Corona or Calicivirus?

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coniferously

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Could definitely be mites.

My suggestion to you is to make a vet appointment for Juniper to have ear cultures done. Also take at least 2 cats that You know are having diarrhea and get the vet to get a sample using a fecal loop. If your vet does not do this, find one that does. Or, see if your vet will prescribe Ponazuril for all the cats without the fecal. But, it's obvious that trying to collect a sample at home is not the best option for you.
We had a culture done on Jupiter when he went in for the second time when his ear drops didn't work. They called my mom a week later and said the shot they gave him would clear the bacteria. They didn't say anything about mites. Would they have seen mites when they did that, even if they weren't checking for them in the first place? And I'll call maybe tomorrow and see if they do fecal loops there. What exactly is that?
 
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coniferously

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Also, could mites be causing Apollo's (Jupiter's litter mate) black crust inside and around the outside of his nostrils? Ear mites do crawl on the face too, right?
 

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I don't know if you have any revolution handy but that kills ear mites. It's a parasite killer which is different from frontline/advantage which are pesticides. I would ask your vet=the ears don't look too bad-usually it looks like coffee grounds if it's ear mites. I don't know if that is what's going on but it's worth a shot. Some kitties get dirty ears. Did they give you any ear cleaner cat drops? Some groomers use this on cotton balls to clean out the ears. I have one who gets sludge type icks in her ears but she has herpes type virus so it could be from stress-her's comes out when we go to the vets=which is weekly so not much I can do other than give her lysine. I haven't checked her ears in a week...I will take a peak tomorrow. Working late tonight. I will be lucky to keep eye open enough to watch tv when get home.

But you can keep wiping it clean. Does it have a funky smell? If it's infected it usually has a yucky odor.
 
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coniferously

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I don't know if you have any revolution handy but that kills ear mites. It's a parasite killer which is different from frontline/advantage which are pesticides. I would ask your vet=the ears don't look too bad-usually it looks like coffee grounds if it's ear mites. I don't know if that is what's going on but it's worth a shot. Some kitties get dirty ears. Did they give you any ear cleaner cat drops? Some groomers use this on cotton balls to clean out the ears. I have one who gets sludge type icks in her ears but she has herpes type virus so it could be from stress-her's comes out when we go to the vets=which is weekly so not much I can do other than give her lysine. I haven't checked her ears in a week...I will take a peak tomorrow. Working late tonight. I will be lucky to keep eye open enough to watch tv when get home.

But you can keep wiping it clean. Does it have a funky smell? If it's infected it usually has a yucky odor.
Hmm, weird. Could I take a swab of the stuff in her ears and take it in to get tested without taking her in? Does it look like what your kitty's ears look like with the herpes? I'll have to take a picture of Jupiter's ears and show you his as well. I have some pictures of his before his antibiotic shot, so I'll attach those. I've never smelled any sort of grossness with his ears ever. And I do not have any revolution here, I've never even heard of it. So do you think her ears are just dirty? She's never had dirty ears before though, so it's weird. And Jupiter is the only one who gets it really bad. He doesn't seem stressed at all. Not even a little. He loves the other cats and plays with all of them and gets along very well with the lot. I don't know. And some of the other cats' ears look sort of dirty, like a waxy brownish substance, whereas some.others have extremely clear ears, yet they are all itching their ears and faces. But here, this was his left ear before being treated:


And I bought some over-the-counter ear cleaning solution before we took Jupi to the vet initially, as I thought maybe his ears were just dirty. It's called Expert Care by Bayer.
 
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coniferously

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I looked up that ear stuff and it says to use it once a week. You can try using it on a cotton ball and see how it goes in a few days. If it comes back then maybe they can have you bring in a swab of it on a qtip.
Okay, I'll try cleaning her ears then. Well, all their ears.
 
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coniferously

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Good luck!! Will they tolerate it? It probably tickles so you might have to ply with treats. Most cats hate their ears cleaned...Wear long sleeves incase claws come out. and don't forget something yummy to distract them..
I just did Arthemis' ears. She sat still and was very good about it. I didn't put the solution directly inside, just on a cottonball. I'll try to do the others soon or tomorrow. I still need to do all 16 litter boxes and clean all their bowls tonight.
 
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coniferously

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That's how you want to do it. Don't pour liquid into ear unless it says to do it-like ear drops from the vets etc.

Good luck getting it all done. sounds like a bunch of work! Take a break!
The directions on this solution I have is to pour it into the ears "generously" and massage the base of the ear to break up any wax and then use a cotton ball to remove excess solution and debris. But I think what I did for now is fine. The test really is to see if it comes back. I might just use her as a tester and leave the other cats alone for now.
 
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coniferously

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ok sorry=yep it's all good. probably feel better without that gunk in there. my angel Floey used to hate that. she would bite and hiss at me when we messed with her ears.
Jupiter is really good when we clean his ears too. Sweet baby just sits there and lets me do it for awhile. Then he starts to get to the point where he tries to get away, but he's still such a sweet boy. I meant to ask, did the pictures I attached of his ears look like your girl's ears with herpes?
 

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Mycoplasma can mimic calicivirus. The main difference is in the response to antibiotics. Antibiotics don't work on viral infections but can hold off secondary bacterial infections. With mycoplasma they get better after a round of broad spectrum antibiotics but then fall sick again as only tetracyclines such as doxycycline can eliminate them completely.
 
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Mycoplasma can mimic calicivirus. The main difference is in the response to antibiotics. Antibiotics don't work on viral infections but can hold off secondary bacterial infections. With mycoplasma they get better after a round of broad spectrum antibiotics but then fall sick again as only tetracyclines such as doxycycline can eliminate them completely.
Just read about that. They never were anemic by any means and never lost any weight. They were all very eager to eat and drink, they just couldn't because of the sores in their mouths. Some of my cats even had very red tongues that almost looked burnt and drooled excessively which had a VERY foul smell to it. The antibiotics helped their fevers and I believe the oral rinse we gave them helped dry up their sores and aided with the healing. Only two have gotten sick again with something different from the sores. They had the gagging when they purred and when they tried to eat. Their meows became very raspy as well. They also developed 103.5 or so fevers. And as I'm sure you've read, my cats keep getting off and on diarrhea. My cat who is done with antibiotics now, but still is secluded in my room, probably has the best looking stool in the house. She had normal stools before she was on antibiotics, then a couple days in developed diarrhea for a few days, and then her last few days of antibiotics her stool became normal again. So as of right now we need to test their stool for Coccidia or Giardia and if it isn't that we will have to go from there. It could be the transition to a different pet food as well, since we abruptly stopped feeding them Purina and gave them Blue Buffalo the next day. I didn't even think of a slow transition, so that's my fault. Next on the agenda is to test them for ear mites, as they are all itching around their ears and faces now. I guess it has to be one thing at a time. Thank you for their I put though, I will come back to the mycoplasma if all else fails to be the case.
 
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mingsmongols

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With so many things at play it's going to be hard to pin them all down. Hopefully the fecal gives you some definite answers on at least that front.
 
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So we have yet to get a sample because things seemed to be going okay, but now one of my cats has bloody diarrhea, which I never have seen until today, and some others are having diarrhea as well, I'm assuming because we have a newer cat who we have been trying to acquaint the others with and this is causing them to be stressed and maybe shed the parasite spores. If that even happens, I don't really know. I'm having my boyfriend take the sample in on his break later on today to be tested for Coccidia or Giardia. If they do have this, and my vet can prescribe ponazuril, what do I need to do to sanatise the house? I'm so stressed out right now. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions are helpful please.
 
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My boyfriend collected the fecal sample and put it in the freezer until he gets home from uni. Is that okay? I read it can withhold freezing.
 

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I'd contact the vet and find out if freezing is acceptable. I believe refrigeration is ok, but not sure about freezing.

As for cleaning...
An ammonia solution is needed to properly sanitize an area of Coccidia.

A bleach solution sanitizes an area of Giardia
 

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The fresher the better. Some cysts can withstand freezing but fragile protezoa like giardia and tritrichomonas will break down. It also depends on the testing method. Sending it out to a lab for a PCR has different storage methods then an in house fecal floatation.
 
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coniferously

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Thank you, guys. It was kept in the freezer only for maybe twenty minutes and then my boyfriend kept it in a baggy with some ice packs around it until he got out of school. To keep it cold. So it was kept like that only a couple hours. So we have officially taken in a sample and it will be tested for Coccidia and Giardia. Thank you guys for everything. I will let you know what the results are.
 
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