Pumpkin and yougurt?

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Hi all

As you may or may not remember, Cracker Jack has been battling with diarrhea ever since I got him 3 months ago. The stool samples come up negative for parasites or bacteria. At first the vet gave him an antibiotic and Probiacin which is "good bacteria." It seemed to help. Shortly after I stopped the Probiacin (it's a 15 day medication whereas the antibiotics were 10 days), the diarrhea came back. I got another tube of Probiacin and some Pectcillin (sp?) from Meg. This seemed to help again and you may remember I posted a 'First Class A-One" post. Things were going along relatively well when we had to leave to go to Terry's dad's funeral. When we got back the diahrrea was in full force again. Got some more Probiacin and it seemed to help again, although there was always a little bit of diarrhea - like 80% good, 20% bad, which is as good as I've seen it since the First Class A-One. Then we went to the spa for the weekend and the diarrhea came back in full force again. Got another tube of Probiacin from the vet a week ago, and so far it has not made a bit of difference! All the other times as soon as I started the Probiacin, I noticed an immediate difference - now no improvement whatsoever! I switched his food also, from one Science Diet brand to another Science Diet brand - still no improvement.

For the last week he has had no solids whatsover in his poops. I'm going to get the Science Diet Senior Hairball formula for more fiber, and I was thinking about starting the pumpking and yogurt remedy also. My question is....how do I feed the pumpkin, will he just eat it off the spoon? How much pumpkin do I give him, and how much yogurt? He's such a picky eater that I have doubts that he will even eat the pumpkin. He loves milk products (which we are not giving him) so I don't think I'll have a problem getting him to eat the yogurt - but how much?

He acts completely health - eats, drinks, plays, his coat looks good, etc. - so it's not like this is a life or death issue, it just worries me and I would feel oh so much better if we were able to get it under control once and for all.

[sasvermont]

Science Diet has a special WD or CD, I forget which and is for cats with stool issues. You need to buy it at the vet. I hope this helps. Also, I believe Noah's Mommie is feeding her Aby a raw diet to help with the Aby's stool problems.

[Craftlady]

With both pumpkin and yogart I just used a regular size spoon to dish each out. To get techinical it's probably a tablespoon full of each. Putting to much out at one time if it's not eaten all at once gets nasty after a while.

I served the yogart 1x a day and did the pumpkin 2 x a day.

I was feeding Science Diet Light/Purna One mix together for several years but when we took in Skinny, he could not tolerate it. So after much research and label reading, Switching to Nutro line of food (no corn by- products) ultimately did the trick at our house for Skinny. Within 2 weeks if that he was pooping tootie rolls.

[Randi]

Debbie, I'm sorry to hear that CJ is still having problems - I wish I had a solution for you! I don't know about pumpkin, but I think yogurt is very good idea.

Sas, you mentioned Hills C/D. That is what I'm feeding Fister most of the time. On the bag is says: CD is a complete dietetic pet food for the reduction of Struvite stone occurrance in ctsIs has urine adicifying properties and contains a moderate level of Magnesium.

If I think Fister is getting a bit to "plush", I change to W/D for a while, it has less fat.

I hope you eventually find a cure for CJ!

Give him kisses and headbumpies from us!

[krazyaboutkatz]

Debbie, I'm sorry to hear that CJ is still having diarrhea problems. My vet told me to buy plain yogurt with active cultures and let it sit out for a while so that the good bacteria would grow. Just give him about a tablespoon or so. If you have some wet food you can also mix it with that. Some cats love pumpkin and somedon't so then you'll have to mix it with some wet food or something else that they like. Good luck and please keep us updated.

[moosmom]

Debbie,

Another suggestion is to mix cooked rice in his wet food (or yogurt). Starches usually help with loose stools.

Poor CJ!! His butt must be on fire by now!! Give him smooches for me, will ya?

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Originally posted by moosmom
His butt must be on fire by now!! Give him smooches for me, will ya?

DONE!

I would have thought his butt would be on fire by now too, but it just doesn't really seem to bother him at all - which is why it's all just so confusing.

He likes the yogurt but wants nothing to do with the pumpkin. However, I did get the Science Diet Senior Hairball formula, so I'm hoping the extra fiber in that will be enough....but so far, no change. I'm going to stick with this for awhile though, because I know constantly making changes won't help anything. He's just such a picky eater to begin with that I'm just hestitant about trying anything too radical.

However, he is just so funny when he's chasing Peanut around. He'll jump out at her, but come up about 6" short or so. That will get her trotting off to the safety of her box in the bedroom. He goes loping after her and then flops down with belly up about a foot away from her, then slowly pushes himself towards her. When he gets so close she runs around the bed and under the table next to the bed. He lopes after her again and jumps on the bottom shelf of the table and starts batting at her from above. She hisses and moves to the other side. He moves to the other side and continues to bat from above. She hissed and went back to the safety of her box. He must have gotten bored because he then left the bedroom and went to see what was going on in the backyard. It's all just too funny to watch. He could cream her if he really wanted to, but he just wants to play and doesn't want to be mean about it - he's such a gentleman.

So will all that, who was to guess he had constant, persistant diarrhea?

[krazyaboutkatz]

Debbie, Maybe he has IBS and needs to be on special diet. I sure hope he gets better soon. Take care.

[slick]

Debbie...this may sound strange but I had a "Natural Cat" book decades ago and I remember reading that natural bran added to wet cat food works both ways. It can help stop the runs as well as help a constipated kitty. I've never tried it, mind you. That was back in the 80's when I made my own kitty food and added all kinds of vitamins to it.

...but then again, Tracey could be on the right track.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

I may have been the biggest dunce in the world!!! To make a long story short, Peanut has always pooped on the floor near the litter box, but not in the litter box. Well.....it appears that CJ might have taken a cue from her and is doing the same thing! I didn't realize it and thought Peanut's poops were looking really good these days....when in actuality, it might have been CJ all along! I'd have to catch him in the act to know for sure, but there were two piles on the floor this morning. One a typical Peanut pile, and one what I thought was "good" Peanut pile. Since there were no other poops in either of the boxes, I'm thinking the "good" one was actually CJ's, and if it was - whooo hooo was it good!

I know I've seen some diarrhea in the last week also, but this is a major break through! Now I just have to figure out when he goes so I can sneak down and see if it's really him!

Terry is happy CJ's poops might be good, but he is less than thrilled that they are on the floor, and naw-tee Peanut for teaching him to do that!

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Progress!!! I'm not sure what the poops on the floor are, if they are Peanut's or CJ's or both of theirs, but there was one in the box that I know was CJ's and it was 99% good 1% bad! Woo hoo! We're making progress, I hope. Now if we can just keep it up......

[krazyaboutkatz]

This is great news!!!

[Logan]

Good luck! I hope that the "good" poops will continue (never thought I'd need to say that ).

[Craftlady]

Sorry the kids are going out side the box, but tant it the best day ever when they poop tootie rolls????
WTG CJ

[NoahsMommy]

Glad the rice/pumpkin/yogurt helped. I tried yogurt with Micah, but he quickly decided he didn't want it anymore.

Debbie, if you ever want to know about the raw diet, let me know. It REALLY helped Micah's issues, the only thing that did.

Hugs,
Kelly