Shelter kitty - first ringworm, now fecal incontinence?

thekitty

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I posted a few days ago about my shelter kitty with ringworm. That *seems* to be resolved, at least for now. She was on two weeks of terbinifine, and I gave her a lime sulphur dip when I got her home on Friday. I put an e collar on her for about 30-45 minutes, then we allowed her to groom herself. She seemed so miserable in the collar and the most recent literature I read said an e-collar wasn't necessary. Anyway, that is the background.

So, kitty is 9 months old and in the total of a week that we've had her, she has never had a formed stool ( we had her for five days, then she was back at the shelter with ringworm for two weeks, and now back with us for 2 days). With the clumping litter, you can't tell the difference between stool and urine; it is that loose. She was treated with secnidazole for giardia and roundworms(?) (Does secnidazole work on roundworms?) before we brought her home initially.

During the first five days we had her home, she scarfed down a whole can of fancy feast (same brand the shelter was feeding) and vomitted that night along with liquid diarrhea. Again, she always had diarrhea, but this was even worse. She also left a few small fecal spots on our bedspread.

Anyway, fast forward to this Friday. When I get her home, she had gone a little diarrhea in her crate and there was a hairball, too. I remember it all seemed like poo, so either diarrhea got in the hairball or the hairball smelled like poo(?). I immediately got her a bath and did the lime sulphur dip. I also started fasting her because we could see she was leaking feces. We made sure she had water. All night she had leaking feces. We had a big sheet covering our bed and there were at least a dozen quarter sized to pencil eraser sized stains on it where she leaked. She was also gassy and had a grumbly tummy. We hardly slept because she kept wanting to get up to our faces, and we knew she was leaking so we had to keep pushing her toward the end of the bed.

So yesterday morning after approximately 24 hours of fasting, I started giving her small meals of boiled chicken and maybe a tsp of canned pumpkin. The leaking was much better, but she still didn't have much food in her system, so I expected the improvement. By late last night, after her last bit of chicken, she had diarrhea in her litter box and started leaking again. :( It's not as bad as Friday, but still troublesome. My husband and I slept on the couch and kitty got our bedroom.

This morning, I gave her more chicken (maybe 1/3 cup diced). She was under the bed when I went in there, but she came out and seemed cheery. There were a few small poo stains on the bed.

So, what to do? We are going to call the shelter today. This diarrhea cannot be okay for her, and it certainly isn't okay for us. We have three small kids who get into everything, and a fecal incontinent cat just won't work in our household. I'm hoping they can figure out what's wrong and we can bring her back home. Maybe an obstruction feces is leaking around? Maybe t. Foetus? Maybe resistant giardia? Other parasites? Anyone have a similar experience?

The shelter is strictly no-kill, so if we do return her she won't be at risk. This is just bumming us out. Poor kitty.

Edited to add: when we first got her home in early January, she was in and out of the litterbox straining to defecate. So, this whole bowel issue was as soon as she got to our house with no new introduction of food or anything.
 
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mrsgreenjeens

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 I would definitely take her back and have her retested for Giardia again.  since she went back to the shelter for the ringworm, it's very possible she picked up Giardia AGAIN
, OR that she is one of the few cats that secnidazole doesn't work on.  Whatever, I would definitely have them test her for everything.  They probably WON"T test her for T-foetus, because that's a different test that they would have to sent out for, and normally Shelter's won't do that. 

If EVERYTHING comes back clean, incuding T-Foetus (done by your own vet), then it's possible she has IBD, so food could be the issue.  but let's not go down that road yet. 

When you are doing the chicken route, you can definitely try adding in some plain white rice to the mix. Here is a thread on how to handle diarrhea with chicken and rice and some supplements:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/253036/help-explosive-poop#post_3291827

OH,and BTW, the secnidazole should also work on roundworms
 
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thekitty

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Thanks for your response mrsgreenjeens. I took her back to the shelter just now, and they are going to send out the fecal sample tomorrow. They were super nice and I told them that even if she is treated, I'm not sure if she is the right cat for us. The vet even said that with having had giardia, these symptoms can flare up during stress. We have a big moved planned in a few months. I thought if we had her for six months and got her settled, then she'd be able to handle the move well...but if stress could cause her to flare up, that isn't good for her or us. We have three small children so stress free isn't possible even with her having her own space.

Anyway, that's where we are now. I'm so relieved that they were understanding of the situation. They will let me know the results of the fecal and we'll go from there. My husband and I feel terrible that we may not keep her after we feel we committed to her, but sometimes that ends up being in the best interest of the cat as well.

Edited to add: The vet said she had solid stools when they sent her home and they wouldn't have sent her home with diarrhea. Within maybe 30 minutes of getting to our house she was in and out of the litterbox trying to go or actually having diarrhea. She never had solid stool with us for the week we had her.
 
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talkingpeanut

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I think it's very likely that once she's treated appropriately for all parasites she won't have any more flare ups. Her personality should also change some because she'll be feeling totally well. I hope she gets better and you can hold off on making decisions until then. I don't think you've gotten a full sense of her yet!

Thank you for being so caring.
 
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