Sustained diarrhea with my cat

Question

We have a rescue cat who is a little more than a year old. We recently moved apartments and everything fine till about a month ago. He started getting diarrhea very often. The vet gave him an antibiotic injection and things seemed to improve. His stools became solid and he was eating well again. About 2 days ago the diarrhea returned. He stopped eating wet food all together and I see that his tummy has caved in a little. He still loves egg whites and with a combination of that and Royal Canin kitten food. Any ideas on how we can stop the diarrhea? The moment he eats something he goes and poops all liquid. We boil his water just to be in the safe side.

EDIT: After seeing my boy go through this diarrhea for almost two weeks, daily visits to the vet, stool analysis and an antibiotic course, we finally pinned the reason to his food and specifically Royal Canin dry kibble for kittens. A few weeks ago, there was an outbreak of bird flu in France and as expected there was a shortage of RC food right after that. The next stock that came in looked slightly different and had markings of it being made and sold somewhere in the Middle East. We've since switched to a prescription diet (Farmina Vet Life Gastro-intestinal) for about a month on the vet's orders. His energy has returned and his stool is now nice and firm. Thank you all who tried to help. Much appreciated.

Answer 1

There are lots of diagnostics that your vet could do, but you might be able to save a lot of money if you simply adjust the diet.

Stop feeding egg whites. Eggs, raw or cooked, do nothing good for his health, and could be contributing the problem of diarrhea. At the very least, it makes diseases like Salmonellosis more likely. Avoid treats of any kind while he is having diarrhea, and stick with a quality cat food.

At a year of age, he is no longer a kitten, and can be getting adult food.

Cats of any age can have food allergies, and finding a quality diet with a novel protein source could solve the diarrhea. Prescription diets are ideal for this purpose, but you may be able to find a store-bought diet that better tolerated. There are also veterinary diets formulated to be more easily digestible and might help with diarrhea, such as Hill's i/d or Purina EN.

If this fails, then you need to go back to the vet. Not just to get another dose of antibiotics, but to do some tests, such as a fecal analysis and possibly blood work and imaging, to determine why your cat is having boughts of diarrhea. It shouldn't come as a surprise that there are lots and lots of causes of diarrhea, but your vet will want to start out by ruling out the common things. You can't let diarrhea go on too long untreated, because he will start to get dehydrated which could lead to other problems.

Answer 2

I will also add to Harry V. answer that if your cat has stopped eating all together ( I see he stopped eating his wet) he needs to be seen sooner rather than later. Cats process fats differently than us, once your kitty stops eating the liver then proceeds to try and get rid of the fat stores in his body. Their liver has a bit of a hard time with this so the fat tends to store in the liver cells which in the end causes fatty liver disease.

It is more prevalent in fat cats but still something to be cautious of.

You can also start feeding a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice (1 part chicken + 3 parts rice), if no improvement within the next 24 hours on this diet he should be seen again.