How do you help a cat with diarrhea?

[dragonlady302]

My 8 year old Bombay, Shadow (aka Pnut or Doo) has been having diarrhea on & off for a few weeks now. My cats have been eating dry in the morning & Tiki Cat wet food in the evening. Right after my Doo eats any wet food, he goes to the litter box. This is where it gets ugly. Sometimes I can hear him squirting the walls of his litterbox. This last time, there was some blood. Not a lot, but some. I am really worried about him. I don't have the funds to take him in so I thought I would see if I can get him on a better quality dry food. I am going to try out Taste of the Wild. I have already given both of my cats the wet of the same brand. They seemed to like it. But my poor Doo still has diarrhea. Maybe I should wait a few days to see if it clears up? I worry about swtiching foods because of that tainted pet food scare a few years back. A lot of pets died. I was going to try Fussie Cat, but I couldn't find any reviews. I guess it is a fairly new cat food. Recently, I gave Doo some boiled chicken & rice. He didn't like it & what he did eat didn't help him much. My Doo came into this world with severe upper respitory problems. I nursed him back to health. So, he almost always has the sniffles. And sometimes, he coughs, which I know isn't normal for a cat. He never has hairballs. He has never had tummy issues until recently. He is my best friend. I love him very much. I don't know how to help him. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

[smuttles]

Dragonlady,

You obviously love your animals and you have received excellent advice from a concerned reader but you've completely ignored it!  Obviously if the dry food is the most recent change in your kitty's diet than that could be what's causing the diarrhea therefore the first thing to do as the person above said is to eliminate the most recent change!  But you're talking about replacing your current dry food, likely the culpret for another dry food and eliminating Tiki which has obviously been working well for the past year.  WAKE UP for your kitty's sake!  I realize times are tough financically but make it work!  Buy less hair products, ask a friend for help, do what you need to do for your animals sake but if Tiki is working leave well enough alone!

[dragonlady302]

Thanks for the information. I have been feeding them Tiki Cat for about a year now. Only I wasn't feeding them dry too. I was told that dry food is not that good for them. I ran into some financial strains & wasn't able to feed them wet twice a day. Reluctantly, I started to feed them dry again. I was giving them both Purina One, but now I am trying out the Taste of the Wild. I bought a large bag, but haven't opened it yet. They gave me a couple of sample bags to see how they like it first. They told me that less ingredients is easier on their systems. I am going to give it a few days & see if it helps. My older cat, Shmokey vomits foam sometimes, so I need to find a food that will work for both of them. I cannot afford to have them on different diets. I will let you know in a few days how things are going on the Taste of the Wild diet. What I plan to do so that it isn't a severe shock to their systems is alternate the wet food. Tiki Cat one night, then Taste of the Wild the next night. I guess I am suppose to eventually phase out the Tiki Cat if I plan on introducing a new food. But I know they love Tiki Cat, so I don't want to stop feeding them that completely. Shmokey doesn't have diarrhea at all. Thanks again for the advice. I will look into that product you mentioned. Thanks for saying he is beautiful...He is really sweet too. He gives me kisses & cuddles. :)

[opus88]

hi, I am going to send you the link to iherb for an excellent product called slippery elm bark, this one in Now Foods is the safest one(no additives) for cats. ....I won't write out all the directions on how to prepare UNTIL I know if you are going to buy this, when you do contact me for the mixing directions ok...simple, just alot of typing.

http://www.iherb.com/Now-Foods-Slippery-Elm-Powder-4-oz-113-g/788?at=0

this will 'coat' his intestines and help with the diarrhea.

first of all, how long have you been feeding Tiki?...excellent food, but I just wondered if he has just recently been changed and how quickly?
a fast change in diet can cause diarrhea.

there is something really irritating his colon inorder to have the explosive diarrhea you are describing.
the most likely place to start is with the diet, eliminate the newest food as a trial and work from there....
DON'T add anything new, NO new foods until the diarrhea is under control, instead of adding do an ELIMINATION process and wait and see...

best of luck, btw welcome Shadow is a beautiful bombay,....♥