Help! Kitty with chronic diarrhea and our vet can't figure out the cause.?

Question

Our kitty (16 weeks and a little over 3 lbs.) has had a bumpy start. After adopting him from a foster family, he was diagnosed with a URI and given Clavamox for his sneezing. He got progressively worse and a week or two later, we were told he had pneumonia and was spiking fevers and needed to be hospitalized for IV fluids and nebulizer treatments. Later that week, we were told that he was doing better, but the next day they said they suspected he had FIP and would need to be euthanized. Thankfully, we brought him home to spend a couple of days with us before they put him to sleep because he got better every day, with no fever and the only symptoms he had being diarrhea (2-3x/day) and signs of anemia (l*****g cement and trying to eat his clay litter.) We switched to newspaper based litter & his antibiotic was switched to Clindomycin and back to Clavamox. He was given Metronidazole for his diarreah, which only served to make it worse. Tests came back NEGATIVE for FIP, FIV, FeLV, Toxoplasmosis, and Bartonella. They said he was anemic and seemed to have liver issues/hepatitis. He is an indoor only kitty and has been treated for fleas and the vet *thinks* he was treated for heartworm and Giardia. (?) His current symptoms are the AWFUL diarrhea, trying to l**k cement near the fireplace, and "butt dragging" like a dog with worms. His appetite and fluid intake is totally normal. The vet even had us change to a diet of canned venison or duck, suspecting a dietary intolerance, but there's no change in the diarrhea. Anyone have any suggestions as to the possible cause or treatment? Our vet bill is in the thousands and we can't afford to keep paying for what seems to be a guessing game. The only other thing suggested was a test for portosystemic liver shunt. HELP!

Answer 1

Hi

  You sure are trying everything to make this work

For the diarrhea, get some acidoupholus from a health food store and sprinkle it over the food each day

Sometimes for ibd,a novel protein like you are using is tried. Are there any grains in what you are feeding? You may want to try a grain free canned food

Have you considered a raw food diet? You would have to specially prepare. I have links for it if you are interested

Answer 2

Cheap answer? Try a little pumpkin. Litterally, give your kitty a spoonfull of canned pumpkiin. Libbies makes it for pumpkin pies, you can get it in any supermarket, just make sure it says 100% pumpkin or real pumpkin, because they do make a pie filing that looks similar.

Diarrhea can actually be a sign of not enough fiber. Yeah, go figure. Try it. If nothing else your cat will have a tasty treat for a day or two. The butt dragging might be because his a**s is irritated. Try washing it with a warm wash cloth when you see him "scooting".

Pumpkin tastes sweet to kitties and they really love it. My baby had diarrhea for 2 months before we put him on pumpkin. Now he is fine. Of course mine was do to colon reduction and the stupid doctor told us it would sort itself out. If cats could always self heal, there wouldn't be cat hospitals now would there?

If it were me, I would start getting second opinions. I don't like the fact that they wanted you to put the cat down before you were given the test results. That just sounds shady to me. A friend had similar problems, doc wanted to put cat down, went to another vet who gave it unnecessary meds, then went to mine. Cat is 100% happy and healthy, no stupid diseases and no more meds. Just as their are bad Doctors, their are bad vets. Get a second opinion before you go really nuts.

Answer 3

can cat food can cause this.to much milk,if you feed it people food,tuna,any kind of fish that is not made for cats to eat (exp.tuna,fried fish,fried shrimp,etc)i have a cat and this happens when she eats this stuff.he might have worms.

Answer 4

That's a head scratcher.  Is he still on meds?  Most medications will cause loose stool.

One of my rescues has chronic diarrhea.  There has been no causes found (such as your situation).  The vet tried several tests, drugs, and suggestions to stop the loose stool.  We never found a cause, but noticed that if he gets too warm (he prefers outside) his stool is loose.  If he eats anything BUT dry cat food, the stool is loose.  If the water bowl gets greenish (outdoors in 100 degree+ weather under trees)...etc

So we force him inside during the day and overnight and only allow him outside in the morning and early evening.  Nothing but dry food is allowed and I do not switch brands or flavors.  I obsessively clean out the outdoor water bowls, allowing no grass, leaves or otherwise to stay in the bowl.

He still has loose stool often, but he is gaining weight and is otherwise healthy.

Answer 5

What about looking at his diet?  Perhaps changing foods, gradually of course and see if he tolerates that better, not all foods agree with all kittens.  I have had no luck with duck, my cats have never liked it.  Possibly another food change might help.  Good Luck

Answer 6

Rice water slows diarrhea.

as well as feeding ONLY dry food.

Boil some rice and put extra water on it... then you MIGHT have to use a syringe to feed it to the kitty.  flavoring it might help.

(as as said above... acidophilus works... it is the bacteria (which is killed if you take antibiotics) for the digestive tract.

Yougert contains it but not at the amount you need.  I take a pinch and put it on the food.  (it has a sour tast so putting a lot will make the cat not eat the food.)  When they need extra I wet my finger (not spit) and then dip in the acidophius and then poke it in the cats mouth... they don't like it but at least you get SOME inside them.

I give my cat (who is old) chicken livers cooked.  They are HIGH in Iron... and my cat loves them ... either grind them up or chop fine...

GOOD LUCK on this one!  

Please let us know if this works.

Answer 7

I'm surely no vet, but I've been in rescue for lots of years, and we see many kittens with chronic diarrhea.  It seems their systems just get so inflamed and irritated from everything they have been through, and they need time to settle down.  One thing that has worked with several kittens (when all other things have been ruled out) is a course of prednisone. The steroid reduces the inflammation in the intestinal  tract, and allows it to heal.  For diet, I've had a lot of luck feeding either Innova's EVO dry or California Natural dry.  For some reason those are fairly well tolerated by cats with digestive issues.  Try also some bene-bac, which can help to restore all the beneficial bacteria that belong in the digestive tract.  

If you're getting no where, then perhaps a second opinion is in order.  Sometimes the second set of eyes can see what the first cannot.  

Answer 8

You may want to switch vets and get another professional opinion or diagnosis. Vets are humans, so there is possibility of being over worked or overlooking something.

Butt dragging is probably an irritation from the diarrhea. l*****g cement near the fireplace may be indicative of some sort of deficiency (mineral?) or perhaps some sort of toxicity or natural instinct toward wanting clay or a similar substance to stop the digestive irritation. Large birds eat clay in the wild for their digestive needs, the clay actually works like kaopectate. But it would be best to have this checked by a professional who knows what to look for. I suspect your vet isn't looking in the right places.

Get a second opinion.  

Answer 9

No one can say you haven't done your best for this kitten.  Inflamed bowel syndrome can have many, many causes.  I would recommend getting a second opinion (I am a little worried about the "he thinks the kitten was treated for...")  I inherited my mom's cat who had chronic diarrhea for years because Mom, bless her heart, would feed Willow anything that Mom ate - popcorn, pie, ice cream, olives, anything.  My vet recommended absolutely no human food and a product called Forte Flora.  That may not be the correct spelling.  What it did was restart the gut bacteria that the chronic diarrhea had virtually eliminated.  It took over a month, but Willow has been fine now for over a year and a half.  Good luck to you and bless you.  purrs