soft stool/diarrhoea

candicew

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Hello all!

We brought home our two cats on Friday(december 2nd). they are around 6 months old(born may 26) and each weird 7.1lbs.

They did not look skinny. nor malnutritioned. 

They are playful and eat well. They are up to date with vaccinations.

The one issue is, one of the cats has very very soft stool, pretty much diarrhoea. There is no mucus or blood, just straight light brown/beige collared poop. The other cat though, no issue has normal coloured, normal formed poop.

The cat has been like this from the day we bought him home, so it has been 5 days now. I thought I would wait a few days to see what happen but still not going in to Wed, same thing. 

I did take them to the vet the day after we brought them home, they got a short exam and had them dewormed and dose of flea meds(just incase as they were already given doses of both of these back in 08/16 and 09/16.) They are all up to date on all there vaccinations , again those were both done in 08/16 as well as 09/16 back in California, which when I talked to the vets office about which vac's were done, she was impressed as she said, "they did EVERYTHING! Which is not common up here"

I keep reading about worms on this site and it seems that is always the answer for a cat with soft stool.. 

Is it possible to have worms with 3 deworming treatment? and when living with another cat, the other cat does not have?(I know they were always with each other, they are brothers)

I will make a vet appointment today to get him checked out but like I said, he has been dewormed 3 times, could it even be a parasite?
 

isobel

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Hi there.  Sorry to hear about your problem.  Hopefully it is just a worm, but I will tell you a bit about what we are going through.  It may help your approach to how to resolve your problem without too much wasted effort.

We adopted 3 shelter cats going on 3 months ago.  All had soft to liquid stool.  2 are littermates.  After a week of good diet in our stress free home  there was no improvement.  Brought them to the vet.  All were treated with antibioltics (first Albon & after that Panacur) for the basics (Coccidia, Giardia) that normally arise in a shelter living situation, as well as Proviable probiotic for 10 days.  Started to firm up (probably due to the kaolin in the probiotic paste) and quickly reverted back after through with meds.

Brought them back to vet with stool samples.  All came back "negative".  Tried all the diet change "fads" and different probiotics.  

After reading, reading, and more researched reading, I insisted on a PCR test on each kitty.  Specifically looking for Tritrichmonas foetus, but any answer at this point were welcomed.

Bingo.....all tested positive for Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

We are into our 3rd round of Metronidazole treatment for the Giardia (they have also gone through 2, 5 day rounds of Panacur for this nasty parasite) and they are all on day 38 of Tylosin for the Crypto.  My husband and I are beyond frustrated.  We've spent a small fortune and wasted a lot of time on blood and multiple fecal tests that gave us negative results.  Our girls are still on meds and only one of them is coming around.  All had a lot of energy and appetites through this ordeal up until yesterday.  Now they are becoming lethargic.  No surprise to me after all they have gone through. 

I would recommend if you are bringing him to the vet for a test, go with a PCR test straight away.  It is much more accurate and you will save time, aggravation, false diagnosis of your kitty, and a ton of money.  Choose a proactive vet who has experience dealing with kitties and wants to really help you instead of have free reign of your checking account.  We have had cats for 24 years and have NEVER experienced any parasite issues until we adopted this trio.  If one has it, you should probably treat as they all do, especially with litter mates.  I have learned that, unfortunately, parasites are not often detected in fecal samples.  You can learn a lot (probably more than your vet) about these parasites online or on this website.  If you have a parasite problem, commit to patience and thorough treatment.  Ours has become a nightmare (yes, I literally have nightmares about this ordeal).

I hope you have a good vet that can get you answers quickly and efficiently treat your new babies.

Jackie
 

posiepurrs

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There are several parasites that typical worming does not take care of - they are not worms, but protozoa. Giardia, and T feotus come to mind. Although it is expensive, the vet may want to run a complete diarrhea panel to diagnose. It cost me around $200 here in New England. Now it could also be happening if you changed the food suddenly, or maybe even be stress related. Sounds like they ave been through a lot.

I have dealt with giardia in a cattery situation (NOT FUN!) My vet was kind enough to allow me to buy the medication at Tractor Supply  and figure the doseage for each cat for me. The fenbendazole was much less expensive at Tractor Supply than the vets so it may be a route you can talk to your vet about if they prove to have giardia. I treated every animal in my home for $40 -  and that was 2 rounds. TF is another matter - there is only one medication for it right now and it is only 60 -70% effective from what I have read. Here is a link to a paper cowritten by Dr Jody Gookin (leading researcher on TF) and a breeder who is working with her: https://cvm.ncsu.edu/docs/PDFS/gookin/ownersguide_tfoetus.pdf.
 
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candicew

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thank you! I will ask the vet today about this test.

So does a cat still grow properly if they have a parasite?(meaning they don't look malnutritioned/underweight)?

Them being already 7lbs at 6 months, that seems above average, not underweight no?

yes I agree, they were going though a lot. It was quite stressful there in the area where they were being adopted out. Busy. many many people and the little dogs were soo hectic and loud. it was def stressful as a human when I was there, even my kids felt super stressed with all those dogs barking.

And yes, not in a home. new people. They are adjusting well, but wonder if it is just taking his body a little extra time to catch up. That is why I wanted wait it out a bit, I felt more then likely stress and did not want to put the cat though more stress going to the vet over and over.

I guess that is why I am here and again my main question is, if it were indeed a parasite, would cat seem a 100% healthy otherwise then the diarrhoea? 
 
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candicew

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Like I am reading on the web:
 Symptoms are more apparent in younger animals than in older animals and can be either sudden, temporary, intermittent, or chronic in nature. In some cases, cats will exhibit diarrhea that is soft, frothy, greasy, and with a strong, awful odor or excessive mucus.
He has none of those symptoms in his poops. it's just soft stool, and lighter then normal coloured.

no froth, no grease, no extra strong odor, and no mucus.. no blood either. 
 

isobel

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I had been in touch with Dr. Gookin after thoroughly reading her papers.  She was very sympathetic and offered to advise my vet if he reached out to her.   I asked vet to do PCR on each of my cats after reading her findings.   PCR ($105 per kitty here in FL) revealed positive for Giardia and Crypto, but T. foetus was negative.  

Any idea how long to keep them off antibiotics before retesting to avoid false negative? 
 

isobel

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thank you! I will ask the vet today about this test.

So does a cat still grow properly if they have a parasite?(meaning they don't look malnutritioned/underweight)?

Them being already 7lbs at 6 months, that seems above average, not underweight no?

yes I agree, they were going though a lot. It was quite stressful there in the area where they were being adopted out. Busy. many many people and the little dogs were soo hectic and loud. it was def stressful as a human when I was there, even my kids felt super stressed with all those dogs barking.

And yes, not in a home. new people. They are adjusting well, but wonder if it is just taking his body a little extra time to catch up. That is why I wanted wait it out a bit, I felt more then likely stress and did not want to put the cat though more stress going to the vet over and over.

I guess that is why I am here and again my main question is, if it were indeed a parasite, would cat seem a 100% healthy otherwise then the diarrhoea? 
My 3 kitties seemed absolutely in perfect health other than the chronic diarrhea.  The 2 litter mates were exactly 5 months old and a total blast of energy!  Non stop.  Even the older girl (1 1/2 yrs) was energetic.  They were all average weight and actually throughout this ordeal have managed to put weight on respectively.  And, only 10 days ago they were also treated with Dontral for tapeworm.  (That was our Thaksgiving morning find on top of everything else!)  They are rid of it now (not fun watching that be passed!  Totally gross), but seems like all the medication is catching up with them. 

Good luck at the vet.  Hopefully you just have a worm to deal with. 
 

isobel

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Like I am reading on the web:

He has none of those symptoms in his poops. it's just soft stool, and lighter then normal coloured.

no froth, no grease, no extra strong odor, and no mucus.. no blood either. 
Maybe just a wormer....the parasites my kitties are infected with caused an awful odor, mucus and blood.

Even though he was wormed, at a cattery kittens are easily reinfected.  Now that he is in a clean home environment another wormer might do the trick. 

That would be an easy fix...hopefully for you! :-)
 
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candicew

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Oh dear, ((HUGS)) at least they are with you and you are willing to do all this treatment!

Does this PCR test find tapeworms as well?  
 

isobel

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Oh dear, ((HUGS)) at least they are with you and you are willing to do all this treatment!

Does this PCR test find tapeworms as well?  
I am not sure, I think PCR specific for certain parasites, but maybe.  The PCR they did on mine was pretty comprehensive, but did not reveal any tapeworm.   We've also had 3 fecal floats don (X3 cats...so that's nine of them) that never revealed anything at all...total waste of time and money.   I was the lucky duck that found part of the tapeworm on Thanksgiving morning wrangling around her fresh feces.  I've had cats my entire life and I never had a totally gross discovery like that, but my kitties were always indoor only and treated for fleas and such.  Don't think I will ever be able to enjoy Pad Thai again.

If you have children, perhaps they should avoid too much excessive contact until you are sure what you are dealing with.  (Just thinking about kidos,hands on kitty, hands on food, food in mouth....well you know).
 
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candicew

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So another thought, I have heard the cat cough/ wheeze about 3 or 4 times since Friday .... Could this all be a hair ball?
 
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candicew

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so I took him to the vet and he gave him  look over. he said his tummy is very gassy. he said he could treat for an 'infection' but I asked about the pcr panel and he said that would be the next step if the medications did not help. I asked to skip the medicating now and just do the panel to rule out then move on from there. So I paid for it.. which let me tell you from reading posts on there, it is FAR more expensive here in Canada the you guys pay in the States, it cost $200. And now need to wait for Jophiel to go potty. then the test results will take 2 days. He said though if he tests positive, they will not make me test the other cat, but will let me just treat as well. 
 

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$200 seems like a lot but when you consider that we wasted an entire month of time multiple fecal test and multiple rounds of Medicine with no results you are ahead of the game. Our PCR test not only included a stool sample which we brought to them but a rectal swab. Kitties didn't enjoy that very much but from what I understand it grabs the cells that might be on the intestinal lining. When you bring your samples back to the vet you may want to ask him to do this as well. He could also do what is referred to as a fecal Loop... basically going up there and scraping some of the cells. I didn't allow a tech to do it. I wanted the vet to do it because they have to be very careful so as not to pierce the intestine. Again I am no Pro but I got all this from researching prior to bringing my girls in.

Like I said before, until three months ago I had no idea there were so many different types of intestinal protozoa parasites that infect kitties in a shelter or Cattery environment.

I'd be curious to know what they find. Good luck and keep us posted. [emoji]128578[/emoji]
 
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candicew

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Oh, I called the vet about the swab and they said that the panel they ordered INCLUDES the PCR but also includes many other tests, they just called it a 'complete profile panel'. So yes it includes the PCR, but others tests as well so the swab is not enough, it needs more to do all tests. 
 

isobel

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Awesome...good luck.  The $200 seems reasonable if you are getting so much information from it.   Let me know how you make out with your little guy. 
 
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candicew

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Thank you, will do! [emoji]128154[/emoji][emoji]128154[/emoji][emoji]128154[/emoji]
Awesome...good luck.  The $200 seems reasonable if you are getting so much information from it.   Let me know how you make out with your little guy. 
 
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