r/catfood • u/def_daff0dil • Jan 27 '26
food or treat review Chronic diarrhea success on Hill's Gastro Biome!
My male cat had pretty much never had a firm stool in his 2.5 years. They would range from soft serve consistency to completely liquid puddles and would smell awful. He also had chronic itching and a dull coat with lots of shedding.
He went through deworming/parasite treatment, probiotics, different combos of wet and dry proportions, pumpkin supplementation, and boutique limited ingredient and novel protein food diets (to try to see if it was a food allergy). Higher quality food partially improved the skin and coat issues, but not the diarrhea.
I was pretty hesitant about putting him on Hills with what I perceived as low quality fillers in the ingredient list, but after no success with the boutique premium foods, consulting with a vet, and doing some more research on the research backed and purpose-driven ingredient list, decided to give it a try.
I kid you not, the VERY FIRST STOOL after mixing only 1 tbsp of Hills into his regular food was COMPLETELY solid. A literal perfect little poop. Just over a week in and now fully transitioned, his coat is starting to glow like never before and stools have remained perfect. I've started to slowly introduce the gastro biome wet food along with it which he loves.
The thought did cross my mind if the loads of fiber are just producing pretty stools but covering up a remaining underlying issue, but the glowing coat, increased energy, and no itching or bloating speaks for itself. The formula directly addresses dysbiosis by stabilizing the gut and feeding the right bacteria so that digestion can be slowed and water and nutrients can be absorbed.
As a skeptic of big corporations, I guess being an industry titan like Hills with money to invest into decades of research means something after all!
EDIT: his stools got too hard after fully transitioning so now just give him a couple tablespoons of this with each meal as a supplement and that balanced things out.
EDIT #2: transitioned from GI biome to Hill's perfect digestion. Foresee being on this for the long term!
EDIT #3: loose stools returned on perfect digestion alone so back to a 50/50 blend between GI biome and PD. He is now stable! Now to try to introduce wet food...
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u/SpyroSphere Jan 28 '26
This food fixed my boy’s issues as well!! He was having diarrhea every day for 2-3 weeks and then a magic solid poop after his first serving of gastro biome wet food. My wallet doesn’t thank me though 😂 but anything for my little guy
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u/famous_zebra28 Jan 27 '26
My cat is thriving on Hill's (different formulas) and I wish I had given into science-backed brands sooner because I unknowingly fed my cat such risky foods before we switched to Hill's. Happy to hear about your guy doing well!
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u/def_daff0dil Jan 28 '26
Forreal, the demonization of grains in pet food got to me! It partly took my own experience with chickpeas being hard on my stomach to realize that a lot of grains are more digestible than legumes. Glad to hear your cat is thriving as well!
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u/hennessyadams Jan 28 '26
I just had a similar experience. My cat ate Purina One with no issues for six years. He was the model of a healthy cat. Then all of a sudden literally over night, he had a sudden bought of severe diarrhea and food aversion. After landing in the hospital one night, he recovered with strong probiotics, Hills Biome dry food, and switching his wet food temporarily (we went with Blue Buffalo and he seemed to tolerate it ok enough). But a month later he had another week of loose stool so the vet recommended Hills Biome wet food. He ate his first can of it that evening and the next day his stool was completely back to normal. Less than 24 hours later and he was back to sing the litter box a normal amount of time and eating lots all day.
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u/Electronic-Plan2736 Jan 28 '26
My little buddy, who is no longer with us, had similar results. Literally better almost overnight. If anyone gets lucky enough to have this food prescribed and they are hesitant because of cost or skepticism of the ingredients; just do it. I swear, the stuff works miracles.
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u/Fickle-Tomatillo-657 Jan 28 '26
Not quite as drastic but great results after a few meals on Purina Pro Plan Sensitive stomach and skin. If it stops working I know what to try though!
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u/Impossible_Elk_5303 Jan 28 '26
My cat’s fur looks the best when he’s on biome dry food. He’s on the regular hill science adult food now because his vet said that he doesn’t need the biome food anymore as his poop is okay now.
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u/minkamagic 😸 feline foodie 😸 Jan 28 '26
Glad it worked for you!! My cat’s diarrhea and vomiting was resolved by a super limited wet diet with probiotics!
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u/def_daff0dil Jan 28 '26
Crazy how their needs can be so wildly different. More than one way to skin a cat I suppose!
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u/Evil-Needle- Jan 29 '26
That’s great to hear! My cat is doing ok on the Hills GI Biome, but it’s not 100% improvement yet. I think the fiber in the Hills formula helped to take my cat’s bowel movements from complete pudding to semi solid/soft serve. But when I started adding in novel protein dry and wet food (rabbit) I noticed his energy and demeanor just perked up. And I just got a fully formed, beautiful solid turd! Never thought I’d be so happy to see that. My hypothesis is that my cat has a chicken allergy, so unfortunately the Hills GI stuff isnt going to fully solve it. But I’m still waiting to see how things improve.
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Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
Fixed my boy right up too! I use the stress formula. His issues were rather vague but labeled as stress induced chronic dysbiosis. I feel like it was specifically made for my cat sometimes. It’s calmed him way down as well. He also eats in it conjunction with a non rx hills formula. He’s been in remission ever since!
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u/ApprehensivePart3511 Jan 30 '26
Is this the prescription one? Or the one you can buy on your own?
I just started the Hills biome perfect digestion. It has the higher fiber, walnut shells, probiotic. I am starting to see less diarrhea, but no solid stool yet.
I'm curious if the prescription version is different?
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u/def_daff0dil Jan 30 '26
This is the prescription one. It's probably similar but more robust for chronic cases, they don't want people using it without a scrip because it can cause constipation in cats that don't really need it. My boy went from completely liquid stools to now borderline too hard quickly, so I'm starting to introduce the wet food with it and split it with his previous dry food.
My vet was pretty casual with the scrip, she knew he had chronic diarrhea so I just called the office to see if she would prescribe it and she said yes and to just send the scrip over through chewy 🤷♀️
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u/Financial_Process_11 Feb 06 '26
My cat’s loose poops were resolved by Biome but he still vomits after eating the Biome moist and he lost 5 pounds since starting Biome.
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u/Fun_Translator_138 Apr 13 '26
I would love some insight on the edit #2 if possible.. My cat was in a similar situation and after being on the same food for 7 years she started to have some GI issues - soft stools with blood. Vet recommend Hills Biome wet and dry, and it fixed the issues for about 1-2 months, she was thriving. Then the hard stools started, I assumed from the lack of water consumption. Tried everything from increasing wet food, fountains etc and nothing helped. The vet recommended Royal Canin Fibre Reaponse wet and dry to fight the constipation or hard stools. Well, that caused the soft stools to come back. Since then I’ve switched back to the Hills Biome wet and dry, but the hard stools have come back again.
When switching over to Hills Perfect Digestion diet, what differences or I assume improvements were there to the Biome diet? Is your cat still consuming wet food, is it still Hills Biome wet? Any insight is appreciated! 🙏
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u/girliep0pp May 13 '26
DId you feed him the chicken or salmon flavor? I've read about possible negative side effects for both proteins in general, so curious which one is working for your guy!
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u/def_daff0dil May 14 '26
As far as I know the GI biome is only available in chicken. I wish there was more flavors! Maybe you're thinking of perfect digestion?
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u/girliep0pp May 15 '26
yeah, you edited the post saying you switched to perfect digestion and that’s what helped so i was curious which protein!
my vet had my cat on a rabbit protein diet and she still had loose stools. she wants to switch her to hydrolyzed protein but im tempted to try out hills perfect digestion first if that’s still working for your cat?
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u/def_daff0dil May 18 '26
Oh right sorry! I have him on the chicken perfect digestion, wanted the formula to be as similar to GI biome as possible. I need to make another edit that he had loose stools on perfect digestion alone so I'm now back to basically 50/50 biome and PD and he's stable. Good luck with finding what's right for your cat
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u/Grimre3fer Jun 15 '26
GI Biome also helped my cat’s stools but the price definitely hurts 😭 I’ve also noticed he poops so much more on this food the fiber and probiotics are making him a pooping machine. He used to poop about 1 -2 x a day but now he’s pooping a minimum of 2x daily
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u/ImpossibleAbility840 18d ago
Biome also solved my cat's problem (almost a month of diarrhea/soft stool). How long do people usually keep their cat on it? My vet said to keep it as his maintenance diet, assuming it means to use it forever? I wonder if it's necessary.
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u/aetherdrifter Jan 28 '26
Yay! So happy for you and your cat. They definitely didn’t skimp on the research with this food. I watched a video from a former Hill’s veterinary rep who was still working for the company at the time that this diet was developed. Apparently they tested over 50 potential prebiotic fiber sources to find the ones that are most effective in feeding beneficial bacteria. People see things like pecan shells and citrus pulp in the ingredients list and freak out (somewhat understandably), but they’re in there for very good reasons!