Cat Diarrhea: Symptoms and Herbal Treatment
📝 Summary
Chronic diarrhea can strike any cat, bringing lethargy, weight loss, abdominal pain, and a rough coat. In traditional diagnosis it splits into damp-heat from spleen weakness (foul, loose stool, red-yellow tongue) and pure spleen-deficiency diarrhea (odorless, pale tongue). Both are built on the Bu Zhong Yi Qi decoction, with dampness-clearing or fluid-draining herbs added, plus a salty rice-water support drink.
1 How to Recognize Diarrhea
Multiple bowel movements a day, up to a dozen or more. Stools are soft, loose, or watery with little odor. Appetite is low or normal but water intake rises.
2 Pattern 1 — Damp-Heat from Spleen Deficiency
The cat’s tongue is red-yellow and the stool is foul, soft, and loose. Treatment boosts qi, strengthens the spleen, and clears heat and dampness with Bu Zhong Yi Qi decoction plus poria, pulsatilla, phellodendron, and coptis, dosed by body weight.
3 Pattern 2 — Spleen-Deficiency Diarrhea
The tongue is pale, the stool has no special odor and is soft, loose, or watery. Treatment boosts qi, strengthens the spleen, drains water, and stops diarrhea with Bu Zhong Yi Qi decoction plus alisma, polyporus, and poria. The base herbs (astragalus, atractylodes, codonopsis, licorice) raise yang and supplement qi; tangerine peel moves qi; alisma, polyporus, and poria drain dampness.
4 The Base Formula and Supportive Care
Bu Zhong Yi Qi decoction contains eight herbs — codonopsis, astragalus, atractylodes, angelica, tangerine peel, bupleurum, cimicifuga, and licorice. Because the cat drinks more, also give rice-water with salt: simmer 50 g rice in 500 g water for 10 minutes, add 5 g salt, cool, and offer freely as the drinking water.
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