Can I trust the fecal test?

No, you should not trust a negative fecal. You could still have parasites. The way my vet explained it to me is that a fecal test is only done on a small sample of the stool, it's like a long film that you only cut a part off. There could still be eggs (which is what they look for) in another part of the sample so just because it's negative doesn't mean that the animal has no parasites, just that there was no eggs in the sample they tested. When there is reason to suspect parasites, like with a stray, it's a good idea to do two fecals from two different parts on the stool sample.

In my opinion you should always deworm a cat when it comes in to your home, whether it's off the street, from a shelter or from an owner. It doesn't hurt and is something that should be done on a regular basis anyway. I treat all my new cats with either Frontline or Revolution and Strongid for worms (in my opinion Strongid is the best wormer and it's very cheap too). If they have fleas for sure it's a good idea to treat them with Drontal too since they are very, very likely to have tape worm (from swollowing fleas). I'd still do a fecal on a new cat though to check for things like coccidia and giardia. If it's negative but they have symptoms, like diarrhea, I repeat it.

Good luck with your new kitty.

Hi LDG,
Thanks for your great insight as usual. I was looking forward to your response plus many here that have so much knowledge and experience that I truly respect.

I got 5-packets of Panacur, 1-per day with another fecal test in 3-weeks. Should I ask for another 5-doses in 3-weeks or rely on the fecal test which isn't 100% accurate? I will inspect his feces every day and see what I find, should be interesting. I wonder if anyone here does their own floating fecal test. Wouldn't be that difficult. Yes, another fecal test 3-weeks after the 2nd round would be a good idea.

This evening he didn't like the Drontal in the soft food. He slicked it but that was all. I left it mixed with the soft food and put it in the refrig. for the morning when he should be good and hungry. Should it be ok? I plan not to microwave it in the morning(might damage it's effectiveness) just set out and warm awhile before feeding. If he won't eat it in the morning i'll have to toss it. Thanks for your help.

Originally Posted by Going Nova

Either did I! I looked it up because one of the vets I used to take Nova to once prescribed a dog medicine to her and it had some pretty awful side effects.

OP, sorry for hijacking your thread! Good luck sorting out kitty's parasites.

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No problem.... i'm not that finicky. I'm just here to learn as much as I can and so far all of you have been so helpful.

Originally Posted by sharky

Many times like has been mentioned fecals miss things ... alot of human error as humans run the tests and parasites are often tiny .... That being said I only use a wormer when a new cat or dog ( if I have multiples ) comes into the house Unless of course a routine fecal shows something... Wormers are POISONS after all

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I agree, I took the fecal test as gospel and now I know that it isn't 100% accurate. I always thought too that they tested the whole sample but finding out it's only a small sample of the whole feces you bring in. I'm tempted to do the test myself, can't be that difficult.

Lizita, thanks for your help.

My feral cat is still a little wild yet and can't be handled so I need powder or pill type medicine. Some that you mentioned are topical I believe but I think Strongid does come in pill form.

It's to bad that the fecal test the way it is performed isn't 100% accurate. This can be very misleading especially in my case were my feral cat tested negative for his fecal test just two days after capture. Now after 47 days I find not only a roundworm but a tapeworm. I plan to do visual self testing of the feces on a regular basis. So far i'm finding that more accurate than the fecal test. Although, visuals with the naked eye can't detect eggs and probably not the small larvae. So I think it's best to do both.

Thanks for your insight and info. It has been very helpful. Sometimes these processes can be puzzling at times and information is very valuable.

Thanks again.

Now Tabby my feral won't eat.
Yesterday morning I gave him the Panacur powder(for roundworm) in some soft canned food and he ate it. I have 4-more doses to give him each day.

He also has tapeworms so yesterday evening I smashed the two Drontal pills into powder and put it in some soft canned food. He licked on it a little a couple times and then refused to eat any more. I waited awhile but he was having none of that. I wrapped it up a put it in the refrig. for in the morning.

So this morning I air heated it for 10-minutes. Mixed some hard food with it and served. He came within two feet of the food and stopped. He could tell it was the same stuff. He turned around and went back into his hide box. I tried to encourage him to eat but no deal. I heated some extra canned food and put it on top of the mix thinking if he would smell some of the regular soft food he would start to eat. Nope he wouldn't come out of his box to eat. I left it in the cage for 30 minutes but he still refused to eat.

So he hasn't eaten in 24-hrs. so he must be good and hungry but the Drontal he just won't eat even in his favorite soft food(chicken feast). Or it could be the Panacur that is upsetting his system and when he smells the soft canned food it triggers something in his head it's bad food. When I was still feeding him outside, one rainy evening the food got a little soggy and he wouldn't eat that until I put some dry food out and he ate that later on. Must be their survival mode kicking in to warn them of bad food or food that doesen't set well in their stomach.

He had two stools in his litter this morning. One was clear and the other had 16-dead roundworms in it. Here are a couple pix of the worms. It's graphic and sorta gross so beware.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...icture3768.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...icture3769.jpg

I'm going to try the Panacur for roundworms at noon and see if he will eat the medicine/soft food mix. Still have 4-doses to give him. It seems to be working. Hope I can get him to eat the stuff for the next 4-days.

I can't handle Tabby as yet so dry powdered medicine in soft food is the only way I can give it.

I wonder if the soft baby chicken food would work. I bought the chicken dogs in the baby jars. But I was told at the vets that there is some chicken in very small jars that is in more of a paste. Gerber brand.

What type of food do you use to administer the medicine?

Has anyone had trouble with their kittie not eating the medicine?

Thanks.

16 in one stool! I know in animals and definitely in humans that sometimes worms aren't detected until they literally cause a intestinal blockage.
I'm wondering if he could possibly have so many worms in him that killing them off with something that doesn't make them reabsorb could have him bound up a bit and not feeling well? Probably something you'd have to talk to the vet about.

Pete, I hate to tell you this - but NONE of our cats EVER ate food with meds mixed into it. Ever.

The drontal you may be able to get him to eat if you put it in a pill pocket... but other than scruffing them between my legs when seated on the floor (so they can't back up, which is the natural reaction) and focing the liquid down their throats (yup, the side of my finger forcing their mouths open gets chomped) I don't know how to do it. That's why so many people love Revolution - because it's a heck of a lot easier to quickly squirt a liquid inbetween the shoulders. That said - you still have to be able to touch the cat, because you must spread the hair and get it on the skin, or it just drips off in a greasy mess.

I'm sorry - maybe others have suggestions?

...as to re-testing in three weeks, I wouldn't bother. Round worm we know for sure the treatment only kills the adults, so you just have to assume there are eggs that need to mature. What we do is have the fecal tested three weeks or a month after the 2nd treatment.

What about tuna? Human foods? KFC -skin?

Thanks, very good point. I think for his next meal i'm going to try his regular food mix and see what happens. I'll give him a third the quantity he normally gets and if he eats it ok i'll give him the second dose of Panacur. Hope he isn't plugged up. His two stools in the litter box were normal, except for the worms.

Ours are all feral rescues, and no matter what we tried, we couldn't slip any meds past them in ANY food, no matter how long we let them not eat. We went three days, then started just feeding them.

But we never had to treat a feral as feral as your feral. We used Revolution on ferals that were probably strays-gone-feral outside, because we only did it if we could pet them while they were eating. Otherwise they didn't get dewormed.

The most experienced rescuer on TCS uses a room or an outdoor enclosure into which she releases her ferals, not a cage - and she just used long thick leather gloves to medicate if necessary.

Thanks LDG,
"Pill Pocket", do you mean a capsule. I have empty small capsules I fill with calcium and give to my snapping turtle in his meat. I wonder if I could fill some of those and put them in the food. But if he would bite into the capsules the content would spill out. I'll think on that as a last resort.

Yes I've used the Revolution on Tiger my other kittie on the back of the neck and it's easy to apply if you can handle the kittie which I don't think I dare right now and forcing anything down his throat is definately out of the question.

I'm going to try a small portion of his regular food mix and see if he will eat that and then try the Panacur mix again. If he won't eat that maybe i'll try the baby food chicken. At some point I would think he should get awful hungry.

Thanks for your help.

Just read your second reply. Ferals won't eat their medicine with food... Oh my. I'm hoping that I don't have to use the long thick gloves. This isn't suppose to be this hard. Three days and no eating, thanks for the good news.

I think i'm going to have a long talk with Tabby to shape him up. I think I might have to grab him by the scruff of the neck and pull him out of his box and give him a big KISS on top of his head Maybe then he will take his medicine. Wish me luck.

Thanks again.

strange_wings,
Thanks for the ideas, i'll keep them in mind. Now I just need to get his brain back to the eating mode. Hope he didn't lose too much trust in my feeding him... and he was doing so good. He was eating three feet from me and with no loud long meows anymore. Oh well back to the medicine.

Thanks.

I'm sure some ferals will - just not a single one of ours ever did.

A pill pocket is actually like a cat treat, but designed to slip a pill into it. Here's an example - http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2755242

The liquid... I dunno. I'd give gerber chicken baby food a try. The one food our cats went NUTS for is warm shrimp... (still wouldn't eat it with meds in it tho) - but you coud try salmon (with the water), tuna with the water, shrimp, with some of the water you used to boil it in....

Thanks, i'll have to take a look at those pockets at Petsmart. Thanks for the other food ideas, i'll find something he loves I hope. I haven't given him a whole lot of variety in foods as yet so maybe the tuna or salmon will work or the gerber baby chicken food.

I had to give Patches dewormer via pills. Instead of buying pill pockets, I managed with just a soft cat treat. I split the pill in half, then smushed each half into a treat. I had to resmush the treat to cover the pill. Then I put those treats with pills on top of her normal dry food. I'd check through the bowl later to see if the pill fell out. One half did - I just put it in a treat again. Checked the bowl later and no pills/treats were there. Pill pocket is probably easier, but with her being used to the type of treat already, I went this way.

I agree, it's best to put the medicine in a food he eats on a regular basis then he won't be so suspicious. I put the powdered medicine in the soft food. I used 100% soft food where I normally use about 15% of the soft food mixed with the hard food. I think just the consistancy got him suspicious that something was going on. With the powdered Panacur he eat it in the morning but with the Drontal in the evening he got within two feet of the food and turned around and headed for the box.

Then this morning he just wouldn't eat it. I did feed him his regular food half the quantity and he ate that around 2:00 today. Tonite i'm going to try the Panacur again. Maybe just half the dose and the other half in the morning. The instructions say all the medicine once a day. I think it must make him feed ill or something.

I wonder if it's ok to give him half the medicine twice a day rather than all of the medicine once a day so he will eat it?

Tabby ate his evening meal with half the dose of Panacur. I think I know what happend. Routine, routine, routine...feed the same time give him the regular food at mealtime with maybe a little change, lights off the same time etc, etc. Well I usually feed Tabby around 15% soft food in his hard food. When I gave him the medicine I used only the soft food. The first time it was ok but the second time I think it might of upset his stomach and he began to refuse the food.

So this evening I mixed the powdered Panacur in the 15% soft food and mixed it up with the hard food as I would regularly feed him. He started out slow but I think he realized it was ok and finished the whole amount of food I give him which is a 1/2 cup of dry food plus a small spoon full of the soft food. He gets fed twice a day.

Tomorrow I will wait at least 12 hrs. and give him the regular dose of medicine. It should be around 9:00am so that would be 14 hrs.

So using the regular food mix that he is used to, 15% soft food and mixing the powdered medicine(Panacur) in the soft food and then mixing it all together seems to be working as a method of administering medicine to a cat you can't safely handle.

Thanks guys for all the help, I hope I have a handle on this one especially for tomorrow with the full dose. Will let you know the results.

Eating is a wonderful thing.. Tabby KEEP it up

Tabby says I will keep eating because I have such a wonderful caretaker that me .

Thanks.