loose bowel movements in cat

Question
Hi Jennifer.  My cat, Simon, who was adopted from a rescue center, has very soft bowel movements most of the time. I brought him to the vet with a stool sample and he found nothing wrong with it.  The cat had also been given a de-worming pill before I adopted it ( he sometimes had the soft movements and they thought it may be a worm or parasite problem - but that was never confirmed).  He does a lot of bowel movements in the middle of the night.  None during the day. He eats fine, drinks fine, plays fine.   I have him on a special diet - Friskies - for urinary tract health because he is prone to urinary tract infections. I was told to give him mostly wet food, but I do also give him some dry - also special diet.    The vet said he seemed very healthy, had no worms, but gave him an antibiotic for 5 days just in case there was a bacterial infection.  Well, he is finished with the pills and the movements are still always very mushy.  Is this OK?  Does he possibly have pet IBS?  What do you think?   Thank you very much!  dara

Answer
Yes cats can get/have IBS.  I would recommend switching his diet to a more natural diet with less fillers, no by-products and no dyes.  Some good diets to try are Innova, Eagle Pack, Precise, Evolve....most of these foods will be safe for urinary tract problems, but you can always call the company to find out.  I know Eagle Pack gets a target urine pH of 6.0 and have had several clients put their cats on this food for urinary problems.  With a higher quality diet, he should also have less bowel movements.  You may want to also consider adding probiotics and digestive enzymes to his diet.