Cat possibly in remission still has diarrhea?

[mintealette]

My cat Zoey (8), was diagnosed back in January of this year & was treated with Bexacat for the first month or so. The treatment caused more problems than it was worth & so I ended up switching vets.

New doctor wanted to stop the Bexacat to allow her sugar to go back up before starting insulin. It's been several months with visits to the vet for a glucose check every couple weeks. Her blood sugar has come back normal each time & her doctor thinks she may already have gone into remission. They want to check back in a month to see if there's been any change, & that appointment is coming up soon

She appears to be doing so much better, but the poor thing is still experiencing bouts of diarrhea & nausea (The nausea usually comes after eating, but also sometimes out of nowhere, so I'm unsure of what could be causing it) - Most of the time, it's soft stools, but we do see liquid stools from time to time. This has been a problem for the both of us, as the constant soft stools are causing her poor bottom some irritation, & she leaves stains wherever she sits after using the box. I use pet safe butt wipes to clean her bottom after bowel movements in hopes of preventing further irritation

As far as diet goes, she gets 1/4 can of 9Lives pate at 8:00 AM & then another 1/4 can at 8:00 PM
At both noon & 4:00 PM, her timed feeder will spit out one small serving of Young Again Zero Mature in case she gets the munchies between mealtimes, but most of the time, she leaves some dry food in the bowl.
As I said before, she's never been on insulin & hasn't been on any kind of treatment at all since late February

I've talked to her doctor about this & was told to try giving her some FortiFlora, but it hasn't really helped much. I plan to bring it up again on this upcoming visit, but in the meantime, I wondered if anyone on this forum might have some advice for me.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Did the vet tell you what the blood glucose readings were when he said they were normal. It would be really good if you could find out what they were. Often what the vet considers is normal is not what we consider is normal.
Also I would recommend you test the urine for ketones while you are in this period of seeing if the remission will hold and the diarrhoea is present. Ketones can form in diabetic cats if there is not enough food, not enough insulin and I am concerned about the diarrhoea…
To test for ketones you will need a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy. And you collect a urine sample and test it against the colours on the side of the bottle. There should be no ketones. It is an insurance and well worth it as u don’t want ketones in the picture.
Re the diarrhoea.i would recommend you try Visbiome. It is excellent. You could try SBoulardii. I have tried both. SBoulardii I found good for an acute episode and the Visbiome for a more chronic case.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I agree with Bron re. using a probiotic. I've had very positive experience with S. boulardii for acute episodes of diarrhea.

I'd also suggest holding off on the Young Again food and see if the diarrhea clears up. It's a fairly rich food and a number of members have reported their cats having diarrhea especially the starting it as a new food.