Good morning, all,
For a few weeks, Zoey's been having trouble with diarrhea. When I first noticed it, I knew not to panic and give it a few days. After following her to the litter box every time she went, a couple days later I noticed blood in the diarrhea, which prompted me to call the vet. They took a stool sample and did a fecal flotation, which had normal results, and they advised me to just wait another few days.
At the beginning of the next week, upon following her again into the litter box, I saw little white forms in her diarrhea which, the vet told me, was tapeworm. They gave me a dewormer and a 10-day course of Metro. The dewormer worked very well (it was disgusting to see such a long tapeworm come out of her, but it worked), and I gave her the Metro as directed. Even though they told me the Metro would show results pretty quickly, I saw only a slight improvement after 5 days, and following that, her condition reverted and worsened.
Upon yet another call to the vet, they prescribed a special dry food, Iams Veterinary Formula Intestinal Low-Residue for GI Tract Health. Upon starting her on this, there was immediate improvement, with normal stool. I was so excited that it seemed we made good progress, but then the Metro ran out and we were back to square one. The vet did another fecal flotation, with normal results, and prescribed a 21-day course of Metro. It has been eight days since then, and there hasn't been any improvement. I had hoped that between the special food and the Metro, we'd be back to normal by now, since it had seemed like the magic combination originally.
All throughout this, she's been acting perfectly normal. She's been eating and drinking well (if anything, her appetite has increased), she hasn't been lethargic at all, and she hasn't lost weight (as far as I know, since my scale measures only to half a pound, not tenths of a pound). Honestly if I hadn't been in the same room with her when she used the litter box that one day, it would have been much longer before I knew that anything was wrong. Also, not once has my vet asked me to bring Zoey in at all. Is that normal, considering how long this is lasting?
I'm not sure how to proceed. Since I adopted Zoey only about 6 weeks ago, I got in touch with the shelter to see if she had had a similar problem while she was with them or if any of their other cats did, with no luck. But they did say another medication that might help is Baytril, but I have yet to look into it.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I didn't want to leave anything out. If anyone has suggestions about anything I may have missed or that the vet may have missed, they would be much, much appreciated!!!
Thank you so much in advance for any advice
For a few weeks, Zoey's been having trouble with diarrhea. When I first noticed it, I knew not to panic and give it a few days. After following her to the litter box every time she went, a couple days later I noticed blood in the diarrhea, which prompted me to call the vet. They took a stool sample and did a fecal flotation, which had normal results, and they advised me to just wait another few days.
At the beginning of the next week, upon following her again into the litter box, I saw little white forms in her diarrhea which, the vet told me, was tapeworm. They gave me a dewormer and a 10-day course of Metro. The dewormer worked very well (it was disgusting to see such a long tapeworm come out of her, but it worked), and I gave her the Metro as directed. Even though they told me the Metro would show results pretty quickly, I saw only a slight improvement after 5 days, and following that, her condition reverted and worsened.
Upon yet another call to the vet, they prescribed a special dry food, Iams Veterinary Formula Intestinal Low-Residue for GI Tract Health. Upon starting her on this, there was immediate improvement, with normal stool. I was so excited that it seemed we made good progress, but then the Metro ran out and we were back to square one. The vet did another fecal flotation, with normal results, and prescribed a 21-day course of Metro. It has been eight days since then, and there hasn't been any improvement. I had hoped that between the special food and the Metro, we'd be back to normal by now, since it had seemed like the magic combination originally.
All throughout this, she's been acting perfectly normal. She's been eating and drinking well (if anything, her appetite has increased), she hasn't been lethargic at all, and she hasn't lost weight (as far as I know, since my scale measures only to half a pound, not tenths of a pound). Honestly if I hadn't been in the same room with her when she used the litter box that one day, it would have been much longer before I knew that anything was wrong. Also, not once has my vet asked me to bring Zoey in at all. Is that normal, considering how long this is lasting?
I'm not sure how to proceed. Since I adopted Zoey only about 6 weeks ago, I got in touch with the shelter to see if she had had a similar problem while she was with them or if any of their other cats did, with no luck. But they did say another medication that might help is Baytril, but I have yet to look into it.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I didn't want to leave anything out. If anyone has suggestions about anything I may have missed or that the vet may have missed, they would be much, much appreciated!!!
Thank you so much in advance for any advice
