After 98 days..... I finally see....

Formed poop!!! Yey!!!!!!!!!
For those who don't know, Bugsy has had diarrhea since October 10th, when he took his first dose of Clavamox for an UTI... Since then he has been in and out of vets, including for an emergency when he stopped eating due to an unknown fever. He has been os several rounds of Metronidazole, Tylan, Prednizolan, Metro and Pred together, for no avail. He is also on fiber and a high dose of probiotic, called Proviable-DC. Now as a final medication try, his vet put him on Sulfasalazine and that seems to do the trick! He will be on it for 10 days, yesterday was day 6 and finally I see formed poop!!! Yey!!!!
I am cautiously optimistic, after 98 days, I know things can go wrong after we stop the medication, but I also know the other medications didn't work even while he was on them. So this is a very good sign!
I will get gross now - warning: this was not tootsie roll poop, normal kitty poop, but it was rope-shaped all the way from beginning to end, HUGE difference from the liquid cow pie he was having before!
Now I just hope he holds his own!!!
For good poop from now on!

All his tests indicated that Clavamox killed his intestinal flora which caused a bacterial overgrowth initiating an inflammation on his intestinal tract. All this time Bugsy only had one day of fever (way later on), so he did not have an infection, per se - his problem is really a bad inflammation and lack of intestinal flora. The specialized tests did not show enough inflammation to be compatible with IBD, nor pancreatitis. The problem is, as I already know, Bugsy's immune system is not the best in the world, and he is having a hard time fighting this inflammation. He does get better to a point, but never completely better...
Both Tylan and Metro are antibiotics, Tylan being broader, so if the problem was a bacterial issue, it would been taken care of by now.
The key however was to reduce the inflammation to a point where the intestinal flora could regrow to a healthy level. Sulfasalazine seems to be doing the trick now... or it might just be time and all the probitotics he has been taking...
No bacterial issue was shown in a comprehensive fecal test run at Texas A&M.

Off hand I am not sure if it was before or after metro, but it might been after... I know it is odd, but again, Bugsy is an odd cat. He had several Metro courses, the longest was for a month. The plan now is to stop Sulfasalazine after the 10 days and see how he does; if he has diarrhea after he stops, he will go back on and we will run a liver panel after a week as Sulfasalazine can affect the liver and needs close monitoring in cats when used long term. I am hoping that will not be necessary though...

Well.... We got 2 days of good poop, and then unfortunately Bugsy had to go through a food change that put him back on square one... but it wasnecessary - let me explain what happened:
I had been noticing for a while that the kitties, Bugsy, Lucky and Hope were all getting finicky towards Z/D dry... They were not eating as much as they should... I kept running after them to get them to eat... I thought Lucky's appetite was low due to hairballs, but then noticed the other kitties were low loo. Thinking it might be a bad bag, I bought a second bag from a vet's office... Same thing - I went out of town and the report from Kelly was the same. I got a Third bag from another vet's office to make sure I had it from a different batch and sure enough.... Same thing. Yesterday I weighed the kids - Bugsy first: 16.4lbs, down from 18.3 at 11/20/2010... Lucky 11.4lbs down from 12.5 6 months ago. I called my vet immediately to change the food at once to Royal Canin Hypoallergenic HP23, which would be my only possible option for Hope due to her intestinal issues, and he agreed with the changes... Of course I am doing the transition very slowly, but any change threw Bugsy off balance...
For me though I rather anytime have them eating (and they LOVED the new food) then going without food - I rather any day deal with diarrhea than with Heaptic Lipidosis, so I am fine with waiting a little longer for Bugsy to be OK. I already waited 100 days, I can wait 110.
I feel confident enough that this medicine works, as I finally saw results with it, and that for me is a very good sign - something that I hadn't seen in all this time. So tomorrow I will call the vet to see what he wants to do about it... What is probably going to happen is we will have to refill this medicine and he will have to have a blood test a week into it as it can affect the liver (this specific medicine breaks down into salicylic acid, so it needs to be closely monitored when used in cats for over 2 weeks with bi-weekly blood tests from then on).
Let's hope this is just a bump on the road and that he is going to be alright once he gets over the food change...
The good thing is that now he is at a healthy weight... The bad thing is how he got there...
He is doing AMAZING otherwise... Very playful, running around, is not jaundice, happy, loving, playing terror, getting in trouble, and just being the wonderful kitty who stole my heart on day one!
Thank you for all the vibes and the love you all send to my boy... it is very much appreciated

Ok, spoke to the vet today and as I thought he will refill his Sulfasalazine meds for another round. He thinks once Bugsy adjusts to the new food he might be fine, as we saw a great effect with this drug. We are going in today for a liver and kidney panel to make sure the drug is safe and not damaging those organs - he will need to have those tests run often if he continues this treatment long term, at least 2-3 times a month.

Thanks hun
Bugsy is not showing any signs of liver problems, jaundice or anything... The vet said very rarely this occurs, but it CAN occur and since Bugsy is a complicated cat, we better be on the safe side. His blood will be run in an outside lab (Texas A&M) as they run more liver enzymes there than his in-house lab. He also lost 2lbs in 2 months, so we want to be extra careful with him.
On a good note... His poop, even though still soft, seems to be firming up again today, so he just probably had a food shock but is now getting adjusted to it