I think Lactoferrin is making my cat vomit!!

I recently bought a jar of lactoferrin capsules (Symbiotics Lactoferrin with Colostrum Plus), and it now seems like my cat vomits up his whole meal when I add it!! As in, just a few minutes later....
Has anyone had that happen to their cat(s)?? I don't know what would make it disagree with my cat's stomach, but at this point, it happened three times and only when I added the lactoferrin...

I noticed that the lactoferrin is not really water soluble but oil soluable  Since the cat who needs it will not eat any we food to speak of, I started making her a "cocktail"of lactoferrin powder mixed up with coconutoil heated to its liquid point.  Then I add a few drops of the wild salmon oil that contains probiotics and use a syringe to squirt if gently into the side of her mouth.  She doesn't protest and she doesn't vomit.

Well my cat does it with food, but I usually put it in one of those Fancy Feast Broths pouches because he also needs either lactulose or Miralax for his constipation issues, plus I often add an L-lysine capsule bc he most likely got the Herpes virus from a sphynx cat that comes to stay with us at times; and just to make sure that he gets it all, I put it in one of those small pouches because he will normally finish those - it's mostly liquid, so maybe not enough to "transform" the lactoferrin into a digestible state??

Strangely enough, I told my sister about this (she was the one who recommended the lactoferrin to me in the first place as she has an FIV+ cat that she gives it to, she found this in one of her FIV+ cat groups), and just recently, her cat also vomits after eating lactoferrin....so I guess it is possible that it just doesn't agree with some cats?? 

It's not a big issue as I was only giving it to my cat bc I thought it can't hurt to boost the immune system - he's not sick, he's just getting a little older and I thought why not give it to him....I also got this for my two feral kittens that I took in about 2 months ago and who have been going through a bout of unexplained diarrhea...after initially having wonderful stools (well, the boy didn't in the beginning, but he was also Giardia positive, so once we treated that, his stools were perfect!! Until about 10 days ago, when they BOTH started having awful runny, mucusey stools....the boy is pooping fine now, the girl had improved and now is having unformed stools again - plus she's vomited this morning.....)

I am actually hesitant to give this to the kittens as I'm afraid it'll just make their stools more runny?? Do you have any experience with that, does it have the tendency to do this since it is milk based?? I see you're involved in cat rescue, so you probably have a lot of experience with sickly kittens :-) 

Feral kittens often have giardia and coccidia.  You can treat the coccidia with Albon, sticky yellow stuff they like the taste of.  Giardia is sometimes a harder nut to crack.  Metronidazole is the drug of choice but can have serious side effects so cannot be used for long.  I have heard a lot of good things about using S. boulardii which is actually a probiotic made from a yeast (but not the bad kind of yeast).  You can get the S. boulardii on Amazon, and the NUTRICOLOGY brand does not contain the MOS which most of the ones you can get at health food stores for people do and which taste bitter.  It is not expensive and you can mix it in their food.  I have not had any bad reactions to it in my experience.  I have not had bad reactions to the Lactoferrin either, but perhaps it is because I dissolve it in the coconut oiil and salmon oil.


Here is an older thread about treating giardia that you might find useful.  Search our site for other threads by trying "giardia" and "Chronic diarrhea" and "s. boulardii"

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/248314/cant-get-rid-of-parasites-giardia

Thanks for your reply! Yes, I know about both Giardia and Coccidia, and the boy did test positive for Giardia so I treated both with Metronidazole and Panacur (treated her, too, just to be on the safe side even though he was luckily not shedding cysts!). We've had a total of three fecal that were all negative for Coccidia...I know there can be false negatives, but three?? My boy kitten's poop was actually really nice today, the girl's unfortunately not - not totally horrible, but much more runny than I'd like; it had actually got better and was worse again today...no idea why! I did give her some more Diagel (not sure if you're familiar with that, we have it at the vet hospital I work at; I had used some on both of them at the weekend and their stools improved...)

If her stools stay bad, I will pool a stool sample over three days next - if that comes back negative or Coccidia as well, I think I can really exclude that from the list! The kittens have had lactoferrin mixed in their food and they seemed to be fine with it, but I think I should hold off until the stools are ok again bc I fear that it might loosen the stools, being made from milk and all.....and I guess I just won't give it to my siamese anymore!! 

From Linda in Taiwan ...

I posted something about diarrhea and suspected giardia about 10 days ago, but can't find it now. I don't have available here in Taiwan all the medicines that are mentioned on the site. I was able finally to buy human Metronidazole (Flagyl, Florin brand names) from a drug store, and then the problem was how to get my 7 kitties to eat it. Directly sprayed in the mouth with syrup, they foamed and got very upset. Four are small, hard to get capsules down the throat, too. Finally I hit on buying big cans of local mackarel fish in tomato sauce, and I knew they loved the sauce. I ground up one 250 mg pill, which worked out to about 30 mg per one kg of cat, melted it in a little warm water, and mixed it with the tomato sauce and some of the fish meat, mashed. After administering this once a day for five days, their stools started to get hard; two kitties I had to give extra doses with a syringe, but they didn't fight it.  Eight days treatment, then a rest, then one last can with medicine, now they seem okay without the hassle of shoving meds down their throats.

One kitten (Phantom) had a bad reaction, and stopped eating earlier. I was able to get him eating again by making fresh fish soup. He and other kitties were also getting infected with herpes respiratory syndrome, but not seriously, at the same time. With the hot weather here, a lot of viruses and germs are endemic, and most of my cats are on a farm out in the open daily, I can't isolate them.  Only Phantom got serious and stopped eating again and started wheezing, after the giardia was defeated, and yesterday I took him to the vet and after antibiotic shots and a treatment in a chamber with medicine mist that goes down into the lungs, he felt better immediately and started breathing smoothly, slept deeply, and then ate some while still at the vet's. Now he likes to sleep in the carrying crate.

Phantom, one of four kittens of a white mother with one blue and one brown eye, has got Siamese tips on ears and tail and gray shadowing down the back, but white socks slightly visible, like a cat on the ethical breeding thread on theCatSite. His mother's father was a light gray striped English shorthair with some points; the father, an accident but not regretted now, was a big local tomcat mostly white with big brown spots and light green eyes. Phantom and another white kitten have blue eyes, as can be seen for sure now they are almost three months old. The last two in the litter are also fully white, and promised to a good home. I'll try to attach a picture.

Your babies are darling but have you googled side effects of metronidazole or other name Flagyl.Are there no vets there?Hmm C.I hope the tomato sauce has no onions or garlic.these are both TOXIC to cats.What meds are you looking for as I deal with people all over the world finding them meds.I would also be make sure it does not cross into the Mother's milk.Have you googled in your country online pharmacies for veterinary supplies.A compounding pharmacy can take that metro you have & mix it into a flavored liquid you syringe into your cat's mouth.Then it is safe.It is a known fact that antibiotics and this one being huge can cause diarrhea s well as a whole bunch of other stuff.Pls tell us exactly where you live.Hugs to the babes.C

Yes, the metro did cause bad side effects for the babies (actually over six weeks old) twice; the first more serious, had to hand feed the baby for a day, and the second time the kitty vomited a little, over about four hours period, and then was okay. I gave them the metro mixed in their joint food (tomato sauce fish) for ten days, so their doses were probably uneven. I tried giving individually in syrup once, but they foamed and refused. 

It seems the diarrhea problem, which I assume was giardia, is quite fixed now. Some of my older cats on a nearby farm probably carry it, but have adjusted and are okay, though carriers.

Hi Linda InTaiwan.

That's good it has calmed down.Metro is good for alot of things.Very powerful though.I deal with people all over the world dealing with mega colon in cats.The opposite where cat's can't poo.In the smaller countries the meds we have here in North America.Most are not available.Or they are still in the stoneage dept.So yes here for the little one's who are darling BTW we would have it compounded at a pharmacy into a liquid ,flavored form, that you would syringe carefully to the babes.But do totally understand the finding of the meds & types in your country or other countries I have dealt with is a whole other world.That is mostly what I do is phone or email many pharmaceutical companies every where looking for meds for people with their kitts.Keep up the good work!!!Hugs C.