Hi everyone.
I'm new to this, so not sure how this goes, but I've got a 7 month old bengal who I've had for about 3 months. She's crazy energetic, but ever since we got her, there hasn't been many days of wholy dry stool. It's always either a bit, or completely diarrhea, and just this morning i noticed a few spots of blood after she went.
We had taken her to the vet about 2 months ago in relation to her diarrhea and he said to put her on only dry food as the wet food (whiskas) we were giving was causing this.
We are currently giving her 1 pouch of kitten Royal Canin pouch food, about 2 handfuls of Royal Canin kitten dry food, and about a tablespoon of poached chicken a day.

Really not sure what to do at this point, or why this is happening. Any help will do

Hi,

One of my boys has this problem if he eats something that his tummy is sensitive to. I now feed him Royal Canin Sensible dry food and have done since about the age of your girl. This is for cats with sensitive tummies and only contains easily digestible proteins. My vet also told me to keep him on dry food, but when I looked at the ingredients of the wet I fed him, it was just protein and the vitamins and minerals he needed. Turns out he'd been stealing his brothers dry food which had all sorts in it, like tomato, cranberry etc.

I had to purchase sure feeders so they couldn't steal each other's food at that stage! I do feed them quite an expensive wet food to ensure it has no fillers and is proper meat (ie I can clearly see it is chicken or fish and is human grade meat and not meat derivative and has a high protein content etc) so it may be worth keeping your girl on Royal Canin Sensible dry food for a while and see if that fixes things. If it does, look around for a wet food (if you want her to have wet as well) that is either for sensitive tummies or isn't full of fillers or anything that can aggravate her digestive tract.

I also add a feline probiotic to his wet daily. Applaws kitten may be worth a try as that is a good quality food without loads of other stuff included.

Hendrix now has firm stools and no blood.

I hope this helps!

_________________
Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

Blood in a stool is not good. Did your vet not check a stool sample? That is honestly the only way to determine if there is not a parasite causing this. You might try a probiotic like FlortiFlora with some wet food (I don't think you can use it on dry). Some people also use pumpkin (not the pie filling stuff) and add a very small amount to the food. However, it is really important to find out whether there is a medical issue. Mot vets cannot test for TF and that is one of the more serious parasites that can only be treated with one medication.

Mine has chronic loose stools as well and I'm about to have an ultrasound done on the intestines to see if there is an issue there. Will also change the diet and see if that helps, but all the blood work and tests came back normal, so we are going in another direction.

Thanks for your help.
The blood spots only happened once or twice, and our breeder said the same thing about the grains, so we're going to try the sensitive/sensible food to see how that goes.

The vet hadn't done a stool sample, but we've got to take our other bengal to the vet, so may take her too.

You guys need to rule out parasites before you go too far down the food path. There are some foods that will help firm up poo some (like pumpkin and pyslum husk) but if the underlying problem is a parasite, and it very often is with "new" cats, then you're way better off solving the root cause.

_________________
The little monsters 3

Since you have a couple of cats, are the soft stools only with ONE cat? Parasites are transmitted from cat to cat, so if the other cat has solid stools, then it is probably NOT a parasite! But, it is always good to have a stool sample checked just to be safe.