Nursing foster cat with constant diarrhea..

I've had my foster cat Cami for 4 weeks now. She was pregnant when I got her and had her kittens two weeks ago.

She's had diarrhea since the day I got her... She was right away started on a course of Panacur for 5 days, then Pyrantel. She still had the diarrhea so she then got a course of Albon.

During the time she's been with me she's had a lot of other things going on too. She had a runny nose and sneezing so was on doxycycline right away. That cleared up then I noticed last week that she had swollen lymph nodes in her neck and was a little sneezy so the humane society sent me home with a shot of penicillin. THEN the next day I noticed her shivering really bad and not eating, I brought her right to the vet and she had a temp of 107.   They did an emergency spay on her... she had pyometra. Really, this girl has not gotten very lucky in the health department!! Regardless of everything she's had going on, she is still the SWEETEST cat and the best mama! She took care of her kittens from the minute she woke up from anesthesia after her spay!!

The spay was last week. Her fever immediately went down after her surgery. She and the kittens came home with me the next day and she didn't even act like she was sore! She has been on Clavamox after the spay, as a just in case thing. Today is the last day of it.

She continues to have this horrible diarrhea.. The vet looked at her stool under the microscope and didn't see anything too suspicious. So now I think she just has a food intolerance?? I've been feeding her what the humane society recommends. Pro Plan kitten for dry food, and Friskies or Fancy Feast for wet. She mainly eats wet food and LOVES the Friskies/Fancy Feast. I've never had a cat with food allergies and I'm not sure where to start with trying to fix her!

I've been doing reading on cats with food intolerance and read that common ingredients that cause tummy upset are fish, beef, wheat, eggs, and dairy. So I spent forever at the pet food store reading the ingredients on the back of the cans.. LOL! I ended up leaving with Soulistic wet food. I bought the chicken & pumpkin and plain chicken one..

I hate to get her started on an "expensive" food especially since I'm sure she won't continue to get it when she goes back to the humane society in a couple months... but I don't know what else to do for her! She's causing such a mess in the litter box and the kittens will be trying the litter box out in a couple weeks here and I can just imagine how icky that's going to be...

Anyone else have any suggestions???

Here's Cami and her little chunky girls

She's had lots of antibiotics which can cause diarrhea, you could try some probiotics to see if they help.

Has she been checked for T Foetus?  Guardia?  Coccidia?

My last foster was loose the whole time I had her, and cleared up once she was rehomed and not nursing 5 kittens - she was eating a huge amount when she was with me.

Despite the state of her bowels they all look well in your photos.

OrientalSlave said:

She's had lots of antibiotics which can cause diarrhea, you could try some probiotics to see if they help.

Has she been checked for T Foetus?  Guardia?  Coccidia?

My last foster was loose the whole time I had her, and cleared up once she was rehomed and not nursing 5 kittens - she was eating a huge amount when she was with me.

Despite the state of her bowels they all look well in your photos.

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I've been doing probiotics the whole time too.

I'm not sure if she's been checked for those? The vet said she was going to send of a stool culture and then I never heard anything. I sent her a message yesterday asking if she'd received the results.

I know, they are all doing so well despite this. The babies are little fatties and at 2.5 weeks old weigh between 12-14 oz! She's feeding them well

What probiotic? Some help, some don't. I had a kitty with chronic diarrhea, and it wasn't parasite-related or food allergies. The vet recommended Fortiflora, and I didn't know better. It turned diarrhea into explosive diarrhea. A good cat probiotic is Proviable-DC, or you can just use a human acidophilus supplement, just look for 10 billion active cultures. I give my cats (and my husband and I take) Natural Factors acidophilus+bifidus. It's in the refrigerated section at the health food store.

But I suspect there's a parasite of some type involved. Tests for giardia and T. feotus typically have to be requested by the vet of the lab, as they're often not part of the typical fecal panel.

LDG said:

What probiotic? Some help, some don't. I had a kitty with chronic diarrhea, and it wasn't parasite-related or food allergies. The vet recommended Fortiflora, and I didn't know better. It turned diarrhea into explosive diarrhea. A good cat probiotic is Proviable-DC, or you can just use a human acidophilus supplement, just look for 10 billion active cultures. I give my cats (and my husband and I take) Natural Factors acidophilus+bifidus. It's in the refrigerated section at the health food store.
But I suspect there's a parasite of some type involved. Tests for giardia and T. feotus typically have to be requested by the vet of the lab, as they're often not part of the typical fecal panel.

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I don't know what kind they are?? The humane society just gave them to me in a plastic baggie so I don't know what kind they are. I'm pretty sure it isn't Fortiflora, I've had Fortiflora before and it was a little brown tinted right?? This is a plain white powder. Maybe I'll just buy some on my own...

Your foster is a beauty and looking good!

My drug suggestion would be Metronidazole (Flagyl), if it can be given to a nursing mother. I don't like giving it but it has really worked wonders when I've had to give it to my fosters.

My foster with CRF, just diagnosed with hyperthyroidism also, started getting loose stools a few weeks ago which changed to diarrhoea when she was put on Clavamox. We stopped the Clavamox and gave Convenia which helped only slightly. She would not eat food with pumpkin in it so I put two teaspoons of pumpkin in a feeding syringe and got that into her. It worked that day, and she produced soft stools for the first time in weeks; I was amazed.

Can you try a blander diet, like lamb and rice - which can be found quite easily and isn't that pricey. Mine love FF too but it has a lot of wheat gluten in it which some cats can't tolerate.
 

I gave her the last dose of Clavamox yesterday morning. I hope that stopping that plus her new food (which has pumpkin in it) will help or get rid of the diarrhea. If not, I'm going to demand another stool culture!!