Cat with persistent diarrhea

[MargoPlicatus]

My 6 year old neutered male cat has always had digestive issues ever since we adopted him as a kitten. He has had chronic diarrhea and can never seem to gain weight. We had a fecal done which showed that he had coccidiosis, and we cleared that up but the symptoms persisted. We finally got a diarrhea panel done and the vet informed us that he has coronavirus as well as Clostridium Perfringens Enterotoxin. We were told to put him on a week long antibiotic regimen (Clavamox) as well as probiotics. We also switched his food to chicken/rice/baby food mash temporarily. He was better while on the medication. However, we took him off of it about a day ago and the bloody, smelly diarrhea is back again.

Has anyone had any experience with this? What did you do for your cat and was it a successful treatment? Thank you so much in advance for your help!

[opus88]

hi..I have to be out for morning but I will try and reply to this better later today. I too had a cat with same problems as your (Tia) she has been gone now for a few years.....the bloody diarrhea always...and tests. nothing ever showed up on her but than she was never given the 'diarrhea panel' either...my Vet always treated her with for IBD and steroids. she got very ill from the steroids, these if used for more than a once or twice treatment can lead to many health issues...
I'm just wondering if you've tried a diet OTHER than chicken? I've learned alot since Tia's passing. for one thing chicken is a MAJOR allergan.
I will do some research for you on the other conditions you mentioned later...I hope we can be of some help.♥

[MargoPlicatus]

Yeah he's had the diarrhea on and off since we adopted him and it's only recently gotten really bad, poor guy. Normally we could help him out with the chicken and rice diet for a few days but lately it hasn't been working so we decided that we needed a second opinion. The fecal run by the first vet we worked with wasn't too helpful. We tried a new vet (one that I volunteered with over a summer) and they ran a full diarrhea panel for us. The original vet didn't even suggest to do that.

With your cat, did he or she recover with the steroids? We're just trying to figure out quality of life with our little guy and what's worth it with his recovery as well as our options. All of these trips to the vet and pills shoved down his throat stress him out majorly. We've tried so many things (except steroids) and none of them seem to work. He's become so angry and mean, and we aren't sure whether it's fair to him to keep continuing this. But we also don't want to stop treatment and have him suffer from the diarrhea because we can definitely tell that it takes a toll on him. We're just very conflicted right now.

Thank you so much for your response though! I really appreciate your advice.

[AnnieBrooke]

It seems like the vets are not really giving you a full diagnosis.  You've been dealing with this 6 years and they just got around to a diarrhea panel?  

The antibiotics might help, and perhaps cure the issue but leave some irritation?  But he might also have a problem that a steroid could help.  It would have to be a very short run, however.  My cat with unexplained diarrhea was helped by a short run of one of the steroids that the vet tried when everything else went nowhere.

However, nobody can really tell you besides a good veterinary diagnostician.  I'm kind of amazed that you are willing to live with bloody, smelly diarrhea for so long.  I would be insisting the vet get some answers, or finding a GI specialist for the cat.