo hasn't passed any stool since the softer one yesterday, and Kobe is passing hard stools, which is great. Bamboo, however, vomited up some chicken this morning. Really can't figure out what's wrong with him could they be eating something toxic from somewhere?

If I remember correctly, he only started vomiting when I started feeding them concept for life. Could it be an ingredient in the food that isn't good for his tummy?

 

Vomiting can be caused foods disagreeing with the cat, but also by inflammation in the stomach or digestive tract. The inflammation makes the cat's stomach or bowel more sensitive and some foods may not be tolerated that might normally tolerated.

Are you feeding Bamboo just home cooked chicken plus a supplement? Is it one of the supplements I recommended, i.e. Felini or Purrform? I wouldn't give him C4Life.