Please help Floyd: 7 months of bloody poop and vomit, still no ideas!

Hi all,

I'm getting pretty desperate trying to help my poor 9 month old Bengal. After  many trips to the vet and still no relief or diagnosis, I'm hoping someone on here might have some ideas.

Here's the background:

We got Floyd from a breeder (in Switzerland) 7 months ago. We took him for his final set of vaccines as per the breeder's directions the first week we had him, and almost immediately after he became very ill.

For the first several months he only had liquid stools (like, no solid bits at all), and regularly vomited at least twice a day. Sometimes the vomit was foamy and white, sometimes bloody (bright red). The poop ranged from green liquid to bright red to dark red.

He stayed at the vet for a few weeks at one point, after he completely stopped eating and became very lethargic. They tested him for every parasite they could think of, did a radiography to look for obstructions, and gave him medications to coat his stomach, reduce vomitting, etc. 

All this time we had been feeding him dry food recommended by the vet, with a bit of wet food each day (since he wasn't eating much of the dry food), and had switched brands several times to see if it was an allergy or intolerance. Finally, we stopped giving him wet food altogether and the symptoms pretty much went away overnight (except the occasional clear vomit). We figured it was some preservative in the wet food causing ulcers or something.

It had been about 1 month of good health, during which time we moved and had him neutered with no issues, but now the whole process has started again. For 2 days now, Floyd has been in pain, crying a lot, not playing, and vomiting and pooping blood again. 

I've spend thousands on vet bills with no diagnosis. When Floyd is healthy he is very sweet and playful, but when he is sick I can tell he is in a lot of pain. I'm not sure what else to do!

Grateful for any suggestions or ideas about what might be going on. Thanks in advance for any ideas!

ps. We also have another kitten 2 months younger than Floyd, who has never had a single health issue.

Oh he's a stunning kitty! I'm sorry he's going through so much and I know it must be terribly frustrating to not have a clear answer as to what's going on. Is the other kitten directly related to Floyd? I'm just curious about a inherited problem.

Nope, no relation! The other one (Manny) is a mix that was found on the street. We took him at 2 weeks old and other than some worms at the beginning he has been in perfect health. Everyone keeps telling us purebreds around here are known to have lots of issues, but the vet seems stumped on this one.

We called the breeder and the vet who did the initial vaccines, and they told us no other cats from Floyd's litter have had problems. I'm a bit suspicious of the breeder though as she delivered him to us rather than having us go get him (my boyfriend arranged it). I would have preferred to see the conditions.

FloydsMom said:

 
Hi all,
 

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Have you done any imaging like an ultrasound?  If not then i would.

Hi Stephen,

The vet did some sort of imaging (radiography?) to look for blockages or foreign objects. Didn't find anything. The language barrier is a bit of a challenge, but I understood she also didn't think it was cancer or IBD.

This is probably not even in the ballpark, but did you deworming him at all? We had trouble with hookworms, that made several of our cats very ill, including the clear/yellow/green foamy vomit. As for the blood, it seems all over the park, but one good thing from the description, is none of the blood appears to be digested blood, meaning it isn't the black tar stool, or coffee ground vomit. So the bleeding would seem to be possible irritation/inflammation related, rather than something more serious. Again, this is the optimistic in me.

I know you are scared, sad and frustrated, but don't lose hope. When he gets well again, make sure you monitor his intake of food and water, more water is better, and try sticking to a diet that agrees with him. Changes can mask symptoms of a more serious problem, since that often cause digestive distress. We will keep you in our thoughts, I am sure that you will find great advice on how best to care for your baby, there are a lot of very caring and knowledgeable cat lovers on this site. Good luck, the kittykeepers.

PS please keep us informed about your progress.

I would ask the vet to try a round of prednisolone while he is having symptoms.  IBD is very difficult to diagnose, often it is a diagnoses of elimination.  

Was he on the same food when he got sick again recently?  My IBD kitty went through flares very similar to your kitty's and they also started when he was younger than most kitties that develop IBD.

If the pred doesn't help then I would try a raw or homecooked diet.  Bengals are pretty notorious for having difficulty with highly processed foods.  If he is cycling back into being sick without a change in diet it could well be IBD.  I never did find a dietary trigger for my IBD kitty's flares.  

FloydsMom said:

 
Hi Stephen,

The vet did some sort of imaging (radiography?) to look for blockages or foreign objects. Didn't find anything. The language barrier is a bit of a challenge, but I understood she also didn't think it was cancer or IBD.

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Ah ok,  I agree with everything @denise  said.  Prednisolone could very well help, and a home cooked diet would also be a good idea.  I might try the diet first, then the Pred. 

Have you tried treating him for coccidia and giardia with ponazuril or toltrazuril?  Not all vets know about this, and it's not brand new, ponazuril has been used on horses for years and toltrazuril is used on pigs under the trade name Baycox.  Both of these organisms respond to it, and they do so quickly, so if you try it for 3 days, you should see a cessation of the diarrhea.  You then need to repeat it in about a week -- surely your vet could look it up.  Whether or not it shows up in the cats stool, it's a safe thing to try, and if it works, you have it made.  The previous treatments for those parasites ake weeks and months to work because they stop the organisms from reproducing but they don't kill them.  The ponazuril and toltrazuril DO kill the organisms, and you repeat in a week to get the ones that were still in larval/cyst form and were not yet living in the intestine.  t might be worth a try if you have not tried it.  It isn't dangerous.  Ponazuril has been used as a coccidia treatment in horses for a long time, and its use (also off-label) in cats and dogs has been documented since at least 2006. In my experience, it wipes coccidia out with just a dose or two. It is readily available in the U.S. through major veterinary compounding pharmacies such as Roadrunner, Wedgewood, or BCP. A profile of the drug is included in the most recent edition of Plumb’s, which is the veterinary drug bible. A quick search on VIN (an online resource for veterinarians) reveals dozens of discussions about and descriptions of the use of ponazuril.

Very sweet kitty

Surprised NO health guarantee when you purchased him? here it's normally a year,

time to start Exposing that breeder this is Not a healthy kitten now cat.

The breeder needs to know All of this especially Cost$.

Have you considered that it maybe an allergy to a protein or type of food?

My cat will have similar symptoms which start about 2-3 weeks after starting a new dry food. She will vomit and have runny poos, i have taken her to the vet a couple of times because i think she really sick but the vet couldn't find anything wrong with her.  Finally a new vet said she has food allergy. I worked it out to be dry food, it doesn't matter the protein but some ingredient in either grain free or grained dry food disagrees with her. She is only feed wet food now.

We have friends with two bengal cats. Both of them needed to be put on raw for digestive issues. No problems since.

Good luck!

Thekittykeepers said:

This is probably not even in the ballpark, but did you deworming him at all? We had trouble with hookworms, that made several of our cats very ill, including the clear/yellow/green foamy vomit. As for the blood, it seems all over the park, but one good thing from the description, is none of the blood appears to be digested blood, meaning it isn't the black tar stool, or coffee ground vomit. So the bleeding would seem to be possible irritation/inflammation related, rather than something more serious. Again, this is the optimistic in me.

I know you are scared, sad and frustrated, but don't lose hope. When he gets well again, make sure you monitor his intake of food and water, more water is better, and try sticking to a diet that agrees with him. Changes can mask symptoms of a more serious problem, since that often cause digestive distress. We will keep you in our thoughts, I am sure that you will find great advice on how best to care for your baby, there are a lot of very caring and knowledgeable cat lovers on this site. Good luck, the kittykeepers.

PS please keep us informed about your progress.

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Thanks for your message

He was dewormed and tested for several types. A few times he did have black tar stool, but for the most part it has been bright red. Maybe part of the reason the vet hasn't really known where to look.

For now I have him on boiled chicken and rice, he is drinking water, and today seems to be feeling a bit better at least.

Denice said:

 
I would ask the vet to try a round of prednisolone while he is having symptoms.  IBD is very difficult to diagnose, often it is a diagnoses of elimination.  

Was he on the same food when he got sick again recently?  My IBD kitty went through flares very similar to your kitty's and they also started when he was younger than most kitties that develop IBD.

If the pred doesn't help then I would try a raw or homecooked diet.  Bengals are pretty notorious for having difficulty with highly processed foods.  If he is cycling back into being sick without a change in diet it could well be IBD.  I never did find a dietary trigger for my IBD kitty's flares.  

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StephenQ said:

 
Ah ok,  I agree with everything @denise  said.  Prednisolone could very well help, and a home cooked diet would also be a good idea.  I might try the diet first, then the Pred. 

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Thanks Denice and StephenQ, I will look into prednisolone! We had him on a few medications before but stopped when we didn't notice an improvement, and because I've never seen a cat put up such a fight to anything. We were away and had a catsitter giving him antibiotics daily at one point, and everytime the catsitter picked him up Floyd would poop on him in protest  . He hasn't done this to me though, so pred could be an option!

Red Top Rescue said:

 
Have you tried treating him for coccidia and giardia with ponazuril or toltrazuril?  Not all vets know about this, and it's not brand new, ponazuril has been used on horses for years and toltrazuril is used on pigs under the trade name Baycox.  Both of these organisms respond to it, and they do so quickly, so if you try it for 3 days, you should see a cessation of the diarrhea.  You then need to repeat it in about a week -- surely your vet could look it up.  Whether or not it shows up in the cats stool, it's a safe thing to try, and if it works, you have it made.  The previous treatments for those parasites ake weeks and months to work because they stop the organisms from reproducing but they don't kill them.  The ponazuril and toltrazuril DO kill the organisms, and you repeat in a week to get the ones that were still in larval/cyst form and were not yet living in the intestine.  t might be worth a try if you have not tried it.  It isn't dangerous.  Ponazuril has been used as a coccidia treatment in horses for a long time, and its use (also off-label) in cats and dogs has been documented since at least 2006. In my experience, it wipes coccidia out with just a dose or two. It is readily available in the U.S. through major veterinary compounding pharmacies such as Roadrunner, Wedgewood, or BCP. A profile of the drug is included in the most recent edition of Plumb’s, which is the veterinary drug bible. A quick search on VIN (an online resource for veterinarians) reveals dozens of discussions about and descriptions of the use of ponazuril.

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He tested negative for giardia (I'm not sure about coccidia but they may have tested for that at the same time). He had green poop at one point so the vet really thought this was the problem. We gave him baycox in a syringe, but didn't notice much of an improvement. It didn't help that he hated it and would put up such a fight he often vomited right after we gave it to him though. 

Maybe it's time for some more tests

Seventhheaven said:

 
Very sweet kitty

Surprised NO health guarantee when you purchased him? here it's normally a year,

time to start Exposing that breeder this is Not a healthy kitten now cat.

The breeder needs to know All of this especially Cost$.

Click to expand...

Yes he is, most of the time  !

Nope, no health guarantee. We though she would be interested to know about the problems but was quite dismissive when we called saying she has never had a problem before. No website or anything for the breeder, I imagine it's not a very professional set up, however our vet said he is (other than the health problems) a perfect representation of the breed in terms of looks and characteristics, so maybe the breeder is being honest and we just have bad luck!

Grrr Cat said:

 
Have you considered that it maybe an allergy to a protein or type of food?

My cat will have similar symptoms which start about 2-3 weeks after starting a new dry food. She will vomit and have runny poos, i have taken her to the vet a couple of times because i think she really sick but the vet couldn't find anything wrong with her.  Finally a new vet said she has food allergy. I worked it out to be dry food, it doesn't matter the protein but some ingredient in either grain free or grained dry food disagrees with her. She is only feed wet food now.

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We figured it might be food and changed types several times. He does best with no wet food at all actually, and loves chicken (although if its more than 1 day old he won't touch it anymore so I spend more time cooking for him than for myself sometimes).

mjpeter said:

We have friends with two bengal cats. Both of them needed to be put on raw for digestive issues. No problems since.

Good luck!

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Hm, interesting.. we haven't tried raw yet. Our vet advised we cook chicken and rice for him, but maybe we should give raw a shot and see if it helps! 

Bright red blood in his stool indicates bleeding at or near the anus, as the blood is fresh and not clumping yet. This can be as simple as irritation and breakage of capillary vessels inside the colon, not really a big threat as long as his irritation is remedied. The color of the blood usually indicates the type of vessel involved, bright red is arterial, dark is vein, capillary vessels contain both, depends on where the break in the vessel is, pre-oxygen transfer, or post oxygen transfer. Little else can be known about the type of bleeding. Keeping him hydrated and with the easiest possible digestion is the goal I would think. If those issues are handled, I have a feeling that everything else would fall into place.

Anyway, again good luck with him, and keep us posted, sincerely, the kittykeepers.

FloydsMom

About two years ago, The Boyfriend and I switched all of our cats over to a raw food diet and it has helped immensely! Our oldest, Maddie, suffers from IBD and the preservatives, grains etc. in store bought food just exacerbated her issues. After months of prednisilone, famitodine (OTC Pepcid), a feeding tube and the raw food, Maddie is right as rain. The other four cats, ages 2-3, have all benefited from the raw food as well. Their coats are softer and shinier, they have more energy and over all better attitudes. We have also given the same food to our foster cats and they handle all deworming and other medications much better. Right now, we have 2 foster mothers with 11 kittens between them and they are all thriving and reaping the benefits from the raw food. And to top it all off, it is so much less expensive than store bought food. There is no way we could afford to have our babies and foster homeless kitties if all were eating store bought food.

About every two weeks, The Boyfriend spend about 8 hours grinding up chicken thighs, livers, fat, adding essentials, like taurine, and then freezing about 30 lbs of raw cat food for our five kitties. During kitten season, he might have to do it every week, depending on how many fosters we have, but that 30 lbs typically lasts us one month for all five cats and we spend less than $60. That is feeding 5 cats, twice a day, for $60 a month. The way The Boyfriend sees it, the savings alone is worth 8 hours of his time and energy. The vet that came up with the recipe is Lisa A. Pierson, DVM and it can be found at catinfo.org.

As for Floyd, I would definitely suggest the prednisilone (it has worked wonders with our cats and many of our fosters) and possibly the famitodine (helps with nausea).

Good luck and please let us know how Floyd is doing.

Take care

Brandi

FloydsMom said:

 
Thanks Denice and StephenQ, I will look into prednisolone! We had him on a few medications before but stopped when we didn't notice an improvement, and because I've never seen a cat put up such a fight to anything. We were away and had a catsitter giving him antibiotics daily at one point, and everytime the catsitter picked him up Floyd would poop on him in protest 

. He hasn't done this to me though, so pred could be an option!

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Prednisolone could be used as a trial to see if it improved symptoms which if it worked, it would have an effect quickly, within a week or 2, but if it didn't help then he shouldn't be on it as it is a drug that over the long term can have side effects.  I would try the best diet possible first, either raw (stella and Chewy's makes a pressure sterilized food) or homecooked.

The bright red stool, is the bright red mixed in with soft stool or are there occasions when there is solid or semi solid stool that are coated with bright red?  Thekittykeepers is on the right track I believe, this sounds almost like an abscess in the anal sac, internal hemorrhoids (yes, cats can get them), or something similar.  Has the vet done a colonoscopy?