Lethargic kitten with diarrhea and fleas

foxeight

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My kitten is about 7 or 8 weeks old. We got him at about 4 weeks old and he seemed really healthy for the first 2 weeks we had him, aside from some really smelly poop. 

Out of the blue he started to become lethargic with diarrhea. He started to constantly cry for food even after we just fed him. The diarrhea got so bad that it would leak from his butt. We took him to the vet and he was given antibiotics for an excess of bad bacteria in his poop (I'm uncertain of what the bacteria was). The leaky diarrhea still continued after giving the antibiotics. He stopped playing and now only sleeps all day. He seems to drink plenty of water and we feed him wet food.

Today we took him to a different vet and found out he has fleas. He was given a topical flea medication and another medication for his diarrhea. So far his poop is still liquid. 

I haven't seen any signs of worms, though I feel like the vet should have given him a dewormer after finding fleas. I'm an American currently living in Japan which makes it more difficult to understand what the vet is saying since I have a very basic understanding of the language and my friends who translate speak basic English. 

I feel like both vets were unconcerned but it seems pretty serious to me. He hasn't wanted to play in over a week, and only cries and sleeps and mopes around. He looks and acts extremely sick. He's really dirty because he keeps pooping on himself and we don't feel like we should bathe him too often. He weighed a pound about a week ago but he’s lost weight since then. I'm really worried about him and I'm not sure what else there is to do. 

Has this ever happened to your kitten? I'm looking for any advice I can get! 
 

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My kitten is about 7 or 8 weeks old. We got him at about 4 weeks old and he seemed really healthy for the first 2 weeks we had him, aside from some really smelly poop. 

Out of the blue he started to become lethargic with diarrhea. He started to constantly cry for food even after we just fed him. The diarrhea got so bad that it would leak from his butt. We took him to the vet and he was given antibiotics for an excess of bad bacteria in his poop (I'm uncertain of what the bacteria was). The leaky diarrhea still continued after giving the antibiotics. He stopped playing and now only sleeps all day. He seems to drink plenty of water and we feed him wet food.

Today we took him to a different vet and found out he has fleas. He was given a topical flea medication and another medication for his diarrhea. So far his poop is still liquid. 

I haven't seen any signs of worms, though I feel like the vet should have given him a dewormer after finding fleas. I'm an American currently living in Japan which makes it more difficult to understand what the vet is saying since I have a very basic understanding of the language and my friends who translate speak basic English. 

I feel like both vets were unconcerned but it seems pretty serious to me. He hasn't wanted to play in over a week, and only cries and sleeps and mopes around. He looks and acts extremely sick. He's really dirty because he keeps pooping on himself and we don't feel like we should bathe him too often. He weighed a pound about a week ago but he’s lost weight since then. I'm really worried about him and I'm not sure what else there is to do. 

Has this ever happened to your kitten? I'm looking for any advice I can get! 
First.  Start him on pedialyte instead of giving him common water as extra fluid.  The receipts are further down.

He loses heavily with salts and electrolytes. He needs help for compensation.

Can you get goats milk? preferably raw - fresh or frozen.  This could be the trick with a sensitive stomach.  Bottled / powdered goats milk is good to, but really not better than a good kmr formula.

Some sort of probiotic may be useful too - esp if you dont find raw goats milk.  BeneBac made by PetAg is excellent here.  But others may work too.

Probably even a plain, mild youghurt, esp with some good bacterias added, as Acidophilus and Bifidus will work.

Traditionally, yoghurt is recommended as supplement to antibiotica, so we take two flies in one stroke.

Pedialyte:

Re homemade pedialyte, Im reusing a couple of my older posts.  If it seems lenghy, the most important recipe is at the end.

Pedialyte:

Now, as the sugar source, I use always glucose sugar (dextrose  / dextropur ) Its easy to get in Sweden, most well equipped food shops do carry the powder.    There are also flavored sweeties, heavily used by students and  wanna be sportsmen,  made of glucose sugar.   

So for me its no big deal to use the proper ingredient, instead of using emergency replacements.

For american forumites whom have difficulties to find glucose sugar proper, there is always white caro syrup, or even honey - honey does contain some glucose, and white caro syrup contains much glucose sugar.  In some brands its perhaps even essentially liquid glucose sugar.

Common sugar works too, but much slower, as it must be digested..  While glucose doesnt need to be digested, it goes into blood directly from the stomach, yes, even from the lips and mouth.

These whom tried both, are astonished how quickly glucose works, practically instantly.

As salt source, I use  minerale salt.  Also common in shops here in Sweden.  This salt contains  several different minerales, not just the NaCl in the usual kitchen salt. Including this potassium K salt.

A nice base for salt sources is simple a bottle of good minerale water.   These do typically contain a lotsa of different salts, in suitable concentration. Look at the label!

Let the gas out, add the glucose sugar source, and voilá!  you got a terrific home made pedialyte...

Common kitchen salt is OK if you dont have anything else, but its too "poverty"  if you use the pedialyte more than occasionally.

A third recipe is,  you use water from well cooked rice.   In practice its heavily over cooked.

And add  salt to it, preferably  such a minerale salt mentioned above...

This rice water contains lotsa of glucose sugar.   This variation of  pedialyte probably extra useful in some types of diarrhea, as water from overcooked rice is in itself  one of the remedies against diarrhea.  At least, the emergency doc gave us the recipe when I was a child and sick in diarrhea...   :)

A nice combination should be,  a  homemade pedialyte on such an overboilded rice, in water of mineral water.

Here we get both natural glucose sugar, lotsa of good mineral salts, and the rests from rice whom are good when having a diarrhea.  After all, such rice water is a classical home remedy for humans with diarrhea...

There is of course bought pedialyte, which can be used too.  Some of the brands have too much funny ingredients, though.  But if desperate, can be used.

My recommendation for bough pedialyte is, flavorless pedialyte for babies.   This is OK for cats.
 
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foxeight

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Thank you! There are some pedialyte type drinks here for babies so I'll give that a try, as well as some yogurt.

@sarthur2  His poop is an orangey brown color. Not dark brown but not light either. I don't believe he was a stray but I'm uncertain. I got him from a woman who keeps several cats and had more than one litter of kittens. The mother may have been a stray or at least an outdoor cat. Unfortunately the antibiotics are in unlabeled packets so I have no idea what they are or what kind of infection we're dealing with. 
 

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Thank you! There are some pedialyte type drinks here for babies so I'll give that a try, as well as some yogurt.

@sarthur2  His poop is an orangey brown color. Not dark brown but not light either. I don't believe he was a stray but I'm uncertain. I got him from a woman who keeps several cats and had more than one litter of kittens. The mother may have been a stray or at least an outdoor cat. Unfortunately the antibiotics are in unlabeled packets so I have no idea what they are or what kind of infection we're dealing with. 
Excellent. Begin asap, its imperative here.   If the shops are closed now, begin with some basic home made, even common kitchen salt and a little honey - or even a little commontable sugar.
 

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Orange is not good. Can you tell if the antibiotics are helping yet?

I don't know if you can get plain, canned pumpkin, but if you can, mix a teaspoon into his wet food. It usually helps diarrhea. Plain yogurt is good too.

The pedialyte is very necessary. Sprinkling probiotic powder into his food will help too.

I sure hope he gets better soon.
 
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foxeight

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I don't believe the antibiotics helped much. He just finished them a few days ago and he still has diarrhea. 

His energy level has been very low and he's been looking really lifeless. Doesn't want to play or do anything much at all except sleep. I started giving him the pedialyte about 3 days ago and I haven't noticed much of an improvement with that either, but I will continue to give it to him anyway. He's no longer leaking diarrhea but all of his poop is runny. 

We took him to the vet today and they exchanged his current diarrhea medication for a new one and gave him a nutritional supplement. They also gave him some supplements to put in is food but I'm not sure what they are. They also told us to prepare for him to die in about 3 days because his immune system is weak and he is a stray cat. They said because his brothers and sisters are healthy, there is definitely something wrong with him and they don't expect him to live. 

I don't really accept that answer and I'm going to try to go to another vet. I'm wondering if he has a food allergy. I've ordered some probioitcs for pets and in the meantime I will continue to give him yogurt. He's very frail, but I don't believe he is a dying cat. I think he just needs some nourishment. 

Can you recommend any foods that might be food for him? I don't have access to every brand here in Japan but I can find quite a lot of stuff on the internet. 

Thanks so much for your support and help. 
 
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I forgot to mention, he has some little pieces of skin falling off around his face. Kindof like skin tags, or something, I'm not sure how to describe it but they seem dry and just fall off. Does this mean that is nutritional deficiency has gone too far? 
 

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I don't believe the antibiotics helped much. He just finished them a few days ago and he still has diarrhea. 

His energy level has been very low and he's been looking really lifeless. Doesn't want to play or do anything much at all except sleep. I started giving him the pedialyte about 3 days ago and I haven't noticed much of an improvement with that either, but I will continue to give it to him anyway. He's no longer leaking diarrhea but all of his poop is runny. 

We took him to the vet today and they exchanged his current diarrhea medication for a new one and gave him a nutritional supplement. They also gave him some supplements to put in is food but I'm not sure what they are. They also told us to prepare for him to die in about 3 days because his immune system is weak and he is a stray cat. They said because his brothers and sisters are healthy, there is definitely something wrong with him and they don't expect him to live. 

I don't really accept that answer and I'm going to try to go to another vet. I'm wondering if he has a food allergy. I've ordered some probioitcs for pets and in the meantime I will continue to give him yogurt. He's very frail, but I don't believe he is a dying cat. I think he just needs some nourishment. 

Can you recommend any foods that might be food for him? I don't have access to every brand here in Japan but I can find quite a lot of stuff on the internet. 

Thanks so much for your support and help. 
How is it, could you find goats milk? preferably raw goats milk.  This may sometimes make a difference.   Sorry I dont have more ideas.

I call on our forumist whom live in Japan, so she perhaps have more ideas knowing what is possible to get   @Norachan

Of course, all others with knowledge or ideas, are encouraged to answer.
 

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This is not good news. [emoji]128528[/emoji]

Is the diarrhea still orange?
 
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foxeight

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@sarthur2  Thanks for your concern! His poop is more of a light tan now and it's creamy, not super watery. He's still got a big appetite but is looking very weak. We took him to another vet who said he thinks he will be alright if he can gain some weight and gave him a high calorie wet food to eat. 

Luckily my husband is at home all day and can take care of him. We're hoping he will recover soon. 
 
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foxeight

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I was able to get into contact with the woman who gave me the cat and she said she would take him back to care for him and possibly drink his mothers milk. I don't think this sounds like such a great idea since theres no guarantee the mother cat will feed him again. What do you think? I'm mostly worried about causing him stress by putting him in a different environment when he's already used to us. 

I'm also a bit irritated that she gave him to us at such a young age. This is my first time raising a kitten on my own and I didn't know he was too young when I got him. 
 

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F foxeight

I would NOT give him back. She's already shown poor judgement. The mom cat may reject him, and that woman does not seem to know how to care for kittens, nor does it sound like she spays. I wouldn't trust her at all!

I'm glad his poops are better, and that you saw another vet. Tan color is good. Is the kitten still having skin problems? Has he had a round of Albon?

I really hope your kitten makes it.
 
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foxeight

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I'm not sure if he's been on Albon or not since they don't label the medications here. He has taken a round of antibiotics but I'm not sure what they were. His skin is dry around his face and we've been trying to clean his face off after meals. 

The last few days he's seemed to improve a bit. He still doesn't play, but he's shown interest in moving objects. He walks around on his own fine but no running or jumping, and mostly sleeping all day. He's gained about 20 grams since the last vet visit but he's still under a pound. 

He has an appetite and eats pretty frequently. I'm starting to fear for the worst, though, since the first vet said he probably wasn't going to make it. I'm wondering if he meant FIP? His lethargic behavior is really freaking me out.

We're doing all that we can and hopefully he perks up soon. 
 
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It's still creamy but not watery. The vet told us creamy is okay, but if it's watery thats dangerous? 
 
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