7 month Tonkinese with constant runny tum - seems to be dietary?

lisahe

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How is Leo doing, @pawpawkuma?

And I guess tapeworms don't usually cause the symptoms he'd been having but, well, you know, I hope the deworming helps in his case! I had a cat who got tapeworms years ago and she seemed to feel normal... the only symptom was finding the rice-like junk where she'd been lying. (On my bed!)
 

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I've went through a very similar situation until someone on this site suggested TF, read up on tritrichomonas foetus , this maybe what your kitty has. TF doesn't show up on standard fecal tests and cats with TF have periods of mushy,cowpie smelly stools, the cat is healthy otherwise gains weight etc.On the advice of different vets I tried diet changes,probiotics,flagyl,albon with only temporary improvement. tested for TF, after positive result treated with ronidazole and now no more watery stinky loose stools! Many vets aren't very familiar with TF,and don't test for TF routinely even though it is  becoming prevalent in shelters and catteries.TF goes undiagnosed in most cases and cats after an average of 2 years resolve without treatment.
 
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pawpawkuma

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@LisaHE hi, hes a much happier chap today as i took his head cone off and hes had a good thorough groom :) his bum was starting to whiff a bit lol

Hes still on chicken with a bit of potato and a spoon of pumpkin for now - he did a poop this morning and it was much firmer, in formed sausages and there was less of it which is fab

However it did stink a bit, quite a 'spicy' smell and i noticed there was still a bit of fresh blood around his bum afterwards so it must burn a bit for him :( im going to wait and see how he goes and at the weekend may even start slowly adding some of the new canned foods i ordered..turkey first :)

Early days but it is promising that there is at least an improvement, i just hope it stays that way!

Thanks @mspurr for that suggestion. I will add that to my list of things to test for (including giardia) should things not get better! I dont believe he has ever been in a shelter or cattery, dont think hes even been outside but i don't know for sure. Still not sure how he even managed to get tapeworm!
 

lisahe

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I'm so glad to hear Leo is doing better -- you must both be glad he's rid of the collar! Particularly so he can groom himself, poor little guy!


That's good news that there's been some improvement in the pooping, despite the bit of blood. His butt must be a bit, um, tender. I hope something from the new foods helps him!

P.S. I also have no idea how my cat, years ago, got tapeworms...
 
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pawpawkuma

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Well, todays not been so good

Got home from work and it appears hes had loose stools again..so.. no idea whats going on.

Knew it wouldnt be that simple!

Gonna try him on boiled turkey tomorrow (i assume i can boil it just like chicken)

A lady from the vets who specialises in nutrition phoned me yesterday to have a chat. She said if none of the new foods i ordered seem to help then i should try him on Hills Prescription diet i/d (which of course they sell..) as apparently thats what they feed any cats at the hospital who have yippy tummies.

I dunno, i just envision myself trying alsorts of foods and meats and never getting anywhere. Dont understand how a bland chicken diet can make his tummy fine one minute and iffy the next.

The vets did give me some flea treatment to give him on monday so i assume that when his samples were sent off the tapeworm wasnt at the right life cycle stage to be detected?! Meh. Either way i dont think that was causing his tummy problems.
 

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  my kitten that had TF never came from a shelter or cattery ,I tried boiled chicken,probiotics, special gastrointestinal diets but the smelly,loose large volume stools would return just when I thought i found the answer, sometimes she would have a little blood on her bum  too. my kitten and I went on a rollercoaster ride trying boiled chicken,special probiotic foods and different worming and flagyl treatment and finally found out about TF tested and treated and now she can eat anything . one food that did help before treatment was Royal Canin Special Diet 33, digestive health it has probiotics/flora in it, check out this website www.cvm.nscu.edu/docs/personnel/gookin_judy.html and see if your kitty fits the symptoms. I feel your pain I spent big $$ on foods and tests not to mention my kitty's bum was sore only to find out a simple PCR test for TF  costing $77 would have found the problem sooner!

6MOS.
 
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stephenq

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Well, todays not been so good

Got home from work and it appears hes had loose stools again..so.. no idea whats going on.

Knew it wouldnt be that simple!

Gonna try him on boiled turkey tomorrow (i assume i can boil it just like chicken)

A lady from the vets who specialises in nutrition phoned me yesterday to have a chat. She said if none of the new foods i ordered seem to help then i should try him on Hills Prescription diet i/d (which of course they sell..) as apparently thats what they feed any cats at the hospital who have yippy tummies.

I dunno, i just envision myself trying alsorts of foods and meats and never getting anywhere. Dont understand how a bland chicken diet can make his tummy fine one minute and iffy the next.

The vets did give me some flea treatment to give him on monday so i assume that when his samples were sent off the tapeworm wasnt at the right life cycle stage to be detected?! Meh. Either way i dont think that was causing his tummy problems.
When all else fails, one thing to consider and discuss with your vet is IBD, inflammatory bowel disease.  An ultrasound can reveal inflammed intestines and that is indicative of (not quite proof but close) of IBD.  If oyu don't want to go the biopsy route (which is a big deal) you could try a 2 week course of prednisilone, and if it works then you have a working diagnosis of sorts, not to mention relief.

This thread is long and so forgive me, but is your cat's weight stable? Or losing weight?
 

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I thought IBD usually isn't diagnosed in cat's that young? that's what my vet told me was the reason he kept looking for a cause of the smelly diarrhea in my kitten,and protozoan parasites cause inflammation, I  think what pawpawkuma is describing is large bowel diarrhea, with this type of diarrhea cats act normal,gain weight ,play. that's why I thought of TF, the TF protozoa attach to the wall of the large bowel and the result is smelly loose stools in an otherwise healthy cat, if it is TF average time it takes to resolve without treatment is 9mos to 2 years
 
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pawpawkuma

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Hi guys

Sorry to go quiet - it was my birthday at the weekend so ive been unusually busy!

Just to update, its hard to say if Leo is getting better.

Hes still on boiled chicken and about 4 spoons of Catz Finefood wet food a day which i am very slowly increasing.

For over a week now he has had no diarrhoea and i have had to do no cleaning up whatsoever, so thats a definite improvement. He is only going once a day or once every 2 days and the amount hes producing is much less.

However he isnt out of the woods by any means. I have a habit of watching him go at the mo which sounds disturbing i know but its the best way to keep tabs on it ..

What happens is he seems to do a normal poop, in formed, firm sausages - but this is then followed by some gloopy mucus, which must also have blood as theres sometimes some blood around his rear after :/

Its not a huge amount and its far from the loose, paler, stinky cowpat type stuff that was coming out before but it still isnt right, you know?

Hes got a vet checkup on Monday so ill see what she says.

Hes also been peeing a lot more lately so im worried about that.

As for his weight he seems fairly stable. And no dehydration either.

Thanks again for everyones support - i really appreciate you guys taking the time to share all your opinions and experiences. Its been very helpful :)

- bailey
 

lisahe

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Hi guys

Sorry to go quiet - it was my birthday at the weekend so ive been unusually busy!

Just to update, its hard to say if Leo is getting better.

Hes still on boiled chicken and about 4 spoons of Catz Finefood wet food a day which i am very slowly increasing.

For over a week now he has had no diarrhoea and i have had to do no cleaning up whatsoever, so thats a definite improvement. He is only going once a day or once every 2 days and the amount hes producing is much less.

However he isnt out of the woods by any means. I have a habit of watching him go at the mo which sounds disturbing i know but its the best way to keep tabs on it ..

What happens is he seems to do a normal poop, in formed, firm sausages - but this is then followed by some gloopy mucus, which must also have blood as theres sometimes some blood around his rear after :/

Its not a huge amount and its far from the loose, paler, stinky cowpat type stuff that was coming out before but it still isnt right, you know?

Hes got a vet checkup on Monday so ill see what she says.

Hes also been peeing a lot more lately so im worried about that.

As for his weight he seems fairly stable. And no dehydration either.

Thanks again for everyones support - i really appreciate you guys taking the time to share all your opinions and experiences. Its been very helpful


- bailey
That sounds like some good improvements, Bailey, even if Leo's still not where he needs to be! It's quite possible he's peeing a little more from both a diet with more water in it (the canned foods and chicken) and, ahm, not excreting so much of his water in diarrhoea form. It may take him some time to get his gut back to normal.

Let us know what the vet says on Monday!

And happy birthday!
 

mspurr

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Hi guys

Sorry to go quiet - it was my birthday at the weekend so ive been unusually busy!

Just to update, its hard to say if Leo is getting better.

Hes still on boiled chicken and about 4 spoons of Catz Finefood wet food a day which i am very slowly increasing.

For over a week now he has had no diarrhoea and i have had to do no cleaning up whatsoever, so thats a definite improvement. He is only going once a day or once every 2 days and the amount hes producing is much less.

However he isnt out of the woods by any means. I have a habit of watching him go at the mo which sounds disturbing i know but its the best way to keep tabs on it ..

What happens is he seems to do a normal poop, in formed, firm sausages - but this is then followed by some gloopy mucus, which must also have blood as theres sometimes some blood around his rear after :/

Its not a huge amount and its far from the loose, paler, stinky cowpat type stuff that was coming out before but it still isnt right, you know?

Hes got a vet checkup on Monday so ill see what she says.

Hes also been peeing a lot more lately so im worried about that.

As for his weight he seems fairly stable. And no dehydration either.

Thanks again for everyones support - i really appreciate you guys taking the time to share all your opinions and experiences. Its been very helpful


- bailey
 sounds like he may be resolving on his own, the gloopy mucus after a bowel movement does sound like a symptom of tritrichomonas foetus and cats will resolve TF on their own average time is 9mos-2 years  . glad to hear he's feeling a little better keep us posted
 
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pawpawkuma

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I suppose there is some comfort in the fact that if it is TF then it could resolve itself.. However I'm not completely sure if it is that or not..

I still have to see how he does once fully transitioned to just cat food. He's really only been on chicken the past 2-3 weeks (turns his nose up at rice or potato) and I'm worried he's going to start becoming deficient / malnourished ??

I'm praying that he is going in the right direction now but I've thought it before and then he's relapsed back to square one so I can't be sure yet. All I know is he's doing better than he ever has since I got him so I'm hopeful :) watch this space I guess!

-bailey
 

mspurr

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if it is TF, the only way to be sure is a test  you can have the vet collect a sample for a PCR test $77 the form to send off the sample can be downloaded here http://www.cvn.ncsu.edu/docs/personnel/gookin_jody.html. or your vet can do the cheaper TF test I did it cost $30 the sample was collected using the colon flush method and the TF test pouch to incubate. If the kitty does have TF the protozoa affect/live in the large bowel so it won't cause the kitty to be malnourished since it doesn't affect the part of the intestines that absorb nutrients. I was worried about that too. I did treat my kitty after a positive test for TF, I just couldn't handle the stinky poo all over my longhaired cats fur and the messiness, not to mention her little butt looked sore it was such a relief when the medicine cured it! I was also worried she would infect my other cats too.

if the link doesn't work you can find the information at NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine  Dr. Jody Gookin DVM.           I'm really glad to hear he's doing better! 
 
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pawpawkuma

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if it is TF, the only way to be sure is a test  you can have the vet collect a sample for a PCR test $77 the form to send off the sample can be downloaded here http://www.cvn.ncsu.edu/docs/personnel/gookin_jody.html. or your vet can do the cheaper TF test I did it cost $30 the sample was collected using the colon flush method and the TF test pouch to incubate. If the kitty does have TF the protozoa affect/live in the large bowel so it won't cause the kitty to be malnourished since it doesn't affect the part of the intestines that absorb nutrients. I was worried about that too. I did treat my kitty after a positive test for TF, I just couldn't handle the stinky poo all over my longhaired cats fur and the messiness, not to mention her little butt looked sore it was such a relief when the medicine cured it! I was also worried she would infect my other cats too.
if the link doesn't work you can find the information at NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine  Dr. Jody Gookin DVM.           I'm really glad to hear he's doing better! :clap:
Hey,

Thanks for all the info - however I live in the UK not the US so obviously I cant get it sent to the same place.. I honestly don't know what the approach would be over here and whether or not its even that common or if my vets would even know about it ? What if they dont know anything about testing for it or dont even have the facilities ?

As for the malnutrition i was referring to the fact that hes (mostly) just been on chicken for a while now and hes not getting everything he needs. Ive read that cats need taurine, amongst other things (not to mention vits & mins) and this is why Im eager to get him on a complete cat food that he'll stomach.

Thanks for your encouragement - ill see how he goes and if things still dont stay better than Ill have a chat with my vet about TF... but im not completely confident they'll be helpful with that :/
 
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pawpawkuma

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Well, the diarrhoea is back.. Just when I thought things were getting better

On Thurs night I gave Leo a couple spoons of rice with his dinner and again on Fri morning (he didnt seem that interested but gradually ate it)

Friday night he started having frequent, small bouts of diarrhoea so I didnt give him rice again - thiought it was that that upset him

All the while Ive been increasing his wet food and decreased the boiled chicken.

All weekend he has had smelly gas, and smelly watery diarrhoea with a lot of blood. When I wipe him after its just bloody mucus on the tissue.

So the Catz Finefood is no good either.
Starting today he is just on plain boiled chicken again but this is driving me NUTS. He can't eat nothing but chicken for the rest of his life?! And its so expensive as well. I buy chicken from cheaper european shops but if it was supermarket stuff we'd be talking over £50 a month on chicken breasts. Thats ridiculous.

If he settles down on the chicken I will try him on MACs sensitive. I did buy some miamor ragout too but i dont think I'll even bother with that. I cant believe I have a cat that cant eat cat food. So stupid :(

Hes going vets tonight for a checkup and I dont even know what to say. I think if I mention giardia or tf I will be met with blank faces/dismissal. Would they know what a PCR test is too?

I'm really struggling to know what to do now. Its causing a great deal of anxiety and costing me sleep, plus completely ruining my enjoyment of having him.

Is there something in every cat food that he could have an intolerance for? What about the jelly stuff thats in the pate type foods?
 

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I would suggest not changing hit food so much, give him more time to adjust. Change foods very slowly. However, I would also be a little more pushy(I am like that) when it comes to the vet and testing. I have disagreed with my vet before and insisted on a giardia test sent out to a lab, not done in house (I was right). You are paying for his services and it isn't like you are asking for something that is potentially harmful. I would hope he would not be offended if you show that you are concerned enough to ask questions.
 
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