Question:
My wife and I are very concerned about our 2 cats. Any help/advice appreciated.

Here's the situation ...

The first one is a female 2 yr old (Cookie) where we noticed blood in her poop every now and then, but it becomes a bit more frequent lately. Usually we see blood on the poop itself as well as around her rectum. We brought her to the vet last week for her annual vaccination and told the vet about this problem. We (the vet and us) could not pin-point what could be the actual cause(s), some of possible causes we've talked about were:

1. stress from moving into a new house

- although we have just moved into a new house 2 mths ago, our cat had this problem even at our old apt.

2. diet

- we feed her what we regard as "good" dry food, from brands like Royal Canin and Natures Choice

3. overweight

- Cookie is about 4 lbs overweight

At the end of the examination, we were advised to put Cookie on low calories diet and observe if she gets better, no medication was prescribed although a fecal was done and the result is negative. We know that its only been 4-5 days since we put Cookie on this diet, but it hardly make a difference with her problem with bleeding when she poops. I called up our vet again today to seek some form of medication for her, we managed to get a prescription of Metronidazole (50 mg) that is supposedly meant for inflammation. We will continue to monitor her progress for the next little while but we can't help but feeling concerned and stress is kicking in. I will probably need to check if I myself am experiencing the same problem soon with all these stress :(

To make matter worse, we noticed today that our 1 yr old male cat (Fluffy) has blood in his poop and outside his rectum as well, almost identical to Cookie. This is quite unusual for Fluffy since the last time he had this problem was a yr ago, after we brought him back from the Pet Store when he was just a few mths old.

We are puzzled and concerned now, since both cats seem to have the same symptoms. We have never let them out of the house before, not once!

1. What could be happening to Cookie? If she continues to bleed, what else can we do to help her? What will be the next step that we should take if she continues with this symptom, even after the medication? Is there a more thorough form of medical examination available that can be done to try to find out the cause(s) ?

2. What could be happening to Fluffy? I know that cats infected with worms may pass on the problem to other cats, but none of our cats has worms, I don't know why Fluffy is experiencing the same problem now.

The only thing that comes close to being a possible cause, IMO, is their diet, since both of them are now eating the same low-calories food , from Royal Canin (Calorie Control CC38). But again, Cookie has this problem way before she started going on this diet, so ... ???????????

Help, advice, thoughts, anything? Appreciate all responses!

- boomerang :(

Answer:
That is really strange... both cats now having this problem.
Could it be some kind of cleaner that is doing this... you clean somewhere, the cats lay on it, then clean themselves... making the feces irritate the anus... I don't know.
The fact that the blood comes after the poop is weird but would suggest that there would be trouble pooping in the first place, which takes you back to their diet. Have you tried feeding a wet food instead of dry?... if the vet thinks it's their diet I would try that first.

Answer:
We hardly give the 2 cats wet food since we have been told that wet food tends to introduce weight problem, and Cookie is already 4 lbs overweight.

The change from a normal to a low-calories diet is really to address Cookie's overweight problem, not for the bleeding problem. It remains only a speculation that the food that we have been feeding her before may have caused her to constipate or difficulty poop-ing thereby causing her rectum to bleed. The only remedy taken for the bleeding problem now is the prescription of the medication.

Answer:
It remains only a speculation that the food that we have been feeding her before may have caused her to constipate or difficulty poop-ing thereby causing her rectum to bleed.
That seems like a logical answer. So you're just going to have to wait it out with both of them like that? I couldn't do it! I'd be going crazy!
So the vet doesn't think this is that serious right...?
If it were my cat (even being overweight) I would still feed wet moreso than dry to see if it helps.
The change in brands of food may help the bleeding problem as well as the weight problem. I hope it does...Keep us posted and let us know how they're doing. Good luck.

Answer:
Boomerang,I would suggest you get a second opinion from another vet.
Also the wet food idea sounds good,there is good wet food out there,with good nutrience,not fatty fillers.
I have lately been feeding my cats Nutro canned and Wellness canned food,a change from Fancy Feast,but my cats are not overweight.
The dry food and water is available 24/7.
But first,I would not wait around too long,since it already stresses you,make an appointment with another vet,there is no reason to stay loyal to a vet,especially if he can give you no answers.

Answer:
Boomerang ~ Did you ever get to the bottom of the problem? One of our cats has been doing this. The vet told us to change food to one without red coloring. He said the red dye irritates most cats' and will make them bleed when they poop. We tried that, but it didn't help. We started her on wet food today, wish us luck.

Answer:
busymamma, this thread is almost two years old and Boomerang doesn't seem to be on often.

Answer:
I was wondering if you have any other clues as to what might be wrong besides red dye in the cat food?

Answer: