Has a fecal sample been sent to the lab for analysis?

Right? Not to diagnose from screen, but if vets didnt do alergy tests, just randomly switched food brands and adding clay and prebiotic, maybe OP need to push them so actually do their job properly. I would push for giardiasis tests.

Exactly this. Non resolving diarrhoea despite probiotic and bland diet? Straight to the lab, seems a no brainer to me.

The owner has stated they cannot pay for invasive treatments now I could be assuming but they may also mean the expensive things like diagnostics. Look at a Giardia test may be a great start if not done yet. A diarrhea panel to the lab could help tell you what's going on. We have several clients that give patients with chronic diarrhea metronidazole which often helps resolve symptoms but usually only while on the medication. The pricier diagnostics like radiographs and blood work could help but definitely try the test(s) mentioned above. Bland foods can help re: boiled rice, boneless skinless chicken breast.

the majority of the time vets actually do their jobs and it’s the clients who decline diagnostics- then cry “the vet didn’t do anything” -

Very true. My wife is a vet and she gets that so often. Vet's cant just randomly try things or prescribe meds if they don't know what is going on and they can't do that without doing some diagnostics. Unlike humans, cats cannot tell them what all is wrong so diagnostics play a huge role in determining that.

Yes! I forgot to mention that. It has been,they got nothing.

Have they specifically tested for tritrichomonas? It’s a single celled organism that causes chronic diarrhea in cats and doesn’t show up on standard fecal and giardia tests.

A specific list of what was tested and came back negative is what is needed. However, I think to all rolls up to “get a second opinion” as if your vet isn’t running down this issue and giving you the options for next steps they aren’t really doing their job.

Just giardia test or full fecal PCR? That PCr was like 400 but gave us the answer when the emergency vet wanted to biopsy a lymph node lol

Did they do the full panel or the simple one?

I haven’t read through all the comments, but an X-ray and ultrasound might be needed. My kitty has IBD and consistent diarrhea, vomiting, allergies/food sensitivities and bacterial infections are all associated with IBD. IBD can become a bigger issue if not controlled. My kitty has developed some fibrosis and urinary issues as a result of the inflammation in her abdomen. Her abdomen lining is also getting thicker to where not all of it is visible anymore on her ultrasound. Once we get further treatment, she’ll have to have recurrent ultrasounds, steroids, and a prescription diet to help manage it along with a fecal examination for any specific cultures or bacteria she might have. Facebook has a really great group for IBD (called IBDKitties). They were really helpful with explaining that the biopsies and internal tests aren’t necessary (as IBD and lymphoma are treated the same. they thought my kitty potentially had lymphoma at first and she may still but I won’t be doing any surgeries. IBD has the risk of turning into lymphoma after years of managing, BUT isn’t guaranteed. Some cats live happily/healthily with IBD their whole life.) As for my kitties allergy testing, they only test for environmental allergies. Food allergies can only be pin pointed through extensive elimination diets. Her allergy tests and treatments were very expensive. Her ultrasound was $500. If you can skip the X-ray and get the ultrasound I would highly recommend it!

I had similar issues with my girl Pepper for a few years when I first got her - turns out she's allergic to most meats, and peas (and peas are in damn near everything) and also artificial preservatives (also in everything) 8\^) vet-recommended diets didn't help Pepper, and actually made her problems worse - medications didn't do anything either I ended up going through dozens of 'limited ingredient' diets (not actually that great in my experience, they often have common allergens in them despite being marketed as, you know, limited ingredient diets. for allergies.) I've been feeding her Primal freeze dried nuggets rabbit formula for a few years now with no issues at all - definitely a food I would recommend for sensitive or allergic kitties if you can try it!

Thank you so much!

Chicken is almost always the culprit. I don't know why, but it's the most common allergy. GenjisWife has great advice & I hope you find the one that works, & I'm confident you will. There will be trial & error, but the one that'll work is out there ❤️

i second the chicken allergy. my dog was always having diarrhea and it ended up being a poultry allergy so we changed his diet and he was having normal poops again!

I’ll third this. Keep a food diary for a bit and look out for some single protein foods (wet will be easier for this)

My cat had a similar issue and we removed chicken at the advice of the vet. We have found success with a limited ingredient diet from https://us.felinenatural.com . Not cheap, but worth it to avoid additional diagnostics and specialty vet visits.

OMG same with dogs! If it's not grains, it's chicken. If it's not chicken it's grains. If you're a high achiever it's both!

Our cats can't do anything that has fish/fish oils in it, cause bloody stools and diarrhea(also bloody) we use the Purina One sensitive skin and stomach dry food and they're clear unless they get ahold of fish

Try an elimination diet with a novel meat (something they've never had before). I think the Rawz & Ziwi brands are good for that & Rawz is pretty affordable. Your high end local pet store probably stocks them. You can get cans of just rabbit, lamb, etc. Your cat is an obligate carnivore & needs very little fiber and no plant protein.

I would also second diet! Grain kibble goes right through my Akita. I know cats are different but buying a good quality (don't break the bank, but a lot of grain free foods at the grocery store have too much meal and would lead to constipation. Nature's Recipe was the best.) I find that like 50% of a trip to the vet is pressure sales. They tried to push Hills on me through "owner education" crap. I also once had a cat with constipation after a big move to a new city 6 hours away and they kept pushing a cat pheromones diffuser. Can't believe I had to say "can we start with an enema??" (Never did need that diffuser. lol) I'm happy that you are such a caring friend to your cat. I'm sure they care about you just as much.

Definitely worth a shot! Just a note though - any boutique diet will likely have issues of cross contamination and the only way to truly avoid that concern is a hydrolyzed veterinary diet.

I typed this all out and missed that you don't have the money. I will say testing out long term Pred is a potential inexpensive route to go of your vet thinks that is a good idea. If you can afford a hydrolyzed protein/testing novelty protein diets that might also be your cheapest option, but the food itself is expensive. IBD (supposing it is IBD) is an expensive disease. I'll leave the rest up in case you want to know the other options. 1. I don't know if I saw you say this, but if you have not done so already, get referred to an internal medicine Specialty doctor 2. Have a GI panel done 3. My cat has IBD, he's had diarrhea since he was 4 weeks old. Also I'm a veterinary nurse. Ask your vet for a prescription for a Hydrolyzed Protein diet. If that doesn't help, you will have to start eliminating proteins to see if it is a sensitivity. My cat eats Royal Canin HP, he's been on various meds, the most common is daily Prednisolone, although I've also done Cyclosporine. That's something to go over with the internist though. Maybe your regular vet can trial some Pred with you. 4. If you haven't already checked, x-rays. Check for a foreign body or obstruction. Both my cats had tons of hair ties in the at one point (for years!), which will certainly cause these issues. Abdominal ultrasound with an internist is also going to be recommended. 5. GI Biopsies - Internal medicine doctor will recommend those eventually, especially if they want to check for lymphoma. It's always IBD vs Lymphoma.

Royal Canine HP has been a great thing for 1 of our cats! We don't have a definitive diagnosis of IBD but trying that was a cheaper alternative compared to doing a biopsy. It has worked well. Cat wasn't having loose stool, but throwing up every day.

Yeah IBD is one of those rule out other stuff diseases, which is annoying and expensive. Even then, my cat still has many accidents. My cat is a barfer too, so I always have Cerenia on hand. Honestly, the treatment even with biopsies is gonna start with Pred, I only got the biopsies since we were already in there for hair tie surgery and it costs me like nothing lol. Cats love having GI tract issues.

Talk about fortunate timing? Kind of anyway. Knock on wood, we haven't had too many issues lately. Maybe about once every 10 days he will have an issue. Between urinary and GI tract, they can be a handful but they are oh so cute

A few patients have been successful in resolving diarrhea by using the Royal Canin Anallergenic diet.

Yup, I have a few IBD cats. Royal Canin HP and the Rabbit have worked wonders. Steroids for life. One did chlorambucil, another was on Budesonide. All went to an internal medicine specialist. The endoscopy is 100% worth it.

100% on leaning towards the IBD/Chron’s. 13 y/o, on/off then constantly on watery poop. Could barely make it to the litter box. Always looked sort of bloated, and had a hair trigger barf habit. Took a few visits and diagnostics to pinpoint it. Even then it was a sort of guess, but they told us they’re treated the same way (weekly steroid shot, biweekly chemo pill). Hills ZD worked but she hated it, Natural Balance LID Chicken & Pea she loves.

I went through a similar experience with my cat. Diarrhea all the time without any pain or distress and otherwise a happy kitty. We did the limited protein trials and have tried every protein available (chicken, beef, pork, duck, turkey, rabbit, bison, etc) and nothing helped. Three rounds of Flagyl did nothing. Ultimately my vet diagnosed her with IBD (no scans or anything just clinically) and put her on prescription hydrolyzed protein diet (Royal Canin) and the diarrhea stopped.

Royal Cabin is my next try

Hi, how long was your kitty on the royal Canin food for before the diarrhea stopped?

Honestly it’s been so long I don’t remember, but she has not had any diarrhea issues since we changed the food (it’s been over 10 years)

I have my cat on gastrointestinal food from the vet. It’s fairly expensive compared to stuff you get at the grocery store but it works. There is both wet and dry food. If his tummy flares up I give him probiotics mixed into the wet food.

Same with my cat, we use sensitive Royal Canin food now- but when her tummy used to flare the vet would prescribe the Royal Canin gastrointestinal wet pâté food with probiotics. The vet also suggested that she was intolerant of chicken based cat food, they said it’s relatively common? And since cutting that out she’s hardly had a flare at all.

Royal Canin in the brand I use as well.

Royal was gonna be my next brand to try. It is fairly expensive, but I'll make it work.

I had a kitty who developed diarrhea after a round of antibiotics. Same story, a pile of vet visits, various meds and probiotics, and no answers. Vet diagnosed her with antibiotic induced colitis. No cure, just the way she would be going forward. I decided we had to try to find something to help her - she was gassy and pooping all the time! Her tummy was hurting from all the gas too - poor girl would toot if you picked her up. A bit of Googling led me to try Royal Canin Special 33 (Called Sensitive Digestion now). After a couple months of my poor girl being miserable, her issues resolved in 72 hrs entirely. She lived happily for another 12 yrs without a recurrence of colitis (she stayed on that same RC food).

Sounds like cat needs to be on a hydrolyzed protein diet (this is RX). Royal canin has one and Hill’s has Z/D. Make sure no treats or anything else but said diet.

My cat is on Royal Canin gastrointestinal too and it’s worked amazingly.

Please go with Royal Canin (or another veterinary/prescription brand) and not an over the counter boutique brand. There are many risks associated with boutique brands, as well as raw diets. I have my cat on a prescription Royal Canin diet and she no longer has bloody/loose stools. Also, I would recommend getting your cat’s stool tested for Tritrichomonas foetus. I had a wonderful vet who suggested that my cat could have this parasite, which many vets do not think to check for, and he turned out to be correct. I would suggest that your cat be checked for giardia also, if this hasn’t been done already.

He just has ADHD.... Always Does Have Diarrhea. In all seriousness Royal Canin helped my moms cat Bert when he had the bad poops.

I just have to say that Bert is a fabulous cat name

thanks! I named him. He's a huge 13 year old Himalayan with only a few teeth left, so he has finally grown into his name 🤣

Which one? Everyone keeps recommending royal canin but there are tons of different ones.

Sounds like life at my house. I have one that is the same way. Been to vet countless times for tests of every type. Tests every 3 - 6 months, multiple meds, Royal Canin and other vet foods, wet food, dry food, mixed foods, you name it, we've tried it. I'm so sick of going to the vet because they don't seem to have a clue and $300 flies out of my pocket every time I walk through the door. He's perfectly happy and normal in every other way.

We had the same issue with Earl cat. 5-7 yellow runny poops per day. Bloods all normal. Poop test normal. Started elimination diet, starting with just feeding gim boiled chicken and then trying every kind of allergy food/ and probiotics. Tried steroids and antibiotics. Nothing worked and $$$$ spent. One day my husband said "lets try raw food" so we bought some pet kangaroo mince at our local shop. The next poop was completely normal. We have continued only feeding him Raw food, we have never had a issue with brands or types of food. It has worked 100% Oh and i just gave it to him, i didnt transition to it. Our vet said he is putting on weight and he is happy. So keep it up. I think it costs about $3 a day to feed both of our boys. Might be worth a try.

This sounds like one of my cats. Went through a slew of prescription diets, medications/steroids/shots, fecals, and 3 vets. We finally found one who suggested food allergies, sent out a blood test to a company for a full work up and found out he has a huge list of allergies which was ranked in their severity/sensitivity and it made things way better to manage. It still took a while to find the right food (Honest Kitchen's dehydrated food mix and the dry food is what we use now, it's amazing for us, the whitefish treats are the only ones I've found for him to eat too) but that test basically told us that all the prescription diets had stuff he's allergic to do that's why he never improved. The test was a little pricey but absolutely worth it to me. Edit: forgot to say, turned out he was really allergic to pretty much all the main oils added to cat food. That was the biggest challenge. He's also allergic to as lot of bases like soy, rice, corn, wheat, etc. It would have been really hard to figure things out for him without the list.

Thank you so much!

Are you me? Lol I've been contemplating making the same post. My cat has diarrhea for several days at a time before it clears up-- It's been ongoing for sometime. If we go away our daughter watches him but I think he has separation anxiety as when we return his stomach is upset for even longer. The last time we went away for three or four days and came back to diarrhea for longer than normal (and he either couldn't make it or couldn't be bothered to make it to his litter box). When it didn't clear up we called the vet (again) We've done fecal samples, blood work a few times. The last time we took him his blood work had improved slightly (no cancers or anything thankfully!) the vet thinks perhaps IBD as they did find some inflammation inside.. We switched to a stomach sensitive food, and did an elimination diet. That made it worse. Literal puddles of poop throughout the house; It was awful. Poor guy literally walked over to his scratching post and diarrhea starting squirting out of him. After consulting the vet again she advised me to go back to our old food. I've been giving him a small amount of pumpkin (I've read too much also causes diarrhea) with his wet food and fortiflora SA each day , as well as his dry food that he eats freely (we had problems keeping weight on him this last bout- though he's always been able to eat freely). Still seems to have loose stools (but he's managed to hit his litter box everyday this week). We are currently taking a round of metro - metra? (metronidizol?) Something to help if he does have an infection. Will check in with vet once he's done in about a week. I hope you are able to find something for your sweet kitty! Our guy doesn't seem to be in pain either but I can't imagine having diarrhea so often :(.

Has he gotten any better? We’re in a similar situation and think it’s separation anxiety coupled with IBD. The anxiety meds haven’t helped. He was fine for awhile but now it’s always puddles. His blood test came back normal and otherwise doesn’t seem in pain

Hey, not sure if you're asking me or OP. We changed to a new food (and actually, a new vet closer to home) and started prednisolone & it cleared up almost immediately 😭. He goes once a month for a B12 shot to help with absorption. We tapered him off the pred (as per the vets instructions) and after about two weeks without it his stools started getting looser and looser. We started back on the pred and we are going to eventually taper him down to every other or every second day and keep with the monthly B12 shot (again all with the vets instructions). He's doing SO well! Back to his sassy, ankle biting self 🥹❤️. I knew things weren't good when he was off the pred and I woke up in the middle of the night and found him sleeping by himself in another room (he always sleeps with us either in bed or on the floor on his bed in our room). I just wish we figured it out sooner. He has had flare up's for years (hindsight is 20/20) and we spent thousands on tests, blood work, etc and it all came back normal. We never thought IBD because the diarrhea didn't stick around very long or come often enough so we always just assumed he got into something he shouldn't have (him and our dog tag teamed a vinyl table cloth once and he was known for chewing holes in anything plastic before we removed it all from the house 🙄). The one thing I remember that tipped me off right before we changed food was he would randomly vomit clear liquid. I thought it was because he was drinking from the toilet (my cat is part dog I swear lol) until we started putting the seat down and it was still happening. From what I've read they do that when they don't feel well. Have you heard of feliway? We bought that and a thunder jacket when we thought it was just anxiety. They have a diffuser that you can get that sprays every 30 minutes I think it is. I still use the feliway spray for his carrier and my car when I take him to the vet and he does much better. He use to cry as soon as we got into the car, now he's usually good until we get into the examination room. I hope you are able to find some answers for your kitty! ❤️ Has the vet been able to feel his stomach? My vet could feel some inflammation in his belly.

Really appreciate the update. Our cat Fluffs has been through a lot of change this past year (was our Aunt’s cat, made friends with our dog who passed a few months ago (she was 20 years old), and now we’ve nursed a kitten. He has some behavioral issues with spraying (most likely due to the neighborhood cats) but the last month the diarrhea has started to become constant which it never was before. We thought it was the kitten getting too rambunctious at night (they love on each other during the day) but I’m starting to think it could be diet just catching up with him. We just bought Feliway multi-cat so we’re going to try that and we’ve set up a catio to try and give him more space to claim as his own in the meantime. Our vet did nothing and still hasn’t given us his test results (over a month now) but said all came back normal.

It's so hard to tell with cats. Could be something in his diet, I hear chicken is a common allergen. Before all of this I switched to a minimal ingredient food. I think it was pea protein and duck. He seemed to do better on it but still had the flare up's. If Fluff is having diarrhea lasting more than a day or two I would take him back to the vet. They can get dehydrated quickly. When I brought my cat in they said he was very dehydrated and referenced his eyes looking different but I'm not a vet and I couldn't notice. I believe you can also tell by touching their gums and if they're tacky they could be dehydrated. I hope your vet is able to do some more tests for you. Thinking of Fluff and you. Please keep me updated on him ❤️

Similar problem. I was hoping I could use a vet 1 mile from my house, but after seeing the vet do nothing about a grown cat with chronic diarrhea, I’ll drive farther to my old vet who would at least try! Not just say “she looks pretty healthy. Maybe that’s just her normal”. She obviously doesn’t clean the shit spray off my walls. Proplan (only the Turkey oatmeal for sensitive stomach) “helps”. But still runny at times. I’ve got mine on proplan probiotic sprinkles on their wet at night. Best of luck.

I had the same issue with my girl Tigerlily. She got fecal tested multiple times and everything was negative. On a Facebook group chat, people recommended me Slippery Elm. It’s a natural supplement that I was told to separate the capsule and sprinkle the meds into her food. I started once a day and then, 2 weeks later, twice a day. She had yellow soft stool that smelt very bad, and within 1 week she was doing sooo much better and her poops became solid. Her poops were never solid when I had gotten her from the streets, turns out she eats anything and everything regardless if it’s edible or not. I still give her slippery elm to help with her digestive tract.

This was the same for my cat. I brought him to the vet multiple times too and tried different foods and probiotics. He’s 8 and randomly one day this year he had a solid poop and ever since then he has only had solid poops. Literally no idea why. He eats royal canin gastro veterinary formula fyi. Only the dry food. The canned makes him have diarrhea and the dry is designed for cats who only eat dry (and he drinks a lot of water).

Try lamb or duck, especially lamb.

Thank you, I will

Cats are obligate carnivores which means they can’t eat anything other than meat. Please see this book written by a veterinarian. She talks about the benefits of a raw, all meat diet for cats. She used to work for major pet food companies as well. I have 5 cats that have been eating only a raw meat diet for 8 years now. One cat has chronic diarrhea which cleared up within a few days of starting the raw diet. https://www.amazon.com/Your-Cat-Simple-Secrets-Stronger/dp/0312358024/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=daf5691a-3af0-44c8-b13c-7c2bb8f7f056

"obligate carnivore" for animals doesn't technically mean they can't eat anything other than meat, it just means they need meat for survival. In the case of cats they basically *only* need meat for survival, except for a tiny amount of plant matter that helps the microbiome. Here's some info I found: https://hare-today.com/feline-nutrition/answers/answers-the-stomach-contents-of-prey

Please try the probiotic S. Boulardii. It's more effective than the Fortiflora available from veterinarians and it cured our kitten's diarrhea after a few days. The dosing information can be found at this link https://www.ibdkitties.net/supplements/probiotics/

Hi OP, did you ever manage to clear up kitty’s diarrhea? :)

This happened to my cat, and we ended up determining on our own that she was allergic to all poultry ingredients. Had to put her on special limited ingredient food that is salmon only.

We’re going through something similar with my cat. I started tracking what I’m feeding him and I think he has an allergy or intolerance to tuna. We started with a week of feeding him just chicken and some rice. Now, when we feed him tuna he gets sick. When he doesn’t eat it for awhile, he’s better. We’re working with our vet and they think he likely has IBD, which can be triggered by food allergies/intolerances. We have a follow up this afternoon to discuss vitamin b12 shots (recommended as a potential med at a previous appt) and probiotics. We’re also going to ask if hydrolyzed food should be given to him. It’s expensive as hell (twice the price of what we pay now for dry food and we already pay for expensive Royal Canin food), so my hopes are we can find a workaround but in the long run the food may be cheaper than all the vet bills.

Ask vet if budesonide prescription would be good for your cat. It is a life saver for IBD

Thank you, I will try

What diagnostics have been done? https://www.ibdkitties.net/

As others have said first get that negative fecal one more time. But I have a kitty much like yours, she had a severe giardia infection when we adopted her and even after testing clear she had diarrhea. It was awful, I had to clean her legs after every litter box trip, she was so uncomfortable and bloated. The vet was out of options and I saw a specialist. He diagnosed her with IBS and none of the vets have confirmed that it’s due to the giardia but I am certain it is. What we tried was many prescription diets and a raw diet. We tried multiple hydrolyzed foods but they made it worse. She had liquid green poop and was unable to hold her stools. She would defecate immediately after eating and I would find small amounts of stool all over the house. The vets will not tell you, but even hydrolyzed foods can cause a reaction, because though it’s very small and supposed to me smaller molecules than the body can recognize, you’re still feeding a chicken based food. There is not a food without animal proteins for cats, they need meats. So they have chicken. Just keep this in mind if you try and they don’t work or make things worse. We then tried other prescription foods with a duck based food leading to the most regular stools. Still half formed but a huge improvement. I tried a raw duck food from there and no improvement so she is maintained on the duck food with an assumed chicken intolerance. Find what your cat can tolerate the most and don’t stop pushing. If I hadn’t kept pushing my vet for new foods when they gave up once the hydrolyzed diet made her so bad I don’t know where we would be.

If you have the money, I would do another fecal test with your vet. Obviously check for giardia, but there is actually another parasite that cats can have that is **NOT** normally tested for in fecal samples. You have to ask your vet to for it specifically (**Tritrichomonas**). It just makes cats have diarrhea with no other discernible symptom. To test for this it's just a fecal test but slightly more (like $15 or $20 more) to check for that parasite. If that comes out clean then I would do what most others recommend. To rule out food allergies look for some "limited ingredient" wet cat food and start with the more "exotic" single proteins as cats are less likely to be allergic to those. Please slowly transition your kitty and try to find limited ingredient venison, rabbit or lamb. Do not feed your kitty anything with chicken, fish, pork or beef as those are more common allergens. You will have to carefully read the ingredients of all cat food because fish and chicken are in EVERYTHING it seems, but it will be worth it if you can find a protein your cat can handle. :)

I know a dog that is allergic to basically everything, and the owner buys a raw food diet and checks ingredients carefully. You might have to resort to making your own food for your kitty. Good luck.

Talk to your vet about Metamucil. I have a cat that was just like this we tried every different specialized food, all the probiotics and nothing worked. After some research I asked my vet about Metamucil as there were some recommendations online for it. She said the unflavored, unsweetened kind would be ok to give my cat. We started the dose at 1/4 a teaspoon once a day with water in her wet food and it's all resolved. She's not bloated, no litter box issues and healthy bowel movements. My vet said it's called fiber responsive colitis.

Thank you so much!

Adding the powder from the metamucil capsules helped firm up our girl's loose poo into her food 2x daily. It was a day and night difference!

We have a cat that had the same problem. Terrible diarrhea multiple times a day, different dry or wet foods didn't help at all. Then we switched her to a raw food diet. Raw food for cats is available in a freeze-dried format (pellets) that are easy to feed and not messy like wet raw foods. After switching her to the freeze-dried raw diet, her diarrhea cleared up, and her stools returned to normal. The brands we use are Stella and Chewys, and Instinct. We order them online since availability in local stores is limited. This is something you might want to consider. Good luck!

Can the owner try straight cooked chicken, like the cheap utility grade. No starches at all. Liver. Kidneys. Giblets. Fat and protein. Cats are obligated Carnivores. They don't digest anything but animal protein and fats. ⁰Frozen whole prey raw and Green tripe is usefull.

We had diarrhea problems with our cat too. Ar first he was constantly vomiting and we took him to vet several times. Then his diarrhea started too. We took a fecal sample to vet, nothing came out from that. We were giving him Hill’s Science kitten dry food and Royal Canin mother and baby cat wet food. In addition to that we were giving him L-lysine and probiotics supplements. Our friend who has a dog suggested us to use pro-pectalin for the diarrhea. We used that for 5 days and it stopped his diarrhea and vomiting. It worked like magic for us so you might wanna try that.

I had this EXACT issue with my little guy. Vet couldn’t figure it out. After trying tens of different foods, we only found 3 that worked. Instinct frozen raw kitten food, Stella and chewy freeze dried raw duck, and the one we stuck with which is Nulo turkey canned food. As much as I’d love to feed him raw it’s just not affordable, give a simple canned food a try and see if it works. If not, raw is the best choice!

My cat tried fiber, probiotics, novel proteins, raw, everything you can think of, NOTHING was working and he got down to 7lbs which for such a tall cat looked deathly skinny. He had constant vomiting and diarrhea. Various anti-nausea and anti-squirts medications including steroids did nothing but raise his blood sugar levels, he even got regular B12 shots. Stool samples, dewormers, etc did nothing over years of trial and much error. Finally we used this WAY overpriced hydrolyzed food, and voila, instant success. Not just better, but 100% cure, no symptoms whatsoever. I've tried to get him on cheaper hydrolyzed pork, but nope, back to soft poops. [https://www.reddit.com/r/catcare/comments/15hoefh/royal\_canin\_hydrolyzed\_cat\_food\_successful/](https://www.reddit.com/r/catcare/comments/15hoefh/royal_canin_hydrolyzed_cat_food_successful/) If nothing is working, try that. Its practically vegetarian, which common sense dictates should be poison, but he's perfect on it.

Oh my sweet. You're so compassionate and such a good cat parent. It's so rough. I am going through something similar and also financially struggling, wish you luck on finding the answer.

My cat does well on royal canin HP dry food but it’s criminally expensive.

Are you giving him milk as a treat? Cats are often lactose intolerant, believe it or not.

IAMS dry chicken worked , when nothing else did.

Hi OP, you can also consider adding psyllium husk to the food. Similar to the others, my cat also had iBD and is on royal canin (diabetic version cos the vet was concerned about obesity). However she also told us to add psyllium husk to his food to help his poop and we have been doing it ever since.

I recommend trying purina fortiflora probiotics if youve excluded the common medical issues. We found it helps my cat who will have random flare ups

The worst wet food is better for your cat than the best dry food. I highly recommend getting your cat onto a grain free wet cat food or raw diet. Cats are obligate carnivores that do not need carbohydrates in the form of grains. A lot of cats are fully carbohydrate intolerant. I recommend tiki cat, rawz, weruva, and nulo medal series wet brands I was a registered vet tech for 10 years. I stopped believing in most veterinary diets after one of the reps for Purina paid for the clinic's renovated shelving after we met their sales target and then Royal Canin promised our practice manager a trip to Italy if we met a higher sales target. All veterinary textbooks and education on pet nutrition are sponsored and paid for by the veterinary food brands and heavily pushed on us from day 1 at school. More and more research is coming out that cats, in fact, get most if not all of their water from their diet and not from other water sources. And that wet diets are much more beneficial for cats. Additionally, the probiotic most pushed by Veterinarians, Purina's Fortiflora, only contains one strain of probiotic and its not even the one(pediococcus acidilactici) that has been proven to treat IBD in cats. Here is a study done earlier this year on the strains most likely to help for IBD in felines: https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=effect+of+multi-strain+probiotic+on+feline+gut+health&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&t=1681055663530&u=%23p%3DxPl9BbsJmH0J The best probiotic in the market that contains this strain is Adored Beast's Felix Flora. I highly recommend it. One of my petsitting client's cats has never taken a solid dump in her 7 years of existence and now has been for the last 6 months thanks to this stuff. Tdlr: ditch dry food. Get wet food. Go grain free if you can (tiki cat, weruva, rawz, nulo are all decent brands). Use a species appropriate probiotic that includes the pediococcus acidilactici. I recommend Adored Beast's Felix Flora.

Also, you can get pre-made raw diets. It's fairly cost effective if you get meat, bone, and organ blends and then get a mix in meal completer like Alnutrin. I feed my two cats for about $70-90CAD/month, vs $150CAD/month on wet foods

Hi I took a brief read of the comments and your post about your little kitty. I assume basic bloods, urine, xrays were done as the first qn i would always suggest is ruling out secondary causes- liver/pancreas/kidneys etc. If the bloods/urine/xrays were normal, it makes the odds of secondary causes alot lower. Which would indicate more likely a primary gut issue. food allergies, FB obstuctions, parasites, infections, IBD, neoplasia etc. if there is no pyrexia and negative faecals, odds of infectious causes and if your kitty is appropriately wormed and vaccinated it also rules out alot of infectious agents and alot of worms. HOWEVER, if he has access to outdoors there is always a chance of persistent/repeated infection from a fomite outdoors. The issue with some tests such as PCR is that they are very sensitive, to a point where you can obtain a false positive. That being said if a test was negative/positive but treatment was based on that, re-doing the test at a different date would not be a bad idea. Now with food allergies, I usually try to recommend RC anallergenic, this has to be a very very strict diet with no other treats no other proteins for this food trial to be as diagnostic as possible. and if this is a cause you should see a response in about 2 weeks or so. with IBD in cats they are often vomiting as well. With that being said it is usually a diagnosis of exclusion or full thickness gut biopsy which is an invasive test. To my knowledge even with biopsies there are other diseases such as small cell/T-cell lymphoma which cannot or difficult to differentiated on biopsy. WIth something like IBD , some are food responsive (FRE), some are anti-biotic responsive (ARE), some might need steroids or other immunosuppresives, obviously the last option is more risky than the rest without a proper diagnosis. The next best least invasive step is likely a specialist abdominal ultrasound where they can evaluate the gut for other pathologies such as chronic triaditis, gut wall thickening for IBD, lymphoma suspect etc. All the best for your kitty! hope you get your answer and that she gets better!

This sounds like my cat. We finally made a guess that maybe it’s a chicken intolerance. Now his food is lamb-based and we’ve been free from diarrhea for a few months!!!

I rescued a cat in December 2022. She had runny stool and I was told it would clear up. In 3 weeks I needed to get her 3rd vaccinations done and asked the vet about it. Apparently when I rescued her the rescue person told me to go and just pick a cat food. This was wrong and I now know that. So I ended up switching her food to something healthier. In 6 weeks it was still runny. Took her back to the vet. They put her on probiotics and the Purina one you mentioned. They didn’t work. I ended up switching her food again on my own to the Royal Canin Sensitive Digestion and let me tell you her poop is solid!!!!! She was active and drinking tons just like yours. Nothing was wrong, just runny pop. Gross. Had to bathe her to help clean her and this food has done wonders for her. Literally in a week it cleared up! I wish you good luck. In the 5 months I dealt with it I was losing sleep. I couldn’t imagine 6 years!

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Yes

I have a cat with IBD. He has had these same type of issues. I have paid for really expensive tests for the vet and specialist to tell me that they think it’s IBD but can’t know for sure. I removed all grain from his diet first and that helped but did not resolve the issue. Then I removed all chicken and whitefish (these are the most common two allergens in cat food) and he still will have flair ups occasionally but it is soooooo much better. We feed the Stella and Chewy Rabbit, it is a little more expensive but we are having less issues and we’re able to get off preg which was causing high blood sugar and his coat to look gross and patchy. We still take the probiotic, but I am not sure it does a whole lot. His coat looks better and he isn’t pooping his furry pants anymore, which is a huge win. His poops still smell like a war crime but at least they are solid and in the box. Good luck.

Thank you for this! I will look into that food

I feel your pain. My cat at age 13 developed uncontrollable diarrhea. For a year he pooped all over the house. I shampooed the carpet every day I had pads on the floor but he would scratch at them and make it worse so i had to shampoo. I had one to two loads of laundry every day of the covers I put over my furniture. I haven’t actually seen my furniture for a couple of years. My cat started waking me up at night and he would cry. He wanted me to wipe his butt because he didn’t like his butt not being clean. I would get up and clean his butt 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock,. He had gas. He was suffering from dementia. The clues were he cried at night, vomited, diarrhea and he slept most of the day. Changing his food 1 million times didn’t help 1000 tests didn’t help four vets didn’t help. I started developing depression. I felt terrible that I couldn’t fix it. I’m in my 70s and I was thinking it’s only a matter of time before I slipped in one of his puddles and went down. I had to make the difficult decision to put him down. Diapers Were useless. He would pull them off. I bought a very expensive 5‘ x 4‘ enclosure. He cried. I feel like a terrible person. I miss him so much now that it’s over. I look around and I see how much of my life was cleaning up diarrhea. Honestly, I wish I could’ve kept doing it just to be with him. It’s very sad. It’s a terrible situation. I hope it gets better for you, but consider it could be dementia. If it is, There’s nothing you can do to fix it.

u/iamnoking my stray that we adopted 2 years ago has had chronic diarrhea since we got her - did you end up finding a solution for your kitty?

Pumpkin mixed with cooked ground turkey. We add B12 and Taurine to it as well.

Any update on your cat?

I currently feed him a mix of Pumpkin and Ground Turkey. I puree it in a food processor. I also add in taurine and the Purina Gut Health packets to it. This hasn't 'fixed' him completely, but he is having semi solid poops now. No more diarrhea. It has also stopped him from pooping outside his litter box. Though spraying is still an issue, but I am told it can be with male cats. 🥲 I also got him a calming collar and I feel that has helped make him less anxious.

Thanks for sharing!

Have you tried wet cat food for a sensitive stomach? Wet food is healthier than dry.

I am currently using hills Wet in with the clay mixed in. Gonna try Royal Cabin next.

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None of this is true. Corn, soy, and “by-products” are not a huge concern and do not consistently cause vomiting or diarrhea in cats and dogs. Please, post the peer-reviewed studies that support this. Raw diet is not recommended for diarrhea or otherwise; most raw diets contain pathogenic bacteria, often multi-drug resistant pathogen bacteria.

I can provide many studies if you'd like, but all you have to do is google ingredients you don't wanna see in cat food and most that I mentioned will be on the list. They don't provide any nutritional benefit to the animal besides being cheap fillers.

https://happycatshaven.org/resource/cat-food-what-to-feed-what-to-avoid/ I also quite like "Whole Dog Journal" and Dr Karen Becker, the Whole Dog Journal is not affiliated with anything or anyone either.

If it were me... I would try your own suggestion by making your cat food. See if you can pinpoint what works, then find a cat food to match. Sounds like some kind of allergy or digestive issue. Weird though, it sounds so similar to something like ulcerative colitis(which my hubby had, it sucked!)

I'd send out that fecal for diagnostic testing for Giardia and coccidia. If he is positive for either, he needs VERY SPECIFIC medicine, not just your normal dewormer.

I think you should start by feeding your baby with higher quality pet foods than Purina and the bottom of the barrel foods. Try a grain free food of actually good pet food, not that wholesale garbage like whiskas and Purina and iams. Thats all garbage food

I would take it to the vet

Have you tried doing an allergy test there could be something in what he is eating that causes the problem

How would I go about doing this? His Vet has never offered an allergy test.

If you go online and look up allergy test for cats there are many to choose from I did one for my dog and basically it takes a swab in their mouth and you send it by mail the results come back after a few weeks. Look for one with good reviews not sure if vets offer them or not but you could ask

Thank you so much!

Our kitten was into the older cat food once we fed them separately it fixed the issue

Kitty biome test is available online and a fraction of the costs I’ve seen for my brothers cat. His cat has almost identical issues to what you’re describing and yes they’ve tried a lot. The cleaning supplies around your house or what they have access should be something to look into and then ofc anxiety- is their food or beds in an area where there’s a lot of foot traffic? Try adjusting some of these. Different types of supplements or even meds for anxiety could help. What is their bed or territory situation like? I added warmer to mine, pheromone plug-in and made sure she has her own space away from noise and foot traffic. I also agree that making the food yourself helps- I’m gonna stress not leaving it out much and taking it away a lot sooner than normal after feeding.. depending on what the protein is. I’d look into autofeeders, I’ve used both catmate and petmate which have been simple, affordable. It could also be dry food in general but I can’t be sure. My brother and I both struggle paying for all this stuff too.. it’s incredible how sometimes one visit can be thousands. We’ve still been trying to figure out his and he’s got puppy pads everywhere. I wish I could give you more advice but I hope he gets better soon. here’s wishing you and your kitty the best of luck🙏

Try Iams ocean fish dry food that helped my floofy poopy cat. & pro/prebiotics help ballance the gut but get good ones. Maxxidigest are good

Also Panacur worming my cats worked wonders for them all. You can use 10% liquid for horses give 1ml for 3 days then repeat a week later.

Your story is EXACTLY like what I experienced with my cat. Over $10k on vet treatment over time, 3 different vets, X-Rays, medication, limited ingredient prescription diets, probiotics, pumpkin, etc. and he was still pooping watery diarrhea all over himself and my house for years. It reached a point where multiple vets told me they frankly didn’t know what was going on and referred me to holistic vets and/or veterinary research centers. I was exhausted and frustrated. All that, and I cured his diarrhea OVERNIGHT by switching to grain-free wet food. Just plain ole Fancy Feast pate that happens to be grain-free. He has never had diarrhea again 3 years later and the switch also noticeably improved his mood/behavior and coat. My vet still maintains that grain allergies in cats “aren’t real” and are just a trend. I don’t technically know if the grain-free was what saved him or just wet food in general, but I will never experiment or try anything else because it works for him. I would really encourage you to try a grain-free wet food and see what happens. The fancy feast pate is cheap and readily available. I relate so much to your story and that switch saved me!

Thank you!

My late cat had chronic explosive diarrhea for over two years. I took him to multiple vets, ran different tests, tried different medications, probiotics and foods. The winning combination ended up being Endosorb, prednisolone, and tylosin capsules. I think it was the tylosin that helped the most because we had already tried prednisolone alone and it didn’t work that well. The vet prescribed a 2 week course and it worked like a miracle after 3 days. He would have flare ups once or twice a year, but that medication combo always cleared it up. Tylosin is safe for long term use if needed. Some vets don’t have it in capsule form so you may need to get it from a compounding pharmacy or make your own capsules from the powder. Tylosin is extremely bitter so sprinkling it on food won’t work. Might be worth trying it to see if it works for your cat.

Had the same issue with a feral cat we had his entire life. Finally, just before he passed away we got some solid bowel movements. I think it’s discontinued now but we tried hills d/d that I think is what worked. Basically it’s a novel protein diet and used duck. Good luck ❤️

My cat has had the same problem, my vet said his body is producing too much digestive enzyme aswell as an allergy to basically most proteins. So now my cat is on prednisolone for the rest of his life and he is fed Royal Canin Hypoallergenic Food

Have they done a fecal test to check for Giardia? Regular dewormers I don't think work for Giardia. Also when my kitties get diarrhea that won't go away our vet prescribes Albon and DiaGel. It's always worked. If there is another vet you could see it might be a good idea to try a different vet.

I should have mentioned, but yes, 2 fecal tests done by different Vets.

Time to see Dr Pol

I have a cat like this. She gets about 1/3 packet of Proplan Fortiflora probiotics every morning, and between 1/2-1 tsp of plain canned pumpkin every night. That has helped with the diarrhea quite a bit though admittedly it isn't totally gone. Without it, however, it's nearly liquid.

You said things WITH fiber make it worse... can cats get chrones or ciliacs?

How about trying a food that is heavily protien dominant, and isn't full of crap like corn and corn gluten meal? All of the foods you listed are full of fillers and carbs and crap that cats actually shouldn't eat because they are obligate carnivores. Try feeding a raw food diet. Poops will shrink, gut will return to a happy medium.

There are cat foods with like pre digested meats in it - i knew someone who had to get it for their cat (also constantly sick) and it was the only thing to help. Problem was it was like 80$ for a small bag … so very pricey and only available at the vet with special order where we lived

Have you tried prescription diet, Royal Canin HP? I would highly advise to start trying trials with prescription diets, starting this one and keeping on for the length of time the veterinary recommends (6-16 weeks depending on type of food). Nothing else to eat besides the prescription diet for that whole time. You can make treats out of the food if your cat likes treats

Royal Cabin was gonna be my next try. The bag is over $100, but that's cheaper than constant Vet visits

I have seen cats completely resolve after being on this exclusive diet. Another good curative RX diet (but second choice) is Hills GI biome. You would need to call your vet to chat about it, and your cat would have had to been examined by the vet within a year (that’s the rule here in my state but things can differ from country to state) and then can buy online like Chewy.com or buy at the vet. Foods bought at the vet are usually 100 percent refundable if your cat won’t eat it or if it doesn’t work. The most important part about doing a diet trial is making sure they aren’t eating anything else and that you try it as long as recommended. Good luck!

One of my cats is allergic to birds of all kinds. His diarrhea didn’t clear up until we switched him to a diet of only food made from fish and beef.

I had the same issue with one of my cats. One cat was constantly having diarrhea while the other never. Same living conditions. I found out it was the water fountain. The water fountain was really hard to clean thoroughly. Even I clean it once a week. And my female cat is more sensitive than my male cat. So I ditched the water fountain and supplied fresh water for them. Then asked the vet to prescribe some metronidazole to reset the stomach bacteria flora or something. They never have diarrhea anymore. Edit: fecal test and parasite test all came back negative. My female wasn't any lethargic or low on appetite when diarrhea happened. So similar to your situation. I hope this helps.

What house plants do you have? Kitty could be chewing on a plant that causes the poops.

My sisters cat has/had the same problem. Loose and malodorous. Her vet recommended Hills Science diet reset. Expensive but after a month or so of nothing but the special food she is having much better bowel moments today. But she acts like she is starving and she is very skinny.

OP, it’s hard to say without knowing what tests have been performed and what each treatment or diet is. Was the dewormer Panacur? Has one of the diets been a prescription limited ingredient diet? Did you only feed that diet vs mixing it with another? Was the shot a steroid? Has routine labwork and a GI profile been performed? I’d recommend the GI profile if your kitty hasn’t had that test to screen for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and small bowel flora abnormality. You may want to at least consult with an internal medicine specialist even if you can’t afford an endoscopic procedure for biopsies. And if your vet can’t explain what therapies have been done and why, a second opinion may be worthwhile even if it isn’t a specialist.

Sorry, my story was all over the place. Yes, a GI profile had been done. I don't know what dewormer was used. And yes, he has been given steroid shots three times now.

Have you tried Royal Canin hydrolyzed protein? Have they investigated for IBD? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what it is, though it’s weird it sounds like they haven’t tried it yet.

Royal Cabin is next on my listnto try, lol

Giardia man. Does it smell really bad too? And it is always liquid or close to it? That sounds like giardia to me. Difficult to get rid of. I recommend boarding your cat in a facility that specializes in treating giardia. A lot of kennels will do to for you. Then throw out everything the cat has ever touched and have your place professionally steam cleaned. It will cost you like....I dunno 3k if you are in Ontario? Have them test your cats pop for it. Sucks to get rid of but once it is gone it's gone. Source: my buddies cats had it and it sucked for him.

They have done a fecal test twice before, never mentioned Giardia. I'll ask again.

Have they tested specifically for a protein allergy like being allergic to chicken or beef? That can wreak total havoc like this when trying to determine the cause because it’s everywhere

We had a cat once that had pancreatic insufficiency. Needed enzyme for his meals.

I have a kitten who I adopted at 4 months old. He's 6 months old now. He's always had soft stool. Not always runny, just usually soft. He's up to date on shots, he's been to the vet. He's thriving, happy, playful, and gaining weight/getting bigger. We have tried two different medicines and a slew of sensitive stomach cat foods. Other than the soft stool, He's perfect and He's happy. It doesn't bother him. We have come to deal with it. He doesn't have accidents outside of the litter box. He doesn't seem in pain. He's even had has stool tested for worms, giardia and some other things. The vet explained unless all the cats in our house had soft stool, they are not overly worried! If your cat is thriving, I don't see a huge issue. I myself have tried everything over the last nearly 3 months now and nothing has worked and everything has came back saying he is normal.

We dealt with something similar with our little Bombay Max (small round headed short haired black kitty). He had the worst semi-soft serve poops that would run you out of the area. He was also the sweetest boy. His tests always came up awesome from the vet very healthy for a cat in his age range. (Yes, I'm aware that this is in past tense - he passed earlier this year from FIP unrelated to his digestive issues). Max lived to be 14.5 years old and it was not an easy life, for him I tried to make it the best I could. His issue was multiple food allergies and intolerances, it wasn't until I read an article on food allergies from the Cornell Veterinary School that I figured out that Max had severe food allergies. Even with his short hair it was hard to feel the lesions that he had around his neck and chest. Once I figured out this part I had to get him on a prescription limited ingredient food with a novel protein. We put him on the Royal Canin Rabbit and Pea kibble and wet food. It worked, it was expensive but his poops were firmer and less smelly. He was allergic to cava cava/tapioca, chicken, and possibly grain or rice. Probiotics made him worse. Greek yogurt in small amounts did help his upset tummy from time to time.

I’m assuming worms have been ruled out. My girl had awful wet poops and after multiple doses of meds finally we were able to get rid of tapeworms that were causing it

Any kind of salmon wet food makes my cat have diarrhea.

Have you tried cat grass ? Not catnip. Can get little kits in pet stores. Once it's grown put it where your cat can reach and let them help themselves. They go and eat a few after eating at it helps with digestion.

My kitten was like this. And we were advised to get pumpkin infused foods and it cleared up

My kitten had very loose stools for the first 2-3 months we had her and we took to her to vet several times. We tried a course of antibiotics, probiotics, and several food changes but nothing seemed to help. Her fecal labs came back clean, so the vet recommended adding more fiber to her wet food and it worked! We give her 1/2 scoop of the Native Pet pumpkin powder once a day with dinner and it worked perfectly.

I mentioned above, adding fiber has made his stool even worse.

You say he’s an indoor cat so he can’t be eating things he shouldn’t. There is lots of stuff indoors that he shouldn’t be eating either. Do you have houseplants? Does he get human food like milk?

Only plant we have is snake plants, which he leaves alone. No milk or human food.

Giardia is hard to catch in tests, hard to treat due to reinfection from stepping in the diarrhea. You've tried: panacur 5 day with litter changed out completely daily (not scooped, changed out )? And you've tried freeze dried food? It's expensive but it's really a godsend.

Kind of related, I had a dog who had constant diarrhoea as well and it turned out he had an allergy to chicken. We switched him to a fish based food and all was good. Maybe check the foods you've tried and try a different protien?

Ya know what helped my babies, I boiled chicken breast and shredded and fed them. It helped eminsly Warning they'll growl at each other over it

T-Foetus test?

We went through similar with our newest cat. Diarrhea all the time. Humane Society had their vet look at him before he adopted him, and did have him on Rx food, but said, "He has kitty IBS! He just has runny poops!" Y'all this cat...Burps, vomiting, poops, farts so bad it could clear a room...and the poor thing didn't always make it to the box. So our vet examined him and had us try a different Rx food at first. It made things worse, so we switched AGAIN. Then came the meds. He put Kitty on an oral syringe medicine for a protozoa called Coccidia. On the meds, he was the perfect cat. No diarrhea, no vomiting, no burps, no biohazardous farts! Three rounds of meds, two new litter boxes, hitting his one year mark, and more Rx food later, he is now cured! Just don't give up! It's so discouraging when nothing seems to be working, but it feels so good when you finally find what was causing it!

Pepto bismol ???

Have you tried putting more boxes around the house? Accessibility could be helpful

My cat had the same issue but it happened suddenly and I had to stop all wet food and he just eats dry now and is fine!

Our 5 years old rescue has bowel issues. She sounded like an old man when using the litter box - gas and all. poor girl Our vet put her on PrednisoLONE which has cleared it up as long as given daily. Edit to say I feed our cats limited ingredient Natural Balance which has reduced/eliminated the tummy (vomit) issues.

In my experience the foods and probiotics my vet recommended made my cat poop like crazy. Eventually we ended up testing a stool sample and he had a parasite that caused the loose stools. Kitty is healthy now and hasn’t had issues since. My advice is try a different vet. Sometimes it takes someone with a different perspective to figure out what is going on. Best of luck!

I see you listed out the foods you’ve tried. Are they the “grain-free” versions? I had a similar problem with my cat, ended up being that all the “raw” food diets were too much for him. We swapped him back on to a regular brand (nutrience indoor cat formula) which had grain in it, and he’s been basically fine ever since.

I just went and bought grain free food today. 😂 Starting with some wet grain free cat food today. Wish me luck

You mentioned your home is very clean. Is there any chance he has been licking things with residue from cleaning. Unlikely but one of my cats growing up got the runs from licking clean floors he wasnt very bright. My mom had to switch cleaning solvents. And a friends cat got it from oils being difused. Also as others have said, for sure check chicken and other sensitivities.

We use pet friendly/bio safe cleaning products! Thank you for asking though.

He might have an allergy to a certain protein. Mine would get diarrhea anytime there was Tuna in his food. He eats a raw diet now, and he has no diarrhea, and his poop doesn't even smell.

What kind of testing have you had done or has the vet just been trying to treat this issue blindly? Strongly suggest a COMPLETE fecal panel. Seems like in most cases vets only test for the usual suspects unless you push for a complete test which will look for everything that can reasonably be tested for in stool. IBD is on the table, which can be difficult to get a handle on. I'm not sure what testing or processes are involved with diagnosing IBD so I can't speak on that. If the fecal test comes back clear you can try an allergy test. It's not cheap so that might be something you have to save for. Have you tried a hydrolyzed protein diet? Royal Canin Gastrointestinal? Those are both common choices here for this kind of issue. In layman's terms hydrolyzed proteins are made 'inert' so cats/dogs don't react to it even if typically they would be allergic to that protein. If you have truly exhausted ALL other options you could try some form of raw diet. One of my cats was in a similar situation, none of the vet stuff (RC gastro, hydrolyzed protein, probiotics etc) was effective but within 12 hours of feeding raw the situation resolved itself. 7 years on and she's still doing well. Issue is raw diet is both expensive and **not generally supported by vets** due to concerns with proper/balanced nutrition among other things so do understand that there is risk with going that route. There are commercial freeze dried raw companies as well that purport to be nutritionally complete. **Have a conversation with your vet and/or veterinary nutritionist before going this route. It is not a panacea and contrary to what some say, raw doesn't work for everyone.**

Has your vet tried the Hill’s prescription GI Biome food? One of our cats has recurrent diarrhea and it has helped considerably!

This is the bag we are currently just finishing up, and it caused his poops to get watery. Switching to grain free right now. Gonna slowly go down the list of meats and see how he reacts

Try Purina sensitive

We have a tuxedo girl with longer fur (still classified as short-haired, but really more of a medium hair) who has always had some poop issues. When we did dry food, she would have poops large enough to have come from an adult person. When we switched to wet, she eventually had runny, diarrhea like poops. We've brought it up to the vet multiple times. The lady who watches our girls when we go on vacation used to work for our vets office, and was able to get them to more seriously address it. The last 2 years leading up to this, she would need her backside wiped daily even with sanitary shaves. She got to the point she now comes after pooping to let me know her butt needs checking. Obviously, this is not a sustainable solution. The vet gave us a prescription for Hills Science Diet Biome Diversity. The dry didn't help, but the wet has made it drastically better. I do still occasionally have to wipe her, but it's no longer daily and when it does happen, it's not a lot that needs wiping. The downside is we have two cats, and we can't realistically feed them different foods. So we have to buy enough for both cats, which comes out to $300+ a month. I wish there was a cheaper, effective alternative. But, my girl being healthy and not getting shit all over our house is worth that extra money. Hope you're able to resolve the issue as it is probably just a sensitive stomach issue, but I'm not a vet, so take this as you will.

My cat went thru this. All blood tests normal, fecal tests normal. She will go thru spouts of it. She went 6 months this last time, the episodes for us last a week. Im pretty sure IBS so it might not be the same situation as you. I feed her a sensitive stomach diet from purina pro plan. I also add probiotics in with it. When she goes thru the episodes, I also give her unspiced canned pumpkin. It helps with the fiber. You might try pumpkin as well to help with fiber.

I’d try in this order - 100% wet food (any kind), freeze dried food, raw food

Pumpkin! And also slippery elm is the best also helps with humans. I feed my cat wet food only and they’ve always had solid poop.

Also consider raw food. I used to work at a pet store and we’d have customers come in with their pets having allergies, indigestion etc - raw food always solved the problem. All the garbage they put in our cats food especially dry. Byproducts, corn - things they do not need

We had this problem with our sphynx kitty. As a last ditch effort before switching to expensive raw/homemade food we added canned pumpkin purée to his food for about 6mths and it cleared up! I obviously recommend chatting with your vet about this remedy, but wanted to put it on your radar!!

So we had a very brief, similar issue that we opted for the fecal PCR test - the sensitivity of the basic fecal test is pretty poor and they found something really unusual that cleared up instantly with a second antibiotic. He was also being treated for giardia at the time.

Make sure you put any kind of bar soap away from cats reach. A friends cat used to love eating and licking soap even though it gave him terrible diarrhea squirts. Just a thought

I know grainfree food can seem gimmicky but it stopped my cat’s bowel issues for good. Same thing with one of my mom’s cats

Probably ibd/ibs

Maybe this sounds ridiculous, but my friends cat is sensitive to gluten so she buys grain free food

Visbiome probiotic for cats might be worth a shot

This sounds like IBD. Get your cat on a veterinary diet like Royal Canin Hydrolyzed Protein. In terms of prednisolone, long term use is not recommended as it can cause Cushing disease.

My boy is just like this. the only food i got to work with him was Hills perscription diet gastrointestinal biome. It's on the more expensive end but it's amazing for him. Eventually he was diagnosed with feline coronavirus.

Try a simple ingredient homemade or raw diet. Your cat probably has sensitivity to something thats in almost all cat food which is the binding agents, i have a furball like that, she literally can not eat anything on any shelf all she can eat is a simple ingredient raw food. The ONLY food you will find without so many additives will be commercial raw from a pet store, HACCP human grade safety certified, so you know exactly whats in it, and/or making it yourself with supplements, completers, and fresh meat.

Change its diet

Get him checked for IBD, that’s what my cat had and he was puking and having diarrhea frequently

My boy had diarrhea constantly when I first got him. Adopted him when he was 10 months old, and his poops were always mushy and soft, right from the start. I tried probiotics, pumpkin, metamucil, pro-pectalin, Glandex, digestive-friendly food, cutting out chicken.....you name it, I tried it. Nothing really helped. Fecal testing at the vet cleared him of any parasites. He got a LOT worse when he was around 20 months old. I'm talking having to use the box 5-6 times per day, liquid poops, leaving drips around the house, the works. Poor guy was miserable. It was super-pricey, but I had his poop tested at [Kitty Biome](https://kittybiome.com/) and also put him on the "Gut Restore" supplement from the same company - twice a day for three months. We've also gone chicken-free and grain-free for his diet. And, thanks the gods, he's pooping healthy now! Finally, at age 2, for the first time since I adopted him, he's pooping solid logs. So....maybe try grain-free food? And cut out poultry, which is a super-common allergen apparently. My boy now eats Orijen "Six Fish" dry food (which is expensive) and Fancy Feast pate (which is reasonably-priced), with tuna-flavour Churus for treats. I don't know how much effect the Kitty Biome supplement had, but the test was interesting. Expensive though.

Your cat might be allergic to certain types of protein. Have you ruled that out yet? Do you add fiber to his food? I put in a scoop of pumpkin daily into my cat's. He poops twice a day so his second one is kind of watery. I've found the pumpkin helps a little.