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Hello, all! This is my first post here.
I adopted two kittens on Feb. 12 who were born at the beginning of December. They had been with mom and siblings at a foster's for several weeks, but they'd come from an animal shelter before that. They were both fixed, given initial shots, and dewormed before I got them. Their names are Alfie and Beatrice—Alfie was the largest in the litter and Beatrice was the smallest.
They've now been with me two months now and they have yet to have a solid bowel movement. They've never acted sick and they both enjoy eating (especially tiny Bea!) and playing. But I can't get the diarrhea under control.
In a nutshell, after they'd been with me for two weeks, Beatrice started leaking diarrhea. We went into the vet and they tested positive for coccidia. They both (and their 17 year old kitty sister Lucy) went on a round of Ponazuril. On followup coccidia was gone but Beatrice tested positive for tapeworms, so everyone got a dose of Profender. On the next visit fecal tests were clear but they were given a second dose of Profender to be safe and five days of Panacur because they still had diarrhea. That was two weeks ago. I've also been giving them Probiotics for two weeks now.
I feed the cats super high quality grain free wet food. Lucy (the 17 year old cat) will only eat dry food, so the kittens do get into her grain-free dry kibble. I've switch among brands (I use Weruva mostly) and this weekend I bought frozen raw food because I read that's great for intestinal problems, but they won't touch it. So I have mixed their food around a lot recently.
Last night Beatrice left a spot of diarrhea on me for the first time in a while and she is now leaving her runny poo uncovered in the litterbox. The smell continues to be terrible. I don't know what to do. I have already spent a small fortune at the vet as well as on cat food. The vet said the next step would be a more sophisticated test to look at parasites and other GI problems (I think they've been doing flotation tests?) and that test on its own is $240. I'm between jobs and foolishly did not anticipate these long-running bills. The vet wanted me to feed the kittens Prescription Diet kitten food, which I'm not doing because of grains in the ingredients. So, diet-wise I'm doing my own thing but neither my diet solutions or the vet's medications have stopped the problem. I feel like I am just throwing money I don't have out the window.
It scares me that, although she's a feisty, rambunctious kitten, tiny Beatrice is the one having more problems. Yesterday she started sneezing and I'm now giving her L-Lysine, but I'm scared that I'm losing a battle for her health. I dropped off a Beatrice stool sample at the vet on Friday and it was negative, but then the diarrhea flared up again.
Anyway...I'm at a loss. I've tried everything and I don't know if I should just be patient or suck it up and go into the vet again. Any suggestions, comments, or insight are appreciated!
I adopted two kittens on Feb. 12 who were born at the beginning of December. They had been with mom and siblings at a foster's for several weeks, but they'd come from an animal shelter before that. They were both fixed, given initial shots, and dewormed before I got them. Their names are Alfie and Beatrice—Alfie was the largest in the litter and Beatrice was the smallest.
They've now been with me two months now and they have yet to have a solid bowel movement. They've never acted sick and they both enjoy eating (especially tiny Bea!) and playing. But I can't get the diarrhea under control.
In a nutshell, after they'd been with me for two weeks, Beatrice started leaking diarrhea. We went into the vet and they tested positive for coccidia. They both (and their 17 year old kitty sister Lucy) went on a round of Ponazuril. On followup coccidia was gone but Beatrice tested positive for tapeworms, so everyone got a dose of Profender. On the next visit fecal tests were clear but they were given a second dose of Profender to be safe and five days of Panacur because they still had diarrhea. That was two weeks ago. I've also been giving them Probiotics for two weeks now.
I feed the cats super high quality grain free wet food. Lucy (the 17 year old cat) will only eat dry food, so the kittens do get into her grain-free dry kibble. I've switch among brands (I use Weruva mostly) and this weekend I bought frozen raw food because I read that's great for intestinal problems, but they won't touch it. So I have mixed their food around a lot recently.
Last night Beatrice left a spot of diarrhea on me for the first time in a while and she is now leaving her runny poo uncovered in the litterbox. The smell continues to be terrible. I don't know what to do. I have already spent a small fortune at the vet as well as on cat food. The vet said the next step would be a more sophisticated test to look at parasites and other GI problems (I think they've been doing flotation tests?) and that test on its own is $240. I'm between jobs and foolishly did not anticipate these long-running bills. The vet wanted me to feed the kittens Prescription Diet kitten food, which I'm not doing because of grains in the ingredients. So, diet-wise I'm doing my own thing but neither my diet solutions or the vet's medications have stopped the problem. I feel like I am just throwing money I don't have out the window.
It scares me that, although she's a feisty, rambunctious kitten, tiny Beatrice is the one having more problems. Yesterday she started sneezing and I'm now giving her L-Lysine, but I'm scared that I'm losing a battle for her health. I dropped off a Beatrice stool sample at the vet on Friday and it was negative, but then the diarrhea flared up again.
Anyway...I'm at a loss. I've tried everything and I don't know if I should just be patient or suck it up and go into the vet again. Any suggestions, comments, or insight are appreciated!
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