Cat with bloody diarrhea

Dr. Marie replied:

Hi and thanks for your question.

I don't usually get too concerned about blood in diarrhea of a cat (or dog for that matter) as long as the cat is bright and alert and still eating ok and the symptoms are temporary. I find that often just a slight amount of irritation in the colon can cause it to bleed.

However, if the cat is not well, or if these symptoms are continuing then there may be something more serious going on. The first thing I would do is a fecal exam to look for the presence of parasites.

I would likely also be using a course of metronidazole which will help with inflammation in the intestines and also help if there is some sort of bacterial overgrowth.

I don't know if it is available to you, but in our area we can run a DNA panel on the diarrhea to look for things like clostridium, salmonella or tritrichomonous.

Some cats can have diarrhea because of a food intolerance or allergy as well so I will often do a trial of a hypoallergenic food such as hill's z/d.

I hope the cat is better soon!

Dr. Marie.

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