Diarrhea for days

Hi all. I need some advice or maybe just to rant !!

My little kitten is so precious, love him to death.. I got him off of craigslist about 5 months ago. His name is Khal. Named after Khal Drogo from GOT. I'm not sure exactly what happened with the mom or to him but I believe he was mistreated or very malnutritioned at birth or while in the womb...

He has been having constant diarrhea almost as long as I've had him. I've had a fecal sample done, I've put him on antibiotics a few times (those are the only thing that have fully stopped the diarrhea), I have him on a probiotic, I've switched over to expensive intestinal sensitive food, went to this holistic cat store to ask for advice.. I'm just a bit fed up and was wondering if anyone had any advice

I think I should get a blood test done and actually kind of annoyed my vet hasn't offered that at first... But I'm sure it's expensive and can't really afford that. I've already spent so much money on this little guy frown

Also, I have tried boiling and cooking chicken on a stove stop which seemed to help a little but apparently chicken is an allergen? Help..

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Just want him to feel better !!

Have you had a full parasite panel done? Has he been dewormed? My first stop would be checking for giardia and other less visible parasites.

It could also be a food allergy. Have you tried grain free? Novel proteins?

I'm not sure what blood would tell you in this case, but it doesn't hurt to have as a base line.

He's very cute! Thank you for continuing to advocate for him!

catlover729 said:

Hi all. I need some advice or maybe just to rant !!

Just want him to feel better !!

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Given that it's chronic the first thing that comes to is either a food intolerance that is more specific than what a sensitive food diet can address (like a novel protein diet like rabbit, etc) or inflammatory bowel disease or both.

IBD, discussed over and over at TCS, many threads on the subject, is to me the most obvious cause and something that you should be specifically talking to your vet about, and frankly something they should have been talking to you about.  There is no specific blood test.  Early diagnosis is usually presumptive based on response to one of a number of treatments, antibiotics like Tylosin or Metronidazole, novel protein diets, etc sometimes assisted by probiocs and B12 injections Sub Q.

If these treatments work (or work for a while and them stop working) you have a working diagnosis, but a definitive diagnosis can really only be accomplished by surgical biopsy.  As an alternative, an ultrasound can reveal thickening of the bowel which is helpful for a diagnosis, and regardless of whether you do an US, or a biopsy, cats who don't respond to or stop responding to these more conservative treatments are often put on a course of prednisolone, and if there is relief from symptoms that further strengthens the diagnosis and helps the cat. Cats generally tolerate Pred well.

If the cat starts loosing weight then the disease has progressed either to a more severe form or to small cell lymphona and then one either MUST start pred therapy or get a biopsy, but note you can't do the biopsy while the cat is on pred, so one has to make an informed choice, treat and observe, or biopsy and then treat accordingly.

IBD is a lifelong illness, and if your cat doesn't have it, then you vet should be ruling it out, or treating for it, probably more aggressively then they are now.  If you cat has IBD and it doesn't go into remission with treatment then the cat's life becomes at risk in the long run.  My cat eventually died of complications of it.

IBD is in a sense an auto-immune disorder where by the bowel develops an intolerance for familiar proteins, the bowel gets inflamed, and as a result of the inflammation develops diarrhea chronically (and/or vomiting) and if it progresses, leads to an inability to absorb nutrients, which in turn leads to weight loss and can lead to death without remission.

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/Health_Information/brochure_ibd.cfm

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2122&aid=304

http://www.vcahospitals.com/main/pe...health/inflammatory-bowel-disease-in-cats/291

Stephen

Or it could just be a tough parasite to determine without a PCR test (more expensive than the norm), like Giardia, Coccidia, Tritrichomonas foetus, Campylobacter, Tritrichomonas, Clostridium and Cryptosporidium.  If he's already been tested for those and come up clean, the i would definitely look into food as the culprit. and try a novel protein like rabbit. 

You did say he's on a probiotic...Which one?  And have you tried adding in some pumpkin to his food?  Are you feeding dry or wet or both?  You could try adding in about a total of 1 T of canned pumpkin per day divided throughout the day, normally mixed into wet food. 

catlover729 said:

Hi all. I need some advice or maybe just to rant !!

My little kitten is so precious, love him to death.. I got him off of craigslist about 5 months ago. His name is Khal. Named after Khal Drogo from GOT. I'm not sure exactly what happened with the mom or to him but I believe he was mistreated or very malnutritioned at birth or while in the womb...

He has been having constant diarrhea almost as long as I've had him. I've had a fecal sample done, I've put him on antibiotics a few times (those are the only thing that have fully stopped the diarrhea), I have him on a probiotic, I've switched over to expensive intestinal sensitive food, went to this holistic cat store to ask for advice.. I'm just a bit fed up and was wondering if anyone had any advice

I think I should get a blood test done and actually kind of annoyed my vet hasn't offered that at first... But I'm sure it's expensive and can't really afford that. I've already spent so much money on this little guy frown

Also, I have tried boiling and cooking chicken on a stove stop which seemed to help a little but apparently chicken is an allergen? Help..


Just want him to feel better !!

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I have to agree with @mrsgreenjeens  - if he hasn't gotten a PCR test (off site) for all those parasites then that would be one of my next steps.  A PCR test isn't that expensive, cheaper in the long run than treating something that isn't diagnosed and provides a definitive diagnosis for parasite.

Yes, I had a PCRT Panel done and a basic fecal test done.

I just talked to my vet about the previous tests we have done.

She was recommending to put him on a new antibiotic called Tylan for chronic diarrhea. Which attacks different bacteria then the previous anti-biotic I had him on, Metronidazole (50 mg)

I'm going to get him weighed at the vet possibly today to get him the right dosage of the antibiotic.

She was explaining to me something about how young cats can have diarrhea but not know why and then as they get older their stomachs get stronger, I guess?

I have him on a pro-biotic called, Vetri Science. A Vetri Mega Probiotic for Gastrointestinal Health.

So hopefully this new medicine will work.. otherwise its back to the drawing board :/

Thank you to everyone who responded! I really appreciate it.

Just be aware that Tylan is apparently nasty tasting, so if you get it in pill form, you may want to also get some empty gel caps to put the pill into (if you get pill form)  .   I remember some here got it in liquid form , and they had a hard time with it because their cat foamed at the mouth so badly after taking it that they weren't sure how much she actually consumed.  I know it comes in a powder form which, so you could also put the correct dosage of powder into a gel cap if you can't hide it in food.

Hope this does the trick

This happened to me. I adopted a retired breeding queen and the diarrhea started the day after she arrived. A local vet prescribed an antibiotic but after a few weeks I cut my losses and started taking her to a cat only vet a 30 minute drive away. The problem turned out to be allergies. She was switched to a grain-free canned food and the diarrhea stopped. But then she developed inflammation in her bladder, mouth, and pharynx. Lots of tests were done and she ended up on prednisolone. She takes a pill a day (costs $18/month) and hasn't had a problem since. She has to have blood tests at her yearly physical to monitor the effects of the drug.   

catlover729 said:

 
I just talked to my vet about the previous tests we have done.

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Tylan aka Tylosin is often the first treatment when a vet suspects IBD.  If the Tylan helps control the diarrhea that is a fairly decent presumptive "test" for IBD.  And as @mrsgreenjeens  said, the powder tastes terrible (I know because my old vet prescribed powder) and when my cat wouldn't eat her food that it was mixed in, i tasted it myself and gagged, so we quit that vet and went to an amazing vet for the rest of our cat's life who prescribed it in pill form that we gave in pill pockets until that treatment stopped working and we had to go to other treatments.

Yes I got the Tylosin with a chicken flavor... He really does not like it :/ he keeps foaming at the mouth everytime I give it to him and i feel like he spits most of it back up tbh. I just called my vet and let them know and they're going to give me a call back.

I woke up this morning to find that he had an incident in front of the food bowl :/ so I don't know if it's really working ... $88 later !

Phew.. The pill sounds better tho. No one wants to taste such a thing even if it's 'chicken' flavor

StephenQ said:

Tylan aka Tylosin is often the first treatment when a vet suspects IBD.  If the Tylan helps control the diarrhea that is a fairly decent presumptive "test" for IBD.  And as @mrsgreenjeens
 said, the powder tastes terrible (I know because my old vet prescribed powder) and when my cat wouldn't eat her food that it was mixed in, i tasted it myself and gagged, so we quit that vet and went to an amazing vet for the rest of our cat's life who prescribed it in pill form that we gave in pill pockets until that treatment stopped working and we had to go to other treatments.

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catlover729 said:

Yes I got the Tylosin with a chicken flavor... He really does not like it :/ he keeps foaming at the mouth everytime I give it to him and i feel like he spits most of it back up tbh. I just called my vet and let them know and they're going to give me a call back.

I woke up this morning to find that he had an incident in front of the food bowl :/ so I don't know if it's really working ... $88 later !

Phew.. The pill sounds better tho. No one wants to taste such a thing even if it's 'chicken' flavor

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Any vet that thinks powdered or flavored tylosin hasn't tasted it lately.  Impossible for a cat to take.  Even the pill should be covered with at least a little pill pocket treat, even if its just a coating so they don't taste it.  Ask your vet to taste it

Also if the tylosin doesn't get the symptoms under control then other therapies will need to be considered.

Yeah I need I call them again tomorrow and tell them that it isn't really working... He finally took the liquid Tylosin okay today and didn't foam at the mouth or anything. So it may be the first time he has actually ingested the medicine fully..


But he keeps having episodes where he has really bad diarrhea and then falling on the ground and almost looking like he is having a seizure :/ very stiff and just weak. My roommate keeps finding him like that when I'm out for only a few hours.

I'm not sure what step to take next ::

StephenQ said:

Any vet that thinks powdered or flavored tylosin hasn't tasted it lately.  Impossible for a cat to take.  Even the pill should be covered with at least a little pill pocket treat, even if its just a coating so they don't taste it.  Ask your vet to taste it

Also if the tylosin doesn't get the symptoms under control then other therapies will need to be considered.

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I think you need to find a new vet as soon as possible.

I'm so sick of vets prescribing antibiotics as a defense for everything as if antibiotics are harmless and the answer to everything. It's such an uneducated guess. Google side effects of antibiotics. They're not allowed in our house (for fur babies and humans) unless it's an absolute need. It's not enough that the big pharmas are profiting billions off over-medicating humans, now they need to milk billions off animals.

catlover729 said:

Yeah I need I call them again tomorrow and tell them that it isn't really working... He finally took the liquid Tylosin okay today and didn't foam at the mouth or anything. So it may be the first time he has actually ingested the medicine fully..


But he keeps having episodes where he has really bad diarrhea and then falling on the ground and almost looking like he is having a seizure :/ very stiff and just weak. My roommate keeps finding him like that when I'm out for only a few hours.

I'm not sure what step to take next ::

Click to expand...

This sounds more serious than what was previously described and another vet consult or another vet sounds in order as soon as possible.

catlover729 said:

Yes I got the Tylosin with a chicken flavor... He really does not like it :/ he keeps foaming at the mouth everytime I give it to him and i feel like he spits most of it back up tbh. I just called my vet and let them know and they're going to give me a call back.

I woke up this morning to find that he had an incident in front of the food bowl :/ so I don't know if it's really working ... $88 later !

Phew.. The pill sounds better tho. No one wants to taste such a thing even if it's 'chicken' flavor

Click to expand...

Hi!
I know this is old but I am also having a hard time giving my cat her tylosin. We got the tuna and marshmallow flavor from Wedgewood (her gabapentin is chicken and marshmallow, and we had no problem giving it to her), and I barely got .1 ml (YES, that small of an amount) in her mouth before she lost her shit, fought my dad who was holding her, and flew out of his arms, landing on our dog gate that blocks our hallway, and as she ran away, i saw that she was profusely foaming at the mouth. Worse even than when she ingested unflavored gabapentin. I smelled the medicine and it only smelled like marshmallow. There was no hint of fish smell to it. So i'm not convinced they even put the fish flavor in. But did you ever find a flavor that worked for the Tylosin?

bethany5 you might want to start a new thread since the OP hasn't posted since 2016.