Tips for helping diarrhea?

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Randi & Effy

Randi & Effy

Member Since 2017
My Effy is newly diagnosed (10/4/17) and isn't on insulin yet, vet wanted to switch the diet and check back in a week or so. He's always been free fed dry food. He's eating the purina dm which I know isn't totally loved by this forum but before I found this website I bought a crap ton of the cans to start the transition asap. In his blood work they also saw high white blood cells so they gave him clavamox for any possible infections. He's had diarrhea since last Thursday. Loud, crazy amounts of diarrhea. Called vet Monday and he told me to stop the clavamox and see how it goes. Today is day 3 of being off clavamox and the diarrhea is still awful. I can't tell if it's just not out of his system all the way yet or if it's just the sudden transition from all dry food to all wet food. Has anyone else had problems with diarrhea after transitioning to wet food? I know I should get off the purina dm and find something else, is there any certain brand that helped your cat's tummies during the transition? Should I take him in and see if it's something else? I just feel so bad for him, and i'm also sick of cleaning up puddles of poop when he can't make it to the box in time. It's really worrying me to be honest but I feel like a crazy person calling the vet over and over. I figure he might be one of the cats who just needs some carbs maybe? Like his stomach can't handle JUST wet food? I ordered a bag of young again and it should be here sometime tomorrow, I was going to either mix a little bit in with the wetfood or just leave it out for grazing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!
 
Fast food changes will cause stomach upset and can take a few days to settle back down. The AB can also cause diarrhea.

Have you tried adding in some pumpkin to his food - a tsp (plan pumkin - so sugars or spices) and see if that helps?

If you have any forti-flora around, that can helps.
 
I think I'll try the pumpkin asap, plain pumpkin? So do I buy an actual pumpkin and scoop it or do I buy canned pumpkin? Lol. I've never bought any form of pumpkin in my life!! :facepalm:
 
I’ve never used forta flora, but I understand it’s not a very good probiotic, though it will help stimulate their appetites. The Florastor (a human probiotic) seems to clear up diarrhea fairly quickly. I used it once when my cat had the runs and within a day he was much better. I’ll tag @Bobbie And Bubba for the dosage as I can’t remember. You can get Florastor at Walgreens and other pharmacies. Many swear by pumpkin but my cat won’t eat it, so I can’t say how well it works.
 
A probiotic might help. Fortiflora and Florastor are brands of probiotic products. My sister's cat is has been having the runny poop BAD lately, and her vet put him on Foritflora. I just got some Dr Mercola Complete Probiotic that I plan to try with my girls, not for diarrhea but just for overall gastrointestinal health and immune system support.

Regarding the pumpkin.. my girls would not have anything to do with it until I stirred it into their wet food (pate) really well along with the water I always add, then they ate it up without seeming to notice. :)
 
Not sure if Bobbie’s around, so I looked up the Florastor dose from info she gave me in case you decide to try it:

The florastor is 1/2 capsule 2 X day for a therapeutic dose. Then when the diarrhea stops, do a maintenance dose of 1/4 capsule 2 X day for about 3 days beyond the diarrhea stopping.
 
Sharon14 said:
Not sure if Bobbie’s around, so I looked up the Florastor dose from info she gave me in case you decide to try it:

The florastor is 1/2 capsule 2 X day for a therapeutic dose. Then when the diarrhea stops, do a maintenance dose of 1/4 capsule 2 X day for about 3 days beyond the diarrhea stopping.
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Thanks Sharon, I was away most of the day today. I have had really good results with the Florastor. It is pricey, around 50 bucks for 50 capsules. You can find it on line much cheaper but, when you need it you don't want to be waiting for the mail to come. Also, Jarrow brand is the same probiotic which is S. Boulardii and it is much cheaper than FloraStor but, it has something called MOS in it making it bitter and you can't just sprinkle it in the food like you can Florastor as most cats won't go for the taste so pilling it is necessary. My cat had no issue eating his food with the Florastor in it.
 
Both my cats had terrible diarrhea and the vet put them on antibiotics and my diabetic on steroids (which took him out of remission grrr) but I put them both on Fortiflora myself after doing some googling - and they are both clear within 3 days. I'm losing all faith in vets I'm afraid.
 
Bobbie And Bubba said:
Thanks Sharon, I was away most of the day today. I have had really good results with the Florastor. It is pricey, around 50 bucks for 50 capsules. You can find it on line much cheaper but, when you need it you don't want to be waiting for the mail to come. Also, Jarrow brand is the same probiotic which is S. Boulardii and it is much cheaper than FloraStor but, it has something called MOS in it making it bitter and you can't just sprinkle it in the food like you can Florastor as most cats won't go for the taste so pilling it is necessary. My cat had no issue eating his food with the Florastor in it.
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I found 20 capsules for $20 at target, they're 250 mg, is that the same amount you used for the 1/2 capsule 2x a day? Just figured i'd ask before I buy them!
 
what wet food flavor are you feeding him??
my cat got horrid diarrhea for 3 days after transitioning to only low carb wetfood at first. was so bad on third day that he actually pooped out loads of runny food, overnight YA whole kibble pieces and two hairballs! it smelled like his favorite FF savory salmon so i stopped feeding him the salmon. gave him 1/2 dose of Pet Pectillin that i remembered i still had (3.74 on Amazon if you spend a certain amount??) and i switched to FF turkey and giblets adding a little water to make it soupy and not even 2 days later no more diarrhea. some kitties can't handle fishy foods. We also use fortiflora, works well on preventing sensitive stomach issues if given regularly but, not a cure for diarrhea right off the bat IMO.
 
Sylvie said:
what wet food flavor are you feeding him??
my cat got horrid diarrhea for 3 days after transitioning to only low carb wetfood at first. was so bad on third day that he actually pooped out loads of runny food, overnight YA whole kibble pieces and two hairballs! it smelled like his favorite FF savory salmon so i stopped feeding him the salmon. gave him 1/2 dose of Pet Pectillin that i remembered i still had (3.74 on Amazon if you spend a certain amount??) and i switched to FF turkey and giblets adding a little water to make it soupy and not even 2 days later no more diarrhea. some kitties can't handle fishy foods. We also use fortiflora, works well on preventing sensitive stomach issues if given regularly but, not a cure for diarrhea right off the bat IMO.
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He's on the purina dm wetfood, hes got savory selects and the pate... he eats the pate but only licks up the gravy when i give him the savory selects, but i think its mostly liver from what i can tell in both flavors... I switched him to young again dry today just to see if he'd eat it and now it seems like hes been waiting all day for me to give him the canned food again but the poops stopped since youngagain but now i'm scared i might have constipated him lol but yeah!! His poops were SO bad the past week that one day i woke up to two puddles covering the litter box and then 3 puddles in my dining room, it was awful i felt so bad.. i'm gunna go buy some ff tomorrow and try the florastor if I notice he's still got diarrhea. But like I said, he hasn't pooped all day or lastnight so not sure if it's stopped or if he's backed up now :( so frusterating trying to find a middle ground during the transitioning. Really impressed with ya's customer service though, they messaged me right away on facebook and answered all my questions. Wish I felt comfortable just feeding him that but I just have a bad feeling about going back to dry food now even if it is made for diabetic cats.
 
rndbrkr said:
He's on the purina dm wetfood, hes got savory selects and the pate... he eats the pate but only licks up the gravy when i give him the savory selects, but i think its mostly liver from what i can tell in both flavors... I switched him to young again dry today just to see if he'd eat it and now it seems like hes been waiting all day for me to give him the canned food again but the poops stopped since youngagain but now i'm scared i might have constipated him lol but yeah!! His poops were SO bad the past week that one day i woke up to two puddles covering the litter box and then 3 puddles in my dining room, it was awful i felt so bad.. i'm gunna go buy some ff tomorrow and try the florastor if I notice he's still got diarrhea. But like I said, he hasn't pooped all day or lastnight so not sure if it's stopped or if he's backed up now :( so frusterating trying to find a middle ground during the transitioning. Really impressed with ya's customer service though, they messaged me right away on facebook and answered all my questions. Wish I felt comfortable just feeding him that but I just have a bad feeling about going back to dry food now even if it is made for diabetic cats.
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aww your baby sounds like he had it bad if he went outside litterbox like that! after the diarrhea finally stopped, my cat also didn't go poop again till after two days later. after all that constant excess watery poop coming out for days, it makes sense their bodies would be making up for all the lost nutrients and all by not pooping much, if at all, for a couple days after i think.

From my experience with YA, there was no constipation with all 10 cats, very loose stools with ones that prefer mostly dry over wetfood was our problem.
Personally am not worried about my diabetic cat eating YA dry overnight and throughout the day if he wants. I add water to his FF turkey & giblet pate and make it soupy and he still likes to drink water after he eats so he gets plenty of water to make up for eating dry too. His numbers haven't gone up into the 300's but, twice i think in the last 9 days since letting him eat YA if he wants, he still gets his wet food too though. maybe you could perhaps try FF turkey & giblet with a little extra water for a couple meals a day and let him eat YA throughout the day/night too.
 
I found that too much pureed pumpkin can actually cause diarrhea. My kitty has IBD and is prone to runny poos so I have to be careful how much pumpkin I give him. It's great when/if he gets a little constipated but otherwise I have to really monitor how much he gets otherwise it sets off the runs. It's probably entirely different in cats who don't have IBD but I thought I would throw that out there just in case.
 
Just wanna come say thanks to everyone who commented on here! I tried the pumpkin but in fear of him not eating it, I put half a tsp in the morning with some water mixed into ff classics turkey and giblets and then another half tsp at night and he is having a LOT better poops than he was! It's not very solid but it's definitely not liquid anymore, thankfully! I switched from purina dm to ff classics finally and he LOVES it. I really hope we can get his numbers to drop a little more than they did with the purina in hopes of not needing insulin but that's very wishful thinking, lol. He will no longer eat young again :( I got a home bg meter and checked him a week after his initial diagnosis and he went down from 470 to 322, but has an ear infection so hopefully it'll go down a little more once he beats the infection, we're a few days into the ear drops. I think I'll test in a few days so I have a good idea the impact switching foods had and go from there. Wish us luck!! I really hope I can control most of this with his diet, the vet made it seem like diabetes was some sort of death sentence when I took him in for the ear infection. His words were "We'll check his numbers in another week or so and we can talk about if you want to put him down or try insulin" WHY on earth would I decide to put him down before trying insulin! Crazy. I can't stop thinking about him saying that.
 
rndbrkr said:
Just wanna come say thanks to everyone who commented on here! I tried the pumpkin but in fear of him not eating it, I put half a tsp in the morning with some water mixed into ff classics turkey and giblets and then another half tsp at night and he is having a LOT better poops than he was! It's not very solid but it's definitely not liquid anymore, thankfully! I switched from purina dm to ff classics finally and he LOVES it. I really hope we can get his numbers to drop a little more than they did with the purina in hopes of not needing insulin but that's very wishful thinking, lol. He will no longer eat young again :( I got a home bg meter and checked him a week after his initial diagnosis and he went down from 470 to 322, but has an ear infection so hopefully it'll go down a little more once he beats the infection, we're a few days into the ear drops. I think I'll test in a few days so I have a good idea the impact switching foods had and go from there. Wish us luck!! I really hope I can control most of this with his diet, the vet made it seem like diabetes was some sort of death sentence when I took him in for the ear infection. His words were "We'll check his numbers in another week or so and we can talk about if you want to put him down or try insulin" WHY on earth would I decide to put him down before trying insulin! Crazy. I can't stop thinking about him saying that.
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That's a horrendous response from your vet, just appalling. I'm not surprised you can't stop thinking about it. It shows a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of FD. I would seriously change my vet... just ring round some local ones and enquire about anyone who is înterested in working with you to treat your kitty. With the present vet I would worry about their ability and commitment, to be honest. Glad you found this site at least!
Re the diarrhea issue, whichnis why I looked at your post, glad it seems to be clearing up, would suggest keeping a note of any symptoms after food changes. My civie had occasional bouts recently and although I dont know for sure, I think it could have been liver in some of the food I was giving her. Some kitties are allergic, or at least sensitive, to different ingredients.
Wishing you luck!
 
Get a new vet! That is terrible.. and totally ignorant.. that your vet said that. :mad: If his child was diagnosed with diabetes, would he 'put him down'???

I am glad the pumpkin is working, and glad you have more sense than your vet.
 
IBD is very common in diabetic cats unfortunately. My cat Tribby has had both since the beginning of her diagnosis. Check out www.ibdkitties.org for great tips on treating diarrhea. Slippery elm and s boulardii are my favorites.
The er stop method of s boulardii is my go to method when Tribby has bad diarrhea.
 
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