question about cats & diarrhea

Miller has had diarrhea on and off for the past month or so.... at first i thought it was just an upset stomach b/c it lasted about 2 days and then he was fine

then it started becoming like 2x a week he would have diarrhea... like, there would be regular poops and then diarrhea poops

so i took him to the vet for his annual shots and she said he could have feline IBS... if so, she needs to do a sonogram to diagnose is AND he needs to be on meds for the rest of his life

im wondering if this is 100% accurate... a few ppl with cats that i've spoken to say not to spend the $$ on a sonogram and look at things in his current environment and see if anything could be causing it.

i switched his food back in April and i started noticing it about a month and a half after i switched his food, so im thinking that could be it?? i just started intergrating a new brand of food yesterday

anyone have any words of wisdom?? TIA

Message edited 7/6/2009 10:19:37 AM.

Re: question about cats & diarrhea

Hi. I would spend the money on the sonogram. My cat had a similar problem- diarehhea(sp?) for over one weeks. THought it was the change of food. Took him to the vet, had some tests and he had some type of. stomach infection.

Def would get the sono.

Re: question about cats & diarrhea

I would go for the sono, too. But I would go to a specialist. LIVS in Plainview is awesome and maybe your vet can refer you there.

My cat, Bubba, was having GI issues, but also lost a lot of weight over a few months. Our vet recommended a sono and they hav a specialist come in a couple of times a week to do them. He just saw some thickening of the intestinal wall. My vet suggested I have an endoscopy done too, but referred me to LIVS. A week later, we have the consult with the internal medicine vet and within 30 seconds of feeling Bubba's belly, he said he felt something hard...could be feces, but he'd go check it out. He did his own sono and in 15 minutes comes back to tell us it was a growth. How did this other so-called specialist miss that--even after a sono?

Long story short (too late)...it was colon cancer. Surgery and 5 chemo treatments, and 7 months later, he's doing beautifully well!

I'm not saying your cat has something serious wrong, but I'm so glad we ended up with the specialist who was able to save months of misdiagnosis.