vaginitis and clavamox

I queried on the few threads about vaginitis, and tried to query as much as possible on google. Tuesday, I got a new 5 month old kitten I named Tawsha. She was constantly licking her vulva and a milky discharge would come out, I noticed I think Thursday night. Saturday I took her to the vet and tried to remain as non-arrogant as possible while questioning the vet about pyometra. She said it may be vaginitis and gave me the liquid form of clavamox. after third day of application, she still drips. I hate how vets seem very nonchalant when they have no idea what is going on. grrrrrr. She is supposed to be spayed thursday. will that clear this up. I hope someone can help me becuase all the vets I ask as nice as they are with vaccines and all but are clueless about this and I am pissed off. see her pics in the link below...

and for those who wondered about kateerah and katawnah, since the marking of territory didn't stop, as much as it broke my heart, kateerah is with my niece and thriving and no more middening. katawnah was renamed sophie. the three will reunite thursday when all are spayed on spay day for 45 for shots and spay surgery at aaspca.


pics of tawsha:


http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/share....tate=RETRIEVED

I talked to the aaspca clinic and was told if it was a uterine infection the spay would rid the problem, but her, too, never really heard of vaginitis in a kitten, but then again the kitten was 5 mos and never had shots when I rescued it, so , I will know what's what thursday and will report next monday after everyone has healed. thanks

Congrats on your new addition.

Is it possible she's in heat? I suppose the vet would have dismissed that thought already...BUT...They'll often do a lot of licking down there when they are in heat. I did notice some clearish-milky discharge on Pixel when she went into heat, just prior to her spay.

wow, pixel looks like a tortie too. Yeah, I hope it's just that she has to be spayed. So hopefully once they see her Thursday, and examine her, they will go ahead and spay her and all will be well with the world. The vet gave her the antibiotic, but didn't say much. As much as it's know otherwise, since she wasn't six months, they didn't give it much thought. I really appreciate this site, I don't feel haughty for having knowledge about my cats and sometimes I feel vets feel I am trying to upstage them when that couldn't be further from the truth, I just try to read as much as I can so we can both figure out what's wrong. anyway, I was told to continue the antibiotics and they would check her over before the spay...

It a lot of discharge, about 5 or so droplets of milky discharge a day, or maybe twice that and she is constantly licking. I guess finding her the way I did, I might have set myself up but I hope with vaccines and such she'll be fine after the spay...regardless of how late she got them.

Originally Posted by pearce1974

wow, pixel looks like a tortie too. Yeah, I hope it's just that she has to be spayed. So hopefully once they see her Thursday, and examine her, they will go ahead and spay her and all will be well with the world. The vet gave her the antibiotic, but didn't say much. As much as it's know otherwise, since she wasn't six months, they didn't give it much thought. I really appreciate this site, I don't feel haughty for having knowledge about my cats and sometimes I feel vets feel I am trying to upstage them when that couldn't be further from the truth, I just try to read as much as I can so we can both figure out what's wrong.

anyway, I was told to continue the antibiotics and they would check her over before the spay...

It a lot of discharge, about 5 or so droplets of milky discharge a day, or maybe twice that and she is constantly licking. I guess finding her the way I did, I might have set myself up but I hope with vaccines and such she'll be fine after the spay...regardless of how late she got them.

Click to expand...

Yeah, we love Torties. We have 3!!

I think you're doing the right things. Just keep up w/the meds and keep a close eye on her. I can sympathise. I read up on my cats' ailments until my eyes hurt.

She's peeing and pooing and eating ok? Please send her my wishes in advance for a speedy recovery from her spay.

BTW, she's beautiful.

Is she spayed???

I know in humans excessive antibiotics usage can cause a flora inbalence/.... Bene bac may help BUT THE VET first

no, she'll be spayed thursday and I am glad. it seems like the antibiotics would exacerbate the problem...

Kittens do get vaginitis. However, when my cat had it, it was more of a greenish-brown kinda color... Did your vet take any xrays? If it is a pyometra, the spaying will fix the problem. If its vaginitis.... It may not.. My cat who got it was spayed when she devoloped it...

did it ever cease to come back or was it like a human's yeast infection?

I read that vaginitis can happen due to herpesvirus and since she was not with shots at 5mos. That may be the case. Since my other cat was vaccinated, shouldn’t she be okay just incase that is what we are dealing with? This is day 4 of the clavamox and I didn’t notice anything milky, dischargey today anywhere. I had no idea having a cat would be this hard. As a kid I never heard of all this stuff, I thought it was all about a clean litterbox, cat food and fun. Whoa.

Wouldn't it be extremely unlikely for a 6 month old kitten to have Pyometra? That is usually from a long period of time with the vat going into heat with no pregnancy... just wondering...

A kitten (6 months old) with a vaginal discharge and irritation (licking) is far more likely to have vaginitis - which does occur in young cats, it is just much less common than juvenile vaginitis in dogs - than a pyometra, which is generally only seen in older cats (with the exception of cats that have been given medication to induce an abortion).  Please do not make the mistake of thinking that because you have read something on the internet it must be true - I mean this sincerely, I have seen far too many cats and dogs die and almost die this way and it is so unnecessary!  

If you do not trust your vet I suggest you find one that you do trust and stick with them - we are actually trained for many years and know the medical facts, and can tell these from the many half truths and straight out old wives tales that you will find floating around the internet.  I am not trying to be arrogant, I am actually trying to do the best for you and your cat.    

Hi;

I did have a 5 month old kitten with a pyometra. I would have never thought to consider it in such a young cat, but it was. There was no discharge, just general ADR. (ain't doing right). Did full panel blood work and came back with extremely high WBC. Took Rads and it showed a large, fluid filled uterus. Surgery went well and kitten did recover from everything with antibiotics and sadly back then no pain meds. This was late 1980's. So, it does happen but it still wouldn't be on top of my list of differentials for a kitten with the symptoms you described. The kitten I had also didn't have an elevated temperature.

More recently in 2010 I had rescued two kittens about 10 weeks old or so. Found by the side of the road. One of the kittens did do allot of licking etc. She was showing signs of cystitis and we did radiographs. That showed enormous bladder stones in the kitten. About the size of a pea. She had 3 or 4 of them. The Specialist did an abdominal ultrasound which confirmed they would need surgery to remove. Nothing else abnormal in abdomen. He did feel that something was very wrong with this kitten because of the stones. We tried a couple of days of special diet and antibiotics etc. But I had to euthanize due to the agony the kitten was in even with the pain medication. I would have done the surgery but could not adopt her out with a known problem like that. Also am at maximum cat capacity with my two cats so.....really no choice in the matter.

I would think that if the vet thought it was a pyometra they should have done surgery ASAP due to the fact that you really don't want the kitten going septic etc. I don't know. Sometimes if you aren't getting the answers from one vet you have to find another that you can communicate you concerns to and those concerns will be addressed.

Hope your kitten does well with what ever does happen.

Take Care