Foster cat has bloated belly, diarrhea after meds. Vet is stumped.

Poor Tauta - these ongoing cases can be very frustrating! Ercefuryl is an antibiotic used to treat bacterial overgrowth in the bowel - where bacteria develop too quickly due to poor balance of good bacteria/pH/undigested food, they then ferment the food preventing normal digestion and producing a foul, often gassy diarrhoea. It can be helpful to transition to a highly digestible diet such as royal canin hypoallergenic or gastrointestinal, as well as adding probiotics and some additional fibre to promote the good bacteria in the bowel. Pancreatic enzyme supplements can also help imrpove digestion and allow the bowel to recover. Some patients also develop an inflammatory bowel reaction also and may require natiinflammatory medications also. Biopsies and blood tests for b vitamin levels can also be helpful if cases which do not respond

I would recommend to try switching them to just a plain boiled chicken diet for a few days to see if this settles their stomach and add in some probiotics. I believe you can buy proviable paste online and give as directed. My concern though is that they may have a parasite or bacteria that they aren't finding in their fecal samples. If they aren't improving, contact your vet to see if you can either bring in just a fecal sample or deworm both of the prophylactically. I hope this helps!

Hi from Bangladesh! Don't worry, it may take a few more days to see improvement. You may also try a bland diet of boiled chicken, rice, and plain canned pumpkin (not the pie filling) to help firm up the stool. Using a probiotic for cats and dogs can help as well. Hope this helps!!

Given the amount of treatments that have been tried, a fecal exam and possibly blood work would be recommended to help identify the underlying cause and guide approach. Prescription gastrointestinal diets can help whilst awaiting results

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. The next steps for me would be a deworming and switching to a prescription GI diet to see if that helps. If no improvement, abdominal ultrasound and full bloodwork are indicated. Best wishes to you and Sven!

I would suggest to start feeding with a bland diet based on boiled white fish/chicken and rice in small portion every 6 hours for the following 48hours. Then gradually reintroduce the normal diet over 5 days. Probiotics can be given as well. These type of colitis can be self limiting, but if persistent antibiotics can be given by injection as well. I would definitively recommend a veterinary check up if the signs persist or you notice diarrhoea, vomiting, lethargy or inappetence. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.

Please don't waste your money on those expensive grain free foods. They are not necessary to use except in extreme cases of an actual diagnosed grain allergy which is rare. Grain free diets are now linked to causing heart disease in dogs (we are not sure yet about cats). I recommend you discontinue use of that type of food. My suggestion would be to use a long term course of a probiotic called Fortiflora. Put one packet on his food every day for at least one month. This will help correct any imbalance in good vs bad intestinal bacteria. DO NOT use human probiotics or things like yogurt. Fortiflora is the best in my opinion and it is palatable so cats like to eat it. ( http://www.allivet.com/p-1890-purina-pro-plan-veterinary-diets-fortiflora-cat-supplement-box-of-30.aspx ) As for diet. I would use this one: ( https://www.royalcanin.com/products/royal-canin-feline-care-nutrition-digestive-care-dry-cat-food/2555 ) If your local pet store does not have this food they can surely order it for you or you can order it online. If these things dont' help, he may have inflammatory bowel disease or something along those lines. You would need to discuss diagnosis and treatment with your vet. Hope this helps. Best wishes!