Thread: Diarrhea, allergies and prednidale

Stress, stress, stress.... I have 2 Maine Coons, one with the occasional diarrhea (ibs) issue and the other without. Moving into a new home is very stressful for cats as everything they know (smell) was taken away and he was put into this foreign world that smells odd and there was another furry thing there also that doesnt smell like him. It's hard for us humans to understand how much of a culture shock this was for an animal as there isn't a good way for us to explain it to them. Even though the two cats get along (which is great) he may still be confused as to his new world, smells, sounds etc. Was there another pet in your new home prior to you moving in? Do you find that he isn't pooping on a regular routine? When our MC is having issues he tends to avoid litter box to poop, he generally always peed in the box, but won't poop in it because he associates it with pain. So we take him into the bathroom close the door, put him in the box and then turn away and let him do his business. The key is to.be calm, quiet and act like its a reward, don't scare him, maybe pet him a few times, and probably until he gets used to the routine you will have to put him in the box a few times. After you get successful results a few times you will read his body language as to when he actually has to go and when he doesn't need to. We always do this at bedtime as that seems to be his scheduled time to poop. Usually we only have to do this for a few nights, but there's been times its been months. Be sure to scoop the box prior to bringing him into the bathroom. If we don't scoop the box first, he won't go. If all it takes is for us to spend 5 min or less a night taking him to the bathroom, it's far better than cleaning up the stinky mess.

We don't know for sure what triggers these issues, hairballs seem to be associated. We notice a day or 2 after a good brushing will cause a hairball and then we get poop issues. A vet told us that any minor disruption to the normal digestion tract causes and imbalance, so a hairball could trigger it. Also, he doesn't like hairball and could block his intestinal tract which causes a backup and then comes the ibs.

General rule of thumb for multi cat households, 1 litter box for every cat +1. Remove the lids & make sure they are large enough for your cat to get and move around comfortably. Too small they may avoid it & lids trap their odors and they tend to not like small confined spaces. Make sure the other cat isn't a litter box hall monitor. We have 1 of those and the other one tends to have to sneak to the litter box when the other one is preoccupied. This only leads to him holding it longer and if you gotta go this could be an issue. And lastly, the litter boxes can never be clean enough. If you wouldn't go in it, why should they?

I hope this helps a little? Remember to have lots of patience and be reassuring any negative action will only make the problem worse.

Good luck & I dearly love my little giants!