Expert: Norman Auspitz - 10/10/2010

Question
Dear officers:

I have two cats and their names are Riceball and Sushi. As soon as I adopted them from PetSmart, I found out that they have sensitive digestive systems. Riceball had blood in his stools and Sushi had soft stools and sometimes diarehea. After I switched their food to EVO dry, the problem was basically gone, and their stools were firm and well formed for a while. I also gave them some probiotics and enzymes. I fed them a variety of food ranging from EVO dry, Orijen dry, Evo Canned, Wellness Canned, Go! canned, Nature's Variety Raw, and sometimes raw meat from supermarkets.

I moved in June and I left Sushi and Riceball at my friend's place for 2 weeks. From that time, Sushi started having blood in his stools. Riceball and Sushi's personality also changed while they were at my friend's, as Riceball was the talker and Sushi was always quiet and they acted vice versa at my friend's.

After I moved in June, Sushi and Riceball are living with me, and they went back to their old personality. I fed them Orijen dry, and this other trial grain free kibbles because the pet store clerk suggested me to stay away from EVO for a while since it's acquired by P&G. Sushi continues to have stool problems with blood, sometimes tarnsparent gel-like thingy hanging on his butt, and runny stools. I switched his diet to EVO and Wellness Canned with Acidophilus, and it got rid of the blood problem.

I sent the stool sample to a vet and he said the lab reported there are no perecites. I switched him back on Evo Dry, hoping that I will see firm and well-formed stools as before. However, he still has soft stools or diarehea problem once every few days. I am still a student and I don't know if bringing Sushi to do a general examination would help at all since I think other examination such as X-Ray are definitely needed to diagnose the problem. But unfortuantely, I am not sure if I have sufficient fund to support him in the vet until the real problem is diagnose.

He only goes to the litterbox once or twice a day, normally once a day. So it might not be colitis I think? and I'm not sure about IBD. or maybe it's simply because of stress and food. He's still very active and playful with great apetite.
I also switched their litter, but I am not sure if it would contribute to the problem.

So starting from June, he had blood, and that stopped in July/Augst. From August until now, soft stools and diahrea...

I am not sure if EVO is still stuiable for him since they changed their formula. Please give some advice/suggestions, and I highly appreciate your help and assistance.

Wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving in Canada.

Answer
Cindy,

Wow, these cats really do need a veterinary exam.  I would have them tested for Trichomonas Foetus.  (Check out:

http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/docs/personnel/gookin_jody.html

for lots of good information on this nasty parasite.)  Also, you may want to read:

http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/docs/documents/ownersguide_tfoetus_revised_120909.pdf

which is a lay person's guide to this critter. The problem is that the stool can be no more than 3 hours old, so most vets just use a loop to get fresh stool.  The stool is put into a test pouch and, after some time the vet checks it under a microscope. One caveat is that this organism likes to hide in corners, so the vet really has to check all the corners to get a good reading. Fortunately, if the vet finds the organism, it is treatable.

Another food to try might be Holistic Select. It has no wheat, no soy, no corn, no gluten, all of which cats may be allergic to!

Please let me know what you find.

Best regards... Norm.