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Full disclaimer off the top – I've already been to the vet and the issue has been identified/diagnosed so I'm more so looking for advice and tips from anyone who may have a similar situation with their kitty.

My cat Penelope who's 2 has had a stinky diarrhea issue since she was about 8 months. Took her for a stool sample, and the labs came back showing that she had a overgrowth of Cloristridium Perfringens in her GI tract, which is a naturally occurring bacterium but can cause intestinal inflammation when there's too much of it. No parasites. Treated with antibiotics (metronidazole), few months later came back, did antibiotics again and vet recommended probiotics. Put her on FortiFlora probiotic powder – didn't really help, switched to a different probiotic that has different cultures and that seems to be helping more BUT, the diarrhea keeps breaking through occasionally after the second antibiotic course.

Based on my research it seems that the way this bacteria is kept in line is if the other healthy bacteria are kept in healthy populations so that this one doesn't out-compete them like a weed. So I'm trying to avoid getting her on another metronidazole course as it's a broad-spectrum antibiotic seems to kill off a lot of the gut flora and it's hard to get the microbiome healthy and balanced again.

I've been tracking the diarrhea episodes for several months, and with the probiotics I've managed to get recurrences down from happening every couple weeks, to go over a month without an episode. This last one was 39 days after the previous one. But it's gross, and messy, and I can tell she is having distress before she has a diarrhea episode because she paces and whines ahead of the trip to the litterbox.

My hope is that with probiotics and other dietary supports we can eliminate this issue or get it down to be a very rare occurrence. If nothing works or if it starts to come back more frequently, I may look into a different antibiotic (tylosin) which allegedly specifically targets gram-positive bacteria such as C. perfringens and some of the good bacteria are spared. Right now whenever she has an episode, I give her one dose of EnteroAid paste as that is both a probiotic, and a stool hardening agent. It keeps her from having any more runny poops and seems to make her a lot comfortable within a few hours, which lasts for weeks.

Does anyone have experience with kitties that have fussy microbiomes, and what kind of foods/treats were good, and what kind of food/treats/ingredients is it best to avoid? I have her on Science Diet sensitive skin and stomach dry food formula (chicken and rice), and I rarely give her treats but I give her a bit of Churu sometimes, or a freeze dried salmon treat. Only gave her wet food when she was on antibiotics.

TL;DR – cat diarrhea due to chronic C. Perfringens infection, having recurrences every 6 weeks now, trying to manage it with diet. Looking for diet/supplement tips.

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