Long-time chronic diarrhea problem...

Been really struggling with this one. I know this is a long post, but I
thought it would be good to be thorough and provide all the details.

It started over 4 months ago when my 3 year old male (nuetered) had a
urinary problem, and a prescription diet (Science Diet WD) was started to
treat it. I introduced the diet gradually over about a week, but he got
diarrhea from the new food. I let him go on this diet (probably for too
long), maybe 3 weeks or so (he was using the crawl space under house instead
of his box so I didn't monitor him). I then gradually switched him back to
his regular food which had previously never gave him the runs. This did
nothing to help (I had him on the regular food about 3 weeks).

So I took him to the vet:

Vet visit 1
=========
fecal worm check (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
and put on Metronidazole

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Put him on Science Diet ID to help with diarrhea problem and to continue to
address urinary problem.
Another round of Metronidazole
Sulfasalazine pills were now introduced

No improvement in condition

Vet visit 2
========
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
Yet nother round of Metronidazole
and another round of Sulfasalazine
Switched to special diet IVD duck and green peas (yes, duck and peas
predominantly. The thought is to put him on a very different diet, assuming
the problem is a food alergy). No gradual introduction here because he has
diarrhea anyway.

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Cat hated the duck so switched him to IVD rabbit and peas and he eats this.

After a few weeks on rabbit and peas dry food, there was a period of a week
or 2 where there was some occasional signs of hardening of feces. This
period of improvement proved temporary. Now it's back to pretty much cow pie
or slightly thicker (nothing well formed).

I also tried giving him some yoghurt, but I have to give him a very small
quantity (like 1/2 teaspoon or less) or he'll puke (he's very sensitive to
most anything other than his regular diet). Yoghurt didn't seem to help, but
I only did this for about a week and a half. I never feed him treats or
anything other than his regular food.

I was starting to get encouraged when he was showing signs of improvement,
but the improvement kind of stopped. I hate giving him all those pills (he's
been off them for a good while now), they did nothing, and now the vet wants
to explore more serious things like a disease of the intestines, or cancer,
but I really doubt these things as his attitude is normal (plays, is happy,
and has normal energy, drinks plenty of watr, though he's not happy about
his sore butt from the diarrhea). These tests the vet wants to do are also
very expensive and surgery is necessary for one of them (big bucks there).

This whole thing started with the diet change. Diarrhea was never a problem
before the diet change. Maybe it's a food alergy, I don't know.

In other threads, someone had mentioned a cooked rice diet, another
mentioned acidophilus in powder form. I really need to do something, and I'd
like to try something before going back to the vet. My gut feeling is that
there is nothing seriously wrong like a disease or cancer.

Anyone have any ideas?

(if you read this whole thing, thank you very much!)
-- Hank

In news Hank being of bellicose mind posted:
snip
It started over 4 months ago when my 3 year old male (nuetered)
had a urinary problem, and a prescription diet (Science Diet WD)
was started to treat it. I introduced the diet gradually over
about a week, but he got diarrhea from the new food.
snip
So I took him to the vet:

Vet visit 1
=========
fecal worm check (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
and put on Metronidazole

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Put him on Science Diet ID to help with diarrhea problem and to
continue to address urinary problem.
Another round of Metronidazole
Sulfasalazine pills were now introduced

No improvement in condition

Vet visit 2
========
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
Yet nother round of Metronidazole
and another round of Sulfasalazine
Switched to special diet IVD duck and green peas (yes, duck and
peas predominantly. The thought is to put him on a very different
diet, assuming the problem is a food alergy). No gradual
introduction here because he has diarrhea anyway.

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
snip
This whole thing started with the diet change. Diarrhea was never
a problem before the diet change. Maybe it's a food alergy, I
don't know.
snip
Anyone have any ideas?

(if you read this whole thing, thank you very much!)
-- Hank

GET A NEW VETERINARIAN! In the meantime, did anyone try dry food?
What about fur ball accumulations in intestines? How about tap water
with too much chlorine in it?
--

~~Philip

"Never let school interfere
with your education - Mark Twain"

In news Hank being of bellicose mind posted:
snip
It started over 4 months ago when my 3 year old male (nuetered)
had a urinary problem, and a prescription diet (Science Diet WD)
was started to treat it. I introduced the diet gradually over
about a week, but he got diarrhea from the new food.
snip
So I took him to the vet:

Vet visit 1
=========
fecal worm check (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
and put on Metronidazole

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Put him on Science Diet ID to help with diarrhea problem and to
continue to address urinary problem.
Another round of Metronidazole
Sulfasalazine pills were now introduced

No improvement in condition

Vet visit 2
========
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
Yet nother round of Metronidazole
and another round of Sulfasalazine
Switched to special diet IVD duck and green peas (yes, duck and
peas predominantly. The thought is to put him on a very different
diet, assuming the problem is a food alergy). No gradual
introduction here because he has diarrhea anyway.

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
snip
This whole thing started with the diet change. Diarrhea was never
a problem before the diet change. Maybe it's a food alergy, I
don't know.
snip
Anyone have any ideas?

(if you read this whole thing, thank you very much!)
-- Hank

GET A NEW VETERINARIAN! In the meantime, did anyone try dry food?
What about fur ball accumulations in intestines? How about tap water
with too much chlorine in it?
--

~~Philip

"Never let school interfere
with your education - Mark Twain"

In news Hank being of bellicose mind posted:
snip
It started over 4 months ago when my 3 year old male (nuetered)
had a urinary problem, and a prescription diet (Science Diet WD)
was started to treat it. I introduced the diet gradually over
about a week, but he got diarrhea from the new food.
snip
So I took him to the vet:

Vet visit 1
=========
fecal worm check (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
and put on Metronidazole

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Put him on Science Diet ID to help with diarrhea problem and to
continue to address urinary problem.
Another round of Metronidazole
Sulfasalazine pills were now introduced

No improvement in condition

Vet visit 2
========
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
Yet nother round of Metronidazole
and another round of Sulfasalazine
Switched to special diet IVD duck and green peas (yes, duck and
peas predominantly. The thought is to put him on a very different
diet, assuming the problem is a food alergy). No gradual
introduction here because he has diarrhea anyway.

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
snip
This whole thing started with the diet change. Diarrhea was never
a problem before the diet change. Maybe it's a food alergy, I
don't know.
snip
Anyone have any ideas?

(if you read this whole thing, thank you very much!)
-- Hank

GET A NEW VETERINARIAN! In the meantime, did anyone try dry food?
What about fur ball accumulations in intestines? How about tap water
with too much chlorine in it?
--

~~Philip

"Never let school interfere
with your education - Mark Twain"

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 07:09:38 -0500, "Hank" wrote:

Been really struggling with this one. I know this is a long post, but I
thought it would be good to be thorough and provide all the details.

It started over 4 months ago when my 3 year old male (nuetered) had a
urinary problem, and a prescription diet (Science Diet WD) was started to
treat it. I introduced the diet gradually over about a week, but he got
diarrhea from the new food. I let him go on this diet (probably for too
long), maybe 3 weeks or so (he was using the crawl space under house instead
of his box so I didn't monitor him). I then gradually switched him back to
his regular food which had previously never gave him the runs. This did
nothing to help (I had him on the regular food about 3 weeks).

So I took him to the vet:

Vet visit 1
=========
fecal worm check (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
and put on Metronidazole

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Put him on Science Diet ID to help with diarrhea problem and to continue to
address urinary problem.
Another round of Metronidazole
Sulfasalazine pills were now introduced

No improvement in condition

Vet visit 2
========
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
Yet nother round of Metronidazole
and another round of Sulfasalazine
Switched to special diet IVD duck and green peas (yes, duck and peas
predominantly. The thought is to put him on a very different diet, assuming
the problem is a food alergy). No gradual introduction here because he has
diarrhea anyway.

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Cat hated the duck so switched him to IVD rabbit and peas and he eats this.

After a few weeks on rabbit and peas dry food, there was a period of a week
or 2 where there was some occasional signs of hardening of feces. This
period of improvement proved temporary. Now it's back to pretty much cow pie
or slightly thicker (nothing well formed).

I also tried giving him some yoghurt, but I have to give him a very small
quantity (like 1/2 teaspoon or less) or he'll puke (he's very sensitive to
most anything other than his regular diet). Yoghurt didn't seem to help, but
I only did this for about a week and a half. I never feed him treats or
anything other than his regular food.

I was starting to get encouraged when he was showing signs of improvement,
but the improvement kind of stopped. I hate giving him all those pills (he's
been off them for a good while now), they did nothing, and now the vet wants
to explore more serious things like a disease of the intestines, or cancer,
but I really doubt these things as his attitude is normal (plays, is happy,
and has normal energy, drinks plenty of watr, though he's not happy about
his sore butt from the diarrhea). These tests the vet wants to do are also
very expensive and surgery is necessary for one of them (big bucks there).

This whole thing started with the diet change. Diarrhea was never a problem
before the diet change. Maybe it's a food alergy, I don't know.

In other threads, someone had mentioned a cooked rice diet, another
mentioned acidophilus in powder form. I really need to do something, and I'd
like to try something before going back to the vet. My gut feeling is that
there is nothing seriously wrong like a disease or cancer.

Anyone have any ideas?

(if you read this whole thing, thank you very much!)
-- Hank

Quite a puzzle I assume you do not give him milk which some cats
cannot tolerate. Do you give him filtered water?. Some people are
bothered by the chemicals used to purify water so he may be too.
Can he tolerate people tuna (canned) or sardines? Medications can
cause the "dire" (do you use vaseline on sore butt?) It could be one
of the preservatives in the cat food. Guess it is a case of trial and
error. I expect it might take three days on any change to be
effective. Best of luck.

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 07:09:38 -0500, "Hank" wrote:

Been really struggling with this one. I know this is a long post, but I
thought it would be good to be thorough and provide all the details.

It started over 4 months ago when my 3 year old male (nuetered) had a
urinary problem, and a prescription diet (Science Diet WD) was started to
treat it. I introduced the diet gradually over about a week, but he got
diarrhea from the new food. I let him go on this diet (probably for too
long), maybe 3 weeks or so (he was using the crawl space under house instead
of his box so I didn't monitor him). I then gradually switched him back to
his regular food which had previously never gave him the runs. This did
nothing to help (I had him on the regular food about 3 weeks).

So I took him to the vet:

Vet visit 1
=========
fecal worm check (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
and put on Metronidazole

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Put him on Science Diet ID to help with diarrhea problem and to continue to
address urinary problem.
Another round of Metronidazole
Sulfasalazine pills were now introduced

No improvement in condition

Vet visit 2
========
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
Yet nother round of Metronidazole
and another round of Sulfasalazine
Switched to special diet IVD duck and green peas (yes, duck and peas
predominantly. The thought is to put him on a very different diet, assuming
the problem is a food alergy). No gradual introduction here because he has
diarrhea anyway.

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Cat hated the duck so switched him to IVD rabbit and peas and he eats this.

After a few weeks on rabbit and peas dry food, there was a period of a week
or 2 where there was some occasional signs of hardening of feces. This
period of improvement proved temporary. Now it's back to pretty much cow pie
or slightly thicker (nothing well formed).

I also tried giving him some yoghurt, but I have to give him a very small
quantity (like 1/2 teaspoon or less) or he'll puke (he's very sensitive to
most anything other than his regular diet). Yoghurt didn't seem to help, but
I only did this for about a week and a half. I never feed him treats or
anything other than his regular food.

I was starting to get encouraged when he was showing signs of improvement,
but the improvement kind of stopped. I hate giving him all those pills (he's
been off them for a good while now), they did nothing, and now the vet wants
to explore more serious things like a disease of the intestines, or cancer,
but I really doubt these things as his attitude is normal (plays, is happy,
and has normal energy, drinks plenty of watr, though he's not happy about
his sore butt from the diarrhea). These tests the vet wants to do are also
very expensive and surgery is necessary for one of them (big bucks there).

This whole thing started with the diet change. Diarrhea was never a problem
before the diet change. Maybe it's a food alergy, I don't know.

In other threads, someone had mentioned a cooked rice diet, another
mentioned acidophilus in powder form. I really need to do something, and I'd
like to try something before going back to the vet. My gut feeling is that
there is nothing seriously wrong like a disease or cancer.

Anyone have any ideas?

(if you read this whole thing, thank you very much!)
-- Hank

Quite a puzzle I assume you do not give him milk which some cats
cannot tolerate. Do you give him filtered water?. Some people are
bothered by the chemicals used to purify water so he may be too.
Can he tolerate people tuna (canned) or sardines? Medications can
cause the "dire" (do you use vaseline on sore butt?) It could be one
of the preservatives in the cat food. Guess it is a case of trial and
error. I expect it might take three days on any change to be
effective. Best of luck.

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 07:09:38 -0500, "Hank" wrote:

Been really struggling with this one. I know this is a long post, but I
thought it would be good to be thorough and provide all the details.

It started over 4 months ago when my 3 year old male (nuetered) had a
urinary problem, and a prescription diet (Science Diet WD) was started to
treat it. I introduced the diet gradually over about a week, but he got
diarrhea from the new food. I let him go on this diet (probably for too
long), maybe 3 weeks or so (he was using the crawl space under house instead
of his box so I didn't monitor him). I then gradually switched him back to
his regular food which had previously never gave him the runs. This did
nothing to help (I had him on the regular food about 3 weeks).

So I took him to the vet:

Vet visit 1
=========
fecal worm check (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
and put on Metronidazole

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Put him on Science Diet ID to help with diarrhea problem and to continue to
address urinary problem.
Another round of Metronidazole
Sulfasalazine pills were now introduced

No improvement in condition

Vet visit 2
========
fecal direct-protozoa exam (negative)
fecal cytology (negative)
Yet nother round of Metronidazole
and another round of Sulfasalazine
Switched to special diet IVD duck and green peas (yes, duck and peas
predominantly. The thought is to put him on a very different diet, assuming
the problem is a food alergy). No gradual introduction here because he has
diarrhea anyway.

No improvement in condition

Vet phone consultation
================
Cat hated the duck so switched him to IVD rabbit and peas and he eats this.

After a few weeks on rabbit and peas dry food, there was a period of a week
or 2 where there was some occasional signs of hardening of feces. This
period of improvement proved temporary. Now it's back to pretty much cow pie
or slightly thicker (nothing well formed).

I also tried giving him some yoghurt, but I have to give him a very small
quantity (like 1/2 teaspoon or less) or he'll puke (he's very sensitive to
most anything other than his regular diet). Yoghurt didn't seem to help, but
I only did this for about a week and a half. I never feed him treats or
anything other than his regular food.

I was starting to get encouraged when he was showing signs of improvement,
but the improvement kind of stopped. I hate giving him all those pills (he's
been off them for a good while now), they did nothing, and now the vet wants
to explore more serious things like a disease of the intestines, or cancer,
but I really doubt these things as his attitude is normal (plays, is happy,
and has normal energy, drinks plenty of watr, though he's not happy about
his sore butt from the diarrhea). These tests the vet wants to do are also
very expensive and surgery is necessary for one of them (big bucks there).

This whole thing started with the diet change. Diarrhea was never a problem
before the diet change. Maybe it's a food alergy, I don't know.

In other threads, someone had mentioned a cooked rice diet, another
mentioned acidophilus in powder form. I really need to do something, and I'd
like to try something before going back to the vet. My gut feeling is that
there is nothing seriously wrong like a disease or cancer.

Anyone have any ideas?

(if you read this whole thing, thank you very much!)
-- Hank

Quite a puzzle I assume you do not give him milk which some cats
cannot tolerate. Do you give him filtered water?. Some people are
bothered by the chemicals used to purify water so he may be too.
Can he tolerate people tuna (canned) or sardines? Medications can
cause the "dire" (do you use vaseline on sore butt?) It could be one
of the preservatives in the cat food. Guess it is a case of trial and
error. I expect it might take three days on any change to be
effective. Best of luck.

in article , Hank at
wrote on 9/28/03 12:20 PM:

I give him filtered water using a high quality system that filters out 99%
of chlorine. I've been giving him this since before his diarrhea. Also, he
has been on dry food the whole time.
Hank

Maybe he needs to be on wet food. Will he eat chicken? Maybe a bland diet of
boiled pureed chicken and rice will help clear it up, then you can find a
good canned catfood. Ground up chicken and rice is often advised for a few
days to help clear up diarrhea.

Karen

in article , Hank at
wrote on 9/28/03 12:20 PM:

I give him filtered water using a high quality system that filters out 99%
of chlorine. I've been giving him this since before his diarrhea. Also, he
has been on dry food the whole time.
Hank

Maybe he needs to be on wet food. Will he eat chicken? Maybe a bland diet of
boiled pureed chicken and rice will help clear it up, then you can find a
good canned catfood. Ground up chicken and rice is often advised for a few
days to help clear up diarrhea.

Karen

in article , Hank at
wrote on 9/28/03 12:20 PM:

I give him filtered water using a high quality system that filters out 99%
of chlorine. I've been giving him this since before his diarrhea. Also, he
has been on dry food the whole time.
Hank

Maybe he needs to be on wet food. Will he eat chicken? Maybe a bland diet of
boiled pureed chicken and rice will help clear it up, then you can find a
good canned catfood. Ground up chicken and rice is often advised for a few
days to help clear up diarrhea.

Karen