Post- Anal Sac Expression, cat maintains diarrhea for a month... Please help!

lordfauntelroy

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My cat recently had to go to the vet, due to his anal sac(s) needing to be expressed. After this was done, he had severely loose and uncontrollable stool. It continued throughout his recovery period. 

His stool has been very very loose ever since. And he also seems a bit grumpier than usual. (I attribute his grumpiness to our newer cat though, who is still spritely and likes to bother this older gentleman all day with play and chase. But I digress.)

I went back to the vet last week, and they theorized it may be some kind of parasite. The stool sample showed no signs of worms, or whatever else they tested for. But they gave me both a pro-biotic and an antibiotic, which confused me but it seems like one is supposed to promote growth to "good" bacteria and the other will get rid of "bad" ones.

Of course being a cat he hates the medicine and I have to force feed it to him. This isn't a big deal, however I haven't really noticed much improvement over the week. My question is, is it worth all this trouble? Should I see a different vet? 
 

stephenq

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My cat recently had to go to the vet, due to his anal sac(s) needing to be expressed. After this was done, he had severely loose and uncontrollable stool. It continued throughout his recovery period. 

His stool has been very very loose ever since. And he also seems a bit grumpier than usual. (I attribute his grumpiness to our newer cat though, who is still spritely and likes to bother this older gentleman all day with play and chase. But I digress.)

I went back to the vet last week, and they theorized it may be some kind of parasite. The stool sample showed no signs of worms, or whatever else they tested for. But they gave me both a pro-biotic and an antibiotic, which confused me but it seems like one is supposed to promote growth to "good" bacteria and the other will get rid of "bad" ones.

Of course being a cat he hates the medicine and I have to force feed it to him. This isn't a big deal, however I haven't really noticed much improvement over the week. My question is, is it worth all this trouble? Should I see a different vet? 
A second opinion can be very helpful.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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It's always a good idea to take probiotics with antibiotics, because antibiotics usually will cause the digestive tract to get all out of whack, and the probiotics help with that.  The key is to not give them at the same time.  So, if you give the antibiotics in the morning, give the probiotics at night.  OR, if you give the antibiotics twice a day, say, morning and night, give the probiotics at noon,, if possible.  Try to allow at least 4 hours in between. 

Did you change anything food wise when the new kitten arrived?  Could the old guy be getting into the kitten's food.  I might suspect if he's eating the kitten's food, it might be too rich for him or something like that.  That, compiled with the stress of the newbie.  I honestly don't see how expressing his anal glands could cause diarrhea. 

There is always the possibility that it's one of the parasites that doesn't show up in  regular fecal float.  If you get a second opionion and they still can't figure anything out, then you could ask them to do a PCR test, which is a more in depth test.  It costs a bit more, but sometimes it's worth it.  It's definitely worth it if they find something
 
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