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We have an eight or nine month old kitten who has been suffering from recurring digestive system health problems that I now suspect may have been exacerbated by treatments received at the hands of a local vet. That's a large suggestion I know, so this a long post, as I guess the backgorund is just as important as the animal's current condition,
I am no expert, just a cat "owner" and will gratefully recieve any advice that more experienced people are able to give me..
We got Alfie when he was probably about six to eight weeks old. He was born to a semi feral mother in a rural community in the mountains, opening his eyes for the first time in a dark corner of the disused outhouse of a small hillside country retreat, which belongs to a local family who really only use it at weekends and holidays - although they do grow some crops in a couple of small adjoining fields and also keep pigs. Our kitten was one of a litter of 5, his mother a member of a scraggy group that survive by virtue of their wits and the odd act of human kindness – farmyard cats really. We were offered any one of the litter as a pet and chose Alfie, as he was a short haired gingery thing, with big ears and a cheeky smile.
We took Alfie to our residence around 200 Km from his birthplace. We live around 150 metres from the Mediterranean coast in 100m2 apartment, located in a village type residential development (Urbanization). There are about 60 dwellings here, the majority unoccupied for most of the year, no shops or amenities, and the grounds are fenced in with a single point of entry. There is a large communal garden area – around 1800m2 in total. The bay parking area is about half the size of that and then there is an underground carpark which would be about the same area again.
Anyway, as soon as we got Alfie settled, when he was around two months old, we contacted a local vet for him to start his course of jabs, deworming, etc. We also had him chipped. Not long into this process, he got sick for the first time– nothing too serious, or so it seemed at the time, diarrhea, not making it to the litter box plus some blood in the stools. We took him back to the vet who told us that worms and parasites were the issue, and then prescribed both antibiotics and probiotics. We completed the course, Alfie quickly got better and that was that.
I should add that Alfie has not been neutered.
To continue - we kept the kitten confined to the house for the first eight months of his life then about six weeks ago started letting him out into the grounds for a few hours most days. We kept a good watch on him during this time and more or less taught him to come back to the house when called. These days he comes back on his own with no input from ourselves, bounding into the house as if reporting in, before scampering off again.
Though quite a wild cat in most ways, Alfie is also highly socialized. He looks eagerly for our attention, generally welcomes handling and likes to sleep at the bottom of our bed. He is also very naughty, mind you, even for a kitten, and can scratch and bite us on a regular basis – sometimes in fun and sometimes when he turns into a raging dervish for a few minutes! - We have no problems with this, btw, viewing it as a necessary and welcomed stage of his development and one which is already starting to fade, anyway. Alfie is normally an extremely, perhaps unusually–active and energetic animal, leaping and vaulting his way through life and is currently going through a growth spurt.
When he has not been sick, we have fed Alfie on a mixture of kibble and wet food. We have steered away from the supermarket type brands, using at first Hills or Royal Canin products. We have tended to let him graze at the kibble and put down wet food,to supplement the kibble, about three times a day. When he finishes eating the wet food, we remove what is left. With wet food, we have stuck to kitten formula most of the time. In fact, he won’t eat much else. We also used some tinned Gold stuff a while back but have now stopped doing this ,as it seemed too rich for him and one time he regurgitated the food immediately after ingesting it. We have also now stopped using any food containing fish, seafood or chicken as these seem to have a bad effect on him. He appears listless not long after eating them.
We also used to give Alfie some of the more supermarket type "treats" as rewards for good behavior but have stopped this now, after carrying out some preliminary research into cat nutrition.
More recently, I have been slowly trying to move Alfie away from all the above brands anyway, attempting to get him onto Orijen kibble and Ziwi Peak wet food. This will be a long process it seems, as Alfie is clinging to the brands he knows, so we are introducing the changes bit by bit.
We have also been giving him Malt Soft Extra TGOS by Gimpet, for hairball prevention, smearing a squeeze from the tube on his front legs a couple of times a week. We brush his coat daily.
Now, all of this was going quite well, or so it seemed, but then Alfie got really sick..
He got diarrhea again just a week or so after starting to go outside every day. As this was accompanied by blood in the stools - at the end of the bowel movement - as well as lethargy and being generaly miserable, we took him to the vet again. She had a look at him, gave him an antibiotic injection, another couple of deworming pills and a diet of Hills intensive care wet food (a/d), to be accompanied by Hills gastro kibble. She handed us some antibiotic tablets which we were to give Alfie once a day – plus a tube of probiotic and some human probiotic pills – Omeprazol - that we had to buy at the chemist were to mix with his food
We did as advised for a couple of days. The diarrhea improved slightly and the blood was gone. But then Alfie started to have problems taking his medicine. He would fight and try not to swallow the pills and, when he finally did, he started foaming at the mouth and retching. A couple of days into the course of treatment, he had a really bad reaction, and was violently sick after taking the pill. As there was blood in the discharge and Alfie also started shaking and becoming very lethargic and distant, we did not try to force him to take his medicine any more. This was on a Saturday night. We managed to contact the vet and she agreed that we should stop administering the pills but to bring him back to the surgery on Monday.
Alfie’s mood improved a little bit the next day but he was still not himself, staying withdrawn and nervous, neither eating nor using the litter tray. We confined him to the room and checked on him regularly but there was no real change.
On Monday the vet gave him another injection – supposedly antibiotics - as soon as we walked in, without asking for our permission, which didn’t do much to inspire our confidence in her, to be quite frank. She then asked if she could take blood tests, which we agreed to. She could not find anything wrong and then put him an x-ray, the results of which were shown to us. She explained that there was a lot of gas in his colon, which indicated colitis.
Vet then suggested a preliminary ultrasound which we again agreed to and witnessed. The ultrasound showed gas in the stomach and intestines, which we were told might indicate that gastroenteritis was the problem. Vet also told us that she would like a second opinion and requested that we leave Alfie with her until later that day, as she was going to enlist the help of a colleague who was more experienced than she in the operation of the ultrasonic equipment. We agreed to this and the vet then showed us how to do intracutaneous antibiotic injections, which were to replace the pills that Alfie seemed to have a reaction against
I duly left Alfie in vet's care, returning later that day to witness the test. But when I arrived back at the surgery, he was already lying on his back with his stomach shaved awaiting the ultrasound. He was semiconscious and when I asked why, the vet explained that she had given him a sedative as he had proven impossible for her to control. I was not at all happy about this as we had not been consulted nor informed that anesthesia was to be used in the test. At no time did we consent to anesthetics being used.
Anyway, the vet’s colleague did his ultrasound thing, confirmed the buildup of gas in both upper and lower intestines but said that he saw no evidence of any kidney, liver damage or neoplastic problems. He agreed with the vet that medication and diet was the best way to proceed.
Alfie then began to wake up and was placed in his carrying box ready to be taken home. I immediately noticed that he was extremely cold and shaking uncontrollably with his pupils dilated and eyeballs apparently rolling. I asked the vet about this and she said it was due to him waking up too fast but not to worry, she would deal with it. She then injected him twice, once in each leg, again without explaining what she was about to do, or requesting permission. I enquired as to the reason for giving him yet more injections and was told that the injections contained an “antidote” to the anesthetic and that this was established veterinary procedure.
When I got Alfie home he was totally spaced out, pupils dilated still and sitting hunched in one position. He was also shaking spasmodically and very cold. I wrapped him in a blanket and attempted to keep him warm. When there was no change, I phoned the vet who told me that this was very unusual as the effects of the injections usually wear off very quickly, without offering any other advice apart from the generic “don’t worry”.
I stayed close to the cat for the rest of the afternoon. When he wanted to eat, after two or three hours I became aware that his vision had also been affected, as he could not find his way to the kitchen. When I carried him there, he was unable to see the feeding bowl properly, so I had to feed him with a spoon.
Alfie had recovered slightly by the evening but was now extremely hyperactive, disorientated and generally ill at ease. He spent that night hunched at the end of the bed, eyes closed but not sleeping. I felt that something was very wrong, so spent the night observing him, as he kept opening and closing his eyes and shivering. Under normal conditions, Alfie sleeps reasonably soundly and curled into a ball.
In the morning, Alfie went to a corner of the house and began to be sick, throwing up bile with mucus plus a bit of semi digested food. He then went to the litter tray and went through a bout of mild diarrhea, . He had repeated spells of vomiting about every twenty minutes or so for the next couple of hours, throwing up bile speckled with fresh with blood, as if from the exertion of being sick.
As this was a Sunday (again)meaning that our vet would be unreachable, and aware of the potential dangers of dehydration, we contacted a different vet, a personal friend of ours. She advised us to put Alfie into a controlled and peaceful environment, withholding all food and water – nil by mouth – for six hours. We followed this advice and after the six hours were up, started to use a 1 ml syringe (without the needle, of course!) to squirt water into the side of Alfie’s mouth every half an hour or so. This was the only way to hydrate him at this time, as he was in a semi-comatose state. He woke up enough to swallow the water though, licking his lips and swallowing greedily.
We kept this rehydration procedure going through the night, at half hour intervals. In the morning, the kitten started to perk up a bit and we started to hand feed him from a spoon - a chickpea sized amount of Hills a/e every half hour or so until the early afternoon. After that we got him slowly back onto more or less normal food and, within around three days, the diarrhea had cleared up he seemed to his normal self again.
We continued to give him the antibiotic jabs once a day for ten days but them stopped, as he was again having adverse reactions – shaking and highly nervous. We contacted the vet before we stopped the injections, as she had told us to continue for 14 days. She agreed that it was best to stop, given the apparent side-effects.
So, all of that was about three weeks ago. Up until three days ago the cat seemed normal and cured of all ills. His bowel movements were solid - but he was drinking a lot more water than he did before he got badly sick. We have taken to putting water bowls all over the house so it is easy for him to find.
But then a couple of days ago, we noticed that Alfie had diarrhea again. This is brown in colour and is sometimes more loose stools that diarrhea really. This time there has been no blood or mucous and he has not been lethargic at all. He shows no signs of illness and is running about as ever. He is drinking even more water now though, especially after eating and even gets up at night sometimes to drink, lapping away at the water in the bowl. I am wondering whether he simply knows that he must rehydrate as he has diarrhea. Are his instincts simply protecting him?
Whatever the case may be, we have put him on the soft diet again, after again consulting the vet. The diarrhea has not ceased but is more solid than it was and with only around two movements per day - and Alfie seems otherwise fine. He may possibly be sleeping a bit more but we are not convinced that this should be taken a sign of illness.
There you go, I have given as much detail and background as I can I think. of right now. Bottom line, we need to determine if our pet is seriously ill or not.
Is anyone able to give a considered opinion on what should be done now now, if anything?
I am no expert, just a cat "owner" and will gratefully recieve any advice that more experienced people are able to give me..
We got Alfie when he was probably about six to eight weeks old. He was born to a semi feral mother in a rural community in the mountains, opening his eyes for the first time in a dark corner of the disused outhouse of a small hillside country retreat, which belongs to a local family who really only use it at weekends and holidays - although they do grow some crops in a couple of small adjoining fields and also keep pigs. Our kitten was one of a litter of 5, his mother a member of a scraggy group that survive by virtue of their wits and the odd act of human kindness – farmyard cats really. We were offered any one of the litter as a pet and chose Alfie, as he was a short haired gingery thing, with big ears and a cheeky smile.
We took Alfie to our residence around 200 Km from his birthplace. We live around 150 metres from the Mediterranean coast in 100m2 apartment, located in a village type residential development (Urbanization). There are about 60 dwellings here, the majority unoccupied for most of the year, no shops or amenities, and the grounds are fenced in with a single point of entry. There is a large communal garden area – around 1800m2 in total. The bay parking area is about half the size of that and then there is an underground carpark which would be about the same area again.
Anyway, as soon as we got Alfie settled, when he was around two months old, we contacted a local vet for him to start his course of jabs, deworming, etc. We also had him chipped. Not long into this process, he got sick for the first time– nothing too serious, or so it seemed at the time, diarrhea, not making it to the litter box plus some blood in the stools. We took him back to the vet who told us that worms and parasites were the issue, and then prescribed both antibiotics and probiotics. We completed the course, Alfie quickly got better and that was that.
I should add that Alfie has not been neutered.
To continue - we kept the kitten confined to the house for the first eight months of his life then about six weeks ago started letting him out into the grounds for a few hours most days. We kept a good watch on him during this time and more or less taught him to come back to the house when called. These days he comes back on his own with no input from ourselves, bounding into the house as if reporting in, before scampering off again.
Though quite a wild cat in most ways, Alfie is also highly socialized. He looks eagerly for our attention, generally welcomes handling and likes to sleep at the bottom of our bed. He is also very naughty, mind you, even for a kitten, and can scratch and bite us on a regular basis – sometimes in fun and sometimes when he turns into a raging dervish for a few minutes! - We have no problems with this, btw, viewing it as a necessary and welcomed stage of his development and one which is already starting to fade, anyway. Alfie is normally an extremely, perhaps unusually–active and energetic animal, leaping and vaulting his way through life and is currently going through a growth spurt.
When he has not been sick, we have fed Alfie on a mixture of kibble and wet food. We have steered away from the supermarket type brands, using at first Hills or Royal Canin products. We have tended to let him graze at the kibble and put down wet food,to supplement the kibble, about three times a day. When he finishes eating the wet food, we remove what is left. With wet food, we have stuck to kitten formula most of the time. In fact, he won’t eat much else. We also used some tinned Gold stuff a while back but have now stopped doing this ,as it seemed too rich for him and one time he regurgitated the food immediately after ingesting it. We have also now stopped using any food containing fish, seafood or chicken as these seem to have a bad effect on him. He appears listless not long after eating them.
We also used to give Alfie some of the more supermarket type "treats" as rewards for good behavior but have stopped this now, after carrying out some preliminary research into cat nutrition.
More recently, I have been slowly trying to move Alfie away from all the above brands anyway, attempting to get him onto Orijen kibble and Ziwi Peak wet food. This will be a long process it seems, as Alfie is clinging to the brands he knows, so we are introducing the changes bit by bit.
We have also been giving him Malt Soft Extra TGOS by Gimpet, for hairball prevention, smearing a squeeze from the tube on his front legs a couple of times a week. We brush his coat daily.
Now, all of this was going quite well, or so it seemed, but then Alfie got really sick..
He got diarrhea again just a week or so after starting to go outside every day. As this was accompanied by blood in the stools - at the end of the bowel movement - as well as lethargy and being generaly miserable, we took him to the vet again. She had a look at him, gave him an antibiotic injection, another couple of deworming pills and a diet of Hills intensive care wet food (a/d), to be accompanied by Hills gastro kibble. She handed us some antibiotic tablets which we were to give Alfie once a day – plus a tube of probiotic and some human probiotic pills – Omeprazol - that we had to buy at the chemist were to mix with his food
We did as advised for a couple of days. The diarrhea improved slightly and the blood was gone. But then Alfie started to have problems taking his medicine. He would fight and try not to swallow the pills and, when he finally did, he started foaming at the mouth and retching. A couple of days into the course of treatment, he had a really bad reaction, and was violently sick after taking the pill. As there was blood in the discharge and Alfie also started shaking and becoming very lethargic and distant, we did not try to force him to take his medicine any more. This was on a Saturday night. We managed to contact the vet and she agreed that we should stop administering the pills but to bring him back to the surgery on Monday.
Alfie’s mood improved a little bit the next day but he was still not himself, staying withdrawn and nervous, neither eating nor using the litter tray. We confined him to the room and checked on him regularly but there was no real change.
On Monday the vet gave him another injection – supposedly antibiotics - as soon as we walked in, without asking for our permission, which didn’t do much to inspire our confidence in her, to be quite frank. She then asked if she could take blood tests, which we agreed to. She could not find anything wrong and then put him an x-ray, the results of which were shown to us. She explained that there was a lot of gas in his colon, which indicated colitis.
Vet then suggested a preliminary ultrasound which we again agreed to and witnessed. The ultrasound showed gas in the stomach and intestines, which we were told might indicate that gastroenteritis was the problem. Vet also told us that she would like a second opinion and requested that we leave Alfie with her until later that day, as she was going to enlist the help of a colleague who was more experienced than she in the operation of the ultrasonic equipment. We agreed to this and the vet then showed us how to do intracutaneous antibiotic injections, which were to replace the pills that Alfie seemed to have a reaction against
I duly left Alfie in vet's care, returning later that day to witness the test. But when I arrived back at the surgery, he was already lying on his back with his stomach shaved awaiting the ultrasound. He was semiconscious and when I asked why, the vet explained that she had given him a sedative as he had proven impossible for her to control. I was not at all happy about this as we had not been consulted nor informed that anesthesia was to be used in the test. At no time did we consent to anesthetics being used.
Anyway, the vet’s colleague did his ultrasound thing, confirmed the buildup of gas in both upper and lower intestines but said that he saw no evidence of any kidney, liver damage or neoplastic problems. He agreed with the vet that medication and diet was the best way to proceed.
Alfie then began to wake up and was placed in his carrying box ready to be taken home. I immediately noticed that he was extremely cold and shaking uncontrollably with his pupils dilated and eyeballs apparently rolling. I asked the vet about this and she said it was due to him waking up too fast but not to worry, she would deal with it. She then injected him twice, once in each leg, again without explaining what she was about to do, or requesting permission. I enquired as to the reason for giving him yet more injections and was told that the injections contained an “antidote” to the anesthetic and that this was established veterinary procedure.
When I got Alfie home he was totally spaced out, pupils dilated still and sitting hunched in one position. He was also shaking spasmodically and very cold. I wrapped him in a blanket and attempted to keep him warm. When there was no change, I phoned the vet who told me that this was very unusual as the effects of the injections usually wear off very quickly, without offering any other advice apart from the generic “don’t worry”.
I stayed close to the cat for the rest of the afternoon. When he wanted to eat, after two or three hours I became aware that his vision had also been affected, as he could not find his way to the kitchen. When I carried him there, he was unable to see the feeding bowl properly, so I had to feed him with a spoon.
Alfie had recovered slightly by the evening but was now extremely hyperactive, disorientated and generally ill at ease. He spent that night hunched at the end of the bed, eyes closed but not sleeping. I felt that something was very wrong, so spent the night observing him, as he kept opening and closing his eyes and shivering. Under normal conditions, Alfie sleeps reasonably soundly and curled into a ball.
In the morning, Alfie went to a corner of the house and began to be sick, throwing up bile with mucus plus a bit of semi digested food. He then went to the litter tray and went through a bout of mild diarrhea, . He had repeated spells of vomiting about every twenty minutes or so for the next couple of hours, throwing up bile speckled with fresh with blood, as if from the exertion of being sick.
As this was a Sunday (again)meaning that our vet would be unreachable, and aware of the potential dangers of dehydration, we contacted a different vet, a personal friend of ours. She advised us to put Alfie into a controlled and peaceful environment, withholding all food and water – nil by mouth – for six hours. We followed this advice and after the six hours were up, started to use a 1 ml syringe (without the needle, of course!) to squirt water into the side of Alfie’s mouth every half an hour or so. This was the only way to hydrate him at this time, as he was in a semi-comatose state. He woke up enough to swallow the water though, licking his lips and swallowing greedily.
We kept this rehydration procedure going through the night, at half hour intervals. In the morning, the kitten started to perk up a bit and we started to hand feed him from a spoon - a chickpea sized amount of Hills a/e every half hour or so until the early afternoon. After that we got him slowly back onto more or less normal food and, within around three days, the diarrhea had cleared up he seemed to his normal self again.
We continued to give him the antibiotic jabs once a day for ten days but them stopped, as he was again having adverse reactions – shaking and highly nervous. We contacted the vet before we stopped the injections, as she had told us to continue for 14 days. She agreed that it was best to stop, given the apparent side-effects.
So, all of that was about three weeks ago. Up until three days ago the cat seemed normal and cured of all ills. His bowel movements were solid - but he was drinking a lot more water than he did before he got badly sick. We have taken to putting water bowls all over the house so it is easy for him to find.
But then a couple of days ago, we noticed that Alfie had diarrhea again. This is brown in colour and is sometimes more loose stools that diarrhea really. This time there has been no blood or mucous and he has not been lethargic at all. He shows no signs of illness and is running about as ever. He is drinking even more water now though, especially after eating and even gets up at night sometimes to drink, lapping away at the water in the bowl. I am wondering whether he simply knows that he must rehydrate as he has diarrhea. Are his instincts simply protecting him?
Whatever the case may be, we have put him on the soft diet again, after again consulting the vet. The diarrhea has not ceased but is more solid than it was and with only around two movements per day - and Alfie seems otherwise fine. He may possibly be sleeping a bit more but we are not convinced that this should be taken a sign of illness.
There you go, I have given as much detail and background as I can I think. of right now. Bottom line, we need to determine if our pet is seriously ill or not.
Is anyone able to give a considered opinion on what should be done now now, if anything?
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