Another foster issue

We are fostering a momma and her 3 babies. They have been with us about 1 month now and everything has been going great with the exception of momma kitty and her diarrhea. Grace has had diarrhea since day one and while it is no longer horrendously stinky, it's still there. The shelter vet said she had been treating Grace for coccidia and sent me home with another round of meds. 1 week later and we still have diarrhea. 

The 3rd week she was with us, my vet performed a fecal on her and said that there were no traces of coccidia but Grace did have giardia and prescribed metronidazole for 10 days and that if things were not better, blood work would need to be done. We have two days left of the metronidazole but there is no evidence of the diarrhea clearing up.

I updated the shelter vet and also let her know about strands of blood in Grace's stool (even sent pics) then suggested that I get the bloodwork done, as my vet had suggested. I was told that I could do it if I paid for it but it wasn't necessary. The shelter vet thinks that Grace is healthy but just has diarrhea.

I think that there is something going on with the cat. Diarrhea for 4+ weeks is not normal. I do not think that strands of blood in her stool is normal. I don't think that the fact that she weighs 4.1 lbs and is approximately 1 year old is normal. I am at a loss as to what to do because Grace is not "mine" so I don't want to overstep any boundaries when it comes to her care. But I don't want the cat to suffer; let's face it, if one of us had diarrhea for more than a month, day in and day out, our butts would be sore!

On top of all of that, she rarely makes the litter box. She will use it but she doesn't make sure her butt is inside the box before doing her duty. She has also taken to using our two bathroom floors for her pooping. If we close the rooms off to her, she will go on the carpet instead.

So! Any advice on how to handle the out litter box situation will be greatly appreciated as well as advice on whether I should do the bloodwork.

Thanks!

Brandi

You are wonderful for taking in this little cat and her three kittens  and providing them all with love and care.  

It is hard for me to understand how one vet can reccommend bloods being taken because there have been traces of parasites and when the symptoms have not improved for another to say they are not necessary.  

On the question of whether you would be over stepping your mark as a foster carer here if you went ahead with blood tests - no I do not think you would be.  However whether you are in a position to do that very much depends on your financial situation as I presume the shelter vet saying you can go ahead but they don't think it's necessary means that the shelter you are fostering for would not be looking to pick up the costs of the blood test. 

If it was me, I think I would to ahead with the blood test if I could, a) because I would hate to think that there was a symptom of something not being right which I was ignoring and which could affect both the mother cat and the kittens,   and b) the resulting mess in your home and within the cat and young kittens'  environment is seriously undesirable.

Can you have more than one litter box for her so she can access it very quickly, and if that still doesn't help, would the kittens be safe with something like puppy pads down on the areas of floor where her accidents happen?  I doubt this poor mother cat is happy about her toilet accidents either, and not good for the kittens so the easier it is to clear up the better it is for all of you.

I hope you manage to get something worked out and find out what is going on for this cat - so she can be healthy and comfortable as soon as possible.   She is lucky to be with someone who cares about her.  

Your kitty needs probiotics big time. Otherwise that diarrhea won't go away for a long time. My cat had a coccidia and if another vet (not the one i usually take him to) did not give me a very good cat probiotic, i think my poor little guy would still have diharrea. 

Those meds that cats get kill all the flora inside of them, so after they are off of meds things don't get better for a good while unless probiotics are given

MServant - currently we have two very large litter boxes that I clean a minimum of once a day. Ideally I would like to segregate Grace into her own room until we are able to get this under control but right now I do not have that luxury. We are going to be moving into a larger space in 2 weeks, so the space will no longer be an issue. After the move I plan on giving Grace (and all of our babies) time to readjust and then, if the diarrhea is still present, I'll segregate her from our cats and her babies. The kittens are old enough to stop nursing; as a matter of fact, Grace has slowly....very slowly....weaning them.

Tissa - what probiotics would you recommend? My vet did mention them but we have not given anything else to her except the meds and dry kitten food. We thought kitten food would be best for her since she is nursing and so very, very thin.

She is a beauty though; even if she is skin and bones! Here is a scary thought - my vet weighed her in at 4.1 lbs and that was two weeks after her living with us and my boyfriend feeding her almost 24/7!

 Ms. Grace

 Little Kaylee

 Grace and part of the Serenity crew

 Wash - he really can be a "leaf on the wind"

 Sweet Zoe loves the boyfriends Crocs even if they are ugly as sin. 

You're right, Grace is very pretty, but painfull to see her so thin.  Kitten food will be great for her just now with nursing and needing to get her weight up.  KMR complete milk if her sytem can tollerate it too - she might share kitten mush with the babies when they're starting to eat solids?   

The kittens are super-cute.  

Thinking back to your carpets and if Grace's diahroea keeps up until you move - another thing I used to use with one of my previous cats when she couldn't make her litter due to cistitis was a washable, waterproof picnic throw so it was soft and warm but easier to clean than furniture and carpet?

MServant

My boyfriend was not very please with the shelter's director's response to me so he emailed her and took Grace and the Serenity crew in yesterday. Not only has Grace had the diarrhea but two of the kittens have been losing weight. When they come home today, we are going to  give Grace & Kaylee probiotics and start fattening all of them up!

Y'all are great! I am so glad to have a place to ask questions and voice frustrations.

Brandi

troub95 said:

 
MServant

My boyfriend was not very please with the shelter's director's response to me so he emailed her and took Grace and the Serenity crew in yesterday. Not only has Grace had the diarrhea but two of the kittens have been losing weight. When they come home today, we are going to  give Grace & Kaylee probiotics and start fattening all of them up!

Y'all are great! I am so glad to have a place to ask questions and voice frustrations.

Brandi

Click to expand...

Grace and the Serenity crew are lucky to have people advocating for them and pushing to make sure they get the care they need.  Big thank you to your BF - he sounds like a good person to have around.  

Was there any more information from the vet on what might be going on and how to get the kittens' weight stabilised and going up as it needs to?   I hope so, as well as your plan to boost their immune systems and get them absorbing the nutrients they need.   It would be wonderful if you were able to post an update on how they were improving and growing, with more cute photos to show them off - I'm sending loads of postive vibes in the hope this will help.       Grace looks to have the most interesting and pretty markings and seeing her fur on a lovely well covered, healthy kitty would make any cat lover's day! 

I am having the EXACT same issue with my foster momma. Here is my thread http://www.thecatsite.com/t/303895/emaciated-foster-mama-cat-with-severe-diarrhea . I've had her about a month as well. Only difference is my kitty doesn't have any blood in her stool. I'll be watching closely for the results of the blood work. 

Sorry for the lack of updates on this bunch; we have been busy moving!

Long story short....

In the end I didn't get any help from the local shelter in getting Grace and her babies getting better. Roughly $400 later and a couple of visits from my vet, we found out that two of the kittens, Kaylee & Wash, were not digesting fat. Kaylee was worse in the digestion than Wash and in the 3 weeks we had fostered them, She lost close to half her body weight. Grace was diagnosed with Giardia and after antibiotics, the Giardia is gone and the diarrhea slowed but had not disappeared. My vet thought outside of the box and had Grace, Kaylee & Wash on a very small (teeny, tiny) dosage of Cerenia for 1 week (to help with Kaylee & Grace's vomiting, plus it has fiber) and then an respiratory problems & dysentery med that is usually given to chickens & pigs, called Tylan. Kaylee & Wash are both off of the Tylan with no return of diarrhea. Grace has been off of it for 2 days now, so fingers crossed.

On a separate but happy note, Wash found his forever home! He was adopted this past Friday and from the pictures I have received, he is settling in well with his new family.

These little kittens are incredibly lucky to have come in to your home as fosters.  How rough that the shelter wouldn't help with the health care!   

Wonderful to hear that young Wash is now settled in his own furever home.  Hopefully someone else will come along and fall in love with Kaylee soon as well and for her to find a special and loving furever home to spend her time in.  Do you think you will be able to keep Ms. Grace?  How is she doing, is she putting on a little weight now?

Grace is slowly putting weight on but not as quickly as my boyfriend would like so he is looking into how to "beef up" the home food. As for keeping Grace, I don't think we are going to be able to do that, even though we think she is a beautiful and cool cat. My 9 year old does not like her and Grace keeps ninja attacking my two 2 year old. I keep thinking that it is just going to take time but I'm starting to feel that there isn't enough time in the world to make them all get along. :-)

Ideally we would like to keep fostering her until we find her a home but I can't continue to traumatize our babies; Ruby looks like she is in a haunted house just waiting for someone to pop out on her! Every time we catch Grace attacking one of our cats, we do place her in the puppy pen and leave her there for a little while. What's really sad is the look of abandonment on Grace's face and the look of relief on Ruby's. Any suggestions?

What a shame that Ms. Grace is not being cool and well behaved with your other babies.  It must be really hard to see Ruby on edge.

I am assuming there was some kind of introduction that went on before Grace was given the run of your home?   Sometimes the introductions can be very lengthy, many months of more, just to get cats to tolerate sharing space without one becoming very stressed, and if your home isn't large enough to give each a separate area this can prove too much I think.  I only have a small apartment and my previous litter sisters did not always enjoy each others company which is why I only have one cat now no matter how much I would like more.  My resolve is helped by the knowledge that Mouse has never socialized with any cat other than his birth mother and is very content ruling over his solitary territory.

Well, things have changed a little bit. Grace is calming down but she still zeros in on Ruby. This is definitely a learning process for us all! Grace, Kaylee and Zoe were all spayed yesterday and Grace is still feeling the effects of the anesthesia. I'm not worried about that....yet. I want to give her a full 24 hours to bounce back before I let my spider senses put me on edge.

MServant - I believe the introduction process is going to be very lengthy. I thought the problem might because they are both female and roughly only a year apart but Grace does not act this way around Galaxy who is the same age as Ruby. It has helped that we now have more space; we just moved from an apartment to a 3 bedroom house. Because of the move, we have been giving all of felines a lot of leeway. If they have been stressed out 1/2 as much as Brian and I have been, I think I'm going to have to talk my vet into prescribing ALL of us some Valium! LOL  All of them have experienced a huge upheaval so I completely understand wanting to strike out at the first person/cat they see; heck, I've been doing it! With the move we have been able to do a better job of separating everyone when someone gets their panties in a twist (thank the Lord!) and it doesn't cause so much confusion.

To top all of this off, we received The Hobbitses back yesterday, along with their adoptive mother and her two kittens! Thank God for puppy pens and 3 bedroom homes!

Y'all take care and I'll continue to update.

Update - Grace, Kaylee, Zoe and Wash have all found their forever homes!

Sweet.        I bet you miss them, but how wonderful that they are now all settled in their own furever homes.   Fingers crossed everything works out well for them with their new famiies.