Confusing poops

TooFar McGee

Member Since 2025
Hey y'all. I didn't know quite where else to ask this, and there are so many really knowledgeable folks here with so much experience, I figured this was good a' place as any.

I've seen a lot of things in my life, but nothing quite like this. Pertinent health history in signature... Just started on S.Boullardi for not-super-frequent-but-still-pretty-loose poops. Was on Visbiome flavored with fortiflora, then moved to Proviable DC when I ran out of Visbiome. When the vet gave us cans of "sensitive stomach" food allergy Hills food and we had a little bit of time where I had to syringe feed, he had huge, copious blowouts. I cut that stuff out and he's back to just his dry food (I know, I am working toward transitioning away from it, but I wanted to go back to his 'last known good' for his sake) and I'm crushing a little bit of freeze dried rabbit over his food, which he seems to LOVE.

BUT

these loose poops, though.

They're weird. He's eating well with Cerenia and Mirataz, drinking well, the poops have no visible sign of blood or anything suspect, but... they're darn near odorless. At MOST they smell very mildly vinegary, like apple cider vinegar. This has come out in my favor when he's stepped in it or dragged his tail in it and jumped up in my lap for cuddles. (Thanks bro, I love you, too.)

But... what IS this? The poop is yellow, stains, but doesn't smell particularly bilious (I moonlight in endoscopy and am pretty well acquainted with the look/smell/texture of human bile) piles are kinda cow patty-esque (like a 6ish on the Bristol stool chart?) and thankfully with a lot less gas than before. Gut sounds seem normal (or more normal) to me. Still trying to get numbers under better control, but it feels unnecessarily difficult on his old higher-carb diet.

We ARE backing off his prednisolone. He was on 7.5mg/day for bowel inflammation. We cut to 5 for 5 days, now 2.5. On Tues, planning on 2.5 every other day. I'm not really sure that this has had much of an impact because prior to his dx and all he wasn't eating very much at all, but those poops were more soft-serve.

Vet is suggesting flagyl, but I wanted to run all this by the incredible kitty collective here as well.

Thanks for sh*t talkin' with me here!

...sorry I couldn't resist. lol
 
Hey y'all. I didn't know quite where else to ask this, and there are so many really knowledgeable folks here with so much experience, I figured this was good a' place as any.

I've seen a lot of things in my life, but nothing quite like this. Pertinent health history in signature... Just started on S.Boullardi for not-super-frequent-but-still-pretty-loose poops. Was on Visbiome flavored with fortiflora, then moved to Proviable DC when I ran out of Visbiome. When the vet gave us cans of "sensitive stomach" food allergy Hills food and we had a little bit of time where I had to syringe feed, he had huge, copious blowouts. I cut that stuff out and he's back to just his dry food (I know, I am working toward transitioning away from it, but I wanted to go back to his 'last known good' for his sake) and I'm crushing a little bit of freeze dried rabbit over his food, which he seems to LOVE.

BUT

these loose poops, though.

They're weird. He's eating well with Cerenia and Mirataz, drinking well, the poops have no visible sign of blood or anything suspect, but... they're darn near odorless. At MOST they smell very mildly vinegary, like apple cider vinegar. This has come out in my favor when he's stepped in it or dragged his tail in it and jumped up in my lap for cuddles. (Thanks bro, I love you, too.)

But... what IS this? The poop is yellow, stains, but doesn't smell particularly bilious (I moonlight in endoscopy and am pretty well acquainted with the look/smell/texture of human bile) piles are kinda cow patty-esque (like a 6ish on the Bristol stool chart?) and thankfully with a lot less gas than before. Gut sounds seem normal (or more normal) to me. Still trying to get numbers under better control, but it feels unnecessarily difficult on his old higher-carb diet.

We ARE backing off his prednisolone. He was on 7.5mg/day for bowel inflammation. We cut to 5 for 5 days, now 2.5. On Tues, planning on 2.5 every other day. I'm not really sure that this has had much of an impact because prior to his dx and all he wasn't eating very much at all, but those poops were more soft-serve.

Vet is suggesting flagyl, but I wanted to run all this by the incredible kitty collective here as well.

Thanks for sh*t talkin' with me here!

...sorry I couldn't resist. lol
Welcome to FDMB
sorry you are going thru a poop issue, many times tines for what I have read in this forum the constant or rapid changes in foods can cause irritations and belly upsets, I will tag a couple of our members that have an immense medical knowledge :bighug: on health cat issues, if any one can answer your concerns
@Wendy&Neko
@Sienne and Gabby (GA)
 
Flagyl or metronidazole isn't a great option - it can ruin the gut biome. Was he better on the Visbiome? Was he better on higher doses of prednisolone? I'm trying to figure out if things have changes and if so when in relation to what has changed. ie. food or meds or supplements.

Have his B12 levels ever been tested? s. boulardii doesn't work if B12 levels are low. Was his IBD confirmed with a biopsy?
 
He hasn't had a biopsy because he wasn't a great candidate for anesthesia on account of his heart murmur. B12 levels have been normal but he's also on a supplement for it. I'm not super worried because a lot of stuff has changed. I *think* he was better on the higher level of prednisolone, but he was also put on the higher level of prednisolone for painful BMs.

The visbiome use coincided with the prednisolone dose jump, and the reduction in pred dose also coincided with running out of visbiome. hmm...

Basically, everything has changed for the poor bugger in the past month or so while I've been trying to figure things out.
 
Sorry for what you’re going thru, we want to do everything possible to help our babies, don’t feel discouraged, I’m sure there will more members that will plug in on your concern with valuable information and help, hang tight :bighug:
 
Might be worth writing down a list of what was done when by date, and see if you can identify changes that correspond with the odd poops. It's hard when a lot of things have to be changed at once, to figure out the cause.

Heart murmurs can be age related and benign, or indicate some condition that is fine for anesthesia or not, but an echocardiogram would be needed first.
 
Back
Top