Hi- I have two 1 year old bengals. I currently feed them both Iams Hairball dry food because it seems to be the only thing that allows their stool to be normal. I have tried high protein foods before such as Origin and Instinct but both give them blood in their stools. I have taken them to the vet and everything checks out so I'm sure its the food. I want them to be eating a better diet than Iams Hairball but I can't find what works. Has anyone else experienced this?

Ours used to have soft stools and blood at the end most of the time. We moved them to a grain free diet and after a couple of tries Nature's Menu Country Hunter has worked. Dry food you may want to try lily's kitchen if in the UK

What does “everything checks out” really mean though? What specifically was checked? I guess my response to that, if my vet were to tell me that is that it’s obiously not checking out because there is blood pouring out of my cat!

I guess it sounds like the assumption is that your cats (both?) have a food allergy? Which seems far fetched to me. I mean it’s not like if you or I go out and binge on pizza and potato chips we’ll start having blood in our stools right? And it seems really unlikely that one person would have two cats with the same allergy. To me what seems a lot more likely would be a parasite, since whichever one, one cat has, the other one would probably get, explaining why they are both having the same problem. Some foods, particularly ones high in fiber, can help “mask” this symptoms and help firm up the stool without treating the underlying condition.

Anyhow, if you haven’t already, I would definitely explore that more. It’s also real common for bengal kittens to get. Do some searches in the forum and there are a zillion discussions in the forum on that (TF being one of the common ones).

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The little monsters 3

There are foods specifically for sensitive digestive systems and you might want to check them out. Blood should not be getting in the stool, period. It has to be coming from somewhere. There are tests your vet can run, unfortunately they are expensive, but they can rule things out. Allergies can be a problem but allergies are not that common in cats. The fact that BOTH kitties are having this issue, it is very possibly the food.

Brian did mention parasites which are contagious -- I mean, if one gets one, the other one will get it due to the shedding of the parasite in the litter box. A test of the stool sample, including a test for TF, is needed, if it hasn't been done. Tritrichomonas foetus is a parasite that is difficult to get rid of. Only one medication can take care of it. I would start there. If that comes back clean, then I would move to the food. I also think it would be high irregular for two cats to have the same allergy.

It is good that a vet is involved. However, this problem is not good for your kitties as they can become severely anemic. And it's no fun having runny stools. Research foods for the issue you are having. Hairball food is to prevent hairballs an bengals do not shed enough to get them. Try a different type of food (not Purina). Royal Canin makes a couple of dry foods for digestive issues.

If you feed any wet food, you can also add a probiotic (FlortiFora is one) or adding a small dose of pumpkin (pumpkin is also in some manufactured cat foods). You will have to experiment and see what works best once you eliminated the possibility of any parasites being involved.

Iams Hairball diet:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal, Corn Grits, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Dried Beet Pulp, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken

Chicken is the 7th ingredient. So there's really no actual meat in this food! By-products and corn is what he is eating. But I get it, for now you gotta do what gives him relief of his symptoms.

This stuff might be worth a try:

https://www.chewy.com/hills-science-die ... /dp/118242

and possibly these as well:
https://www.chewy.com/weruva-cats-in-ki ... k/dp/37684
https://www.chewy.com/weruva-cats-in-ki ... k/dp/43945

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The little monsters 3

Oh gads, Brian! Any time the food says "by-product," it means it can come from dead animals, road kill, deceased zoo animals, euthanized animals. It's the most horrible thing (and CHEAP) on the market. I have switched my two to Weruva which is at least double the cost, but at least I don't see any by-products in them.

The members here really push for a high-quality diet for a bengal and I've been guilty of feeding the wrong stuff. I tried early on to get my Raiden onto grain-free and better food, but he was having none of that. I don't know what changed at this point, but he will eat it.

The dry food I give him is for digestive issues. He doesn't eat a lot of it, but it is there for him.

Hi guys-

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. So here is more information... I use to feed them Orijen cat food because like many of you, I have done a lot of research on food and wanted to feed them the best. I had my boy cat for 3 months prior to getting the girl cat in September 2017, both cats are the same age and came from the same breeder although not brother & sister.

I noticed in late November 2017 that the girl cat was having runny stool and blood. Took her to the vet w/ a stool sample and it came back as having no parasites. The vet provided a liquid medicine to give to her to help the tummy and stop any inflammation she has having. The vet said if things didnt get better to come back for an allergy test. I started to monitor my boys stool and noticed he too was having some blood streaks on the stool. I decided to switch foods so i bought a few things.. started with the Instinct Turkey limited ingredient.. still saw the blood.. then i tried Instinct raw dry food and still saw it. I did try wet food, the Weurva cats in the kitchen but they both had diarrhea. Thats when I decided to go back to the Iams Hairball just to see what would happen. When they were on that food (and still are today), their stools hardened and there is no evidence of any blood. I did notice their hair isnt as nice and they seem to have dandruff now.

I feel bad that ive been giving them this crap food, but i'm not sure what to do. I hope that the Iams Hairball isnt masking a real problem as Brian mentioned, although thats a good point and I should considering taking them back to the vet perhaps. I do see two different vets so I could go to the other one this time to see what she says. Although this second vet told me I should feed my cats friskies when I was asking her about raw food... so you could understand how that turned me off.

I'm thinking for now, i should try to switch them back to the Instinct raw dry food (i have some of this left over) and mix it with a probiotic. If i see blood, i should take them to the vet and have more tests done. what do you guys think?

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The little monsters 3

Hi-

Brian thanks again for your reply. I think you've convinced me I should bring them in to the vet and mention TF. I have pet insurance on my boy cat so I'll bring him in first and see what happens. I know they usually will treat the second cat if the other has the issue. Both have had blood so I'm thinking if it is an infection, both definitely have it. They refuse to use separate litter boxes.

I definitely dont want to keep feeding Iams.

I'm calling the vet tomorrow.

Thanks!

Did the vet bring up colitis at all? If the blood is on the outside of the stool and mucosy, it could be colitis, which is a nonspecific inflammation that can recur with stress or some foods.

It is sometimes very difficult to pinpoint the issue! Cats cannot communicate with you -- we can only go by their behavior and what comes out of them. When dealing with allergies and trying to figure out what may be causing them -- for example, is it the food, it can take weeks to symptoms to disappear on a new food. Thus, diagnosing the problem can take months and months. Limited ingredient cat food is a good start. That usually entails turkey, for some odd reason.

When it comes to the digestive tract, cats get the same illnesses we do -- they have gastrointestinal problems just like humans, IBD, colitis, etc. There may be no easy solution here except to try different things until you hit on something. But ruling out any parasites, including TF is so important.

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The little monsters 3

As a note if you are looking at food as being a possible cause. Orijen and Instinct ( including limited ingredient Turkey ) both use Peas as a protein filler, Iams does not.

If Peas is what is triggering the problem, selecting a food may become problematic ( I had a look through a few that I considered good and all the ones I saw had peas or pea protein which seems to accompany "Grain free" ). The Iams ingredient list appears to have been updated, but as with any mass produced food ( essentially sold at walmart and the grocery store ), quality may suffer and shortcuts will be taken. Hill's Science Diet Urinary Hairball Control Adult Cat Food is one I could find that doesn't have peas ( not endorsing any products, just looked at ingredients ). Not sure if it is overall that great tbh and I didn't go through all the possible choices.

I would love to know why these pet manufacturers think cats want to eat peas, carrots, cranberries, etc. If I tried to give my cat any of that, he would turn his nose up. But, they put it in food probably because it is less expensive then the meat. I will say mine are loving the Weruva and it looks good enough for ME to eat. Lots of chunks of food. It's so expensive, they had better eat it! Or it may be my lunch! LOL

There so many specialty foods out there on the market these days. I remember 50 years ago when you didn't have a choice -- now they make foods for kittens, seniors, all types of health issues, kidney, diabetes, digestive ... so there is a lot of choose from. Just trying to find the right mix is the big issue. The dry food comes in at least 3 pound bags, so if they don't like it or have an issue with it, you're stuck with the rest.

Petsmart if available allows you to return open food if the cat doesn't like it, I wasn't aware of this and went to get a different food and asked if I could donate it and the cashier told me I could return it if I had the receipt despite it being opened ( not plugging a store, but it makes trying different foods a lot less painful on your wallet ).

Most of the additives are there for various reasons, cranberries are an anti-oxidant IIRC so it's used as more of a natural vitamin. I know cats are rumoured to be strictly carnivores, but my old cat was always eating the spearmint that we grew, grass and other items of the vegetation type. This was by her own choice so I assume something told her that she needed to eat it for some reason.

My guess is the peas are used as a binder since they dehydrate well and are nutritionally easy to digest. Since they appear to have risen in popularity around the time "grain free" became common I imagine they serve a mechanical purpose that was done by rice or corn in the past.